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The day following the ICEM&rsquo;s 9 October Presidium meeting in Hannover, Germany, ICEM Vice Presidents and several others, including representatives from host German union IGBCE, piled on a bus for a four-hour trip to the North Sea port of Brunsb&uuml;ttel. 
 
Their mission: to meet the Hong Kong-flagged MV Fedagawa, a vessel laden with 35,000 tonnes of copper concentrates that originated in Voiseys Bay, province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, where union members of the United Steelworkers (USW) have been on strike against Vale-Inco since 1 August. 

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The purpose of the trip was to alert the ship&rsquo;s captain and crew of the Canadian strike, who hopefully in turn would relay that message to Vale and the end-users of the copper. The mission proved successful, in large part, because of the intervention of the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) and its Hamburg and area ports Inspector Ulf Christiansen. 
The mission was planned meticulously by the IGBCE&rsquo;s International Department, together with the USW and the supporting Global Union Federations. At about 19h00 on 10 October, a team of six representatives from the international trade union contingent entered the locked-down Brunsb&uuml;ttel port authority and met with the ship&rsquo;s captain and a representative of the ship&rsquo;s owner. 

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Senzeni Zokwan&nbsp;and Manfred Warda
That delegation consisted of ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana, General Secretary Manfred Warda, USW Canadian National Director and ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann, USW Local 9508 striker Curtis Saunders from Voiseys Bay, USW Local 6500 striker Aaron Beaudry from Sudbury, Ontario, and IGBCE International Department Officer Michael Wolters. 
Neumann reported that both the captain and the ship owner&rsquo;s representative were supportive and promised to raise the issue directly with Vale-Inco and with the metal companies that were purchasing the Brazilian company&rsquo;s resources. Following the visit, the USW rank-and-file strikers left for R&ocirc;nnsk&auml;r, Sweden, where the MV Fedagawa was delivering part of the copper cargo to a nearby Boliden smelter. The copper concentrates had been stockpiled in eastern Canada since before the strike. 

<img alt="" src="" width="257" height="233" />
Federal Nakagawa's captain and the ship owner&rsquo;s representative
The 9 October ICEM Presidium meeting opened with a review of the three-month Vale-Inco strike at three Canadian locations, and a unanimous resolution by the body to give support to striking USW members in every way possible. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had labour disputes with Inco before,&rdquo; Neumann told the Presidium, &ldquo;but since Vale bought out Inco in 2006, this is the first time they have tried to use scabs to begin production. This struggle will not be won by just walking picket lines, but with linking arms with global trade unions everywhere.&rdquo; 
 
The strike by 3,500 miners and metalworkers began on 13 July in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, following Vale-Inco&rsquo;s demand for steep pension concessions, relaxed language on the company&rsquo;s right to contract out bargaining unit work, an elimination of a production bonus. The strike spread to Voiseys Bay after 500 of the miners, working under a separate labour agreement, faced the same rash concessions. 

<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="226" />
Ulf Christiansen
&ldquo;We owe tremendous gratitude to the ITF and especially Ulf Christiansen for arranging this intervention,&rdquo; said the ICEM&rsquo;s Warda. &ldquo;This is just more evidence that the ICEM, together with its trade union partners, will broaden the strike to ensure that Vale knows, and its customers know, that mineral resources from Vale-Inco in Canada will be challenged in the global marketplace.&rdquo;

ICEM, ITF, IGBCE in German Port Protest Against Vale-Inco Mine Shipment

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From start to finish of IGBCE&rsquo;s Congress in Hannover last week, the focus was on youth. From leaders now taking leave who, for over a decade, have honed union policies with a keen eye to jobsite apprenticeships and training, to election on 13 October of the youngest president now inside the DGB national labour centre, IGBCE&rsquo;s Fourth Statutory Congress declared that a German future &ndash; despite recent elections &ndash; will continue to have human needs prioritised above an unbridled market economy. 
 
Convening under the banner &ldquo;Think Ahead, Act Responsibly,&rdquo; the Congress deftly paid homage to 14 years of a modern, amalgamated trade union that has been at the vanguard of German social thinking, while simultaneously posing a blunt challenge to a new centre-right governing coalition that a longstanding social compact will stay in place. 

<img alt="" src="" width="300" height="196" />
Newly-elected President Michael Vassiliadis, centre
With outgoing President Hubertus Schmoldt saying that Germany&rsquo;s social model has withstood the financial crisis better than any profit-only market economy, newly-elected President Michael Vassiliadis defined the modern industrial society as one in which the twin pillars of co-determination by works councils and flexible, innovative collective bargaining will continue to provide workers with life-long security, and give the German youth new career opportunities. 
 
Schmoldt, who has headed the 690,000-member IGBCE since 1997, was heralded by Social Democratic (SPD) Chairman Franz M&uuml;ntefering as &ldquo;a man who does not just push the task of work toward the politicians, but someone who gets in there and does the work himself.&rdquo; Schmoldt himself called IGBCE a trade union of stability built on public identity and internal solidarity that has preserved and succeeded against years of neo-liberalism. 
 
Vassiliadis, 45, said the biggest challenge in Germany is to shore up an education structure. &ldquo;Our education system is in contradiction to social justice. We cannot let the wallet or your country of origin determine your educational opportunities,&rdquo; he said. He also called it an opportunity for the future that half of all new IGBCE members are young workers, and that in 2010 many shop stewards will be retiring. Already, he added, some 5,500 apprentices have been elected shop stewards, accounting for 4% of the total. 

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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda
A second-generation Greek immigrant who began his union work in IGBCE in 1986, Vassiliadis has been on the union&rsquo;s six-member Governing Board since 2004, covering areas of works councils, shop steward development, trade union education, and youth activities. Originally from a Bayer plant near his home in Essen, he sits now on the supervisory boards of chemical companies BASF and Henkel, as well as serving as deputy chairman of the potash producer Kali and Salz and Evonik Steag. 
 
With this Congress reducing the Governing Board from six to five, those re-elected include Vice President Ulrich Freese, and General Board members Edeltraud Gl&auml;nzer and Egbert Biermann. Like Schmoldt, another Governing Board member who is retiring is Werner Bischoff. Peter Hausmann has been elected in his seat. 

<img alt="" src="" width="307" height="201" />
Outgoing President Hubertus Schmoldt with ICEM's Warda, &Ouml;zkan, Zokwana
Responsible for collective bargaining and several other IGBCE functions, Bischoff has been the architect of the union&rsquo;s unique approach to bargaining, one that has delivered results such as life-long work security, shortened work time for senior workers in coordination with creating youth opportunities, and training and apprenticeship slots in scores of companies, thus guaranteeing young workers a secure future in an industrial Germany. This success is most distinct in the country&rsquo;s chemicals sector. 
 
Schmoldt said two out of every three trainees over the past few years have joined the IGBCE, which, he added, is a testament to Bischoff and the union&rsquo;s viable, functioning collective bargaining system. 
 
The IGBCE Congress from 11-16 October covered several resolutions dealing with the financial crisis, and chartered a recruitment course, based on demographic targeting, to provide services and assistance to workers on the edges of the economy, including migrant workers.

‘Generational Change’ Comes to IGBCE; Social Path of Past Will Shape Germany’s Future

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Peruvian mineworkers of the Chinese-owned Shougang Hierro company lifted a 15-day strike on 13 October, following agreement with management. As previously reported by the ICEM, the Chinese state-owned steel company, Shougang Group, owns Peru&rsquo;s only iron ore mine, Marcona, and the company had been living up to its reputation of paying the lowest wages in the entire Peruvian mining sector. 
 
The strike began with management&rsquo;s refusal to follow through on commitments made in July 2008 to raise miners&rsquo; salaries by a mere US$1.91 a day. That July agreement was reached through arbitration by Peru&rsquo;s Labour Ministry. All 1,200 mineworkers at the Marcona mine, in the Ica region of Peru&rsquo;s south, joined the strike, with an industry report suggesting that the company lost some 500,000 tonnes of iron ore output during the 15-day strike. 

<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="172" />
The settlement will see the company pay the promised wage raise to workers, along with an outstanding bonus payment of US$35 to each worker. The company also committed not to retaliate against the workers following their strike action, said union leader Rey Fernandez Pati&ntilde;o. 
 
Production at the mine last year reached 7.49 million tones. The Chinese company is undertaking a US$1 billion expansion, which will increase production to ten million tonnes annually. Mining makes up 60% of Peru&rsquo;s GDP. 
 
The ICEM affiliate, National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP) successfully carried out a national mining strike on 19-20 October, with one of the top priorities giving support and solidarity to the Shougang miners. The FNTMMSP was also demanding compliance from the Labour Ministry for the negotiated raise to Shougang Hierro miners&rsquo; wages. The national strike, as well, demanded the signing of a mining retirement bill by the government. In addition, FNTMMSP is seeking passage and enactment of mining-profits legislation from the country&rsquo;s National Assembly, a law which will assist all miners financially.

Shougang Mineworkers Reach Settlement to End Strike

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An 18-month contract dispute between the ICEM North American affiliate, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), and Lafarge at a cement manufacturing plant in the US state of Missouri was finally resolved on 22 October. 
 
A tentative agreement was reached at the Sugar Creek, Missouri, plant between IBB Lodge D-27 and American managers of the French- based company that will see retirees receive the same medical benefits that active workers get, and will push back a different retiree health-benefit scheme for any new employee hired after 1 January 2012. 
 
IBB Vice President Warren Fairly reported that the new agreement, once ratified by the 55 Lodge D-27 members, will run until 1 January 2012. A prior agreement expired on 30 April 2008. 

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The ICEM and the Building and Woodworkers&rsquo; International (BWI), the two Global Union Federations that are signatory to a Global Framework Agreement with Lafarge, brought North American management&rsquo;s unjust social cuts before senior Lafarge managers in Paris in September and October 2008. 
 
Lafarge had sought to exclude entirely new hires from any future retiree medical plan, and wanted existing workers to enter into a separate, inferior health-care plan upon retirement. 
 
The ICEM congratulates the IBB for its bargaining table endurance to finally get Lafarge to move away from its concessionary 2008 contract agenda. The Sugar Creek cement plant underwent a major modernisation in 2002, and is currently in a ten-week partial shutdown that is expected to last until 11 January 2010 due to the economic downturn in the construction sector. 
 
Some 35 to 40 IBB members are on temporary furloughs, but the union has negotiated retention of their benefits. Teamsters Local 541 represents about ten truck drivers at the Sugar Creek plant as well.

US Boilermakers US Succeed in Moving Lafarge Off Contract Concessions

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A full four years after BP paid US$21.3 million in penalties and made promises to the US government to correct safety deficiencies at its Texas City, Texas, oil and petrochemicals refinery, the British energy company is still not in compliance. 
 
On 30 October, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the US Department of Labor slapped BP with a further US$87.4 million fine for failure to rectify safety problems identified following a deadly March 2005 explosion at the east Texas refinery. 

<img src="" width="190" height="126" alt="" />
The fine is four times higher than any previous safety fine issued by OSHA in its 39-year history. The previous high was the US$21.3 million penalty assessed BP in September 2005 when the company reached a settlement agreement with the agency to fix the causes of the 23 March 2005 explosion, which killed 15 contract workers and serious injured another 80 workers. 
 
The US trade union representing workers at BP&rsquo;s former Amoco refinery at Texas City, ICEM affiliated United Steelworkers (USW), warned of the industry&rsquo;s reluctance to seriously undertake efforts to improve safety and health in the downstream sector during US collective agreement negotiations early in 2009. Then, the union had made safety the primary issue in negotiations, but the industry stonewalled the union and workers on joint approaches to improve safety. 

<img src="" width="125" height="180" alt="" />
USW Vice President Gary Beevers
&ldquo;Hopefully, Friday&rsquo;s non-compliance fine will serve as a wake-up to the public and industry that oil and gas companies must get serious on safety,&rdquo; said USW Vice President and ICEM Executive Committee Gary Beevers. &ldquo;We intend to continue working closely with BP to improve process safety at all their US facilities.&rdquo; 
 
Late in 2007, the USW and the Tony Mazzocchi Center for Health, Safety and environmental Education published a book entitled &ldquo;Beyond Texas City: the State of Process Safety in the Unionized US Oil Refining Industry.&rdquo; The book critiques operating practices in 51 US refineries and offers sets of &ldquo;Urgent and Critical Actions&rdquo; needed to improve safety. The pdf version of &ldquo;Beyond Texas City&rdquo; can be found <a href="http://legacy.usw.org/usw/program/adminlinks/docs/BeyondTexasCity.pdf ">here</a>. 
 
The US OSHA agency last week issued BP with 270 notifications of failure to stem hazards that caused the 2005 explosion, with total fines of US$56.7 million. Each notification represents a penalty of US$7,000 times 30 days, the period that that the condition have gone unabated. In addition, the US government identified 439 new willful violations for failures to follow industry-accepted safety standards, resulting in further fines of US$30.7 million. 
 
BP said it would formally contest these latest violations and fines before a review commission of OSHA, which can amend and reduce the violations. 
 
Stated US Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, Jordan Barab: &ldquo;BP was given four years to correct the safety issues identified pursuant to the settlement agreement, yet OSHA has found hundreds of violations of the agreement and hundreds of new violations. BP still has a great deal of work to do to assure the safety and health of the employees who work at this refinery.&rdquo; 
 
The 23 March 2005 deadly blast was caused by a broken gauge and flammable hydrocarbons that overflowed from an isomerisation tower used to boast octane levels of petrol. Those vapors were ignited from the equipment of contract companies that were operating too close to the isomerisation unit.

BP Fails to Correct Safety Errors at Texas Refinery, Ordered to Pay Another US$87.4 Million

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Over 100 participants from Russian trade unions, labour academia, national and regional governments, scientists, and business leaders gathered on 12 October in a Gazprom conference room in Moscow to mark the Tenth Anniversary of creation of a vertically-integrated trade union structure. 
 
That structure is part of ICEM affiliate, the national Russian Oil, Gas, and Construction Workers Union (ROGWU), representing the gas company&rsquo;s workers. They were joined by delegations from oil and gas trade unions from Belarus, France, Norway, Romania, and Serbia, as well as ICEM Energy Officer Jim Catterson, who represented the Global Union Federation (GUF). 
 
The event coincided with a major trade union conference entitled &ldquo;Innovations in the Russian Trade-Union Movement: Practice and Problems.&rdquo; The conference was opened by Vladimir Babkin, President of the Inter-regional Trade Union of Gazprom and a Vice President of ROGWU. Following an extensive opening session, the conference broke into two working groups where participants discussed trade union structures, and their current objectives and challenges. 
<img alt="" src="" width="267" height="222" />
Wide-ranging presentations were heard as participants from Russia and abroad shared their experiences in social dialog and social partnership work, employee representation, and social and labour rights protection. 
 
Catterson gave a presentation that covered ICEM work on social dialog throughout the world, with a particular focus on Global Framework Agreements in the oil and gas industry. The presentations generated considerable discussion and debate that led to a series of draft conclusions that were adopted at a final plenary meeting of the conference, conclusions that will be published by ROGWU in the near future. 
 
During a break in the conference proceedings, foreign participants were given a tour of parts of Gazprom&rsquo;s complex in Moscow, including the dispatch area. 

<img alt="" src="" width="261" height="196" />
Following a discussion on the gas resources of the Russian Federation and future plans regarding production and new pipelines, participants were shown the computerized dispatch room. Here, in front of a screen covering an entire wall, computer operators working on a host of terminals ensure the optimal movement of gas from fields in western and central Siberia through the complex network of Russian pipelines, as well as the export pipelines to and across Europe. The tour of the facility was given by the manager of the unit and the workers&rsquo; trade union representative. It generated a lively and interesting discussion. 
 
ICEM hopes that the conference will help to increase social dialog within the company at the global level that will involve the GUF and our affiliates, since the company is expanding operations in both gas and oil globally.

In Russia, Celebration of 10 Years of Gazprom Union Structure

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The main Ukrainian national labour center, the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU), sent a message to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week: stay out of the internal legislative business of the country. FPU leaders, trade unionists, and civil society leaders protested in front of the IMF&rsquo;s regional office in Kiev on 27 October. 
 
The peaceful pickets protested a statement issued two days earlier by the IMF calling on President Viktor Yushchenko to veto a bill passed by the Parliament on 20 October that would lift levels of social benefits, including minimum wage and pension benefits. 
 
The IMF has threatened to pull a &euro;11.5 billion emergency credit arrangement to Ukraine if Yushchenko signs the legislation, which passed Parliament with a 459 to 254 vote. 

<img src="" width="240" height="164" alt="" />
Yushchenko has indicated that he will sign the new social benefits bill, thus lifting the minimum monthly living wage to the equivalent of &euro;73.09 on 1 December 2010 after five increments over the next year; and increase the monthly minimum wage to &euro;77.37 on the same date, with incremental hikes from a proposed &euro;62.43 that is due to take effect once Yushchenko signs the bill into law. 
 
The FPU said in a statement that the IMF &ldquo;is interfering directly in the internal social policy of Ukraine and is trying to weaken social protections, decreasing the level of social guarantees.&rdquo; The trade union federation also said IMF and other international financial institutions in the past have supported limits on Ukrainian pension expenditures, a rise in the pension age by five years, and strict restrictions on rises in citizens&rsquo; incomes. 
 
In a letter presented to the IMF on the day of the protest, the federation demanded that IMF consult with trade unions before changing its conditions on loan guarantees, and said it should work toward alleviating poverty, not promoting it in its guidance policies. 
 
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), in coordination with all three of Ukraine&rsquo;s national labour centres, held a meeting with IMF resident representative Max Alier on 29 October in Kiev over the IMF&rsquo;s affront to the modest increases in social standards.

Ukraine’s Unions Protest IMF Involvement in Legislative Affairs

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Contract and Agency Workers of the Lipton tea factory in Khanewal, Pakistan, finally saw their long struggle for employment rights end recently. The factory, directly owned by the multinational corporation Unilever, previously employed only 22 regular workers, with many hundreds of staff employed on precarious contracts and denied their right to full and direct employment. 
 
That changed, thanks to a campaign by the International Union of Food, Agricultural Workers' Association (IUF), which now has won work rights for the CAL workers at Lipton in this Pakistan factory. The past seven months of the campaign focused on negotiations carried out under the auspices of the UK&rsquo;s National Contact Point, responsible for application of the OECD&rsquo;s Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, which require companies to ensure that all its subsidiaries conform to global labour standards, including ILO Conventions 87 and 98. The IUF made a submission to the OECD through the UK in March 2009. 

<img alt="" src="" width="146" height="66" />
The Lipton/Brooke Bond tea factory in Khanewal had become a symbol of the growing global trend of labour casualisation. The vast majority of employees at the plant were on &ldquo;no work, no pay&rdquo; contracts through one of six labour-hire agencies. They were disallowed the right to organise or bargain collectively. 
 
They were blocked from joining the Unilever workers&rsquo; union, or from bargaining with Unilever, with the Dutch-UK multinational claiming it was not their direct employer. The six labour agencies operated out of the factory and do not supply workers to any other plant. 
 
Under the terms of the settlement, 200 direct and permanent jobs have been created for workers, retroactive to 15 October. Workers that are most senior are given priority for the full-time jobs, as well as the members of the Khanewal Workers&rsquo; Action Committee, which stands as a tribute to those daring to stand up for their rights. This employment process will be jointly implemented and supervised by both IUF and Unilever. 

<img alt="" src="" width="328" height="218" />
Khanewal&nbsp;Workers
The permanent workers received a monthly base wage of PKR 18,000 (US$226), while the daily wage for the contract labourers was PKR 232, less than US$3 a day. Agency workers received no extra pay for overtime and holiday work, no annual or medical benefits, and the majority have been on the job for more than ten years &ndash; some for as long as 30 years. 
 
The IUF campaign has forced Unilever to acknowledge the failure of contract labour agencies in fulfilling their statutory obligations on social security, retirement payments, as well as basic mandatory financial obligations to workers. The settlement therefore includes lump-sum payments to workers and guarantees from Unilever to settle payments to the state, in arrears. 
 
The IUF has passed on a message of warm thanks from the Khanewal workers' Action Committee to all those around the world who supported their struggle with demonstrations, messages to the company, meetings, pickets, and political action. Many ICEM supporters and affiliates sent support messages through the IUF site. The ICEM congratulates the IUF for running a hard and arduous, yet successful campaign to gain the legitimate rights of contract workers.

ICEM Salutes IUF Victory at Unilever Teas in Pakistan

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
The UK Labour Government dealt a blow to the country&rsquo;s temporary and agency workers when it announced a two-year delay in the implementing of the Directive on Temporary Agency Work, the year-old EU policy which mandates equal treatment to contract and agency workers. 
 
In May 2008, UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) struck a compromise that would give agency workers equal protection rights and similar work conditions as permanent workers after 12 weeks&rsquo; employment. 
 
The compromise, brokered by the Labour Government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, was intended to take effect in the fourth quarter of 2009. 
 
But on 15 October, the office of Brown Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson, the Business, Innovation, and Skills Secretary, announced a range of regulations would be delayed, including the granting of new and first-time rights to agency workers. The effective date now is 11 October 2011, the very latest under the EU Directive. 

<img alt="" src="" width="146" height="66" />
The consultation period for the new UK regulation to comply with the EU Directive had closed in July. But with the 15 October announcement by Mandelson&rsquo;s office, that period has been extended until 11 December 2009, allowing businesses more time to carve around the edges in order to gain even greater labour flexibility. 
 
The UK is the leading EU country where employers use the biggest proportion of temporary and agency workers. An estimated 1.4 million people are subjected to low employment conditions and lack of job security through labour-hire firms. 
 
After the inordinately long 12-week waiting period in the UK, temporary or agency workers in Britain would be eligible for equal pay, the same level of holidays as permanent staff, and the same health and safety protections and other statutory social benefits such as child care and work leave. 

<img alt="" src="" width="68" height="100" />
General Secretary Paul Kenny
In response to last month&rsquo;s announced delay, GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny called it &ldquo;a very serious electoral mistake by the Labour Government,&rdquo; referring to next year&rsquo;s British General Election. &ldquo;Agency and temporary workers have been abused and exploited for too long. The only people cheering this decision are from the bodies representing those who have been doing the exploitation.&rdquo; 
 
The UK Business Secretary&rsquo;s office attempted to justify the delay by stating the Labour Government recognized &ldquo;the need to avoid changing requirements on business until the economic recovery is more firmly established.&rdquo; 
 
But TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said &ldquo;agency workers are even more in need of protection during a recession. Vulnerable workers are always the first to suffer when times are hard.&rdquo; 

<img alt="" src="" width="80" height="114" />
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber 
A recent poll by the TUC found that more and more rogue employees and agencies are using lack of employment rights and the insecurity of agency workers to treat temporary staff badly &ndash; paying them less, avoiding holiday and redundancy pay, and neglecting any training or development opportunities that might land such workers into full-time employment.

UK’s Labour Government Bows to Business over Implementing Temp Rights

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The nickel and copper strike at three Vale-Inco Canadian locations by miners and metalworkers of the United Steelworkers (USW) has started to have a full global effect, following a burst of international activity in October and judging from scheduled actions in November and December. 
 
Teams of strikers from USW Locals 6500, 6200, and 9508 will, over the next week, be on three continents spreading the message of their strike, and urging Vale&rsquo;s customers, investors, and company workers everywhere to pressure the Brazilian-based company for a fair pair of contracts in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Newfoundland/Labrador. 
 
If their missions are anything near as successful as the ones taken by Local 6500&rsquo;s Aaron Beaudry and Local 9508&rsquo;s Curtis Saunders to Germany and Sweden in mid-October &ndash; following a ship-load of Vale copper to markets &ndash; managers could re-think their game plan that 3,500 steelworkers will swallow concession-ridden contracts and instead decide to return to the bargaining table in the company&rsquo;s better interests. 
<img alt="" src="" width="290" height="218" />
At the three-and-a-half-month point of the strikes, when USW is beginning to focus heavily on Vale&rsquo;s customers and investors, the release last week of the company&rsquo;s third-quarter numbers bear this out. For the quarter, Vale sold just US$31 million of nickel products from its six worldwide operations. This compares to US$79 million in second-quarter 2009, a quarter in which the three Canadian nickel mines were idled for market reasons. Vale&rsquo;s overall net profit for the most recent quarter dropped 65%, while revenues fell 43%. 
 
In a 29 October conference call to investment analysts, Vale admitted to a loss of US$500 million due to the three-and-a-half month strike in Canada. One of the three Canadian mines and smelting operations, Sudbury, is responsible for 5% of the world&rsquo;s supply of nickel products. 
 
What certainly is not helping Vale in the marketplace is what happened after workers Beaudry and Saunders tracked copper shipments from Voiseys Bay, Labrador, to Germany and Sweden last month. (See InBrief No. 142 <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3448-ICEM-ITF-IGBCE-in-German-Port-Protest-Against-Vale-Inco-Mine-Shipment">here</a>.) Following pivotal work done by German ICEM affiliate IGBCE and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), the striking local unions received a direct response from the chairman of the Works Council of the end-user. 
 
Renate Hold of Hamburg-based aluminum-producer Aurubis, whose workers are represented by the IGBCE, wrote that &ldquo;It came as a surprise to us that Aurubis AG accepted a delivery from Vale-Inco &hellip; to give you our support, we have held the first discussions with our Management and drawn their attention&rdquo; to the dispute in Canada. (See the full letter <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/sudbury%20engl%20pdf.pdf">here</a>.) 

<img alt="" src="" width="320" height="189" />
Vale-Inco strikers Aaron Beaudry and Curtis Saunders (at left) with IF Metall workplace leaders at Boliden in Sweden
In Sweden, the result was much the same. Beaudry and Saunders left Germany and arrived in Sweden ahead of the laden with the remainder of the copper concentrate ore. At a copper smelter near R&ouml;nnsk&auml;r owned by Boliden AB, ICEM affiliate IF Metall arranged a meeting with workplace leaders and managers of the metal-producer and Vale customer. The result was similar to Aurubis. 
 
Roland Antonsson, IF Metall R&ouml;nnsk&auml;r local branch President and a Boliden board member, said he would use his position inside the company to urge Boliden to reconsider its market relationship with Vale. Erik Andersson, IF Metall International Secretary, added in a newspaper account of the visit that it is up to Boliden now to &ldquo;take a stand against the Brazilian company&rsquo;s behaviour&rdquo; in Canada. &ldquo;Boliden has a code of conduct. Now they have the evidence.&rdquo; 
 
With USW now having a near-complete global customer list of Vale, the pressure will increase on Canadian managers to return to bargaining and retreat from a concessionary stance that would lower workers&rsquo; take-home pay, reducing pension levels, and create job insecurity through demands for flexible outsourcing. Additionally, USW will bring the campaign to the front door of investors, stressing negative social stigmas attached to investing in Vale. 
 
Strike teams have fanned out in recent weeks to Australia, where the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) hosted them near Vale coal fields in New South Wales and Queensland. The team that went to Australia also went on last week to New Caledonia, where Vale is having difficulty in start-up of the Goro nickel and cobalt mine and processing plant. Cost over-runs have dragged on Vale and the project has soared from US$3.2 billion to US$4.3 billion. The company is struggling to meet yet another start-up date for early in 2010, and there are environmental matters to deal with on the French territory. 
 
Meanwhile, the territorial government of New Caledonia has denied entry visas to migrant workers, staff Vale was counting on for the start-up. 
 
This week, a strike team that will include the ICEM will visit the PT Indonesia Nickel Corp. in remote Sulawesi Province, where Vale controls 59% of a nickel mine and smelting operation that also has faced production problems of late. From there, the USW strike team will visit operations and customers in Korea. 
 
From 11-18 November, another Canadian strike team will return to Brazil where workers will travel to several cities, including Brasilia where they will meet with Brazilian ministry officials about the strike and officials at the Canadian embassy. They will also meet with civil society groups and metalworkers&rsquo; union leaders, who themselves are in dispute with Vale due to company redundancies during the financial crisis. 
 
The USW is also planning an event in early December in New York City. On 21 October, Vale cancelled its &ldquo;Vale Day&rdquo; at the New York Stock Exchange there because Canadian strikers descended on Wall Street for a spirited manifestation. Two days later, a similar event in London was cancelled when the UK trade union, Unite, joined USW strikers from Canada in protest. 

<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="220" />
Manfred Warda
&ldquo;We are encouraged by the global pressure that is building,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, &ldquo;and we hope that Vale and CEO Roger Agnelli are taking notice. As this momentum grows and the effects are felt, the burden will fall on the company to resume bargaining and negotiate a fair collective agreement with these proud workers.&rdquo; 
 
For further information on all activities, as well as Vale-Inco efforts to re-start the Canadian operations with replacement workers, visit the strike&rsquo;s website at <a href="http://www.fairdealnow.ca">www.fairdealnow.ca</a>.&nbsp;

Vale-Inco Mining Strike in Canada Escalates on Global Level

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