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Justice was delivered in Australia last week for a construction trade unionist who faced jail time for exercising his basic trade union rights. Ark Tribe, a building tradesman and member of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU), was acquitted in Adelaide Magistrates Court on 24 November on charges he defied the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC). 
 
His alleged crime: he refused to be interviewed by the ABCC&rsquo;s watchdog arm over what matters occurring inside a union meeting. Tribe faced six months in jail and a heavy fine for taking a stand in defense of his universally protected labour rights. Before a packed courtroom and hundreds of union supporters outside, Tribe, 47, was acquitted by Magistrate David Whittle on a technicality. 
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CFMEU's Ark Tribe
The acquittal and attention the case brought in Australia should be cause for the Australian Parliament to move forward and strip the ABCC of the over-reaching powers given it in 2005 by former Prime Minister John Howard. Then, the government gave the ABCC witch-hunt authority involving industrial actions that no other work sector in Australia has. 
 
On 30 May 2008, Tribe and others were working a construction project on Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, when serious safety violations caused a stop-work action. The workers met in a union meeting off-site, drew up a list of the safety concerns, and presented them to the site boss. It took CFMEU intervention and a South Australia state government safety regulator to correct the safety deficiencies, and after a few days work was back to normal. 
 
But the ABCC&rsquo;s coercive investigatory unit began interviewing workers as to what was said and by whom in union meeting. When it came Tribe&rsquo;s turn for the compulsory interview, he refused to cooperate. That&rsquo;s all it took for a possible six months in the slammer and a steep fine. 
 
Appearing at the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Congress last year, Tribe, a rigger, said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m here because like any other proud Australian, I believe that when injustice becomes law, then resistance becomes duty.&rdquo; 
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Noel Washington
Tribe&rsquo;s case is reminiscent of that of Noel Washington, a CFMEU Senior Vice President who faced similar charges by the ABCC for a lunch-hour meeting he held with construction workers in Victoria state in 2007. The ABCC demanded an account of comments made during the meeting and when Washington failed to show for the hearing, charges were brought. A state prosecutor dropped the case three days before his trial date late in 2008. 
 
The ICEM considers it a travesty that such an unjust statute criminalizing legitimate trade union activity is still on the books in Australia. Although there was a recent effort under the Labour Government to repeal the ABCC&rsquo;s watchdog powers, it failed. The Ark Tribe case should now be the springboard to finally rid Australia of this errant misuse of power by the ABCC.

Ark Tribe Acquitted in Australia Building Construction Trial

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ICEM Chilean oil worker affiliate Fenatrapech is protesting against attempts to cut 530 workers, an effort to weaken the trade union ahead of moves to privatise the state-owned ENAP (National Petroleum Company). Workers at the Bio Bio refinery in Central Chile held a 24-hour strike on 19 November to protest the management plan to cut its workforce by 15%, 530 of the total 3,380 employees. The Bio Bio refinery workers&rsquo; strike was followed by industrial action in the southern Magallanes region, where most of ENAP&rsquo;s exploration and production activity is based. For workers in the Magallanes region, there are very few employment alternatives available. 
 
The company is offering unacceptably low compensation packages to departing workers. 
 
The national government of President Sebastian Pi&ntilde;era plans to privatise much of the country&rsquo;s major industries, including the oil and gas producer ENAP. The latest job cuts are seen as a further step towards that privatisation. Earlier in the year, energy minister Ricardo Raineri said that ENAP could potentially follow the same model as Brazil's federal energy company Petrobras and sell a stake to private investors. 
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Fenatrapech President Jorge Matute
ENAP employees are represented by ICEM affiliate Fenatrapech, the national federation of oil workers, headed by President Jorge Matute. Matute has lead attempts to negotiate the redundancy issue with management, while ENAP have refused to come to the table, instead pressing ahead with job cuts. The first 300 cuts of the 530 total are due to take place before the end of 2010. 
 
This is just an attempt to weaken the union at the company in order to advance with the privatization process in the short term,&quot; states Matute. 
 
The union reports that workers in the industry are currently enduring very hard times, for those workers to be informed that they are losing their jobs is difficult to accept, especially as it falls in the same week as ENAP executives signed renewed and improved contracts for oil exploration and production exploiting two oil fields in Ecuador. ENAP employees took pride in the new contracts of the company, and see them as direct achievement of the staff. 
 
The Bio Bio refinery processes 116,000 barrels of oil per day, while the Magdallanes around 10,000. ENAP was hard hit by an earthquake last February. 
 
View the ICEM solidarity letter to Fenatrapech in Spanish <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/22%20Fenatrapech%20ICEM%2029%20Nov.pdf">here</a>.

Chilean Oil Workers Fighting Job Cuts, Privatisation

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Negotiations to end a 23-week lockout by Honeywell Inc. against 228 members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in the US state of Illinois failed last week. The American company, which converts yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) at the Metropolis, Illinois, plant, continued its inflexibility in finding a resolve to the dispute and to return experienced workers to their jobs. 
 
The 22-23 November bargaining came four days after many of the locked-out workers rode a bus throughout the night to demonstrate at Honeywell&rsquo;s corporate headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey. The manifestation was meant to convince senior Honeywell executives that it was finally time to conduct serious bargaining and end the lockout, according to Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie. 
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Local 7-699 members at Honeywell's New Jersey offices, 18 November
But at last week&rsquo;s bargaining, Honeywell only agreed to pay workers their accrued 2009 vacation time in pay, something owed them anyway because most workers had been denied their legitimate work furloughs this year due to the lockout. Further bargaining is scheduled for 13-14 December. 
Meanwhile, the transnational technology and manufacturing company continues to use scab replacement workers to run the highly dangerous plant, one which transforms uranium into UF6 gas and then is frozen and sold for feed to the nuclear enrichment process. 
 
Honeywell has replaced the locked-out workers with 200 scabs from the Shaw Group, Unbelievably, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted certification to re-start the four-stage production process in September. Since, the NRC has issued a number of violations for work infractions. 
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Issues that separate USW Local 7-699 and Honeywell are retirement benefits and the company&rsquo;s demand to create a two-tier pension scheme; Honeywell&rsquo;s insistence on gaining broad contracting-out rights, which could mean the loss of many jobs and possible elimination of entire in-house departments; and weakening of workers&rsquo; seniority rights. 
 
Honeywell has offered a 3% pay increase, but its pension and work-rule demands are so detrimental that Local 7-669 has offered to accept a wage freeze for continuation of current contract items. 
 
The union has been uplifted by the tremendous support given workers by trade unions in southern Illinois, Kentucky, and elsewhere. Notably, Plumbers &amp; Pipefitters Local 160 of Murphysboro, Illinois, has provided money and food to locked-out steelworkers, and soon will hold a Christmas party for workers&rsquo; children. 
 
USW Local 550 in nearby Paducah, Kentucky, whose members are employed by US Enrichment Corp., a private sector company that buys Honeywell&rsquo;s UF6, also has contributed greatly, as has local branch unions of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the United Auto Workers (UAW). And recently, a financial contribution was sent to Local 7-699 from Germany&rsquo;s IGBCE union. 
 
Prior ICEM reports on this lockout in the US can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4066-Talks-Fail-Between-USW-Honeywell-in-US-Uranium-Lockout">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3977-Lockout-of-USW-represented-Uranium-Processing-Plant-in-US-Continues">here</a>.

Talks Again Fail in Honeywell’s US Lockout of Steelworkers

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The ICEM expressed deep condolences to the families of 29 miners declared dead on 24 November at the Pike River coal mine disaster in New Zealand, as well as to their trade union &ndash; affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). 
 
In a letter to EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;It is with great sadness that the ICEM has learned of the deaths of 29 miners. Please accept my heartfelt condolences. 
 
&ldquo;We will now support your call for a full and thorough investigation into the causes of this terrible accident, and for all of the bodies to be returned as soon as possible to their families. The explosion illustrates the importance of our shared work in improving safety standards in mines, and moving the New Zealand Government toward ratification and proper implementation of ILO Convention 176, on safety and health in mines.&rdquo; (Full letter <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/145.ICEM.EPMU.New%20Zealand.24Nov.pdf">here</a>.) 
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Inside Pike River mine, before accident, Photo: NZPA
The miners, trapped since 19 November by a horrid methane gas explosion at Pike River Coal Ltd.&rsquo;s coking coal mine inside the Paparoa Range on the South Island, were declared dead 24 November by police charged with rescue. (See ICEM&rsquo;s initial report <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/4115-Hope-Still-Alive-for-29-Trapped-Inside-Pike-River’s-New-Zealand-Coal-Mine">here</a>.) The police announcement came minutes after a second massive explosion that lasted 30 seconds occurred inside the company&rsquo;s mine of the Brunner coal seam at 14h37, local time, Wednesday. The Pike River mine is located 50 kilometres from Greymouth . 
 
Rescue attempts proved prohibitive for six days because of high levels of methane gas and carbon monoxide that were registered inside. News of the secondary explosion on 24 November and improbability that the 29 could have survived was brought to grief-stricken family members at 16h00 in Greymouth by Pike River CEO Peter Whittal. &ldquo;Exactly what we said would happen happened,&rdquo; he told reporters in explaining why rescuers had not been sent into the mine. Some 90 skilled mine rescuers, many flown in from Australia, were on standby for those five days. 
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EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little
EPMU National Secretary Little said: &ldquo;News of this second devastating explosion means there is now no prospect of a successful rescue and the lives of the 29 men trapped inside have been lost. It is time to let the families and the community grieve. 
 
&ldquo;Most of the miners killed were our comrades in the union, including Blair Sims who was an EPMU delegate at the Pike River mine,&rdquo; Little said. &ldquo;The EPMU will now make the practical arrangements to establish a fund to assist the families of the men whose lives have been lost.&rdquo; 
 
Little added the EPMU now calls on the government &ldquo;to establish an independent inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the explosion, including a public hearing in front of a senior judge and leading technical experts,&rdquo; adding the union will do everything possible to assist the investigation. 
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EPMU Delegate Blair Sims
Sims was a 28-year-old loving husband and father of two small children. He was an exceptional rugby player who for the past two seasons was New Zealand West Coast player of the year. Eleven of the 29 miners were EPMU members. Those perishing included 16 full-time workers of Pike River Coal Ltd., owned 31% owned by New Zealand Oil &amp; Gas Ltd., and 13 contract employees. 
 
Little, who received the news 90 minutes after the blast yesterday, told New Zealand media that &ldquo;miners are special people. They are the foundation rock that much of New Zealand was built on. When you lose special people like that, 29 all in one go, it is a hard thing. I don&rsquo;t think any of us can imagine what the families will be going through tonight.&rdquo; 
 
The EPMU is assisting by setting up the &ldquo;EPMU Pike River Miners Family Support Trust&rdquo; to collect donations to support the 29 families. See more information on how to give financial support to the families of the dead miners <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1011.EPMU%20Pike%20River%20Miners%20Family%20Support%20Trust%20-%20flyer.pdf">here</a>. 
 
&quot;Miners around the world are grieving their fallen comrades,&quot; said ICEM and South Africa's NUM President Senzeni Zokwana, &quot;our struggle continues to ensure our members safety at work.&quot; 
 
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key today will name a High Court judge along with two other high-level people to a Royal Commission of Inquiry to determine accountability for the Pike River tragedy. One of those members is expected to be an international mine safety expert. 
 
As well, other investigations will be conducted by Kiwi governmental agencies, and the EPMU will assemble its own team of legal and technical experts. Little welcomed Key&rsquo;s announcement after a Cabinet meeting today that a Royal Commission will convene. 
 
&ldquo;This is a huge disaster by any account and what we do in response will be scrutinized around the world, especially in other Commonwealth countries whose nationals were among those killed,&rdquo; Little said. 
 
Besides 24 New Zealanders who perished inside the Pike River mine, two Australians, two UK nationals who were Scotsmen, and one South African also died. 
 
See photos of all the lost Pike River miners <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pike-river-miners/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=1503001">here</a>.

Together with EPMU, ICEM Mourns Deaths of 29 Miners in New Zealand

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Ongoing abuses of trade union rights in Mexico will be highlighted on 3 December, the day that marks the two-year anniversary of Juan Linares Montufar&rsquo;s arrest. Linares is a political prisoner, held illegally, without bond since his arrest. The sham charges against him all relate to the transfer of funds from a Trust created by his trade union, the National Union of Mine, Metal and Steel Workers (SNTMMSSRM) to the union. His detention is one part of the campaign of trade union intimidation and repression by the Mexican government. 
 
Juan Linares is the President of the Oversight and Justice Council of the SNTMMSSRM, also known as Los Mineros. The sham charges against him relate to a trust created in 1988 as part of negotiations around the sale of a number of state-owned mines to Germ&aacute;n Larrea, the current owner of mining giant Grupo M&eacute;xico. As part of the privatisation negotiations, 5% of the shares of the companies were to be placed in a trust for the benefit of the SNTMMSSRM. In a 1990 ruling, the First Commercial Court in Mexico City confirmed that the union was the beneficiary of the trust. Linares was one of three trustees named by the union to administer the trust. 
 
Los Mineros fought a 15-year legal and industrial action struggle to make the Larrea companies pay the agreed shares into the Trust. Agreement was reached on 2 October 2004, by which time the 5% share was worth approximately US$55 million. In February 2005 the union decided to terminate the Trust and transfer the money to a bank account of the union. 
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In 2006 the Federal Attorney General filed criminal charges against Linares, SNTMMSSRM General Secretary Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia, and other union officials, in federal and state courts. All of the charges are based on a single argument: that the union did not have the right to terminate the trust because the trust existed for the benefit of the workers, not the union. The union officers reply that the transfer of the trust funds was perfectly legal under Mexican law; in addition to being a protected exercise of trade union autonomy under ILO Convention 87. So far, charges filed against G&oacute;mez in three state and two federal courts have been dismissed, as have two state charges against Linares. However, a federal charge against Linares is still being litigated, and the courts have denied him bail. 
 
Ironically, while the government claims that its prosecution is intended to force the union to pay the Grupo Mexico workers, its charges actually halted the payments. Prior to the filing of the criminal charges, the SNTMMSSRM had already distributed almost $21 million to the workers. But when the government filed charges, it also froze the union&rsquo;s bank accounts, halting the distribution process. 
<img alt="" src="" width="267" height="175" />
International delegation visit Juan Linares at Reclusio Norte Prison, July 2009
Since his arrest, Linares has been held at the Reclusorio Norte prison in Mexico City. He receives regular visits from his family, other Mineros leaders, and international trade union delegations from around the world. To all his visitors, Linares has one message: &ldquo;I could walk out of this jail tomorrow if I were willing to betray my union. But I will never do that.&rdquo; 
 
Juan Linares is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately. 
 
This demand is part of a global mobilisation that is being planned to coincide with the five-year anniversary of the deadly accident at the Pasta de Conchos coal mine in Coahuila on 19 February 2006. The global days of action, calling for an end to government attacks on Mexico&rsquo;s democratic trade unions, will be led by affiliates of four Global Union Federations: the ICEM, International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF), and UNI Global Union. A general call will be released on 1 December, with more information.

Mexican Trade Unionist Juan Linares Still Jailed After 2 Years, Global Mobilisation February 2011

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Workers at a DuPont chemical plant in the northern Brazilian state of Bahia staged a plant-gate protest on Thursday, 9 December, against the American company&rsquo;s planned redundancies, job cuts that could seriously jeopardize the safety of workers and residents living in the city of Cama&ccedil;ari. The workers and their union, ICEM affiliate CNG-CUT Qu&iacute;micos/Petroleiros, were calling attention to safety concerns to public authorities at the protest. 
 
DuPont proposes to cut up to 45% of the 130 jobs at the agricultural chemical and herbicide plant, which makes the chemical diuron. The ICEM is not convinced local management completed the necessary consultative process with the union in order to limit the redundancies and potential safety hazards. 
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Manifestation on 9 December at DuPont&rsquo;s Cama&ccedil;ari, Brazil, plant
The ICEM expressed its support to the CNQ-CUT branch in Bahia state in its protest. That letter, in English, can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/150.ICEM.DuPont%20Brazil.10Dec.pdf">here</a>.&nbsp; 
 
DuPont prematurely said it would halt two lines of production and speculation is it would shift work to India. The union stated that DuPont intends to cease production of diuron and import it to Brazil. 
 
Jos&eacute; Dias de Miranda, who heads the union in Bahia state and is employed at DuPont, said that even at current employment levels, the plant has experienced fiery chemical explosions that have seen three workers die and two others severely burned.

Brazilian Chemical Workers Reject Deep Job Cuts at DuPont in Bahia State

ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) newsletter is a quarterly publication by Ashling Seely and ICEM staff intended to bring the latest news, developments, and trade union initiatives against the growing use of temporary and casual work. The global, Nordic-sponsored project of the ICEM is headed by Seely, who is the Global Coordinator of the CAL Project, now in its seventh year.

ICEM’s CAL Newsletter: Developments In and Around the Global Contract and Agency Labour Project

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An updated version of the extensive presentation on &ldquo;CAL and the ICEM CAL Campaign&rdquo; has now been made available on the ICEM site. This PowerPoint presentation, which can be used by anyone, contains not only a considerable number of key statistics on Contract and Agency Labour and other forms of precarious work, including the ICEM&rsquo;s own statistics, but also contains a wide range of &ldquo;best practice examples,&rdquo; highlighting what unions around the world have done quite successfully to counter the problem. 
 
A full-length version of the presentation in English can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/10-12-02%20Web-site%20version%20CAL%20ICEM%20PPT.ppt">here</a>. 
 
The Spanish version of the presentation can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/CAL/10-12-08%20Spanish%20CAL%20presentation.PPT">here</a>.

CAL Facts and Figures Overview, now also in Spanish

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The Canadian Auto Workers&rsquo; (CAW) Union, at its CAW Council meetings 3-5 December in Toronto, rebuked Statistics Canada&rsquo;s Labour Force Survey for November. The government agency reported that in November, 26,700 part-time jobs had been created, while 11,500 full-time were lost. 
 
CAW President Ken Lewenza said new job creation based solely on part-time growth is no cause to celebrate. &ldquo;Workers must be able to realise their goal of having a full-time job, a job you can raise your kids on, and later retire from in dignity,&rdquo; said Lewenza in his opening day keynote address to the Council, the union&rsquo;s governing board. 
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CAW President Ken Lewenza
Lewenza said that the loss of full-time workers across Canada has put a major strain on provincial budgets, particularly as they work with federal and municipal governments to set up stimulus programmes to support local economies. 
 
Provinces in turn have put pressure on public sector workers to freeze wages, while failing to guarantee and preserve public services or jobs. The effect has meant a downward spiral to social services and on living standards of workers. 
 
The CAW Council also agreed at its deliberations to donate C$10,000 to a trust fund established to help families dealing with the tragedy of the Pike River coal mine disaster last month in New Zealand. That trust fund was set up by ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). In a letter to EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little, Lewenza said, &ldquo;Know that we are making this donation in full solidarity with your union&rsquo;s continuing efforts to improve working conditions in safety standards in mines and every other workplace in New Zealand.&rdquo;

Canadian Auto Workers Reject Government’s November Statistics Stating Job Growth

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The privatised water firm United Utilities&rsquo; decision to drop its offshore contract with Accenture and bring its customer service back to the UK was met with applause by Unison, Great Britain&rsquo;s public sector union. 
 
&ldquo;This is good news for United Utilities customers and a much needed jobs boost,&rdquo; said Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis. &ldquo;The company is right in its belief that in-house operations are more efficient than offshoring.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="150" />
Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis
United Utilities told investors on 1 December that it would bring Information Technical services back to the north-east of the country to gain &ldquo;greater control&rdquo; of its technology. Accenture has a contract with the private utility until November 2011 for billing business processes and other services, but United Utilities said it will bring office, income, and collections activities to full-time public workers of the company over the next 12 months. 
 
&ldquo;Right from the start, UNISON campaigned against outsourcing and offshoring in the utilities sector, because permanent staff provides a better service,&rdquo; said Prentis, who predicted it would create hundreds of jobs in the northeast. &ldquo;We hope this decision will act as a good example to other employers, particularly in the public sector, where there in enormous pressure to outsource services.&rdquo;

UK Public Sector Union, Unison, Applauds United Utilities’ Move to End Offshoring

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