English

Español

Français

Русский

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Action Plan 2021-2025

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

Women

Youth

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

T he 20-million-member ICEM called on the Thailand government of Prime Minister Thaskin Sinawatra to hold a citizens referendum to determine if the electric utility EGAT, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, should be privatised or not. 
 
In a letter to the Prime Minister last week, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs said, &quot;Mr Prime Minister, we would ask you to respond positively to the call for a referendum on privatisation. We urge you to halt any further unilateral government action and engage in a transparent process involving social dialogue with the trade union and civic bodies as a matter of urgency.&quot; 
 
The ICEM has staunchly stood behind its Thai Union affiliate, EGAT-LU, to oppose privatizing the utility, contending that privatisation of a country's essential services such as electricity or water inevitably lead to price hikes for consumers. EGAT-LU, representing some 27,500 workers at the utility, has been the lead union in rallying farmers, citizens' groups and some 40 other labour unions affiliated with the nation's State Enterprise Unions' Federation against a hurried initial public offering of EGAT on the Thailand Stock Exchange. 
 
The ICEM welcomed the Thai government's announcement on 1 March that it would delay the IPO, originally scheduled to occur in May, and also commended Prime Minister Sinawatra for admitting 6 March in a radio address that he had pushed the electric privatisation too fast without adequate explanation to the general public. 
 
Some 16 consecutive days of street protests, including strikes by EGAT workers at the utility's headquarters in Bang Kruai, Nonthaburi, no doubt convinced Sinawatra that the rush to privatisation did not have public support. Higgs said that the Prime Minister should now meet leaders of EGAT-LU and other concerned stakeholders, and then put in effect to have a national referendum over the matter. 
 
Last week's ICEM letter was the third such letter the global trade federation has written to Prime Minister Sinawatra over the issue of privatising the electric industry. The ICEM had also issued a worldwide call to its affiliates in the energy and electric industries to express their views to the Thai government over privatisation. Some 25 unions responded by registering their protests against the IPO.

ICEM Calls for Referendum on Thai Electric Privatisation

Union members of two ICEM affiliates rallied today against the anti-union practices of global paper company Sappi Ltd. outside the firm's Annual General Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

<img height="219" src="" width="350" alt="" />
PACE members from Michigan protest at Sappi AGM in Johannesburg 

Representatives of US-based Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, Energy (PACE) Workers Union joined union brothers and sisters from South African Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) to condemn the company's aggressive attempts to weaken workers' rights in both countries. 
 
The PACE delegation and CEPPWAWU leaders then gained entry to the AGM, while CEPPWAWU members continued to rally outside the firm's headquarters in the Braamfontein financial district of Johannesburg. 
 
&quot;We have taken this action to serve notice to Sappi management that its refusal to deal fairly with workers and their unions must come to an end,&quot; declared CEPPWAWU President Pasco Dyani, himself a Sappi employee at the Adamas paper mill in Port Elizabeth. &quot;We are pleased to join with union members from America to build the international solidarity necessary to confront Sappi's attacks on working families.&quot; 
 
CEPPWAWU represents workers at Sappi's seven paper mills across South Africa. The union is in dispute with the firm over management demands to unilaterally impose so-called &quot;labour market flexibility&quot; that would severely weaken the union's ability to protect workers' rights on the shop floor. 
 
In the US, PACE Union members have been without new labour agreements for over a year at two Sappi paper mills in Somerset and Westbrook, Maine. Sappi managers at those locations have proposed to drastically cut workers' income and health care benefits. Sappi has also proposed substantial cuts in retiree health benefits. PACE members at the two mills and a third US mill in Muskegon, Michigan, have formed a bargaining alliance to reject management's demands for concessions. 
 
&quot;Sappi stakeholders should understand that management's attempts to lower the living standards of working families and diminish the rights of workers on the shop floor places the company on a collision course with labour,&quot; stated Keith Romig, Director of National and International Affairs for PACE. 
 
The labour agreement at the Muskegon mill is scheduled to expire in June. Together, the three mills account for more than 80 percent of Sappi's fine paper production in North America, and 25% of production worldwide. 
 
The ICEM assisted the two affiliates' actions in Johannesburg today. While in South Africa, PACE, CEPPWAWU and ICEM representatives will lay a foundation for more effective cooperation among unions representing Sappi workers worldwide. 
 
&quot;Every Sappi mill in South Africa, Europe and North America is organized by trade unions affiliated with the ICEM,&quot; said ICEM Paper and Chemical Sectors Officer Marc Welters. &quot;By building stronger bonds between all unions at Sappi, workers will gain the strength to deal effectively with this company's hostile approach to labour relations.&quot;

US Union, CEPPWAWU Protest at Sappi AGM

T he Turkish government ignored a recent Supreme Court ruling permitting a nationwide glass strike by once again imposing a decree outlawing a strike by ICEM Kristal-İş. 
 
Kristal-İş struck 13 of 15 glass factories on 30 January, just days after the Turkish Supreme Court overruled the government on a glass strike. The government 8 December had imposed Article 33 of the nation's Law on Collective Agreements, Strikes and Lockouts claiming such a strike was a threat to &quot;national security.&quot; Kristal-İş represents 5,000 glass workers and is the union of choice for workers at 13 of 15 factories operated by the Sisecam Group, Turkey's dominant glass producer. 
 
&quot;It's outrageous that a country like Turkey that purports to be democratic would trample its own high court to bust a union,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;The government needs to radically change its attitude toward trade unions and repeal all remaining repressive labour legislation.&quot; 
 
Kristal-İş has been fighting for its very existence against the government and the country's glass-producing industry, controlled by the Sisecam Group and its wholly-owned subsidiary Pasabahce. In court case after court case, Kristal-İş has prevailed in proving it represents an overwhelming majority of workers in the glass industry. Sisecam and the employers association has challenged the union's right of representation, despite Kristal-İş membership in the glass industry. 
 
Last year, both a labour court and a higher court, on appeal, ruled that Kristal-İş met the representation criteria. But Sisecam and Pasabahce continued its harassment of the union. After 700 workers and subcontractors took up union membership at a relatively new Pasabahce plant in the city of Eskisehir last September, the company responded by firing 350 union activists. 
 
After Kristal-İş established a &quot;tent city&quot; for the sacked workers and their families in front of the factory, security forces came in on 7 November to destroy the encampment and arrested 100 Kristal-İş leaders. They were later released. 
 
When the union later issued a legal call for strike action, the government imposed Article 33, calling a glass strike a threat to national security. Following Supreme Court nullification of that decree in late January, the government this time used different language of the labour code to forbid a glass strike, categorizing it an &quot;undefined ban.&quot; Kristal-İş had effectively shut production at 13 of the glass plants from 30 January to 14 February.

Turkey Tramples Supreme Court to Ban Glass Strike Again

S ome 5,000 union members of ICEM affiliate Kristal-İş in Turkey shut down the country's glass industry last week following a Turkish Supreme Court ruling lifting the government's decree that a strike to the glass sector is a threat to national security. 
 

<img height="191" src="" width="350" alt="" />
Kristal-İş struck 13 glass plants on 30 January, effectively curtailing 90% of Turkey's glass production. Pasabahce and its holding company, the Sisecam Group, operate the majority of the plants. The firm, together with the Glass, Cement and Clay Products Industry Employers' Association, has waged a systematic campaign to destroy Kristal-İş. 
 
&quot;The ICEM pledges to take all necessary steps to support our Turkish colleagues in this struggle,&quot; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;We also call on management to recognise the legitimacy of Kristal-İş and to immediately commence meaningful collective bargaining to resolve the issues.&quot; 
 
Chief among issues are pay and a Kristal-İş demand that 350 union members in Eskisehir, Turkey, be reinstated after being sacked last September by Pasabahce. The fired workers were identified as union activists who led 700 workers at a four-year-old plant in Eskisehir to become Kristal-İş members. 

The glass industry and Pasabahce have challenged the union's right to representation under the 10% rule of Turkish labour code, meaning a union must have at least 10% membership in a given sector to have collective bargaining status. But Turkish courts have ruled against the 10% challenge, with the union proving it has legitimate membership in 13 of 15 Turkish glass factories. 
 
But industry has continued to stonewall Kristal-İş, both through stalled bargaining toward a new collective agreement and in retaliatory measures such as what occurred in Eskisehir when workers sought union representation from Kristal-İş. 
 
Following union notification in November of its intent the strike, the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree under Article 33 of Turkey's Law on Collective Agreements, Strikes and Lockouts to prohibit a glass strike on the grounds it would be a threat to national security. 
 
Kristal-İş took the matter to the Supreme Court and in late January the court overruled the government's decree. 
 
Kristal-İş President Mustafa Bagceci emphasized that it is Pasabahce and the glass industry &quot;who do not respect the rights of workers&quot; that are responsible for the strike. He added that Kristal-İş is ready to make &quot;a fair compromise based on mutual goodwill and respect for basic workers' rights&quot; to end the strike.

ICEM Affiliate Strikes Turkish Glass Industry

T he government of Turkey's decree banning a strike in the nation's glass industry by ICEM affiliate Kristal-Is has drawn criticism from the 20-million-member ICEM. 
 
For the second time in two years, Turkey has used Article 33 of its Law on Collective Agreements, Strikes and Lockouts to prohibit Kristal-Is from striking. Both times the Turkish government has cited a possible glass strike as a threat to national security. 
 
In a letter dated 19 December to Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs called into question how such a strike could be construed a national security threat. &quot;I totally reject that a strike in the glass sector might be considered a threat to national security and would welcome your urgent reply.&quot; 
 
Higgs further wrote: &quot;Kristal-Is legitimately represents some 5,000 glass workers at 13 of 15 factories in Turkey. Over the past 18 months, the Turkish Glass Employers' Association along with the Sisecam Group and its subsidiary Pasabahce have waged a systematic campaign to destroy the collective bargaining status of Kristal-Is.&quot; 
 
The glass industry and Pasabahce challenged the union's right to representation under the 10% rule of Turkey's labour code, meaning a union must have at least 10% membership in a given sector to have collective bargaining rights. Both a labour court and a higher court-on appeal in May 2003-ruled that Kristal-Is is over that threshold, but Sisecam and Pasabahce have continued to subvert the union. In October, after 700 workers and subcontractors at a relatively new Pasabahce glass plant in the city of Eskisehir voted for representation by Kristal-Is, the company responded by firing 350 union activists. 
 
Kristal-Is President Musatafa Bagceci is also critical of the Turkish government's decision to ban a strike. &quot;To claim that a strike in the glass industry threatens national security is absurd and unbelievable. There is no connection between a glass strike and the country's national security. Once again, the Turkish government has violated the right to strike. The hidden side of the decree is the employers' demands.&quot; 
 
Kristal-Is has vowed to appeal the government's decree to Turkey's Supreme Court.

ICEM Protests Turkish Strike Ban in Glass

B ridgestone Corp. has defied the Labour Ministry in Argentina by refusing to reinstate 73 sacked workers at a tyre factory in Buenos Aires. The firm circumvented the union contract of ICEM affiliate Sindicato Unico de Trabejadores del Neumatico Argentina (SUTNA) in order to achieve rationalization over a new shift schedule. 
 
Local managers discharged the 73 workers unilaterally in October. Under Article 13 of the labour agreement, a stability clause exists that prevents any reduction in workforce without the consent of the union. SUTNA had hoped to commence bargaining toward an extension of the agreement, but management has refused to negotiate unless the union first agrees not to discuss the firings. 
 
On 5 December, following a hearing by the ministry, an officer ordered the 73 to be brought back to work with back pay. But when a representative of the ministry together with a SUTNA officer and discharged workers attempted to enter the plant the next day, Bridgestone refused entry. 
 
&quot;We call on senior Bridgestone management in both Japan and in the US, where local management in Argentina reports, to intervene and not only adhere to the ruling of the Labour Ministry, but to bargain in good faith with our affiliate,&quot; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. 
 
&quot;The protocol for the ICEM's Global Union Network of Bridgestone Workers affirms that local problems first should be resolved locally,&quot; continued Higgs. &quot;Due to local management's continued intransigence, this dispute must be taken to the international level and the ICEM intends to give it utmost attention.&quot; 
 
Members of SUTNA at the Buenos Aires factory did stage a six-day strike in October, which officially brought the dispute before the Labour Ministry. The union is also maintaining pickets at the plant, and has promised more strike action in 2004 if the dispute is not resolved. 
 
SUTNA has issued three demands to resolve the dispute: immediate reinstatement of the 73; good faith negotiations by the company with the intention of gaining an extension to the two-year labour agreement; and for Bridgestone to allow access to union officers of the plant, something that local management has consistently denied.

Bridgestone Managers in Argentina Bring Tyre Dispute

O n World AIDS Day, 1 December 2003, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers Unions (ICEM) and its affiliates in partnership with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions' (ICFTU) Global Unions HIV/AIDS Campaign recognize the virus as having a devastating impact on the world of work, and call on unions across the world to step forward to educate workers and the public on preventive measures. 
 
The 20-million-member ICEM also calls on all nations and global institutions to establish and then channel resources through a single agency that can best tackle the HIV/AIDS crisis on an international basis. 
 
&quot;There is no single, effective body that is responsible for coordinating the many genuine efforts to control and reverse the HIV/AIDS pandemic at the international level,&quot; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;Until such a mechanism is in place, the responses from the international community, although welcome, will not achieve maximum effect.&quot; 
 
Higgs said International Finance Institutions, donor countries, donor agencies and inter-governmental bodies must make a commitment to establish a designated body to effectively combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic across the globe. He used as example the United States government's emergency plan to spend US$2.4 billion next year on AIDS projects in 14 countries. Such a pledge, Higgs said, is bi-lateral between the US and each respective country and none of the funding is channeled through any official global agency. &quot;Establishing such a dedicated entity will discourage governments and other donors from selective contributions based on their own interests and will ensure that resources are directed where most needed in a fair and equitable manner. That is the only way to maximize the impact globally,&quot; said Higgs. 
 
ICEM, with 420 affiliated unions in 121 countries, is currently in dialogue with major pharmaceutical companies on providing badly needed anti-retroviral drug treatments to persons living with HIV/AIDS. ICEM is strategically positioned for such a direct role in the HIV/AIDS fight because it not only represents chemical workers in the pharmaceutical industry at major drug-producing firms, but also industrial workers hardest hit by the virus in energy, mining and mineral extraction in developing regions of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. 
 
On the ICFTU's Global Unions Campaign, Higgs said ICEM affiliates in Central and South Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean have developed and implemented effective workplace programmes and are engaged on national levels to fight the disease. He cited the innovative initiative of South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to forge formal agreements with employers for worksite education and awareness programmes. He also singled out NUM for its role in moving the South African government to a drug treatment and care programme. 
 
In Botswana, ICEM affiliate Mining Workers' Union has been key in getting the government to provide free HIV/AIDS drugs and education to all citizens. And the Pakistan Labour Federation (PLF), another ICEM affiliate, has established both an HIV/AIDS Center in Lahore and a Women's Group with its purpose to create awareness among workers in rural areas. 
 
Senzeni Zokwana, president of the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa, said the ICEM is correct in calling for a central agency to coordinate HIV/AIDS eradication efforts and said the process must be devoid of manipulation. &quot;Countries that do not have the means to afford vaccines must have equal access,&quot; he said. &quot;Developed nations and existing agencies must remain neutral and not allow their policies or politics dictate the way in which this epidemic is fought.&quot; 
 
Haji Muhammad Saeed, and founder and Secretary General of Pakistan Labour Federation, said, &quot;Although HIV/AIDS affects all levels of a population, poverty is in fact a close companion of the virus. The role of trade unions is essential to support and to ensure the rights of workers living with HIV are upheld.&quot; The PLF has also endorsed the ICEM's call for a single agency to coordinate efforts.

ICEM Calls for Coordinated Response to HIV/AIDS Pandemic

A n eight-day strike by ICEM affiliate United Auto Workers (UAW) of America sent a sharp message to French-based Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. that workers in Massachusetts are growing tired of the firm's stall tactics. The strike began on 5 November and ended 13 November. 
 
The 800 UAW-represented workers at Saint-Gobain Abrasives in Worcester, Mass., voted the union in as bargaining representative in August 2001. But the company has consistently stalled and delayed efforts to reach a first collective agreement. The only company offers presented would radically reduce terms and conditions of employment. 
 
In the process, Saint-Gobain has committed 15 separate unfair labour practice violations of US federal labour law, including unilaterally reducing workers' health care benefits and bypassing the UAW on workplace health and safety concerns. The strike came a day after workers overwhelmingly voted to reject a take-away contract proposal. 
 
&quot;We had no other choice,&quot; stated Tony Quitadama, a 30-year mechanic at the plant and UAW activist. &quot;We've been bargaining with them for almost two years and just as they threatened they would in trying to defeat the union vote in 2001, they continue to violate the law and make contract proposals that would take us backward not forward.&quot; 
 
&quot;What this company is doing and has done is an absolute travesty and an affront to these hard working people,&quot; said UAW Region 9A Director Phil Wheeler. 
 
The ICEM continues to coordinate international support for the struggle with French unions F&eacute;d&eacute;chimie CGT-FO and F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Chimie Energie FCE-CFDT, both of which represent workers at Saint-Gobain plants in France. The ICEM together with the UAW and US labour federation AFL-CIO has raised a case with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) over Saint-Gobain's clear violations of the OECD's Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. 
 
The labour organisations brought the case to the OECD's US National Contact Point, the US State Department's Office of Investment, detailing Saint-Gobain's anti-worker practices. The labour unions call for &quot;a prompt and thorough response&quot; by Saint-Gobain and the French National Contact Point to the charges; ask that a meeting be arranged by the French Contact Point with top officials from both Compagnie de Saint-Gobain and the UAW over OECD violations; and sought removal of all company &quot;consultants, attorneys and other advisors responsible for the company's anti-union conduct that is in violation of the OECD Guidelines.&quot; 
 
Saint-Gobain Abrasives, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, manufactures abrasion materials and products used in cutting, shaping and polishing at its Worcester facility.

UAW Members Strike Saint-Gobain in First Contract Dispute

J ob security prevailed as members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) ratified a three-year master agreement with Goodyear Tire and Rubber at 14 US plants. The contract, pieced together after five months of difficult bargaining aimed at keeping the US rubber company solvent, gives nearly all 20,000 unionised US Goodyear workers job security, and grants the ICEM-affiliated USWA unprecedented language regarding company decision making including a seat on Goodyear's board of directors. 
 
&quot;Given the blatant abandonment of American manufacturing by global corporations in recent years - 2.7 million jobs in the last 30 months - the job security provisions in this contract are an achievement that mark a whole new era of labour-management relations in the tyre and rubber industry,&quot; stated USWA President Leo Gerard. 
 
To relieve the company's financial burden (it had posted losses of US$1.3 billion over the past two years, US$237 million coming in the first two quarters of this year), Goodyear sought to substantially reduce North American production by closing several plants and downsizing others. This production was scheduled to shift to non-US tyre plants with capital investment aimed at non-US and non-union facilities. In addition, Goodyear was looking for USWA members and its 22,000 retirees to make major wage and benefit concessions. 
 
&quot;We made it clear that, for there to be a contract, our plants would stay open and capital expenditures would be made to keep them globally competitive,&quot; said USWA Executive Vice President John Sellers, who heads the USWA's Rubber/Plastic Industry Council. The US union secured &quot;Protected Plant&quot; status for 12 of the 14 plants, with one (Tyler, Texas) having &quot;partial-Protected Plant&quot; status meaning it must meet certain goals to obtain protected status. Such designations ensure the plants will remain open for the term of the contract and that these operations be given &quot;meaningful and significant first consideration and preference&quot; for all new products introduced in North America. 
 
Workers at the one operation without &quot;Protected Plant&quot; status, Huntsville, Alabama, will be entitled to preferential hiring at a nearby plant in Gadsden, Alabama, in the event their site is closed. Goodyear has agreed to transfer the production of one million tyres per year to unionised Gadsden from non-USWA plants if Huntsville goes down. 
 
Import of Goodyear tyres to the US is restricted in the new labour agreement, as is the right of the company to transfer production. Excessive layers of Goodyear management both at headquarters in Akron, Ohio, and at tyre plants will be made redundant, and USWA members will now be empowered to make critical decisions in the production process. The use of outside contractors will be dramatically reduced. 
 
The USWA seat on Goodyear's board is a first in the tyre and rubber industry. In addition, the union negotiated a debt-restructuring program for the firm to reduce financial obligations and refinance debt within specific time frames. And the USWA contract places limits on executive compensation both in base salaries and rewarding stock options. 
 
Although the contract contains a three-year freeze on wages, workers will receive quarterly cost-of-living adjustments between US$.15 to $.25 per hour. USWA members will now pay only modest out-of-pocket costs on their health care coverage, US$3/week for single workers and US$9/week for family, while retirees will continue to receive full company-paid health benefits for the first 15 months of the agreement. 
 
The US Goodyear plants are comprised of three former Kelly-Springfield tyre facilities, two Dunlop plants (joint venture with Japan's Sumitomo Rubber Industries), and nine original Goodyear plants. For the first time, all plants will fall under a common expiration, 22 July 2006. The USWA has a unique ratification process in its Goodyear network in which a majority of workers must approve the contract, and at least eight of the 14 plants must ratify in individual plant-site voting. Last week's ratification came by better than a two-to-one worker count, and 13 of the 14 plants approved the agreement. 
 
The USWA heads up the ICEM's Global Network of Goodyear Workers, which includes some 40,000 unionised workers at 47 plants in 24 countries. The USWA now begins contract talks with Bridgestone-Firestone, Goodrich and Groupe Michelin in the US.

US Steelworkers Conclude Goodyear Contract

Australia's 48-hour coal strike was an overwhelming success. The nationwide action ended at midnight local time, and the 20,000 strikers are now returning to work, in line with the mandate given to by the rank-and-file to their union, the CFMEU. 
 
But the strike was just the first shot in a campaign against the &quot;disastrous&quot; price-cutting practices of Australian coal producers, CFMEU General President Tony Maher warned. 
 
The union estimates that a further 2,000 jobs, or 10 per cent of the current workforce, could be lost as a result of the recent 18 per cent price cut for coking coal offered by Australian producers Shell, MIM and North Goonyella. The reduced price is the new low benchmark for the settlement of all coal contracts under negotiation with Japanese buyers. 
 
4,000 jobs have already been lost in the Australian coal industry recently. Maher said that further job cuts would not only add to the devastation of Australian mining communities, but would also put further pressure on health and safety in coal mines. In the past 12 months, he pointed out, Australian coal miners had delivered a 20 per cent increase in productivity. &quot;However, what we've got in return is retrenchments, award stripping, decreases in allowances and reduction in basic wages. Our members have been expected to cut their own throats.&quot; 
 
He called on Australia's right-wing federal government to &quot;join all the other stakeholders in Australia's coal industry to discuss the problems and work towards solutions which will stem the loss of jobs and stop the abuse of a national asset.&quot; The federal government has so far boycotted a forum of employers and unions on this topic, although the governments of the major coal-producing states Queensland and New South Wales are taking part. The forum's next meeting is in Brisbane on 17 December. 
 
Some companies took the union to court over the strike. In New South Wales, the Supreme Court issued a return-to-work order at three mines in the Hunter Valley, owned by the Rio Tinto company Coal and Allied. But in the Federal Court in Queensland, an application by Thiess Contractors for an injunction against the union was rejected. The union complied with the Hunter Valley ruling, but will be appealing against it. The CFMEU will also mount legal challenges to other employers' court applications against the union. 
 
At the global level, the CFMEU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;This is a battle on behalf of miners everywhere, with the CFMEU at the forefront,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe emphasised. &quot;By offering massive price cuts and reductions in volume, the Australian producers are threatening thousands of coal mining jobs on all continents. The Australian miners have delivered a clear reply to the irresponsibility of the producers and of the Australian federal government. Through the ICEM, our Australian brothers and sisters can count on the support of their colleagues worldwide.&quot;

Australian Coal Strike Success

Archive