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For the first time, collective negotiations in Germany&rsquo;s paper industry will cover both the western and eastern regions of Europe&rsquo;s largest economy. Those talks between ICEM affiliate IGBCE and Deutschen Paperindustrie (VAP), the employers&rsquo; association, started 7 October in Dresden and cover 39,000 paperworkers. 
 
Led by IGBCE Chief Negotiator for the Paper Sector, Holger Nieden, the union insisted in the first round of talks that orders in the industry have picked up, productivity has vastly improved, recovery in the sector is apparent, thus wage increases are justified for both regular workers and apprentices. VAP contended in opening talks that the financial crisis is still in effect due to high raw material and high energy costs. 
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A second round of negotiations is scheduled for 12 November in Sulzbach, near Saarbr&uuml;cken, Germany. IGBCE and VAP are coming off a two-year social accord covering workers at some 220 paper mills and paper converting operations. 
 
Without specifying an exact pay gain, the union said it seeks a noticeable remuneration gain, improvements in general conditions of work, and common collective agreement time frames between enterprises in the east and in the west. The current contract in the west expired on 31 August, while in the east, the two-year agreement runs until 30 November. IGBCE is also seeking special criteria for union members in a new accord. 
 
After 20 years of gradual wage adjustments and improvements in working conditions for paperworkers in eastern Germany, it is the first time that a common agreement is being negotiated for both the western federal states and the eastern ones.

IGBCE Seeking Wage Gains as East, West Enjoined in German Paper Talks

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Negotiations between the United Steelworkers Local 7-669 and Honeywell Inc. failed 11-12 October to resolve a company-imposed lockout on 228 union members at a uranium conversion plant in the US. The failure to resolve the 17-week lockout in Metropolis, Illinois, means scab workers will continue to mix dangerous chemicals in a process that mills yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), and then is sold to nuclear enrichment facilities. 
 
The talks last week were the third set of bi-lateral negotiations since the lockout began on 28 June. Progress was made on the first day on one of the major issues &ndash; health coverage and retiree medical insurance &ndash; but talks broke down on 12 October over retirement benefits and Honeywell&rsquo;s demand to create a two-tier pension scheme. Talks could re-start within the next few weeks. 
 
Other issues separating USW and Honeywell are the transnational&rsquo;s insistence on gaining broad contracting-out rights, a weakening of workers&rsquo; seniority rights, and hours of work. The company is offering a 3% wage increase, but its other demands are so detrimental to workers&rsquo; interests that the union has countered with a wage freeze and continuance of the current entitlement terms. 
<img alt="" src="" width="128" height="192" />
Metropolis, the fictional home of Superman, is now a US nuclear safety risk 
Honeywell, together with subcontracting agent the Shaw Group, has used US political leverage to gain certification from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), allowing the use of 200 replacement workers to perform dangerous tasks inside the nuclear supply chain. 
 
After initially signaling to USW Local 7-669 that it would not operate the plant during the lockout, Honeywell in July began staffing the conversion plant with scabs provided by the Shaw Group, and moved Honeywell supervisors from other areas to Metropolis. On 3 September, the NRC granted approval to Honeywell to re-start the final two steps of a four-step converting process. 
 
On 5 September, the town of Metropolis in southern Illinois along the Ohio River was shook by a loud boom that could be heard two kilometers away. Inside the plant, accumulated hydrogen reacted with fluorine gas during a venting process, causing the boom. NRC inspectors were on site at the time, and local police came to the scene. A NRC spokesman said the accident occurred in a non-regulated area of operation, meaning away from the handling of yellow cake uranium. Honeywell and the NRC jointly stated no damage to assets occurred and no one was injured. 
 
The Honeywell plant in Metropolis is the only such uranium conversion plant in the US and takes yellow cake uranium from Canada, Russia, and Australia and transforms it into UF6 through the four-stage process. That process includes ore preparation, through green salt preparation, to fluorination and distillation, before frozen and shipped to nuclear enrichment sites in US sites of Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, as well as to plants in Russia and some Asian countries. 
 
A previous ICEM report on this US lockout is <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3977-Lockout-of-USW-represented-Uranium-Processing-Plant-in-US-Continues ">here</a>.

Talks Fail Between USW, Honeywell in US Uranium Lockout

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The ICEM Colombian affiliate Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera (USO) is being attacked by local management of Schlumberger Surenco, the world's largest oilfield services corporation with operations in approximately 80 countries. In an aggressive union busting campaign, the company is offering considerable benefits to those employees who cancel their union membership and to those non-unionised. 
 
Workers who do not choose to utilise their right to join the union are rewarded with increased salaries, increased holiday days, promotions, and general preferential treatment. Bullying and persecution occurs throughout the production sites in Colombia, especially in the Andina and Milenio plants in Bogot&aacute;. A common response from local managers when workers present a problem is &ldquo;disaffiliate from the union, and then we&rsquo;ll talk.&rdquo; 
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A collective agreement was reached between the workers and management in Colombia on 29 March, following months of negotiations. Now the company breaches the agreement regularly. Health and safety breached are common, with workers having to eat meals at their work posts, and in oil wells, to work continuously for months without time off, to work extra hours without overtime benefit. The company repeatedly insists on conducting disciplinary hearings at company headquarters in Bogot&aacute;, making it difficult for the correct USO representatives to travel long distances and attend, circumventing the proper industrial relations structure and process. 
 
As the ICEM has reported many times in the past, Schlumberger&rsquo;s union busting campaign is being conducted under the consent of the national government, now lead by President Juan Manuel Santos. 
 
The global oil services company has annual operating revenues of US$27.16 billion. 
 
USO asks supporters around the world to write to the company and government to demand that Schlumberger employees can freely exercise their right to organise and bargain collectively. Send those messages to the following addresses. 
 
SCHLUMBERGER &ndash; COLOMBIA 
Calle 100 No. 13-21 
Piso 4 
Edificio Megabanco 
Bogot&aacute; D.C 
 
Presidencia de la Rep&uacute;blica 
Dr. Juan Manuel Santos, 
Cra. 8 No..7-26, Palacio de Nari&ntilde;o, 
Santa fe de Bogot&aacute;. 
Fax: (+57 1) 566.20.71 
 
Vicepresidencia de la Rep&uacute;blica 
Dr. Angelino Garz&oacute;n 
Dr. Carlos Franco Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario. Calle 7 No. 5-54 
FAX: (+571) 337.46.67 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:cefranco@presidencia.gov">cefranco@presidencia.gov</a> 
 
Programa Presidencial de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario 
Dr. Fernando Ibarra 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:fibarra@presidencia.gov.co">fibarra@presidencia.gov.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
Comisi&oacute;n Interamericana de Derechos Humanos 
<a href="mailto:cidhoea@oas.org">cidhoea@oas.org</a> &nbsp; 
 
Representante Permanente de la OIT en Colombia 
Dr. Jos&eacute; Lu&iacute;s Daza 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:jmunoz@oit.org.pe">jmunoz@oit.org.pe</a> &nbsp; 
 
Procuradur&iacute;a General de la Naci&oacute;n 
Dr. Alejandro Ord&oacute;&ntilde;ez Maldonado 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:dcap@procuraduria.gov.co">dcap@procuraduria.gov.co</a>; 
<a href="mailto:anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov.co">anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
Fiscal&iacute;a General de la Naci&oacute;n 
Dr. GUILLERMO MENDOZA DIAGO (E) 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:contacto@fiscalia.gov.co">contacto@fiscalia.gov.co</a>; 
<a href="mailto:denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co">denuncie@fiscalia.gov.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
Unidad de Derechos Humanos y de Derecho Internacional Humanitario 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:nayacero@fiscalia.gov.co">nayacero@fiscalia.gov.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
Defensor&iacute;a del Pueblo 
Dr. Volmar Antonio P&eacute;rez Ortiz 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:secretariaprivada@hotmail.com">secretariaprivada@hotmail.com</a> &nbsp; 
 
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores CUT 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:presidencia@cut.org.co">presidencia@cut.org.co</a> &nbsp; 
 
USO NACIONAL &ndash; Barrancabermeja 
E-mail: <a href="mailto:jdnb_uso@yahoo.com">jdnb_uso@yahoo.com</a>

Union Busting at Oilfields Services Provider Schlumberger in Colombia

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The ICEM affiliated Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF) reports that the provincial government of Balochistan has passed new labour legislation which does not fulfil its requirements to protect workers in the region. 
 
Up until 30 April 2010 the Industrial Relations Act of 2008 (IRA-2008) governed labour relations throughout Pakistan. However on 30 April that legislation was suspended after its 18th amendment. The provinces of Pakistan were then empowered to pass their own laws. 
 
The Balochistan Industrial Relations Ordinance 2010 was announced after no consultation with employees, where consensus is required from all stakeholders, employers, employees, and government. 
<img src="" width="120" height="179" alt="" />
Secretary General of the PCMLF, Mr. Sultan Muhammad Khan
As trade unionists were angered by the local government&rsquo;s actions, a press conference was conducted, 8 October, in Quetta, Northern Pakistan, by the head of the All Pakistan Labour Federation (APLF) and the Secretary General of the PCMLF, Mr. Sultan Muhammad Khan. 
 
Mr. Muhammad Khan issued the following demands to local government: 
&bull; Do not pass new provincial labour legislation without consensus of the stakeholders &ndash; Employers, Employees, Government 
&bull; Improve the law and order situation in the province 
&bull; Create new Industrial Zones in the province to reduce unemployment 
&bull; Register all mine workers with the Welfare authorities 
&bull; All mine owners must be forced to pay all government welfare contributions 
&bull; Improve health and safety conditions at work in the province

Troubling Pakistan Labour Legislation Passed

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The leadership of the Coal Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine (PRUPU) was strongly heard at a meeting of the Coal Ministry Board in Kiev on 15 October. 
 
The Coal Ministry&rsquo;s Board meeting was held under the instruction of Ukraine&rsquo;s First Vice-Premier Andrei Klyuev, who said at a Cabinet meeting on 16 September that the challenges facing the coal industry must be addressed. The Vice-Premier&rsquo;s instruction resulted from a report delivered by Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President, who vividly highlighted the most burning of the problems that besiege the industry&rsquo;s workers and mine sites today. 
 
There was no &ldquo;quiet talk&rdquo; at the 15 October meeting but rather strong words on the industry&rsquo;s problems among the close circle of the Ministry officials and the heads of state-owned enterprises attending the meeting. Klyuev&rsquo;s instruction stipulated that the Ministry Board meeting shall involve representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, State Assets Fund, Ministry of Industrial Policy, Ministry of Transport, Ministry for Fuel and Energy, and the leaders of the Ukrainian coal miners&rsquo; union. 
<img alt="" src="" width="115" height="115" />
Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President
Raising wages was one of the main issues that the union raised at the meeting. In line with the effective law, the minimal wage in Ukraine has been raised to 907 hryvnas from 1 October, yet the actual wages at the operating coal mining sites are calculated using the old basic rates and salaries based on the last year&rsquo;s figure of 744 hryvnas. 
 
And the situation is even worse for the III-d category mines, mine rescue teams, coal-mine builders, and workers at coal processing plants. For workers in the sub-sectors of the coal mining industry, the basic rate of 744 hryvnas is still but a dream. 
 
In this regard, Turmanov pointed out that &ldquo;our priority task is to ensure that the wages go up for industry workers. This was one of the key issues at the Ministry Board meeting.&rdquo; 
 
Unfortunately, bringing wages up to the level prescribed by the law is far from being the only problem in the coal mining industry. 
 
In view of the 15 October Ministry Board meeting, leaders of all territorial organizations of the union met on 28 September to prepare a well-defined list of priority issues facing the industry&rsquo;s sites and workforces to be brought to the attention of the enlarged Ministry Board. 
 
Issues such as the lack of funds for the development of mining facilities or provisions for fuel for homes of coal miners also generated points of discussion. Sharp criticisms were voiced with regard to the Ministry&rsquo;s efforts reforming the regional (oblast) management structure of coal mining sites and other actions. 
 
Union President Victor Turmanov said that if the Ministry of Coal is unable to reform the industry today, the government &ndash; and the President &ndash; must be told so in so many words. If reforms contradict the interests of workers and prove harmful to the enterprises, then we should be better off without them, leaving the industry governance system in its present form. The union shall brook no mindless attempts at reorganization, no reforms for reform sake! 
 
View a video report from the 28 September territorial meeting of union leaders <a href="http://www.prupu.org/video/">here</a>. The union&rsquo;s web site is <a href="http://www.prupu.org">here</a>.&nbsp;

Ukrainian Miners’ Union Get Heard at Coal Ministry Board

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While the world&rsquo;s euphoria was centered on the successful rescue of 33 Chilean miners, 26 Chinese miners were killed and another 11 remain missing today following a gas rush that suffocated miners just metres beneath the surface through a massive coal dust cloud. The accident happened on 16 October at the Henan mine of Pingyu Coal and Electric Co. in Yuzhou, Henan province. 
 
The tragedy occurred when a hole was being drilled to release pressure caused by a methane gas build-up. The miners were buried when an estimated 173,000 cubic metres of gas rushed out, resulting in miners&rsquo; being buried in a coal dust concentration totaling 2,500 tonnes. 
<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="132" />
Rescue attempts were still ongoing early today for the missing 11, but hopes that they were alive were slim. They were only 50 metres beneath the surface. Some 239 miners did escape. 
 
The gas level inside the mine was detected at 40% just prior to the accident, far above normal levels that average one percent. 
 
Pingyu Coal and Electric Co. is owned by a consortium of four enterprises, including the China Power Investment Corp. and Zhong Ping Energy Chemical Group. In 2008, 23 miners perished in the same colliery from a methane gas explosion. 
 
On 15 October, a day before the Chinese tragedy and less than 30 hours after the last of the 33 Chilean miners were pulled to the surface, three of four miners died following a tunnel collapse inside the Casa Negra gold and silver mine of Minesadco in El Oro province, Ecuador. The mine employs 100 workers and the accident happened when workers were digging a short distance from where the collapse occurred. Rescue efforts continued today to local the fourth miner, believed either trapped deeper inside the mine or killed by the rock collapse.

37 Chinese Coal Miners Feared Dead in Henan Province Coal Dust Tragedy

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News of the rescue of the 33 trapped miners in Chile dominates news outlets throughout the world. The seventy national mining unions that are affiliated with International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) are closely following the disaster and have sent numerous solidarity messages. Their immediate concerns and hopes are that all the miners are brought out safely to be reunited with their families, and are restored to good health. 
 
Mining trade unions applaud the enormous efforts of the Chilean government and the international response. However unions are just as concerned as to what happens after the rescue is accomplished. Will this dramatic international incident prompt governments and employers to do more to protect the lives of miners? This is a question not only for Chile but one for governments and employers throughout the world. 
 
The ICEM estimates that at least 12,000 miners are killed on the job every year (no reliable international statistics are available). Fatalities and serious injuries will not be reduced or even eliminated without addressing underlying and interrelated causes of most mining disasters today. 
 
A chief cause of continued mining tragedies in most countries is government and employer opposition to unionization. So long as miners do not have rights protected by a union and a legal collective bargaining agreement, they will be forced to work under conditions that jeopardize their lives. In Chile existing labor laws are weak. Employers have no obligation to negotiate even after a trade union is formed, and multiple trade unions can exist at any one site, which plays into the hands of employers to keep workers divided. 
 
The lack of democratic trade unions in China, where mining deaths far exceed those of other countries is a key cause of its staggering number of fatalities. In 2009, China recorded 2,600 official fatalities in coal mines. Actual figures are unknown. Some NGOs have estimated mining fatalities in China as high as 10,000 per year. 
 
Three major fatal accidents in the last ten months in Turkey killed 59 miners, all of whom were unprotected by a trade union. In Colombia, 73 nonunion miners without a voice on the job died in an explosion largely due to the lack of methane detectors in the mine and the inability of miners to refuse unsafe work. In the U.S. 29 nonunion miners died in West Virginia because they had no power to demand even the most rudimentary protection at Massey Energy, one of the country&rsquo;s most notorious anti-union employers. 
 
Unless governments not only improve mining laws but also labor laws, there will not be a dramatic improvement in the working lives of miners. Sebastion Pinera, the president of Chile who has been prominently featured in world news coverage and whose popularity has soared since the mine collapse, is avowedly anti-union. His political roots are linked to the Pinochet dictatorship which in 1973 overthrew Chile&rsquo;s democratically-elected president, Salvador Allende. 
 
A second major cause of mining disasters is poor mining laws and regulation, or poor enforcement of them, even when international standards are met. The ICEM has been in forefront of promoting International Labor Organization Convention 176 on Health and Safety in Mines since 1995 and last year renewed its campaign. Convention 176 was developed on a tripartite basis with trade unions, governments and employers to ensure that mining laws and regulations met core standards to protect miners. Yet after 15 years, only 24 countries have ratified the Convention. The government of India, which has an estimated 600,000 miners, opposed hosting a 2009 tripartite regional meeting for Asia sponsored by the ILO to discuss the Convention. Mining unions there have threatened to strike if the government does not move forward with ratification. 
 
There is little progress toward ratification in Colombia where the ICEM sponsored a tripartite meeting on Convention 176 in conjunction with the ILO, despite Colombia&rsquo;s desperate needs to improve its image in the eyes of the world. Governments in Russia and Ukraine, which have experienced some of the most severe mining tragedies, have been slow to react to trade union demands for ratification. Not a single major multinational employer has stepped forward to work with the ICEM to promote Convention 176. The ICEM offered to work with the International Council on Mining and Metals, an employers group comprising most of the major mining companies, to promote ratification but there was no response. 
 
Among the many important provisions of Convention 176 are: safety representatives elected by the miners, two points of exit from the mine (which did not exist in the Chilean mine), regular mine inspection, and most importantly, the right of miners to withdraw from unsafe conditions. 
 
In some countries that have ratified the convention, laws and regulations are diluted or not enforced. In the United States, which ratified the convention in 2000, the regulatory agency charged with enforcing mining laws was dramatically reduced by the George W. Bush administration, and mine inspections were severely cut back. The result was a series of predictable accidents at largely nonunion mines including the West Virginia explosion that was the most serious U.S. mining accident in two decades. The government had cited the mine with over 1,500 major safety violations in five years, but had permitted the mine to operate. Many governments allow mine employers to pay small fines rather than making them correct the problem. Corruption and bribes are also closely associated with the lack of enforcement of mine health and safety laws. 
 
Compensation systems based largely on production and not on an adequate hourly wage also make mines more dangerous. Low hourly wages and basing compensation on production force individual miners to compromise health and safety to earn sufficient income for their families. This has been cited as a major reason for continuing deaths and injuries in Russia and Ukraine. 
 
The increased use by mining employers of contract workers in mines, thereby substituting experienced miners with poorly-trained and ill-equipped precarious workers, is not only inhumane, it endangers the life of all miners. A survey conducted by the ICEM in 2008 revealed a disturbing and growing trend toward the use of contract work in the mining industry and throughout the world. The nonunion miners killed in Turkey and Colombia were contract workers. 
 
Inadequate capital, technology and training to improve health and safety also endanger miners. Mines operated by smaller and undercapitalized entities are inherently more dangerous. A very high proportion of mining accidents occur at mines operated by employers who lack the capital, economies of scale, and technologies to operate safely. 
 
A final reason for continued mining disasters is employer greed. Even well-capitalized and profitable multinational companies are being tempted by high commodity prices to place more emphasis on production than safety. Some dangerous mines, which closed just a few years ago when metal prices collapsed, have been opened up to take advantage of the temporary spike in prices. Production during times of high prices for raw materials trumps health and safety, despite employer claims to the contrary. 
 
Chile&rsquo;s expenditure to save the trapped miners in San Jose , which some have estimated at 15 million (USD), and its dismissal of some mine regulators for failing to enforce the law and pronouncements to change practices, stands in sharp contrast to what the government spent to safeguard the lives of miners before the incident occurred. With over 900 private mines covering the 4,300 km length of the country, Chile had only 18 mining inspectors. Reports of routine corruption that allowed unsafe mines to remain open have been widespread. It remains to be seen what Chile&rsquo;s government and employers will do to improve the safety of miners and all workers after the television cameras are removed and the media story fades. In the end, it is the workers and their trade unions in Chile and elsewhere who provide the only real hope that miners&rsquo; lives can be saved and the conditions in mines will be improved. 
 
One of the best examples of what needs to be done to save the lives of miners and reduce injuries is found in South Africa where just a few years ago tragic deaths due to accidents in its deep and aged underground mines were increasing dramatically rather than decreasing. In 2007, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) engaged in a general strike of mineworkers over health and safety. This was the first national mining strike for health and safety in the history of organized labor. Over 200,000 mineworkers walked off the job to protest lack of employer and government efforts to safeguard miners. Although problems continue, the NUM has reversed the trend and is working to lessen significantly the number of injuries and fatalities. Today, when a fatality occurs at a mine, NUM members routinely lay down their tools and strike in protest. 
 
The ICEM mining sector is dedicated to support unionization, promote ILO Convention 176, end the scourge of contract work in the mining industry, and fight against compensation systems that compromise health and safety. Our slogan is, &ldquo;the stronger the union, the safer the mine.&rdquo; Manuals to campaign for Convention 176 are available from the ICEM in English, Russian, Spanish and French.

As World Watches and Waits for Rescue of Trapped Chilean Miners, What Can Prevent Future Disasters?

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Global trade union federations, grouped in the Council of Global Unions, together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) will call on the governments of the G20 to prioritise jobs when setting policy to recover from the global recession. 
 
G20 leaders will meet on 11-12 November 2010 in Seoul, South Korea. The statement is being presented to G20 governments by affiliates of the ICEM and other Global Union Federations prior to the Seoul Summit, urging them to deal with the employment crisis. Focussing on job creation will enable reduction of public deficits through economic growth, instead of cuts. 
<img src="" width="100" height="95" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="" width="79" height="100" alt="" />
Signatories to the statement express concern that the employment crisis is not even on the agenda for the Seoul Summit. &lsquo;G20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh in September 2009 committed to putting &ldquo;quality employment at the heart of the recovery.&rdquo; They have not lived up to this promise,&rsquo; reads the statement. 
 
Over 31 million more people are unemployed since 2007, increasing unemployment jeopardises the process of economic recovery which is already fragile. Continuation of austerity measures will lead to &ldquo;a decade of stagnant labour markets in industrialized countries, the entrenchment of poverty in developing countries and a lost generation of youth shut out from productive activity.&rdquo; 
 
Among other demands, global unions want a formation of a standing G20 Working Group on Employment, with social partner participation. Other central demands include environmental policies that enable job protection and job creation and a &lsquo;Just Transition&rsquo;, and the issue of decent work to be at the heart of the development agenda. 
 
See the statement in full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/g20%20Seoul.pdf">here</a>. 
 
Supplementing this action the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation has launched a campaign calling on the Korean government to honour its commitments on labour rights inside Korea. Korea is one of the worst countries in the world in terms of worker and trade union repression. See the campaign resources and information <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=24267&amp;l=2">here</a>.&nbsp;

Global Unions to Present Unified Statement to Seoul G20 – Prioritise Jobs

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The Global Safety Partnership Committee was agreed to by Rhodia as part of its commitments to ICEM in the Rhodia-ICEM Global Framework Agreement. The committee is intended to monitor safety and related issues, provide ongoing dialogue regarding these issues between the company and its workers, and make recommendations for their improvement. With ICEM's help, Rhodia will strive to lead the industry in health, safety, and environmental performance. 
 
At the committee&rsquo;s first official meeting, held 7-8 October at a company Eco Services plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, representatives of Rhodia and representatives from ICEM's affiliates met to review and discuss some of Rhodia's policies, programs, and procedures. Among topics discussed were accident investigation procedures, and the choice of indicators of safety performance. In addition, panel members toured the Baton Rouge facility, one of the company's most important North American sites and one in which workers are represented by Teamsters Local 5. The Baton Rouge site, divided into two manufacturing centres, produces products ranging from artificial vanilla flavouring to sulphuric acid, as well as recycling and disposing of certain industrial wastes. 
<img alt="" src="" width="342" height="188" />
Rhodia management was represented by: Jacques Kheliff, Group Vice-President - Sustainable Development; Jean-Christophe Sciberras, Vice-President and Group Industrial Relations Director; Deborah Sherwen, Manager Health Safety and CAERS; James Harton, North America Zone President; John Heffernan, Rhodia North America Vice-President, Human Resources; and Marcus Lewis, Vice-President Industrial North America. Baton Rouge site managers also attended and hosted the Committee's visit and site tour. Yol&egrave;ne Coppin, Rhodia's Group Vice-President Human Resources, was unable to attend. 
 
The ICEM team was represented by Juarez Nogueira of Sindquim, Brazil; Scott Harrington of the US United Steelworkers (USW); Maurice Tritsch of CFDT, France; Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM's Chemicals Officer, and Brian Kohler, ICEM's Officer for Health, Safety and Sustainability. Jie Dong, of China, was unable to attend. 
 
The committee also met with Teamsters Local 5 representatives Jason Day and Bryan Hare.

ICEM, Rhodia Global Safety Committee Holds Meetings at US Plant

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The ICEM and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) jointly stated on 15 October that they reject the recommendation by the European Commission (EC) to establish a central set of pan-European safety standards for the offshore oil and gas industries. 
 
The two Global Union Federations (GUFs) were responding to EC Energy Commissioner G&uuml;nther Oettinger&rsquo;s rolled back recommendation for a &ldquo;centralised and prescriptive&rdquo; set of safety standards on 13 October. The recommendation follows the European Parliament&rsquo;s rejection of a moratorium on deepwater drilling on 7 October by a 323-285 vote. 
 
The moratorium proposal was in response to BP&rsquo;s Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Both the ICEM and ITF, as well as the industry group Oil and Gas UK, believe that a uniform safety regime imposed by the EC would infringe on union-management best practices already in place in the North Sea. 
<img alt="" src="" width="157" height="132" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="125" height="144" />
Lars Mhyre and Norrie McVicar
Responding to the recommendation that member states should consider suspending offshore licensing in advance of possible new EU-wide safety standards, Norrie McVicar, Chair of the ITF&rsquo;s Offshore Task Force Group (OTFG), said: &ldquo;This is the wrong position to take and the wrong time to take it. The EC should be protecting the safety gains made in the UK offshore sector, not eroding them by dumbing them down to a lowest common denominator.&rdquo; 
 
Said Lars Myhre, ICEM Energy Sector Chair, &ldquo;You can never be too safe and we would never condone complacency, but the British and Norwegian sectors are generally good examples of best practice. They should be studied, learned from and, where necessary, improved. They shouldn&rsquo;t be remodeled into a one size fits all &ndash; but not very well &ndash; Euro model.&rdquo; 
 
McVicar added: &ldquo;One very positive feature of the UK industry is OSPRA, the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group, which brings together regulators, industry bodies and trade unions such as Unite and the RMT in a joint effort to ensure that we get the oil and gas we need as safely and cleanly as possible. It&rsquo;s that kind of good practice that we&rsquo;d like to see adopted by the rest of the global oil and gas sector, not weakened here in Europe.&rdquo;

ICEM, ITF Reject EC’s Common Safety Prescription in Offshore Oil, Gas

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