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On 19 November 2010, a massive methane gas blast inside Pike River Coal Ltd.&rsquo;s New Zealand colliery killed 29 miners, including 11 members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and 13 contract workers. In the 15 weeks since, the government of Prime Minister John Keys has let down the victims&rsquo; families on the recovery of bodies, and now has barred the EPMU from federal funds for legal representation in the follow up investigation. 
 
On 14 February, the Key government announced legal cost assistance for the EPMU to the Royal Commission of Inquiry&rsquo;s investigation was denied. 
 
Attorney General Chris Finlayson called the union an &ldquo;advocacy organisation&rdquo; and said there should be no extra help extended to the EPMU in &ldquo;doing its job for its members.&rdquo; The government will pay the legal costs for families of victims and for all contractors in the commission&rsquo;s inquiry, which is expected to begin late this year with a report out no later than March 2012. 
 
&ldquo;The EPMU has a material stake in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River coal mine disaster,&rdquo; said National Secretary Andrew Little, adding that any one of the 65 EPMU members in the 120-member staff of Pike River Coal Ltd. could have been a victim. 
 
&ldquo;The government has overlooked the union&rsquo;s legitimate interest in all of this,&rdquo; said Little. 
 
A month before this mid-February decision, the Key government lowered the boom on families of the 29 miners by sealing the South Island mine, announcing a recovery plan had failed, and stating there was no credible way to retrieve the 29 bodies. 
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Families&rsquo; spokesman Bernie Monk
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bloody sad day for New Zealand,&rdquo; said families&rsquo; spokesman Bernie Monk on 14 January. Monk&rsquo;s 23-year-old son Michael died inside the mine. &ldquo;They have not come to the families at all. How the hell are we going to get the truth if they don&rsquo;t go in?&rdquo; 
 
Key said in a press report that he made no promises to family members that remains of victims would be recovered. 
 
On 27 January, a chief coroner&rsquo;s inquest said all 29 likely died within minutes of the first blast on 19 November. On 24 November, a second major blast rocked the horizontal mine shafts and then two more explosions occurred in the days following. 
 
A major issue in all investigations is sure to be location of large ventilation fans inside the mine, an unusual location in coal mining where methane gas is prevalent. Initial reports state that an electrical outage shut two large ventilation fans inside the mine. The coroner&rsquo;s inquest said an electrician, Russell Smith, ventured into the mine to check on the outage and simultaneously, at 15h44 on 19 November, a 50-second explosion occurred. Some 600 metres in the mine, Smith came upon 24-year-old Daniel Rockhouse, an equipment operator who had been thrown from his machine. 
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NZ Congress of Trade Unions President Helen Kelly with Ian Murray and Tim Whyte, CFMEU Australia, at Pike River Memorial Service
The two managed to escape 108 metres up a ladder inside a ventilation shaft, exiting the mine at 17h26. The coroner&rsquo;s inquest grants death certificates to the families. But their bodies remain locked inside the Pike River mine. 
 
In a twist of fate last week, the trustee for the Pike River Disaster Relief Trust, Greymouth Mayor Tony Kokshoorn, urged donors to shift their contributions to Kiwi earthquake relief efforts. The mine trust has received over 20,000 contributions totaling NZ$7 million. 
 
Some donations, Kokshoorn said, were earmarked for specific purposes, while NZ$6.5 million is targeted to provide financial help to families of the 29. He said the fund would begin transferring funds into individual family trusts, with a priority to place funds in trust deeds of dependents of the victims.

Aftermath of NZ’s Pike River Mine Tragedy Turns Ugly

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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jungsun reached out last week to New Zealand trade union affiliates in the immediate aftermath of the 22 February earthquake. The 6.3 magnitude quake has claimed the lives of 147 people, with another 200 persons missing and feared dead. 
 
National Distribution Union (NDU) General Secretary Robert Reid said the building his union&rsquo;s offices are housed and NDU partly owns, the Christchurch Trade Union Centre on Armagh Street, was badly damaged from the quake. Return to work there is uncertain. The NDU&rsquo;s Christchurch offices are on the fourth floor of the labour building. 
 
&ldquo;All NDU staff and we think all our members in Christchurch are OK, although many have damage to their homes,&rdquo; he added. 
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NDU General Secretary Robert Reid
National Secretary Andrew Little of the Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said, &ldquo;EPMU personnel are unscathed but we are still ascertaining the impact on our members and their workplaces.&rdquo; 
 
Little said Christchurch, New Zealand&rsquo;s second largest city, suffered &ldquo;a lot of destruction and it will take a long time for the city to recover.&rdquo; He added: &ldquo;The shake was a very violent one.&rdquo; 
 
Some 600 search and rescue teams are at work in Christchurch and the estimated damages range from NZ$4 billion (US$3 billion) to NZ$16 billion (US$12 billion.) 
 
The 22 February earthquake is the second in less than six months in New Zealand. In September, a 7.1 quake hit some 40 kilometres from Christchurch, but caused less damage because it occurred in a less populated and rural area. Several Kiwi cities sit atop a series of faults connected to Alpine Fault, a subterranean mass where the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates slide across one another.

NDU Christchurch Offices Damaged in New Zealand Earthquake

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The 55th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women is running in New York City at UN headquarters. The annual Commissions runs from 22 February to 4 March and some 2,000 delegates from 27 nations are in attendance. On opening day, they heard former Chile President and current UN Under-Secretary General for Women Michele Bachelet. 
 
Nearly 200 trade union women are participating in the annual conference, which this year has as its theme access and participation for girls and women in education, training, science, and technology. 
 
The trade union women, behind their union banners and in step with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Education International (EI), and Public Services International (PSI), also used opening day to join New York area trade unionists at Fox News broadcast offices in Manhattan to protest legislative attacks on public-sector collective bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin. &ldquo;We are Wisconsin&rdquo; was the unified chant protesters shouted at America&rsquo;s right-wing mouthpiece. 
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Michele Bachelet
Inside the 55th UN Women&rsquo;s Commission, trade union women called for full rights and protections for domestic workers by adoption of a Domestic Workers&rsquo; Convention. The Convention is to be considered at this June&rsquo;s 100th Labour Conference of the ILO. EI Deputy General Secretary Jan Eastman delivered a statement on the subject in a plenary calling for &ldquo;full opportunities for education and training for girls and women &hellip; leading to productive employment and decent work.&rdquo; 
 
This year&rsquo;s Commission on the Status of Women sees the merger of four UN gender institutions into one, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Women&rsquo;s Empowerment. Bachelet said in her opening remarks this &ldquo;has a unique and clear mandate to help ensure a seamless relationship&rdquo; between Member States and UN activities on overcoming gender imbalances. 
 
Bachelet warned not to postpone actions for women&rsquo;s empowerment on account of the global jobs crisis, stating that progress to date has been &ldquo;uneven and fragile.&rdquo;
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Canadian Trade Unionists Surround Rona Ambrose 
 
photo: CAW Women&rsquo;s Programs, Canada
Bachelet said: &ldquo;As we sit in this room today, there are still too many women and children being trafficked; too many domestic workers who left their families to live in new places, unprotected by labour laws or policies; too many girls forced to leave school or marry too early; too many women and girls who lack access to services. And worldwide,&rdquo; she added, &ldquo;there are too few women who are at decision-making tables where peace, trade or climate change agreements are being negotiated.&rdquo; 
 
Canadian trade union women attending the Commission got a chance to question Rona Ambrose, Canada&rsquo;s Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women. She spoke at the Commission on 24 February. The union representatives questioned Canada over lack of action and lack of outrage over 800 Canadian women being killed by men, on lax gun registry laws that perpetuate violence, and Canada&rsquo;s misuse of federal funds for programmes and work on missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

UN Commission on Status of Women Underway in New York City

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Turkish union leaders and militants of the Thrace region convened in early February for solidarity and support in a number of cases of industrial discord occurring in the rapidly-growing manufacturing zone. Five affiliates of the ICEM, the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) met and organized a demonstration at the Free Trade Zone of Corlu. 
 
The protest was in support of a two-month strike by ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş and dismissal of trade unionists by India-base Polyplex company, a plastics and polyester company. (The ICEM has launched a LabourStart campaign on this dispute; please join the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=868">protest</a> now.)&nbsp; 
 
The demonstration also centered on other trade union infringements, particularly at worksites where organising is underway, and as well on the Turkish government&rsquo;s recent efforts to modify labour legislation regarding casual, temporary, and precarious work. Thrace is an area of Turkey experiencing a high of foreign industrial investments, ranging from metals to textiles to natural gas, chemicals, and rubber development. 
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Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın (center) Speaks at Joint Demonstration
Attended the formation of this regional coalition of trade unions were union Petrol-İş President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın, Birleşik Metal-İş President Adnan Serdaroğlu, TEKSTIL President President Ridvan Budak, a member of the ITGLWF, Deri-İş President Musa Servi, also of the ITGLWF, representing leather and shoe workers, and the President of ICEM-affiliated Kristal-İş, Bilal &Ccedil;etintaş, the Glass Workers&rsquo; Union of Turkey. These leaders were also accompanied by local branch union leaders of several unions, political party representatives, and NGO representatives. 
 
The five unions cited above pledge to support each other in the Thrace region in ongoing strikes and recruitment drives. 
 
Nearby to Corlu, 12 factories have been targeted for union organizing, but many union activists have been dismissed from their jobs because of their union membership. Besides Polyplex (a prior <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4212-Organising-Campaigns-of-Petrol-İş-of-Turkey-continue-but-with-Pain-">ICEM report</a> can be found here), factories of Yeşil Kundura (shoes), Disa Otomotiv (an auto supplier), Anakonda (metal fabrication), Astaş Al&uuml;minyum (aluminum), and Grup Suni Deri (leather) have been targeted for unionisation, and evidence of that can be found with several tents of picketers to be found in front of the plants. In some workplaces, achievements have been made while solidarity and support activities continue, as does several court cases. 
 
&ldquo;For many days we have been striking at workplaces individually,&rdquo; said Petrol-İş President &Ouml;ztaşkın. &ldquo;But today all the unions striking in the regional come together. We have unified our powers. We have decided to walk together and to organize joint demonstrations and actions. Our hope is that this bond now starting in Thrace will spread to the whole of the country.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Regardless of distinction or which confederation the union belongs,&rdquo; added Birleşik Metal-İş President Serdaroğlu, &ldquo;we will defend the rights of dismissed workers.&rdquo; 
 
Musa Servi, President of the ITGLWF affiliate Deri-İş, said, &ldquo;Employers will try to exploit by establishing factories in free trade zones where union rights are weak. If we act together, we can change this.&rdquo; 
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ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan Addresses TEKSIF Congress
To cement this bond between ICEM in its sectors, and metals and textiles, ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan spoke at the 18th Congress of the Turkish Textile, Knitting, and Clothing Industry Workers&rsquo; Union (TEKSIF), an ITGLWF affiliate, on 19-20 February 2011 in Ankara. 
 
The Congress was attended and addressed by the President of ITGLWF, Hisanobu Shimada, and one agenda item was to conduct an intensive organizing campaign in textiles and related industries where over two million Turkish workers are employed. The campaign will also include a large support and solidarity with Turkish and international unions. 
 
In his letter of congratulations addressed to Nazmi Irgat, unanimously re-elected President of TEKSIF, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said: &ldquo;We are thankful for active support of the Turkish unions to the work toward creating a joint manufacturing and energy workers&rsquo; international. We know Turkish affiliates affiliated to all three organisations will play an effective role and take important responsibilities through support and solidarity.&rdquo;

Turkish Coalition of ICEM, IMF, ITGLWF Unions Forms in Thrace

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A dispute has arisen in South Africa between ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Xstrata Coal over the apparent discharge of 12 HIV-positive miners. The miners were first sacked last fall from their jobs at the Tweefontein collieries in Mpumalanga province, but the NUM interceded on their behalf before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) and won reinstatement to their jobs. 
 
But in mid-February, Xstrata Coal South Africa informed the NUM that it would re-sack the 12 and appeal the CCMA&rsquo;s decision to a labour court. At issue is whether or not Xstrata knew of their HIV status through a joint NUM-Xstrata Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCR) programme that is strictly confidential. Hundreds of Tweefontein miners were tested through the programme in October and November 2010. 
 
It is uncertain if Xstrata Coal gained access to results of the screenings, but the NUM alleges that the company does know the results. A private service provider was contracted to do the screenings and results are supposed to be shared only with the individual.
<img alt="" src="" width="225" height="169" />
Left: NUM Regional Secretary Paris Mashego
NUM Highveld Regional Secretary Paris Mashego accused the company of dragging backward the campaign to test for the pandemic and said the NUM will continue to press for the real motive behind Xstrata&rsquo;s reversal. Late this week, NUM delegates and shop stewards from many Xstrata worksites will descend on the company&rsquo;s Johannesburg headquarters to manifest against the injustice. 
 
&ldquo;What we experience here with Xstrata is the same thing our Australian comrades of the CFMEU experience with the company,&rdquo; said Mashego. &ldquo;They cannot accept official rulings and must always appeal their losses in order to get their way. Only in this case, there is something fundamentally wrong, the anonymity and confidentially of HIV-positive workers.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="70" height="100" />
The National Education, Health, and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (NEHAWU) of South Africa also responded negatively to Xstrata Coal&rsquo;s alleged actions. &ldquo;This ghastly and barbaric behaviour by a company is a clear sign of how some big companies are failing to abide by the ILO or the OECD Codes of Conduct by violating workers&rsquo; rights and working conditions. 
 
&ldquo;This alleged discrimination against workers who are HIV-positive is a huge blow to the government&rsquo;s fight against AIDS,&rdquo; stated a NEHAWU spokesman, &ldquo;because it sends a message to those who have the disease that they will lose their jobs if they come out.&rdquo; 
 
Xstrata Coal South Africa, 20% owned by African Rainbow Minerals Ltd., operates 11 coal mines in South Africa, and is currently developing three new projects &ndash; the Arthur Taylor Colliery Opencast Mine (ATCOM) East development, the Goedgevond coal project, and optimisation of the Zonnebloem project, all in Mpumalanga province. Together with the Tweefontein optimisation project now nearing completion, the projects will eventually produce 90% of the company&rsquo;s South African coal output.

Xstrata Coal South Africa Accused of Sacking HIV-Positive Miners

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In France, European paper and packaging giant SmurfitKappa was made to move up on a 2011 wage offer for 2,500 corrugated packaging workers following a day-long strike on 23 February. The French paperworkers are employed at 18 SmurfitKappa paper plants and French union CGT-FILPAC staged successful strikes at all 18 that increased 2011 earnings. 
 
The agreement calls for a 2.35% wage increase spread across 2011. SmurfitKappa had offered only 1.4% prior to the strike, with half of that &ndash; 0.7% -- first due on 1 April. CGT-FILPAC won a one percent on 1 March, with the remainder due sooner this year than the company&rsquo;s now discarded proposal dates. 
 
The union also won an added increase for lower-salaried workers, effective 1 October 2011, and posted an increase in holiday pay as well. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s industrial action was the second within a month in the French paper sector over what constitutes a fair 2011 pay increase. Some 400 UPM paperworkers at the Chapelle Darblay newsprint mill had been staging twice-weekly two-hour strikes across all three work shifts to get the Finland-based company to meet French cost-of-living demands. 
 
And to illustrate the deadly risks inside the paper sector, also in France, in late January a contract worker was killed at Emin Leyder&rsquo;s paperboard mill in Nogent-sur-Seine, Aube, when a gas explosion occurred inside a pulp tower. The 47-year-old contractor was working on the roof of a pulping tower with another worker and was blown off the roof by the blast. The 300,000 tonne-per-year corrugated medium and linerboard mill is the smaller of Emin Leyder&rsquo;s two French mills, owned by the holding company FINEL SA.

24-Hour Paper Strike Gives Accord to CGT-FILPAC, SmurfitKappa

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US state of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wasted no time starting a major union-busting effort. Just a month into office, Walker is using budget deficit hysteria as excuse to eliminate public-sector unions by eliminating their right to bargain&nbsp;collectively over wages and benefits. 
 
The firestorm of legitimate protests that has overtaken Madison, the state capital of Wisconsin, has spread to other states, where different legislative measures have surfaced by ultraconservative lawmakers that would unequivocally, and overnight, turn the clock back in America by 80 years. 
 
(The ICEM&rsquo;s North America Region entered the protests in Madison last week by sending representatives from both Canada and the US to the state, and issued a terse letter to Walker. The letter by ICEM Regional Vice Presidents Ken Neumann and Dave Coles states that Walker has &ldquo;drawn an ideological, anti-labour and undemocratic line in the sand.&rdquo; The full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Letter%20to%20Gov%20Walker.pdf ">ICEM North American letter</a> can be viewed here.) 
<img alt="" src="" width="93" height="128" />
In Madison, and indeed, throughout the US and in many places in the world, resistance to Walker&rsquo;s numerous and draconian public spending cuts has drawn an ideological line in the sand. In the early morning hours of 25 February, Republicans who control the Assembly, Wisconsin&rsquo;s lower legislative chamber, used tomfoolery to pass the cuts. 
 
The regressive measures would have already been signed into law by Walker&rsquo;s pen had it not for Wisconsin Democrats in the state Senate. Republicans hold a 19-14 in that chamber, but need 20 senators present to take legislative action. All 14 Democrats have left the state in order to prevent a quorum. 
 
The proposed cuts are far more than just the elimination of public-sector bargaining. The 144-page bill contains sweeping cuts to health care for low-income families, it would reduce by US$976 million over the next two years state aid to local units of education, and it would allow the governor to unilaterally privatise any state public utility without soliciting bids and without Public Service Commission consent. And in just one further insult to public employees, the proposed legislation mandates a 5% cut in salaries with that savings going to public-sector pension funds. 
 
The battle in Wisconsin has become a vanguard against right-wing extremism in the US. But why should it matter to the rest of the world? Considering the US is still the world's largest economy, here are five things to understand about the Wisconsin struggle. 
 
1. It is not really about deficits or austerity measures; this is an excuse. Wisconsin was on track for a modest budget surplus of US$120 million this year. However, by taking a worst-case estimate of some real and potential shortfalls in Medicaid, legal aid, prisons, and debts owed to other states, Walker creates the appearance of a US$137 million shortfall. 
 
To put Walker&rsquo;s budget deficit fabrications into perspective, the American film documentary producer Robert Greenwald points out that withdrawing just 151 US troops from Iraq would save more money than Walker&rsquo;s trumped-up deficit. Demanding that wealthy individuals and corporations pay a reasonable share of the tax burden would also solve the problem. The earnings of just the top 13 US hedge-fund managers (about US$1 billion each), if taxed as ordinary income instead of capital gains, a US tax loophole, would provide enough new revenue to hire 68,000 teachers. 
 
2. It is not about union intransigence. Public sector unions in Wisconsin have agreed to cuts in wages and benefits. However, they will not agree to permanent removal of their right to negotiate future wages and benefits. That is what Walker is demanding. 
<img alt="" src="" width="291" height="218" />
3. Public sector workers are not the cause of Wisconsin's problems. However, public sector workers are the last major segment of the US workforce with significant rates of unionization. Resistance in Wisconsin is resistance to a new demagoguery inside the US to destroy public sector unions as the final bastion unionisation strength in America. Wisconsin and Walker and the conservative business-led foundations pressing this assault clearly are using the Midwest state as a test case. A defeat in Wisconsin will mean sweeping attacks on unions elsewhere in the US. 
 
4. To accomplish this, well-funded business organisations and right-wing media outlets have incessantly worked the American mainstream against public sector workers. Their ploy is to direct private-sector worker resentment on the things that they do not have, or have been taken from them like adequate pensions and benefits, towards public-sector workers who still have them. To divide and conquer, and distract from the rich who have sucked up nearly all of America&rsquo;s wealth, is the name of the game here. 
 
5. Most poignantly, the battle in Wisconsin is about the national political credibility of the US union movement. There are many politicians who do not believe that it is worth their while to pay any attention to union demands. A loss in Wisconsin would cement the view that unions are too weak to matter. 
 
Pure and simple, what is now happening in Wisconsin is nothing less than a class war. 
 
The ICEM is adamant that Governor Walker in Wisconsin must be stopped. A <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/8.ICEM.IMF.Wisconsin.21Feb.pdf">joint letter from the ICEM and International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF)</a> is here. Write letters of protest to <a href="mailto:govgeneral@wisconsin.gov">govgeneral@wisconsin.gov</a>, for fax to: +1 608 267 8983. And please copy ICEM when you do at <a href="mailto:info@icem.org">info@icem.org</a>.

Five Things to Know About Protests in US State Wisconsin

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ICEM&rsquo;s two mine union affiliates in Ukraine played crucial roles in the ratification 15 February of ILO Convention 176 by the country&rsquo;s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. <a href="/en/209-ILO ">Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention</a>, is a major priority for the ICEM. 
 
Ukraine became the 25th country to ratify Convention 176 since 1995 and that was due mainly to the efforts of the Coal Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine (PRUPU) and the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine. Leaders of both unions, Victor Turmanov and Mikhail Volynets, are members of the Rada. 
<img alt="" src="" width="115" height="115" />
PRUPU's Victor Turmanov
Turmanov said the effort began in earnest in 2008 when the unions and Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU) Chairman Vasyl Khara began meeting with federal coal industry officials, as well as with managing directors of mining enterprises. Khara was chairman of the Donetsk Region Council of Trade Unions. He is also an MP. 
 
A major barrier was broken when senior leaders of the Donetsk region&rsquo;s coal to electric energy company, DTEK, agreed to support ratification, after Coal Industry Minister Viktor Poltavets &ndash;a one-time mining engineer at Sverdlov Anthracite &ndash; agreed to the global Convention. 
 
&ldquo;We took an important step in ratification because it will provide a more holistic approach to mine health and safety in Ukraine,&rdquo; said Turmanov. &ldquo;This will strengthen protection for miners, toughen the responsibilities placed on employers, and finally place national precedence on mine safety issues.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="133" />
Mikhail Volynets, Independent Trade Union of Miners
Volynets said most Ukrainian mines have antiquated equipment and use old technologies, and he said implementation of Article 7 of Convention 176 will be important in Ukraine. Article 7&rsquo;s nine provisions refer to an employer&rsquo;s responsibility to minimize all risks in mining, including such standards that two exits of separate egress must come from underground mines. 
 
Volynets said Ukraine&rsquo;s coal mining industry is the world&rsquo;s second most hazardous behind China, and Ukraine is home to thousands of illegal mines. &ldquo;It is critically important for Ukrainian unions, with ICEM support, to address the issue of illegal mines in ILO committees,&rdquo; said Volynets. 
 
&ldquo;But, in fact, every mine whether state-owned or private has its own violations or infractions of safe mining and that should get solved in implementing Convention 176 here.&rdquo; 
 
Convention 176 will take full effect in 12 months in Ukraine, with the expectation that the country&rsquo;s national laws on mine safety will get updated to comply with global standards. 
 
The Convention spells out responsibilities for government, employers, and workers and their trade unions, and specifically gives miners the right to report hazards, dangerous conditions and accidents, as well as the right to refuse unsafe work. 
 
For employers, Convention 176 places responsibility on them to not only remove workplace hazards, but remove the causes of those hazards. The Convention also mandates that employers provide adequate safety training programmes to workers and ensure a regular routine of occupational health surveillance of miners. 
 
Of vital importance, the Convention gives workers and their trade unions participation in inspections and accident investigations, and allows workers to select their own safety and health representatives in full partnership with employers and governmental regulatory bodies. 
 
Ukraine is the first major mining country to ratify Convention 176 since Peru ratified it in June 2007.

Ukrainian Mine Unions Ratify ILO Convention 176 on Mine Safety

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The second meeting of the Latin American Trade Union Network of Dutch multinational Akzo Nobel was held on from 7-9 December 2010 in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil. The meeting was jointly organized by the project called CUTMulti, CUT`s International Relations Secretariat, and ICEM&rsquo;s Dutch trade union affiliate, FNV Bondgenoten. 
 
The meeting was attended by trade union representatives from Brazil, the Netherlands, US, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia, together with representatives from the Brazilian national labour centre CUT, ICEM, and Brazil&rsquo;s Social Observatory Institute. 
 
At the opening session, the general coordinator of ICEM affiliate CNQ/CUT &ndash; the National Workers Confederation of the Chemical Sector &ndash; Antenor Nakamura (Kazu) congratulated the initiative to expand the committee, and highlighted the importance of trade union networking in the chemicals sector. 
<img alt="" src="" width="320" height="147" />
Delegates put forward their expectations from the network. Marcel Tesselaar, representative of FNV Bondgenoten, the union representing headquarters workers of AkzoNobel, acknowledged that the company has different behaviours in the Netherlands from the rest of the world. &ldquo;Through meetings like this, we can create a real social dialogue process,&rdquo; he said. 
 
James Carvin, a sub-district director of ICEM&rsquo;s North American Affiliate, the United Steelworkers (USW), told the meeting that his union&rsquo;s intention is to intensify the work with the network and promised to reproduce work done in Brazil in the US. 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan reported on the current situation of the chemical industry worldwide. A international labor standards and other tools for union action presentation was made by Jos&eacute; Drummond, with emphasis on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the ILO tripartite declaration for multinationals, UN Global Compact, Socio-Labor Declaration of Mercosur, ISO 26000, and various companies codes of conduct. Data on the AkzoNobel restructuring process was presented by the DIEESE. 
<img alt="" src="" width="266" height="161" />
The meeting also included country reports on existing situations at AkzoNobel plants. A plant visit to Mau&aacute;, discussions on communication of the network, its expansion and political coordination, and strengthening of the Latin American network were the major topics of the meeting programme. 
 
The activities closed on 10 December with a social dialogue session with the participation of the company`s management for South America. Some eight managers attended, including human resource managers and union relations consultants hired specially to deal with the workers network. The social dialogue debates included a presentation of the company on strategic investments in China, a report of the network on the proposals put forward in this second Latin American meeting, international labor standards, the social dialogue process, organization at the workplace, corporate social responsibility, the company&rsquo;s code of conduct, and a proposal on training and labour/union relations for the management of the company.

Latin American Union Network for AkzoNobel Held in São Paulo, Brazil

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
Cements workers and others of Jindal Cement and its parent, Indian steel conglomerate Jindal Group or JSW, had a demonstration busted up by riot police firing gunshots over their heads in Gadivemula, India. The 4,000 demonstrators were protesting on 23 January over the misery sum Jindal offered to pay the family of a construction worker who fell and died at the cement plant. 
 
Managers called area Kurnool police used near-deadly force to disperse the workers, who then hurled rocks and other objects at police, damaging a police vehicle. Some workers were injured when they jostled with police while trying to gain entry to the cement plant. 
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Workers claim it was Jindal&rsquo;s negligence that led to the death of the 43-year-old worker, Bikakalagudur, who fell from a high beam while employed on construction of the company&rsquo;s Gadivemula cement works. 
 
Jindal Cement at first offered to pay only one-half the standard ex-gratia to the dead worker&rsquo;s family. 
 
Mumbai-based JSW Group, a US$8 billion concern, is busy constructing cement plants adjacent to many of the company&rsquo;s steel mills in order to take advantage of slag and flyash for use in cement manufacture.

Cement Workers in India Vehemently Protest Over Dead Colleague

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