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An estimated 80% of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) 1.8 million members participated in a national strike on 6 August, protesting rampant inflation. The day-long strike marked the culmination in a series of four work stoppages calling for relief to rising electric and food costs. COSATU also issued a stern demand for a decent living wage to counter a June inflation rate that hit 12.2%. 

In the South African capital of Pretoria last week, 30,000 trade unionists marched on a government building while the cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki was meeting inside. In Cape Town, another 40,000 staged a four-hour march.
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&nbsp; 

Across South Africa, some 18 pockets of mass strike activity and protests took place. Nearly all the major mining houses were forced to cease operations because miners heeded their union&rsquo;s call to stop work, and three auto assembly plants were also shut by striking workers. 

The nation&rsquo;s workers and consumers demanded a roll back of a government-imposed 27.5% tariff increase in July atop already high electricity costs from state-owned utility Eskom. They also vowed to resist another two-cent-per-kilowatt increase due in September. 

They also protested a hike to food prices totaling 17% in recent months, interest rates that just broke the 20% mark, and fuel prices that rose a full 35% from 2007 to 2008. 

The first national strike called by COSATU this year happened on 9 July. The national labour centre followed that up with strikes on 16 July, targeting the provinces of Kwazulu Natal, Western Cape, Mpumalange, Free State, and Northern Cape. On 23 July, the day-long stay-aways expanded to Gauteng, Eastern Cape, North West, and Limpopo provinces.
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&nbsp;NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni 

The 320,000-member National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), COSATU&rsquo;s largest affiliate, fully endorsed the walk-outs. NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni said fuel costs alone have made it prohibitive for many miners to travel from worksites to their homes to visit families when they are not working. 

&ldquo;We need to send a very strong message that the poor of our society are deeply affected&rdquo; by this current economic crisis, said Baleni. &ldquo;Electricity, food, and everything else is quickly becoming beyond reach.&rdquo;

South African Unions Conduct Wave of National Strikes, Protesting Energy, Food Costs

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Strategic, year-long pressure by the Pulp and Paper Workers&rsquo; Branch of Australian ICEM affiliate Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) appears to have severed a supply contract between retail grocery chain Woolworths and Indonesian-based Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). The supply arrangement was for kitchen towels and tissue products. 

The pressure, countering Woolworth&rsquo;s environmental claim on packaging of its Select private-label towel and tissue products, came to a head last week when Woolworths announced it had &ldquo;concluded its contract commitments for the supply of Select paper products.&rdquo; 
The CFMEU is now looking for Australia&rsquo;s largest retailer to tell the country&rsquo;s consumers that it will, in fact, rely only on paper producers that adhere to sustainable forest practices. 

&ldquo;If Woolworths has finally decided to do the right thing, they need to show us by a clear and unequivocal statement they will never go back to APP,&rdquo; said CFMEU&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper Secretary Alex Millar. They must now prove &ldquo;they will source their product from Australia and support Australian jobs the way they expect Australian consumers to support them.&rdquo; 
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The CFMEU campaign focused on a Woolworths packaging claim that its Select products were sourced from an &ldquo;environmentally managed company.&rdquo; In fact, Indonesia&rsquo;s Centre for International Forestry Research in 2007 found that APP relies on 60-70% of its wood fibre from clearing first-growth, protected forests in Sumatra. And much of that is by using illegal logging practices. 

The campaign then discovered that many Select products are made in APP&rsquo;s Chinese mills, where much of the wood fibre used is also derived through illegal means. 

After CFMEU appeals to Woolworths shareholders, most notably in November 2007, the retail chain pulled the Select brands from its shelves. But a few weeks later, those brands were back on the retail market, but without the environmental friendly claim. 

Millar says the CFMEU will now recommend to Woolworths paper-producing companies inside Australia which use proven, sustainable fibre sourcing in paper manufacturing.

CFMEU Forces Woolworths Hand on Sustainable Forest Products

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Rubber workers of Kiyan Tyre in Chahardangeh, Iran, continued their protests last week over wage arrears. Some 600 workers of the factory began striking on 16 July and the protests escalated last week when strikers began setting portions of the factory on fire. 
 
Shouting anti-government slogans on 22 July outside a management building in Chahardangeh, a western suburb of Tehran, workers threatened to bring their next protest to Iran&rsquo;s Majlis, or Parliament.
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&nbsp; 
On 12 April, 1,000 workers at Iran&rsquo;s biggest rubber plant took job actions because their wages had not been paid in five months. Then, the repressive State Security Force ran bulldozers into the protestors, and arrested all 1,000 using electric batons. Most were held for 36 hours, while some 100 strike leaders were held longer. They were finally freed, but as a condition for release, the workplace leaders were forced to sign statements that they would not protest again. 
 
The more recent protests are against a hand-picked management team which reportedly is under-paying wages, or denying payment altogether. Kiyan, formerly called Alborz Tyre Mfg. Co., was established in 1958 as a joint venture with the American company B.F. Goodrich Co. In 1979, it became part of state-owned National Iranian Industries, before being sold to private Iranian investors in 1994.

Tyre Manufacturing Workers in Iran Again Strike Kiyan

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At the Fifth Meeting of the Brazilian national network of trade unions at Dutch-based Akzo Nobel plants from 15-17 July in S&atilde;o Paulo, union representatives from British-based ICI chemical facilities joined the network. Akzo Nobel recently acquired ICI. 
 
The expansion of the network is expected to further the links of solidarity between workers of the two companies in Brazil. 
 
The 25 union representatives present came from plants located in Recife, Santo Andr&eacute;, Mau&aacute;, S&atilde;o Bernardo do Campo, Jundia&iacute;, Itupeva, S&atilde;o Roque, S&atilde;o Paulo, Bahia, Guarulhos, and Rio de Janeiro. 
 
The network meeting opened with a presentation by the Brazilian national centre CUT on a multinational project surrounding the ABC Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union&rsquo;s Project of Life programme. That deals with the demands of life, health, and work, and introduces actions to ensure a better work environment. 
 
The coordinator of the network, Sergio Carrasso, then delivered a report on activities of the network since its inception in 2003. That was followed by the results of a survey done by the Social Observatory Network on working conditions at Akzo Nobel.
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&nbsp; 
The survey reflects a positive outcome through collective negotiations, with workers of Akzo Nobel in Brazil managing to establish better social dialogue practices in which civil rights have been guaranteed and wage differentials bridged. 
 
ICI trade unionists attending made a presentation on their individual plants, including numbers of workers, length of work days, discrimination problems, and social dialogue and corporate social responsibility experiences. 
 
The mid-July network meetings also served as preparation for the Third National Social Dialogue forum of Brazilian unions with Akzo Nobel. The network meeting concluded with a visit to the S&atilde;o Bernardo do Campo plant. 
 
Akzo Nobel workers pledged to continue seeking contacts with workers of the company in Mexico and The Netherlands.

Brazilian Akzo Nobel Workers’ Network Brings in ICI Plants for Effective Solidarity

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&nbsp;The ICEM lodged a stern protest with the government of Turkey following excessive police force to quell a peaceful protest by ICEM affiliate Belediye-İş, the Municipal and General Workers&rsquo; Union. Due to stalled negotiations on behalf of 10,000 union members at different segments of the Istanbul Metropolitan Muncipality, the union issued a 60-day strike notice in mid-July. 
 
On 17 July, 2,000 Belediye-İş members, along with officials of the union, marched to an administrative building of the municipality to hang a banner announcing their legal strike. They were immediately repelled by police, using pepper spray and pressurized water cannons. 
 
The police force was a reminder of the force used on 1 May this year when trade unionists attempted to lay flowers at Istanbul&rsquo;s Taksim Square in memorial to the 37 comrades killed there by government forces on 1 May 1977.
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Police Water Cannons Impede Peaceful&nbsp;Belediye-İş March on 17 July 

&ldquo;The attitude taken by police against peaceful demonstrators reinforces the impression and opinion worldwide on your government&rsquo;s pursuit against (workers&rsquo; rights),&rdquo; wrote ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 
 
&ldquo;Although Turkey has ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98, we understand that neither in law or in daily life can these standards be freely exercised.&rdquo; 
 
The strike notice was issued because the Istanbul Metropolitan Muncipality has closed the door on negotiations after offering only an 8% increase. Belediye-İş is seeking a 40% increase. According to the union, daily consumer costs have rapidly escalated beyond the high inflation rate in Turkey, with water and transportation increases nearing the 35% mark.

ICEM Protests Police Force to Break up Belediye-İş Strike Call in Turkey

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Mining unions from Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Columbia met 19-21 August in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, in workshops to address enhanced union power in the face of mergers and consolidation within the mining sector. It was conducted by the ICEM, with sponsorship from Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, union-related foundation in Germany. 
 
&ldquo;We made an important step by bringing so many unions together to address the continued fragmentation of power among mining unions,&rdquo; said S&eacute;rgio Novais, ICEM Vice President for the Latin America/Caribbean Region.
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&nbsp;S&eacute;rgio Novais 
 

The ICEM provided a presentation on major trends in the mining industry that addressed how Latin American countries were targets for the major mining houses, companies that have profited from the unprecedented coal and metal commodity prices. The ICEM pointed out that without mining union mergers in Latin America, and the building of regional and global networks, mineworkers will lose bargaining power and will not be able to secure a fair share of the profits. 
 
Featured during the workshop was a day-long presentation by Ecliff Tantsi and Eddie Majadibodu of South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). They explained how&nbsp;NUM has built its formidable power under the banner of a single union. Their presentation included background on the history of the NUM, its structures, how collective bargaining is carried out, and how the union maintains both its economic and political power. The NUM also discussed how it assists other mining unions in Sub-Sahara Africa in union building and organizing. 
 
Participants jointly signed a letter to the government of Mexico protesting the continued repression of trade union rights in an effort to destroy the Mexican mineworkers&rsquo; union. And ICEM Colombian affiliate Sintracarb&ograve;n, the major mineworkers&rsquo; union in Columbia, reported new death threats against Adolfo Llanos, a union leader at Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n&rsquo;s Puerto Bolivar, and against other community activists. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda responded with a strongly-worded letter to President &Aacute;lvaro Uribe of Columbia demanding protection against death threats from right-wing paramilitary squads. Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n, the world&rsquo;s largest open-cast coal mine and its export facility, Puerto Bolivar, is equal parts owned by mining giants AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata. 
 
The workshop participants decided to: share information and work toward more unity among trade unions in the mining industry, particularly in Brazil; create Latin American regional networks among unions having common employers; explore innovative structures and legislative changes that would bring about greater unionization; and jointly develop solidarity actions and campaigns that focus on stopping subcontracting, gutting of social security benefits, and improving health and safety.
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Support for ratification of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, was approved, and the need for increased cooperation between the ICEM and International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) was also a subject of discussion. Only Brazil and Peru have ratified ILO Convention 176 in ICEM&rsquo;s Latin America/Caribbean Region. 
 
The mining workshops were attended by Jorge Almeida, Latin American Regional Secretary for the IMF. The ICEM and IMF are closely cooperating in efforts to build trade union power among Latin American unions.

South American Mine Unions Meet in Hopes of Consolidating Union Power

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A national settlement was signed on 11 February in Delhi bringing significant wage improvements to 125,000 workers in the Indian cement industry. Workers will receive an increase of up to 3,500 Indian Rupees (US$77) per month. 
 
The ICEM-affiliated Indian National Cement Workers&rsquo; Federation (INCWF) led the negotiations under President Sanjeeva Reddy. There was good cooperation with all other Cement Workers' Federations in the talks with the Cement Manufacturers' Association, representing 23 major employers in the sector. The INCWF is also affiliated to the Building and Wood Workers&rsquo; International (BWI). 
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Sanjeeva Reddy
Negotiations were chaired by Chief Labour Commissioner N. K. Prasad. The settlement is valid for a period of four years from 1 April 2010. Continuous negotiations have been occurring since then when the INCWF submitted its demands for an agreement, following the termination of the previous settlement of April 2005. The repeated failures of the parties to reach agreement led them to request arbitration by the Chief Labour Commissioner. 
 
The new agreement includes improved allowances for education of workers&rsquo; children and for travel. The raise is equal across all grades of the pay scale. Arrears will be paid in April and August this year. 
 
The INCWF and other trade union signatories to the agreement have distributed it widely and hope that it will serve as a model for workers in cement companies outside of the Cement Manufacturers' Association, of which there are 18.

Finally, Excellent Wage Gains Won by Indian Cement Workers

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Effective 1 March, some 200 transport workers at the Tkibuli-Mindeli coal mines in Imerti region, Georgia, will receive between 20-40% salary increases, depending on job classification, thanks to a 1-2 February strike by 600 members of the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Trade Union. 
 
That strike, on the heels of a methane gas explosion that killed one miner and seriously injuring four others, proved highly successful at 1,050-worker Saknakhshiri, or Geo-Coal, with management immediately agreeing to recognise the ICEM affiliate. Saknakhshiri is owned by Georgian Investment Group (GIG), a diverse conglomerate controlled by Georgian politician Davit Bezhuashvili. 
 
The 20-40% salary hikes for mine transport workers was agreed to in initial bargaining on 7 February. On 20 February, the union and management, together with the President of the Georgian Trade Unions Confederation (GTUC), Irakli Petriasvili, will resume talks on behalf of 650 underground miners over safety, pay, and other work terms. 
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Left -&nbsp;Irakli Petriashvili, President of GTUC
Following the methane gas explosion on 21 January &ndash; the third such deadly blast in less than a year at Tkibuli-Mindeli &ndash; workers and their new union demanded modern mine safety equipment to replace Soviet-era equipment in place, and demanded improved work and pay conditions. 
 
The situation was exasperated days after the blast when police arrested two low-level managers as scapegoats for last month&rsquo;s deadly accident. In support of the two and as protest to the overall work and safety conditions, miners staged a two-hour warning strike on 31 January and then began an open-ended strike on 1 February. The strike ended the very next day when management recognised the union and agreed to begin immediate talks with a series of set deadlines leading to a collective agreement no later than 20 March. 
 
Workers began joining the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Trade Union after a 27 August 2010 gas blast that killed four and severely injuring six others. On 3 March 2010, another gas explosion filled four and severely burned one other miner. 
 
The Tkibuli-Mindeli coal deposits are the second major set of Georgian workplaces that the Metallurgical, Mining, and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Trade Union has organised using direct action in recent months. Last spring, the union staged strike actions at the Zestafoni Ferroalloys plant and Georgian Manganese mines, winning work rights for 5,800 miners and metalworkers. 
Please view an <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/4229-Strike-Ends-Georgian-Miners-Recognized-at-Tkibuli-Mindeli-Colliery ">ICEM report</a> from last week on the union&rsquo;s recent success at the Tkibuli-Mindeli mines.

Two-Day Strike Wins Georgian Miners, Metalworkers 20-40% Pay Hike

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Copper mining unions at Chuquicamata in Chile&rsquo;s northern Region II are poised to take job action against state-owned Codelco if certain terms and benefits aren&rsquo;t met. Codelco&rsquo;s largest copper mine is undergoing a restructuring that includes a drop in production, retirement severances in order to thin job ranks, and then a multi-year US$2 billion investment to develop and extract copper from underground deposits. 
 
Miners of four local branches of Sindicato Minera Codelco Norte are upset that Codelco has reneged on certain conditions regarding retirement severance benefits. They are also upset that Codelco has refused to negotiate a social plan for job growth at the new underground project, called Chuquicamata Subterr&aacute;nea, a nine-year copper and molybdenum project that will extend Chuquicamata&rsquo;s life span 42 years. 
 
Codelco announced last year that it was cutting production by one-third over the next three years to prepare for the project. In December, senior managers of the national company clashed with supervisors when they pressured bosses to meet retirement quotas in order to set examples at both the Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic open-pit operations. 
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Now, Codelco has agitated 800 copper workers by reneging on severance entitlements and refusing &ndash; as is the practice in Chile &ndash; to engage legitimate trade unions in meaningfully talks on business development. 
Refusal is common as well regarding trade union engagement over health and safety matters. At a smelting plant that is part of the Chuquicamata mine complex, a worker died following a traumatic injury near a refining furnace. The death occurred on 11 January, 13 days after the accident occurred. In October 2010, a contract worker was killed in a pit when a ten ton rock fell on him. And in December, another contract worker suffered serious spinal injuries while working near a crusher. 
 
Codelco has split apart Chuquicamata and Radomiro Tomic by dissolving its Codelco Norte division and making each mining operation a separate division. The strategy distinctly indicates a move toward privatising. 
Codelco is the world&rsquo;s biggest copper producer and Chuquicamata is the world&rsquo;s second largest copper mine, behind Chile&rsquo;s Escondida mine, owned by BHP Billiton (57.5%) and Rio Tinto (30%). In January 2010, Chuquicamata mining unions staged a two-day strike that won workers sizeable pay gains.

Codelco Copper Miners in Chile Ready Strike Actions at Chuquicamata

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Another methane gas blast inside a Colombian coal mine killed five workers, and seriously injured one. This time it occurred on 1 February at the semi-legal La Escondida colliery in Cunduinamarca department, in a community called Sutatausa, 100 kilometres north of Bogot&aacute;. 
 
Last time was only a fortnight ago when 25 miners died 600 metres inside the La Preciosa Ltda. coal mine in Norte de Santander department. That 26 January tragedy now stands as Colombia&rsquo;s second worst mine disaster in less than a year, behind the San Fernando mine blast on 16 June 2010, where 73 perished in North-West Colombia state. 
 
Following the recent mine deaths, both Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Mines and Energy Minister Carlos Rodado Noreiga admitted the country&rsquo;s Institute of Geology and Mining (Ingeominas) is ill-equipped to handle mine safety and compliance in the nation&rsquo;s burgeoning mining industry. 
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Ingeominas has 17 mine inspectors to handle some 6,000 mines that are currently licensed. Roughly 19% are coal operations, with the vast majority of them underground mines operated by small- and medium-sized businesses. The ICEM reminds that Colombia has many illegally operating mines, with estimates that of every 100 mining enterprises, 51 are operated illegally. 
 
The Escondida mine is in an area called Pe&ntilde;as de Boquer&oacute;n in the central department of Cunduinamarca and was operating under a temporary permit granted by Ingeominas. A day before the tragedy, miners had complained that the ventilation system was not operating adequately and gas levels were rising. 
 
The San Fernando mine blast in June 2010 was Colombia&rsquo;s worst mining accident in 30 years. A preliminary investigation found breach of existing safety regulations, faulty monitoring and detection devices, lack of training and qualification, and unfamiliar explosives used inside the mine. 
 
The list was even more extensive, with all contributing factors listed as preventable. Colombia&rsquo;s underground mine safety regulations fall under the out-dated Decree 1335 of 1987, a regulatory code that is easily breached by small- and medium-size companies. The problem is complicated by the fact that Ingeominas has been too quick to award mining licenses without the proper safety culture or safety equipment. 
 
Colombia has become the world&rsquo;s fifth largest exporter of coal, behind Australia, Russia, South Africa, and Indonesia. There are reported to be 5,800 new mines in various phases of exploration and development and unless the government revamps its internal mine safety structure, and adopts global mine safety standards as outlined in ILO Convention 176, more tragedies are certain to occur.

Colombia’s Second Mine Blast Brings More Alert; 5 More Dead

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