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<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	ILO Deputy Director General and long-time trade unionist Guy Ryder is receiving full support from the ICEM and its affiliates to be elected as the 10th Director-General of the ILO on 28 May.

	The 56 titular members of the ILO Governing Body are eligible to vote in the election; half are from governments, and a quarter each from employers and workers&rsquo; groups. ICEM affiliates are lobbying their home governments. Write to your government today. Ten of the government seats are permanently held by major industrialized countries. The remaining seats are filled on a rotating basis, for three-year terms. The employers and workers elect their own representatives.

	The Governing Body met on 30-31 March for hearings of candidates and the election will be held on 28 May. The outgoing Director-General, Juan Somavia will leave the post on 30 September 2012. The Director-General is elected for a five-year term.

	<img alt="" height="97" src="" style="cursor: default" width="129" />

	Ryder is running on a platform of strengthening the ILO in order to fulfill its mandate of promoting social justice and beating the global jobs crisis, with particular emphasis on youth who are becoming increasingly excluded from society.

	Ryder seeks to concretise the fundamental principle of tripartism throughout the work operations of the ILO and beyond, and to unite the ILO&rsquo;s constituents to deliver on the decent work agenda. Ryder argues that only through consistent technical excellence can the organisation consolidate its authority in the world of work.

	Another important priority of Ryder&rsquo;s candidacy is to seek to reverse the increasing global trend of growth in the informal economy.

	Guy Ryder&rsquo;s vast experience and knowledge of the mechanisms and work of the ILO, of leadership of complex organisations in transition as General Secretary of the ICFTU and ITUC, and of all issues in the world of work combine to make him clearly the deserved candidate to succeed Somavia as Director-General.

	The candidature of Guy Ryder is formally submitted by ITUC President Michael Sommer and Luc Cortebeeck, trade union members of the ILO Governing Body.

	See Ryder&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/correspondence/wcms_175249.pdf">CV</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/correspondence/wcms_175250.pdf">Vision Statement</a>&nbsp;for the candidature here.

ICEM Affiliates Rally Behind Guy Ryder to Head ILO

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	Some 80 representatives from 20 Turkish affiliated trade unions of the ICEM, the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) came together in a Precarious Employment Conference in Ankara on 25-26 April 2012.

	Generously supported by Germany&rsquo;s Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES), the meeting coincided with Turkey government consideration of new employment strategies, policies that have seen wide debated inside the country&rsquo;s union movement.

	Following the conference, General Secretaries of the three Global Union Federations (GUFs) &ndash; Manfred Warda of ICEM, Jyrki Raina of IMF and Klaus Priegnitz of ITGLWF, along with ICEM&nbsp; Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal &Ouml;zkan &ndash; met with Faruk &Ccedil;elik, Turkey&rsquo;s Minister of Labour and Social Security. The meeting surfaced the important conclusions of the conference and the country&rsquo;s record regarding enforcement of trade union freedoms.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 389px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	Turkish Union Leaders, from left, Nazmi Irgat, Adnan Serdaroglu, Mustafa Kumlu, Ferudun Tankut

	The trade union leaders demanded that the government take the necessary measures to ease the concerns of Turkish unions on both counts. The global delegation also met with Kemal Kılı&ccedil;daroğlu, Chairman of Republican&rsquo;s People Party (CHP), main opposition party at the National Parliament, on several draft bills modifying labour life regulations on trade union rights, flexible working forms and occupational health and safety.

	The FES conference saw delegates from Turkey and elsewhere define objectives of the government&rsquo;s revamped strategies, including: dissemination of employment of definite periods; legitimization of hiring workers through private employment agencies; inserting different forms of flexible work into the nation&rsquo;s labour code; abolishing the current severance payment system with a new system that will lower employers&rsquo; direct responsibilities; changing minimum legal wage applications, such as lower wages for young workers and different regional minimum wage systems; and workplace security instead of employment security.

	Speakers at the meeting&rsquo;s opening underscored the potential repercussions of the new strategies on work life. &ldquo;Flexible working forms, unlike what we are told, are costly and create problems rather solutions,&rdquo; said Mustafa Kumlu, ICEM Executive Committee member President of both the Turk-İş Confederation and Tes-İş trade union.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/1205 Meeting with Turkey Labour &amp; Social Security Minister.jpg" style="width: 239px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Meeting with Turkey Labour &amp; Social Security Minister

	&ldquo;New strategies will claim to bring together flexibility and security, but we know what is waiting us &hellip; unsecured jobs and more poverty, just like what exists now in the textile industry,&rdquo; said Nazmi Irgat, who is an ITGLWF Vice-President, President of Teksif union and Organizing Secretary of Turk-İş.

	&ldquo;The government proposes a new modern slavery system with this employment strategy, and we will never accept it,&rdquo; added Adnan Serdaroğlu, President of IMF affiliate Birleşik Metal-İş, who also serves as General Secretary of DISK Confederation. Ferudun Tankut, President of another IMF affiliate, &Ccedil;elik-İş, and Vice-President of the Hak-İş Confederation, said the government&rsquo;s strategy &ldquo;has been put into place without soliciting opinions, proposals or agreements of social partners. Our country is missing an important opportunity.

	The participants listened to Erhan Batur, Deputy Undersecretary of Ministry of Labour and Social Security, who gave an overview on the legislative efforts of the government for bettering work life in Turkey. Warda, Raina and Priegnitz briefed the assembled on the foundation of the new GUF, IndustriALL Global Union, and defined the struggle against precarious employment that the organization will undertake as a global priority.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 364px;height: 128px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The three strongly cited the difficulties Turkish workers have in being able to exercise fundamental trade union rights such as freedom of association because of poor labour legislation.

	ICEM&rsquo;s &Ouml;zkan, IMF&rsquo;s Jenny Holdcroft and ITGLWF&rsquo;s Ashling Seely gave specific examples from their respective sectors on the rise of precarious employment throughout the world. Participants also welcomed union representatives Horst Mund from IG Metall of Germany, Sascha Meier from FNV Bondgenoten of the Netherlands, Berivan &Ouml;ng&ouml;r&uuml;r from Unionen and Mats Svensson from IF Metall, both of Sweden, and all shared their experiences and union policies on precarious employment in their countries.

	The conference heard extensive reports from Turkish participants through three panel discussions on precarious employment in Turkey. The panels had themes of economic, social and legal settings; the ggovernment&rsquo;s employment strategy and possible repercussions to work life; and fighting against precarious employment through union organizing. Luc Demaret from ILO-ACTRAV gave a report on international labour standards and protections of precarious employment.

	In the summary and conclusions, Turkish and global unions underlined the importance of solidarity and active campaigning against all forms of precarious employment. Turkey has been defined as one of the countries where IndustriALL will embark on a campaign against precarious work. Delegates mandated the global unions to take action, vis-&agrave;-vis the government for overcoming potential challenges arising from its strategies.

FES Turkish Confab Defines Precarious Work as Priority for New GUF

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	Join the fast growing online <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1383&amp;src=icem">Labourstart campaign</a>&nbsp;calling for freedom for Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a trade unionist, activist and journalist in Thailand. Somyot has been in jail since April 2011 on charges of l&egrave;se majest&eacute;. The charges allege that he has defamed the King of Thailand by publishing two articles in the magazine he edited, The Voice of Thaksin. Brother Somyot faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two articles, if found guilty.

	Somyot is innocent of these charges, a position supported by expert witnesses and human rights organisations. An international campaign has been underway for the last 12 months to secure his release, which has included demonstrations across the region and a hunger strike by Somyot&#039;s son, Tai, for 112 hours earlier this year. Somyot is charged under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code. The campaign is supported by a number of international and national trade unions and human rights organisations, including the ICEM, IFJ, Article 19, and the National Human Rights Commission in Thailand.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 332px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	30 April Protests outside Thai Parliament 

	Brother Somyot, a former ICEM Thailand Coordinator, must be freed immediately and unconditionally, states the ICEM.

	Indisputably, Somyot is incarcerated purely for his trade union and left-leaning political activism. For those reasons, he also is not receiving a fair judicial process with violations that include hearings being relocated to distant provinces so that key defence witnesses cannot participate.

	Somyot is now in the last week of hearings and we are concerned that a fair trial takes place. He has been denied bail nine times and is experiencing extraordinarily harsh conditions. Thai trade unions held a demonstration outside Parliament and the UN delegation in Bangkok on the 30 April.

	The final stage of Somyot&rsquo;s trial began two weeks ago, with prosecution witness hearings ending 26 April, and defence witness hearings 1-4 May.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 104px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	See more on the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.freesomyot.wordpress.com/">Free Somyot campaign</a>&nbsp;website here.

	Another labour and human rights defender is also in detention on non-credible charges. Brother Sirichai Mai-ngam of Thailand also has ICEM&rsquo;s full support.

	In a significant development today, a verdict to a separate case on l&egrave;se majest&eacute; which was due today for Ms Chiranuch Premchaiporn was delayed by one month. This is likely to be connected to the large international attention on these archaic rulings.

	Somyot is one of the few remaining defendants to refuse to plead guilty. Help maintain the international pressure in these last few days of his trial.

URGENT: Join the Labourstart Campaign, Justice for Somyot!

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	Daniel Aguirre Piedrahita, the General Secretary of SINALCORTEROS, Colombia&rsquo;s Nation Union of Sugar Cane Cutters, was assassinated last Friday night, 27 April, as he accompanied his wife, Helena, to make a telephone call in their Casilda neighbourhood of Florida municipality, Valle del Cauca department in west-central Colombia.

	He was shot twice in the head by a cowardly assassin only 70 metres from his home. In a statement, SINALCORTEROS said the cold-blooded murder occurs in a continued context of violence and intolerance of trade union work in Colombia. It urged members and activists not to let this &ldquo;reprehensibly violent action torpedo our union&rdquo; and derail activities, but rather to &ldquo;reaffirm our actions and our mission.&rdquo;

	The government of Colombia did put out a statement yesterday condemning the killing. Deputy Minister of Labour David Luna Sanchez said the ministry supports the Interior Ministry&rsquo;s Protection Unit director&rsquo;s call for an investigation to determine if the killing was related to union activity.

	Aguirre, 35, was a stalwart leader of sugar cane cutters and their fight to bust the chains of servitude inflicted by sugar mill employers who considered them self-employed independent contractors.

	He was instrumental in 2005 in forming SINALCORTEROS, now an affiliate of the International Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), through strikes. He also led strikes of 18,000 sugar cane cutters in 2008 in both Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments that two years later resulted in collective agreements, labour pacts he instituted that in part made recruitment less cumbersome.

	More recently, he had been advocating revisions to Colombia&rsquo;s labour statutes to bring them up to ILO standards and he was a fierce opponent of the Free Trade Agreement with the US, something he felt would lead to exploitation of workers and the product that they harvested.

	Daniel Aguirre becomes the seventh Colombian trade unionist killed this year, and the 61stsince Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August 2010. He is survived by his wife and three daughters, ages 14, 10 and 4.

	A <a href="http://www.rel-uita.org/internacional/ddhh/Rel-sinalcorteros_asesinato_daniel_aguirre.htm">letter of condolence</a> (in Spanish) from the IUF to SINALCORTEROS President Alfonso Viafara can be viewed here.

Coward Guns Down Colombian Sugar Cane Cutters’ General Secretary on 27 April

Global Unions Message - May Day 2012 
<div class="section">
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				It is more than five years since the financial crisis hit, followed rapidly by a larger economic crisis. This economic earthquake exposed the dangers of financialisation; of having the real economy subservient to finance; and of two decades of growing inequality. The resulting shock added millions to the already teeming ranks of the jobless and threw millions more into precarious work. Many workers have lost good jobs and far too many have also lost the fundamental rights that went with them. 
			
				Global financial markets, opened up by deregulation at national level, have not only produced the current economic crisis, but also the instability that has characterised economic development for the last 30 years, with periodic &ldquo;bubbles&rdquo; and crises. This has made it much more lucrative to make money from money than from the production of goods and services. 
			
				In response to the crisis, governments, together and separately, engaged in an unprecedented flurry of activity, but deeds did not reflect the words of their statements. There was enough action that was rapid and real to keep the Great Recession from becoming a Depression, but the dramatic shift to austerity policies in many countries is pushing the global economy back to the brink of new recession. Moreover they have not recovered the authority that they ceded to markets and their actors; markets that have no political legitimacy. And, because the root causes of the crisis have not been addressed, nothing has been put in place to prevent future financial market disasters. 
			
				The pressure from financial markets and financial actors has also fuelled short-term thinking and behaviour. It has undermined all three pillars of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. It has deepened and worsened the plight of working people, whose rights are under attack by many governments and employers, both national and multinational. For millions upon millions of working women and men, work means exploitation and deprivation of their fundamental rights, with poverty wages and appalling conditions. The pattern of exploitation that has been thrust on the world leaves more and more people in insecure or informal work, and means growing inequality. 
			
				Public coffers have been drained for a series of bail-outs of banks leading to cuts in public programmes, increasing inequality and weakening prospects for decent jobs and sustainable recovery. &lsquo;Recovery&rsquo; has come for the handful who caused the crisis, while their victims are subject to further &lsquo;punishment&rsquo;. Too many people, outraged at injustice but unable to touch powerful elites, are turning against their neighbours, including migrants on whom many healthy economies depend. Many lose hope in political solutions and retreat into apathy and isolation.
		</div>
	</div>
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<div class="column">
	
		Global unions affirm our solidarity in working together with our communities to reverse economic injustice, and to advance progressive social visions that protect and build the common good. 
	
		On this May Day, Global Unions call on governments to assume their responsibilities and join together to end the crisis. They need to create decent, sustainable jobs and stand up for the rights of people at work. 
	
		We call for: 
	<ul style="list-style-type: none">
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				 &nbsp;Global regulation of financial markets to reduce their dominant role in the global economy and restore them as a support for productive investment to meet social needs; 
		</li>
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				 &nbsp;A broad range of urgent actions for jobs and recovery, including a focus on youth unemployment, in order to create good, secure employment; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Employment measures, including enhanced education and training, which will ensure the long- term generation of good, sustainable jobs; a central element of the fight against inequality and poverty; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Responses to the challenges of climate change in a way that has a real, demonstrable impact on carbon emissions, creates green jobs, and strengthens social sustainability; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Fair taxes that raise greater revenue from upper income groups and corporations, fight tax fraud and evasion, close loopholes and crack down on tax havens; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;A Financial Transaction Tax to inhibit rapid financial transactions; making financial markets more stable and less dangerous, while generating essential revenue; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Full respect for trade union rights and the promotion of strong systems of collective bargaining and social dialogue to help build fairness and democracy;&nbsp;
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;More comprehensive social protection, including through the creation of a global social protection floor supported by adequate funding; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Guarantees of rights to such basic needs as food, water, housing, health, and education; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Opposition to austerity measures and the maintenance of government capacity, so that they can govern effectively, deliver effective services, and be relevant and credible - including with&nbsp;respect to measures to influence and affect the direction of the economy; and
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Sustained investment in quality public services, and especially in quality education services, as an important means to overcome the crisis, and also as a way to build democratic societies in&nbsp;which people have the opportunity to live healthy, rewarding and satisfying lives.&nbsp;
		</li>
	</ul>
</div>

Global Unions May Day Message: Governments Must Act for a Sustainable and Equitable Recovery

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	In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the ICEM HIV/AIDS regional workshop in Johannesburg, developments at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and on the severe consequences arising from the funding crisis.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 40px;height: 40px;cursor: default" width="390" />

	Regional HIV and AIDS Workshop in Johannesburg

	A very successful sub-Saharan Africa regional workshop was organised in Johannesburg from 14-16 February. With the active participation of national coordinators from ten countries, a review of activities in 2010 and 2011, the first two years of the present three-year project cycle, was conducted. Participants also presented country plans for 2012, the last year of the current project.

	Key challenges and opportunities for the future and creative methods of addressing HIV and AIDS in the current social and economic environment were elaborated. In further group work, key elements for a possible new project cycle for 2013-2015 were developed. The outcome of this work were power point presentations from three groups which constitute valuable input for a possible new project.

	Evelyn Serima, HIV/AIDS Technical Specialist in the Decent Work Team for East and Southern Africa at the ILO Pretoria office, gave a presentation on progress in the implementation of ILO Recommendation 200 concerning HIV and AIDS and the World of Work and on new targets for 2015, especially the UNAIDS triple zero initiative &ndash; zero new infections, zero death and zero discrimination. Her presentation was highly relevant for the work on a project beyond 2012.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 40px;height: 40px;cursor: default" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The Global Fund at Ten Years &ndash; Not a Happy Anniversary

	At the end of January, the Global Fund celebrated its tenth anniversary. These past 12 months, which ended with the Board persuading the Executive Director to resign, have been the Fund&rsquo;s most difficult to date.

	The stage was set for the Global Fund&rsquo;s problem-filled 2011 when the Fund said in October 2010 that it needed well over US$13 billion to meet anticipated demand for 2011&ndash;2013 but donors pledged only US$11.7 billion.

	Then on 23 January 2011, the Associated Press published an article entitled &quot;Fraud Plagues Global Health Fund,&quot; based on public reports from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The story took off like wildfire. Alarmed, some of the Global Fund&rsquo;s donors held back on delivering their promised contributions pending clear action by the Fund to deal with fraud.

	The OIG&rsquo;s findings on fraud were obviously important and required action. But the OIG made little distinction between outright fraud and multiple lesser crimes such as documenting expenditures using photocopies rather than originals.

	The Fund set up a High Level Panel to review how the Fund identifies and manages risk in its grant-making. The panel issued a report in September that was daunting in terms of the number of things it said need fixing.

	The downhill trajectory continued when the Global Fund, having launched Round 11 in August 2011, cancelled it three months later because of inadequate funding.

	Then came a final nose-dive when the Global Fund Board, after reviewing the events of the past year and conducting an in-depth assessment of the managerial performance of Michel Kazatchkine, the Fund&rsquo;s Executive Director (ED), concluded that Dr Kazatchkine had to go. He resigned on 24 January 2012 after the Board had appointed a General Manager to whom all top management would report.

	The Global Fund performs vital work affecting millions of lives. The Fund cannot afford to have a second year like 2011, and might be permanently damaged if so.

	(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 175 of 6 February. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org/">www.aidspan.org</a>; to receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>)

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 40px;height: 40px;cursor: default" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Delayed Disbursements of Grants Threatens South Africa&rsquo;s TAC

	The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a sub-recipient (SR) for a Round 6 HIV grant in South Africa, has experienced significant delays in receiving disbursements. TAC says that because of these delays, the organisation is perilously close to having to shut its doors. TAC is known world-wide for its pioneering advocacy work in South Africa on HIV treatment.

	The South Africa National Department of Health (NDOH) is the principal recipient for the HIV grant. Under its contract with the NDOH, TAC was due to receive 6.5 million rand (US$833,000) by the start of July 2011 to cover expenses between then and the end of 2011.

	TAC has still not received any of this funding. On 1 January 2012, TAC was due to receive a further disbursement of 2.7 million rand (US$346,000) to cover expenses for January to March 2012. That funding has also not yet been received, increasing the shortfall to 9.2 million rand (US$1.2 million).

	On 23 November 2011, TAC issued a statement in which it said that the organisation faced possible closure because of the lack of funds. The statement said that TAC depended on the Global Fund grant for a large portion of its work. It added that the delays were primarily due to poor administration by the NDOH.

	(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 176 of 20 February)

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 40px;height: 40px;cursor: default" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Zimbabwe: Improved AIDS Levy Collections

	With global funding for HIV/AIDS on the decline, Zimbabwe&#039;s innovative AIDS levy &ndash; a three percent tax on income &ndash; has become a promising source of funding for the country, with a dramatic increase in revenue collected in the past two years.

	The levy was introduced in 1999 to compensate for declining donor support, but low salaries and the poor performance of industry meant not enough money had been collected until recently. In its 2010 report on Zimbabwe&#039;s progress in implementing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2001, the government admitted the levy was &quot;essentially non-existent in 2007-2008 due to economic challenges the country was facing.&quot;

	According to the National AIDS Council Board, a total of US$20.5 million was collected in 2010 against US$5.7 million the previous year; non-audited figures for 2011 suggest a collection of US$25 million.

	Although 347,000 people are on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in the country, another 600,000 need the medication. The treatment gap widened after Zimbabwe adopted the new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines that recommend starting treatment earlier.

	The AIDS levy contributed almost a quarter of the money to purchase ARVs, while 76% of the treatment programme was financed by international donors such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the UK Department for International Development. But Zimbabwe &ndash; one of the hardest countries hit by HIV/AIDS &ndash; still needs a lot more funding to cover the worrying treatment gap.

	(Source: IRIN, Harare, 3 February)

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 40px;height: 40px;cursor: default" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	South Africa to Produce Active Ingredients for ARVs

	South Africa is to build a ZAR 1.6 billion (US$ million) pharmaceutical plant to produce the ingredients for antiretroviral drugs. The plant is a joint venture between the government and Lonza, a Swiss chemicals and biotechnology company.

	So far, most antiretroviral drugs used in South Africa are manufactured locally but all the active ingredients used in them are imported. South Africa is the world&rsquo;s largest market for antiretroviral drugs. Pharmaceutical imports are one of the most important contributors to the country&rsquo;s trade deficit.

	(Source: Business Day, Johannesburg 10 February)

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 40px;height: 40px;cursor: default" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	DR Congo: Alarm Bells over Poor Funding

	The lives of thousands of HIV-positive people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at risk as the country faces declining donor funding and a severe shortage of treatment, according to M&eacute;decins sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF).

	More than one million people are living with HIV and of the 350,000 people who qualify for antiretroviral treatment, only 44,.000 &ndash; 13% &ndash; receive it. Seventy-five percent of funding in the DRC comes from the Global Fund, 25% from UNITAID and from PEPFAR, the US President&rsquo;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Earlier World Bank funding ended in 2011.

	As the DRC did not qualify for funding under the 9th and 10th round of Global Fund grants, it is using funds from previous rounds which will last at the most to 2014, not counting up-scaling. UNITAID funds through the Clinton Health Access Initiative are for paediatric and second-line ARVs and PEPFAR provides funds for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

	(Source: IRIN, Nairobi/Kinshasa, 2 February)

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 40px;height: 40px;cursor: default" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	News from Global Unions

	The International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF &ndash; <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org/">www.itfglobal.org</a>), in its latest HIV/AIDS update 119 of 1 and 15 February, reports on the signing of a policy on HIV and AIDS of the Confederation of Railway Workers of Bolivia with two railway companies. It also draws attention of affiliates to the process of reviewing ILO Recommendation 200 concerning HIV and AIDS and the World of Work, and the importance of trade unions getting involved in this process of monitoring the implementation of Recommendation 200.

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	Five Years Ago: From the March 2007 Issue (No. 18)

	The first issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin was published in October 2005. In current issues, we refer to an article from the same month five years ago and reflect on developments.

	In the March 2007 issue, we reported on the signing of a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with the Swedish paper multinational Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA), which included an HIV/AIDS clause. The company agreed to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work.

	We pointed out the importance of such a clause for affiliates. If a company agrees to comply with the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, this opens a whole range of possibilities for negotiations and activities for the unions organising inside a GFA company. The ten key principles of the Code of Practice include non-discrimination, gender equality, confidentiality, prevention, care and support. A GFA applies to all operations of a company worldwide. Often, local management is not familiar with a GFA signed by their head office. Insist on implementation and compliance!

	Regrettably, only a minority of ICEM GFAs include an HIV/AIDS clause.

	We also reported on the appointment of a new Executive Director at the Global Fund, Michel Kazatchkine. He resigned recently (see e-bulletin February 2012, No. 77).

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 78, March 2012

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	The third phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry&rsquo;s investigation of the Pike River mine explosions of November 2010 that killed 29 concluded in mid-February in Greymouth, New Zealand, and several experts testified to the inherent weak safety mechanisms in place by Pike River Coal Ltd.

	The latest set of hearings also reveal a company that was 18 months behind on orders to deliver &nbsp;premium metallurgical coal, and in the words of a technical services manager who resigned just days before the first explosion, &ldquo;There was no way the company would delay coal production&rdquo; because of safety concerns.

	The manager, Pieter Van Rooyen, testified that workers had given him notice of inadequate methane drainage pipes, requesting that drilling cease until rectified. Despite passing that on in writing to senior operational managers, nothing was done. Van Rooyen said the decision to begin hydro-mining deep within the shaft without constructing a second exit &ndash; and in areas of high methane gas build-up &ndash; was strictly for &ldquo;cash-flow purposes.&rdquo;

	&nbsp;<img alt="" height="159" src="" width="183" />&nbsp;

	An electrical engineer who investigated New Zealand&rsquo;s worst mining accident in 100 years said the faulty Pike River electrical systems multiplied chances for disaster since stray currents in many mechanical instruments produced sparks. Pike River&rsquo;s main exhaust fan was located underground, an anomaly to modern mining.

	In late October 2010, the company was warned by a regulatory agency that the stability of an expanded roof in an underground area was worrisome, and again nothing was done. A mine safety expert from Australia testified that the blast was caused by a roof collapse deep inside the mine, causing a massive release of gas. When the underground fan failed, the gas could have ignited from a small spark.

	For 16 months now, the bodies of the 29 have remained entombed inside the South Island mine, despite efforts by families to recover their loved ones. In this inquiry round, photos of two miners who were sighted dead near self-rescue units were shown. The photos indicate that the miners might have survived the initial blast on 19 November 2010. In the following days, five more major explosions occurred.

	Pike River Coal Ltd. killed 29 miners, including 26 New Zealanders, a miner from South Africa, one from the UK, and another miner who was an Australian national. The mother of this Australian miner named Josh Ufer is currently speaking out in Australia on the necessity to maintain full trade union involvement in all mine safety matters.

	As the Single Bargaining Unit led by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) wages a battle against BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi to retain union-mandated safety deputies and open cut examiners inside Queensland collieries, Joanne Ufer is versing the dangers inherent in unilateral management control of safety matters in union advertisements.

	The final phase of the Pike River Royal Commission of Inquiry will convene next month, with the commission&rsquo;s report and findings to be issued in September.&nbsp; See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4681-Pike-River-s-Royal-Inquiry-Sees-Troubling-Safety-Issues-Inside-NZ-Mine-Disaster">ICEM report</a> following the commission&rsquo;s second phase hearings.

‘Disaster Waiting to Happen,’ Pike River 3rd Inquiry Told

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	What does precarious work look like in Australia?

	One of the things that has characterised clothing workers in Australia over many decades has been that companies manufacture goods through very long, complex and broad supply chains. The supply chains in numerous cases have multiple levels and often at the end of those supply chains you find someone working at home &ndash; these are predominantly women, mainly migrant women in the Australian context; they don&rsquo;t have English as a first language and they are working in very isolated circumstances; they commonly work 7 days a week and when there&rsquo;s a rush for orders they&rsquo;ll work throughout the day and night. It&rsquo;s also common that they&rsquo;ll involve other family members including children to try to get the work done and part of the other aspect that characterises these workers is that they&rsquo;re often told that they&rsquo;re not employees, that they&rsquo;re not workers, and the people who give them the work require them to have some sort of company name or corporate structure to be able to give them the work. This is a sham arrangement &ndash; they&rsquo;re not genuine contractors and have no genuine independence at all. This is an attempt by the company and the brand to distance themselves from their employment responsibilities.

	What action has the Textile, Clothing &amp; Footwear Union of Australia taken?

	More than 20 years ago we succeeded in having a legal set of award conditions that said that if you are a worker in a factory in our industry or at home you are entitled to the same pay and conditions &ndash; this along hasn&rsquo;t fixed the problem. So, what we are now doing &ndash; and have had some success &ndash; is with different state governments in Australia introducing state legislation.

	Our unions campaigned for many, many years on this issue, and we don&rsquo;t do it alone we&rsquo;re part of a broader campaign called the &lsquo;Fairwear&rsquo; campaign which is&nbsp; made up of unions, church groups, student groups, community organisations and activists who for more than 15 years have had a campaign which focuses publically on companies who don&rsquo;t take seriously their responsibility to workers in their supply chains, and pressures them to become accredited with a voluntary scheme which makes the whole supply chain transparent. The accreditation scheme is based on Australian legal minimum standards being met, so through the campaign and the unions&rsquo; exposure of many examples of exploitative behaviour of workers working from home we got some state governments to introduce laws and now we&rsquo;re just at the point of having the federal government introduce a national legislation which picks up on what we achieved at the state level and makes it nationally consistent. It&rsquo;s now gone into the Australian Parliament and will be voted on in the next couple of weeks.

	The proposed legislation does 4 keys things. The first thing is it deems all outworkers &nbsp;(our terminology in Australia for these workers working at home is outworkers)&nbsp; to be employees, it says regardless of whether you are required to have a business name or company structure you are an employee. Secondly, it allows those workers to recover unpaid money up the supply chain, so if the person who gave them the work disappears they can go to the next company up the supply chain, or the next company above that, to recover unpaid wages and it includes the notion of the &lsquo;apparent employer&rsquo; so it allows you to recover money from the apparent employer as opposed to only the actual employer. The third thing it does is allow the government to introduce a mandatory code to complement the voluntary code that I spoke about before, and that mandatory code would put obligations not just on the manufacturers but on the retailers &ndash; so it would require retailers by law to make their whole supply chain transparent. The forth thing it does is gives the union greater right of entry powers &ndash; not into homes, we already have right of entry powers in relation to the records etc. about homeworkers and we don&rsquo;t want to be able to enter into someone&rsquo;s home without their permission, but it gives us far greater powers to enter what we describe as sweatshops than apply to most other unions under Australian law - most other unions under Australian law have to give 24 hours&rsquo; notice of entry, and are only able to look at their members&rsquo; records. What this law will do is allow us to not give any notice so we&rsquo;ll be able to go straight into the workplace without giving them any prior notice, and it will also allow us to check all of the workers&rsquo; records, not just the union members.

	How does your union organise homeworkers?

	We&rsquo;ve tried a variety of different methods and are still trying new things all of the time because they are, from our experience, the hardest group of workers to organise. Because of the level of pressure that they&rsquo;re placed under they are very fearful of seeing to be associated with the union, otherwise they lose work. But the method where we&rsquo;ve had some success is that for&nbsp; many years we&rsquo;ve run free English language classes that are targeted to outworkers in their community so in the regions and suburbs that they live in. Those classes deal with English languages and literacy, but also with rights and the role of the union. We also visit workers and try and establish new networks of connecting these workers, often using social occasions as a way of bringing workers together. One of the things that characterises this work is that it is really isolated so we try and find opportunities to bring them together. We do things like a trip to a garden show &ndash; a range of activities where they and their children can come. The other thing we do is employ organisers who have done outwork themselves and also speak the language &ndash; the majority of these workers currently are Vietnamese, so we&rsquo;ve got a strategy of employing Vietnamese organisers in the union that can deal directly with people in their first language and also organisers who have had the experience of doing that sort of work themselves.

	More information on this campaign is available <a href="http://tcfua.org.au/outworkers/union-campaigns">here</a>.

	Since the interview took place the bill has been passed by the Senate and will now be discussed at the House of Representatives.

Interview with Michele O Neil, National Secretary of the Textile, Clothing, Footwear Union Australia

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	In February the Play Fair campaign &ndash; a coalition of trade unions and NGOs including the ITGLWF and the International Trade Union Confederation - published a report highlighting code of conduct abuses in factories producing merchandise for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Play Fair researchers interviewed a range of workers from two factories in China &ndash; one producing pin badges and the second producing stuffed toys of the Olympic mascots.

	The organisers of the London Olympics &ndash; LOCOG &ndash; have a code of conduct which states that &ldquo;To every extent possible work performed must be on the basis of recognised employment relationship established through national law and practice&rdquo; and &ldquo;Obligations to employees under labour or social security laws and regulations arising from the regular employment relationship shall not be avoided through the use of labour-only contracting&hellip;&rdquo;.

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	Despite the strong language in the code, Play Fair&rsquo;s researchers found that workers in one of the factories had no idea of the terms of their contract, and had never been provided with a written contract of employment. Not a single worker interviewed for the research was employed on a permanent contract.

	At a second factory researchers found that core workers were employed on five-year fixed term contracts and that during periods of high orders the factory hired about 300 temporary workers, more than doubling the workforce. These temporary workers were employed on a daily wage and received only 40 CNY rather than the statutory minimum of 50 CNY per day. Temporary workers were not provided with social security payments.

	The full report is available <a href="http://www.play-fair.org/media/wp-content/uploads/play_fair_en_final.pdf">here</a>.

Toying with Workers’ Rights

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	The Global Unions Research Network (GURN) is collating information, links and publications on precarious work and making the information available through its <a href="http://www.gurn.info/en/topics/precarious-work">website</a>.

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	The website has been developed as part of the follow-up to the International Workers&#039; Symposium on Policies and Regulations to Combat Precarious Employment which took place in Geneva from 4 &ndash; 7th October 2011, and will be regularly updated.

Global Unions Research Network web resource on Precarious Work

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