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ICEM&rsquo;s Canadian affiliate the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union has lead the way in donating CA$30,000 to the relief efforts in flood hit Pakistan 
 
The CEP first donated CA$25,000 through its Humanity Fund, with the money going to Oxfam&rsquo;s emergency flood relief. The union followed with a second donation of CA$5,000. 
 
&ldquo;The need continues to be great in Pakistan and CEP members and their families have a proud tradition of helping those in need&rdquo; stated CEP President Dave Coles. 
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CEP President, Dave Coles
The CEP Humanity Fund is a member-supported fund that helps people facing disasters and poverty, promotes decent work and supports equitable development in Canada and around the world. 
 
In addition to the CEP&rsquo;s very generous flood relief contribution, thousands of workers at the Pakistan Steel Mills donated one day&rsquo;s salary to Prime Minister Syed Yousef Raza Gilani Flood Relief Fund. A leader of the Pakistan Steel People&rsquo;s Workers Union presented a check in the amount of Rs 15.5 million (US$180,000) to the Prime Minister in Islamabad. 
 
And workers of Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. donated a flat sum payment of Rs 20 million (US$233,000), plus one day&rsquo;s salary of management staff to the PM&rsquo;s Flood Relief Fund. It also sent large consignments of relief goods to flood-stricken areas. From Turkey, a freight train completely filled with relief goods was sent through a Turkey-Iran-Pakistan rail link in late August.

Canada’s CEP Donates $30,000 to Pakistan Emergency Flood Relief Effort

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A ten-day strike by the ICEM North American affiliate Teamsters Union against a subsidiary of Swiss-based Holcim ended 25-26 August when 130 union members at two branch locals ratified a three-year collective agreement with a 90% vote. 
 
The strike in the US state of Massachusetts was highlighted by Teamsters members from three other local branches blockading some 20 cement plants and terminals in Massachusetts and neighbouring New Hampshire. Those locals have contracts that expire in the future, making the show of support to truck drivers and plant operators of Locals 25 and 170 an exemplary example of solidarity. 
 
The strike and rolling actions came against Aggregate Industries, a wholly-owned Holcim subsidiary in the US and UK. 
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Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 25, Mark Harrington
The Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 25, Mark Harrington, described terms of the new agreement as satisfactory, with the union solidly protecting wages, pensions, and health care coverage, while compromising with American management over some work rules. 
 
&ldquo;The strategy worked,&rdquo; said Harrington. &ldquo;By extending picket lines we were able to impact the company economically.&rdquo; 
 
Harrington himself extended gratitude to Swiss trade union Unia for its intervention in the strike. He said company negotiators made note of that fact &ndash; with some surprise &ndash; at the US federal mediation session on 25 August that produced the settlement. The ICEM also intervened with Holcim during the strike. 
 
Teamsters Locals 42, 633, and another unit of Local 25 that has a different expiration date with Aggregate Industries not only honoured roving pickets at the company&rsquo;s New England operations, but members of those local branches joined the pickets. 
 
Regarding those solidarity actions, the ICEM considers it heroic deeds in defending and winning a new labour agreement because the Holcim subsidiary was readying the hire of replacement workers as its strategy to break the strike.

US Teamsters Union Settles Holcim Cement Strike in US

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Latin America&rsquo;s largest company by market value, Petrobras, was hit hard by a one-day warning strike on 3 September. Eighty percent of ICEM-affiliated Federa&ccedil;&atilde;o &Uacute;nica de dos Petroleiros&rsquo;s (FUP) 35,000 members shut refineries, distribution terminals, offshore platforms and rigs, and administration offices across Brazil last Friday in a stern message to the largely state-owned company that it will not be shortchanged in current negotiations. 
 
In a statement, the FUP umbrella grouping of unions &ndash; by far the largest at Petrobras &ndash; said workers&rsquo; intent was to &ldquo;interrupt the main operations, keeping only the essential activities operating for the maintenance and security of equipment.&rdquo; 
 
The union was angry that Petrobras had granted large bonuses to senior managers while negotiations were in progress, and then suddenly halting talks. 
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Some seven refineries in Brazil stopped producing, as did 30 offshore drilling platforms and countless other facilities. FUP is seeking the Brazilian inflation rate from September 2009 to August 2010, or 5%, and also seeks productivity pay totaling 10% for undertaking training and development programmes. 
 
The union federation also wants guaranteed safeguarding of labour standards and establishment of a national forum as a dialogue platform to discuss structural changes with management over health, safety, and the environment. 
 
The company&rsquo;s response to the warning strike was that it would conduct an &ldquo;open and transparent&rdquo; set of negotiations with workers&rsquo; representatives. 
 
The warning strike came on the same day that Petrobras announced it would conduct a massive stock offering in order to raise US$64.5 billion in capital funds.

FUP Launches Day-Long Warning Strike Against Petrobras

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Australian building materials maker James Hardie Industries lost a tax appeal case in a courtroom on 1 September that likely will inhibit the troubled company&rsquo;s ability to make payments under terms of the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund. Under a mandatory agreement with the state government of New South Wales, Hardie must pay 35% of its annual cash flow to the fund. 
 
A federal court judge ruled last week that James Hardie owes back taxes to the government in the amount of A$357.4 million, plus interest, for dodging taxes in 1998 when it formally moved ownership of US subsidiaries out of Australia. 
 
The 1 September decision by a federal court judge in Australia, upholding a Taxation Office ruling from that 1998 case, means that Hardie will need a fresh infusion of money to meet its liability commitments to victims of asbestos and asbestos-related diseases, according to the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). Lawyers who represent victims also expressed fear that the company will completely default on immediate and future obligations. 
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The AMWU said prior to last week&rsquo;s ruling that if James Hardie were to win the appeal, it would demand that the A$275 million cash windfall due the company go directly to the compensation fund. The AMWU said James Hardie has not made a payment into the fund in 2009-2010, and the bottoming-out of the home-building market inside the global financial crisis seriously jeopardizes the compensation fund. 
 
The AMWU further states that victims&rsquo; claims average A$110 million per year, but that James Hardie has made sufficient profits only once in the past seven years to cover a full year&rsquo;s of liability. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s case involved the company&rsquo;s wholly-owned affiliate RCI Pty. using a tax avoidance scheme, as determined by the Tax Commissioner, for the purpose of the subsidiary gaining a tax benefit. 
 
One Australian press account said last week&rsquo;s verdict &ldquo;cements the reputation of James Hardie&rsquo;s board and management of the 1990s and early 2000s as putting more effort into minimizing liabilities than was good for the company. 
 
&ldquo;James Hardie has been mired in scandal after using legal arguments in 2004 to deny liability to pay asbestos compensation,&rdquo; said the press report. &ldquo;The furor over asbestos, which forced the company to resume responsibility, was prompted by a global restructure in 2001, which built on a 1998 restructure that is at the centre of the tax dispute.&rdquo;

Asbestos: James Hardie’s Failed Tax Appeal Clouds Victims’ Payments

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Bargaining again will be held in efforts to resolve the bitter 13-month strike between United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9508 in Voiseys Bay, Labrador, and Brazilian-based mining company Vale. Two days of talks will open on 19 September in the eastern Canadian province of Labrador/Newfoundland. 
 
Two previous days of negotiations on 19-20 July proved futile, with the company continuing its harsh push to lower the living standards of Canadian miners. Some 230 members of USW Local 9508 have been on picket lines at rich copper, nickel mines and port and processing plants in eastern Canada since 1 August 2009. 
 
The strike now exceeds, by 42 days, the 360-day strike brought on by Vale in its assault against 3,500 USW miners and nickel processing workers in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, which was settled with a compromise on 8 July but not without much bitterness lingering. 
 
In Voiseys Bay and remote Goose Bay, where many of the USW strikers are First Nation people, Vale is boasting that it is at or near full production by using scab replacement workers and contractors. The company displayed abominable social behaviour following public comments made by USW Local 9508 President Darren Cove after the break-down of the July talks. 
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USW Local 9508 President Darren Cove
Cove said Vale was treating Local 9508 members like second-class citizens because Vale refused to offer similar terms that ended the strike by USW Locals 6500 and 6200 in Sudbury and Port Colborne. Vale responded by filing a defamation lawsuit in Canadian courts against Cove for making that statement. 
 
Besides the 230 members of three bargaining units of Local 9508 on strike, 50 workers employed by Ushitou Maintenance have been on strike since 1 June 2010. These workers are also members of Local 9508, and perform electrical, pipefitting, instrumentation, and other functions for Vale at its Voiseys Bay operations. 
 
The ICEM reminds trade unions across the globe that the high-profile Canadian labour dispute with hugely profitable Vale will not be over until justice reaches the courageous Steelworker strikers of Labrador / Newfoundland Province.

Canadian Negotiations to Resume Between Vale, USW in Bitter Voiseys Bay Strike

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Grupo Mexico reacted with violence to a 20 August worker ballot at the Esqueda smelter in Sonora State, where workers voted to end the protection contract with a company union, and re-join Los Mineros Section 207. The Calder&oacute;n government again supplied the police units, who moved into the mine, aggressively intimidating workers. 
 
The police attack occurred on the morning of 31 August, when over 1,000 heavily armed federal and state units occupied the smelter and surrounding area. 
 
The company union was imposed on Esqueda&rsquo;s workers three years ago through the use of firings, threats, and repression. Roheri Cruz Sanchez, leader of Section 207, reports that the company union systematically ignored workers&rsquo; concerns, signed a &lsquo;protection&rsquo; collective agreement without consulting workers, and never even revealed the terms of the collective agreement to workers. 
 
Grupo Mexico has already begun sacking all of the workers involved in resisting the police siege. 
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&ldquo;This blatant act of repression clearly puts Grupo Mexico&rsquo;s anti-union vendetta ahead of the company&rsquo;s interest in having stable labor relations,&rdquo; declared Leo W. Gerard, USW international president. 
 
Following the international outcry over the violent police attack on Cananea&rsquo;s striking miners in February this year, the Calder&oacute;n government and Grupo Mexico&rsquo;s continuation of its brutal repression of workers&rsquo; rights is extremely concerning. 
 
As continuing efforts&nbsp;to free the trapped miners in Northern Chile have received special attention from the country&rsquo;s president Sebastian Pi&ntilde;era, Los Mineros renewed calls for a full governmental inquiry into the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster, 19 February 2006, which killed 65 miners. The decision to reissue the demand for justice for the 65 killed miners was taken by the National Executive Committee of the National Union of Mineworkers, known as Los Mineros, on 24 August. 
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Pasta de Conchos Widow
There has never been a criminal conviction over the Pasta de Conchos disaster, described by Los Mineros General Secretary Napole&oacute;n Gomez as &ldquo;industrial homicide&rdquo;. The parallels between the aftermath of the Chile mine collapse and that of Pasta de Conchos are striking, while national and local government came to the San Esteban Primera mine to support rescue efforts, Mexican presidents Fox and Calder&oacute;n have never appeared at Pasta de Conchos, neither has Germ&aacute;n Larrea CEO of Grupo Mexico. 
 
The most poignant difference in rescue efforts for Los Mineros and the families of the 65 dead miners at Pasta de Conchos, is that at the Chile mine accident the trapped workers were found seventeen days after the collapse of the mine shaft, while rescue efforts were halted after five days in Mexico, when families were only a few metres away from their trapped loved ones. As Grupo Mexico and the Mexican government halted rescue efforts, and disconnected the electricity making any continuation of the search impossible, they made it impossible to carry out a proper investigation into the cause of the mine collapse, believed by many to be illegal safety conditions in the mine. 
 
Sixty-three of the 65 mineworkers killed at Pasta de Conchos are still buried in the mine. Their widows and families have never been properly compensated.

ICEM Condemns Repression of Workers by Mexican Government, Grupo Mexico

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report, among other items, the HIV/AIDS programmes that ICEM affiliates have been implementing, on the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, and on the UNAIDS Outlook Report 2010. 
 
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report, among other items, the HIV/AIDS programmes that ICEM affiliates have been implementing, on the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, and on the UNAIDS Outlook Report 2010. 
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ICEM Affiliates: Implementation of 2010 Programmes in Full Swing 
 
Midterm reports from ICEM affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa show that the implementation of activities through the ICEM HIV/AIDS project, which is sponsored by the solidarity support organisations SASK of Finland and the Dutch FNV Mondiaal, is according to plan. 
 
In C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, workplace activities on awareness and prevention and advocacy for early testing reached 170 workers in three different companies. In Mauritius, initial training of women delegates and workers provided the basis for awareness campaigns at worksites through which, so far, 375 workers have been reached. A locally produced DVD multiplied the effect of these campaigns. Twenty-one women unionists were trained as peer educators in Nigeria. Some 1,450 workers and community members were mobilised in one VCT campaign alone. Affiliates in Tanzania organised two workshops in preparation for a massive VCT campaign in the mining area around Mwasa in August, which is sponsored by the women&rsquo;s structure of the German ICEM affiliate, IGBCE. In Ghana and Uganda training workshops were organised for shop stewards and negotiators on building capacity for bargaining on HIV/AIDS issues. 
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Labour&rsquo;s Role at the International AIDS Conference 
 
Trade unions and the ILO played an important role at the 18th International AIDS Conference (IAC), which was held in Vienna, Austria, in July. Some 25,000 scientists, health professionals, representatives of governments, and AIDS activists met for this Conference which takes place every two years. 
 
During the Labour Forum, organised by the Global Union AIDS Programme (GUAP) and the &Ouml;GB, the Austrian trade union centre, labour&rsquo;s participants were prepared for their different roles and interventions during the Conference. 
 
ILO/AIDS organised a tripartite Workplace Forum during which Jan Eastman, GUAP Chairperson also spoke. The ILO launched the implementation phase of the newly adopted Recommendation concerning HIV and AIDS and the world of work. Numerous other events included trade union speakers and displays gave examples of union HIV/AIDS materials. 
 
Medical advances in treatment have made great progress since the HI virus was discovered almost 30 years ago. Early treatment can effectively reduce the viral load (see also article below). A precondition for this is early testing. 
 
Behaviour change has also contributed to a reduction in new infections. South African Vice President Kgalema Motlanthe underlined that a change of policies has led to a decline in infections. He, like many others, pleaded that world leaders renew their commitment to universal access for HIV/AIDS treatment, especially in view of the fact that funds have fallen flat during the economic recession. 
 
The ICEM was represented at the IAC by Charlotte Nguessan, HIV/AIDS Coordinator for Francophone countries based in Abidjan. 
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UNAIDS: 10 Million Death, 1 Million New Infections Could be averted 
 
The UNAIDS Outlook Report 2010 outlines a radically simplified HIV treatment platform called Treatment 2.0 that could decrease the number of AIDS-related deaths drastically and could also greatly reduce the number of new HIV infections. 
 
Treatment 2.0 is a new approach to simplify the way HIV treatment is currently provided and to scale up access to life saving medicines. Using a combination of efforts it could bring down treatment costs, make treatment regimens simpler and smarter, reduce the burden on health systems, and improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and their families. Modelling suggests that compared with current treatment approaches, Treatment 2.0 could avert an additional ten million deaths by 2025. 
 
In addition, the new approach could also reduce new HIV infections by up to one million annually if countries provide antiretroviral therapy to all people in need, following revised WHO treatment guidelines. Today, only five million of the 15 million people in need are accessing these life-saving medicines. 
 
A supplement to the report also shows that young people are leading the HIV prevention revolution. HIV prevalence among young people has declined by more than 25% in 15 of the 25 countries most affected by AIDS. In eight countries&mdash;C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe&mdash;significant HIV prevalence declines have been accompanied by positive changes in sexual behaviour among young people. 
 
For example, in Kenya there was a 60% decline in HIV prevalence between 2000 and 2005. HIV prevalence dropped from 14.2% to 5.4% in urban areas and from 9.2% to 3.6% in rural areas in the same period. Similarly in Ethiopia, there was a 47% reduction in HIV prevalence among pregnant young women in urban areas and a 29% change in rural areas. 
 
The report was launched in Geneva ahead of the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna. It is available on the UNAIDS website <a href="http://www.unaids.org">www.unaids.org</a>. 
 
(Sources: UNAIDS Press Statement, Geneva, 13 July) 
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Knowing Your HIV Status through Workplace Initiative 
 
A Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) Centre opened at the Primary Health Clinic at Jikwoy in Abuja, Nigeria, on 5 July 2010 under the Building Workplace Capacity to Combat HIV/AIDS in Nigeria Project, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The new Clinic will cater to the needs of workers willing to know their HIV/AIDS status in the area and is part of the Project launched in July 2009 by the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) in partnership with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). 
 
The workplace initiative in Nigeria implemented by TUC Aid is designed to contribute to a reduction in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, better protection and promotion of employment and human rights of workers infected with or affected by HIV and AIDS, and to the elimination of stigma and discrimination against them. Six affiliates of the NLC in the Education and Health Sectors are taking part in it. It is hoped that the establishment of the VCT Centre will enable workers and their families to know their status and seek counselling, treatment, and care at an early stage. 
 
In many parts of the world, trade unions combating HIV/AIDS through workplace action have played a decisive role in overcoming the initial reluctance of workers to come forward for testing. The current VCT initiative in Abuja follows the successful completion of a pilot project in 2009 funded by TUC Aid in the Ashanti Region, Ghana, in collaboration with the Timber and Woodworkers' Union (TWU). 
 
(Source: TUC Briefing Document issued 12 July)
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Glaxo, Pfizer Joint Venture Opens HIV Pipeline to Generic Companies 
 
ViiV Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer's joint venture company for AIDS drugs, is opening its entire product line-up to generic drug makers working in the world's poorest countries. 
 
The announcement, on the eve of the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, means generic companies will be able to obtain royalty-free voluntary licences for all current ViiV products, as well as products still in development. 
 
The move would help drive down the cost of second-line treatments for HIV, which will be needed increasingly as more people in poor countries develop resistance to cheaper first-line drugs. 
 
The ViiV offer is open to 69 countries, including all least-developed countries, all low-income countries and the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. ViiV, which was launched last November, pools the two drug makers' HIV/AIDS businesses into a new company, owned 85% by Glaxo and 15% by Pfizer. 
 
(Sources: Reuters, 16 July as reported in Pambazuka News 490) 
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South Africa: Counsellors to Give &lsquo;The Prick&rsquo; 
 
Lay counsellors in South Africa can now legally perform HIV tests, but delays in paying them and shortages of test kits are threatening a national campaign to scale up voluntary HIV testing and counselling (VCT). 
 
Before new regulations came into effect in May 2010, only nurses were allowed to administer finger-prick HIV tests, but AIDS activists had long argued that this not only added to an already heavy work load and could also hamstring the VCT campaign aiming to test 15 million South Africans by 2011. 
 
South Africa's public health system is struggling to cope with one of the world's worst HIV epidemics, as well as a shortage of doctors and nurses. The South African Nursing Council estimates that the country has about one registered nurse for every 440 patients. 
 
South Africa's new legislation requires counsellors to undergo three hours of training before being added to a database of healthcare providers allowed to perform &quot;the prick&quot;. 
 
Malawi and Zambia, faced with even worse health worker shortages, have put HIV testing in the hands of trained lay counsellors, a strategy known as &quot;task-shifting.&quot; 
 
(Source: IRIN PlusNews, Johannesburg, 9 July) 
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Global Fund: OIG Identifies Shortcomings in Rounds-Based Grant Application Process 
 
The Global Fund's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a wide-ranging, 107-page audit report in April 2010, &quot;The OIG Review of the Global Fund Grant Application Process.&quot; 
 
The report made six key observations: 1. The way that calls for proposals in the rounds-based channel are structured is inconsistent with the Global Fund principle of supporting country-driven programmes; 2. While a good proposal may be fitted into the Global Fund's proposal form, it is by no means clear that a proposal would be significantly shaped and improved by following the form; 3. There is little scope for the Board to provide assurance on the financial soundness of proposals; 4. After seven years of activity, the Global Fund's relationship with its partners remains poorly defined and even, in some ways, uncomfortable; 5. The present obscurity of the deliberations of the Technical Review Panel (TRP) represents something of a contrast to the rest of the Global Fund's business model; and 6. The current grant application process impairs the ability of the Global Fund Board to set policy and strategy. 
 
The report further comments on the high rejection rate of proposals; the lack of Global Fund presence in-country; the limitations of the screening process; the timing of principal recipient assessments; and the lack of investment in forging and maintaining more effective relations with partners as well as the roles of the Fund's Country Programs staff and the TRP. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 127 of 24 June. 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>) 
<img alt="" src="" width="40" height="40" />
Not the Universal Access We Are Campaigning For 
 
Authorities in the Arusha region of Tanzania are investigating the case of a hospital which is alleged to distribute expired medicines to HIV patients. Apparently the anti-retroviral drugs at the faith-based hospital were imported as donations not going through the Medical Supplies Department of the Tanzanian government. 
 
One of the patients who were given expired antiretroviral drugs has started suffering contraindicative complications including rashes, blisters, and periodical fever. There is fear that the expired drugs could be harmful to other patients in the region without them knowing, and officials suspect that other private hospitals could be still issuing them. 
 
The ARVs had an expiry date of December 2009 and were still given out in the first half of 2010. 
 
(Source: Daily News, Dar Es Salaam, 8 July) 
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News from Global Unions 
 
The International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF &ndash; <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) reports in its latest HIV/AIDS update No. 90 of 15 July on its HIV/AIDS work with civil aviation workers in Ecuador. It also gives a preview of HIV/AIDS workshops to be held at the ITF Congress in Mexico City in August. 
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This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter &ndash; How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put &ldquo;subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin&rdquo; in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin No. 59/60, August/September 2010

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The ICEM affiliate, Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (EL-SEN), conducted its General Assembly on 10 July 2010. The assembly was convened under the banner of anti-privatisation in the capital city Nicosia in central Cyprus. 
 
President Tuluy Kalyoncu was re-elected to continue as head of the trade union, with 171 votes, while a second candidate received 24 votes. 
 
The only candidate for General Secretary of EL-SEN, Huseyin Sonmezoglu, was re-elected to that position. The newly elected Executive Board will consist of Turgut Evlat, Ozan Alciner, Subhi Ozpasa, Ercan Koseoglu, Orhan Gurgoze, Ozgur Uzuner, Caglayan Cesurer, Toprak Altay, and Kamil Ozinal. 
<img height="159" src="" width="320" alt="" />
Bulent Erzeybek was elected as Assistant Secretary General, while Suphi Ozpasa was elected Financial Secretary, Ercan Koseoglu Education Secretary, Saffet Asiksoy Foreign Relations Secretary, Huseyin Korkmaz Organizing Secretary, Ozgur Uzuner Social Affairs Secretary, and Serhan Kayar was elected as Secretary of Propaganda. 
 
The General Assembly adopted four resolutions. Delegates resolved to struggle for peace and a solution to the Cyprus problem. Also prioritised was the need to continue education programmes for members. 
 
Delegates adopted a strong resolution against the government&rsquo;s moves toward privatisation of the Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus (KIB-TEK). Congress accused the government of misleading the public on the financial condition of the company. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda wrote to congratulate EL-SEN on its successful Congress.

Turkish-Cypriot Electricity Workers’ Take Stand Against Privatisation

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The ICEM-affiliated Mongolian union, the Federation of Energy, Geology and Mining Workers' Trade Unions (MEGM), hosted ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jung-sun recently. 
 
Warda commended accelerated development in Mongolia over recent years, noting significantly improved infrastructure in the country. It is positive for the country that foreign investment has increased rapidly, and resource-rich Mongolia can benefit from such investment through exploration and development of gold mines and construction of power plants. Major investors are from Canada, China, and the US. 
 
MEGM President Gambold indicated that union members are facing new challenges through this period of foreign investment. Government and employers are attempting to change current labour laws toward creating a more &ldquo;flexible&rdquo; labour market in order to &ldquo;adapt to the global economy.&rdquo; 
<img src="" width="180" height="79" alt="" />
This means fewer restrictions on temporary work agencies, increasing the numbers of precarious jobs in the country. This is being countered by trade unions of Mongolia, which have created a new working group that will submit a counter proposal to the proposed legislation. 
 
The government is introducing a programme of privatisation of state-owned enterprises in the telecommunication and energy sectors. A number of major investment contracts with foreign companies are due to be signed during the second half of 2010. 
 
The ICEM, working with the local ILO office, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and other Global Union Federations, will be supplying technical assistance for these critical issues to be addressed, so as to build a firm foundation for sustainable development in Mongolia, in line with ILO international labour standards. 
 
The experiences in many Asian countries, notably Korea and Vietnam, on business contracts with foreign companies are that these foreign companies often demand long-term contracts that are unacceptable with respect to labour protections and profit sharing. 
 
&ldquo;It is my sincere hope and firm belief that Mongolian government should listen to opinions of social partners. Through social dialogue and consensus, the government can build the confidence and mutual faith,&rdquo; stated Warda.

ICEM Shores Up Support to Mongolian Affiliate to Combat Privatisation, Contract Labour

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Thailand&rsquo;s Tripartite Industrial Relations Committee (IRC) ruled that French-based Michelin has violated provisions of the Industrial Relations Act 1975, and ordered that management at the Laem Chabang tyre factory reinstate 12 activists &ndash; members of ICEM-affiliated Petroleum and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Federation (PCFT) &ndash; to their rightful jobs. 
 
The ruling was given on 24 June, but notification and official documentation of the unfair labour practices complaint did not come to the PCFT until 20 July. The12 had been unfairly discriminated against by Michelin since leading a two-month dispute and company lockout at the plant in March and April 2009. 
 
The 12 had been kept on Michelin&rsquo;s payroll, but were assigned to a government-run skills centre in efforts to keep them away from the 1,800-member workforce. They refused the assignments, citing violations of their rights. 
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="181" />
Standing, center, Michelin plant-level PCFT President Thanakorn Somsin (fist raised) and Secretary Sommoi Prawai (on his left), together with founders of the PCFT branch union 
The IRC ruling orders Michelin to provide work inside the factory to the 12 in positions not lower than their previous postings, and to do so within ten days. 
 
The dispute started when Michelin, in March 2009, attempted to institute 35% wage cut to everyone at the Chonburi Province plant. A petition surfaced protesting the unilateral cuts and managers then punished workers who refused to remove their names from the petition by locking them out of the factory. After unionists blockaded the plant, some were jailed, while Michelin supervisors filed criminal complaints against the union organisers. 
 
Even though tri-partite negotiations produced a partial resolve on 28 April, including recognition of the newly-formed plant union as part of PCFT, Michelin continued to discriminate against union leaders. The recent IRC ruling means that all union activists should be legally reinstated. 
 
Some 700 workers at Laem Chabang have taken up PCFT membership. Michelin has a 90% stake in three Thai tyre plants, the PCFT-represented Phra Padaeng factory in Samut Prakarn, the non-unionised Nong Khae plant in Sarburi, and Laem Chabang. The Siam Cement Group owns the minority shares in the three tyre plants.

Thai Labour Court Orders 12 Michelin Union Activists Back to Work

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