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The 26th Congress of ICEM Turkish affiliate Oil, Chemical, and Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union (Petrol-İş), was held 17-18 September in Istanbul and provided an open platform on discussing labour&rsquo;s current shape in Turkey with expectations for the future. Attended by a large number of guests from political parties, trade unions, professional groupings, employers, and civic society organizations, the Congress also welcomed ICEM representatives Manfred Warda and Kemal &Ouml;zkan, as well as EMCEF General Secretary Michael Wolters. 
 
Members of the Presidium of South Eastern European Energy Unions&rsquo; Network (RETUNSEE) were also present. 
 
Participants on 17 September viewed two documentaries prepared by Petrol-İş, namely &ldquo;Trade union is Your Future&rdquo; and &ldquo;What Did They Say for Petrol-İş at its 60th anniversary?&rdquo; In his opening address, President Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın said that the economic crisis first occurring in developed countries and then impacting the whole world caused political, economic, social, and cultural crunches. 
<img alt="" src="" width="243" height="160" />
&ldquo;The crisis brought inequality and injustice to humankind,&rdquo; said &Ouml;ztaşkın. &ldquo;We witnessed continuous rising unemployment and poverty, causing human death through starvation, and we saw a polluting environment caused by for profit.&rdquo; 
 
He also cautioned that human health is being threatened by genetically modified products. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Warda, in his address, praised the determination of Petrol-İş in defending the rights and interests of its members. He cited struggles undertaken by the union at multinational companies such as Novamed, Bericap, and Polyplex. 
 
&ldquo;It is shameful that multinational companies, particularly Western European MNCs, do not recognize internationally accepted trade union rights in Turkey, while they do it in their home countries,&rdquo; said Warda. 
 
The delegates discussed and approved a series of political resolutions under different chapters which included World, Turkey, Society, Economy, Industrial Relations, the Trade Union Movement, as well as Action Principles and Programme. A special resolution was unanimously voted on that gives full support to the coming creation of a new Global Union Federation for industry. 
 
&ldquo;Petrol-İş believes international solidarity of the working class has great importance over attacks by capitalism against the union movement,&rdquo; states the resolution, adding &ldquo;unification under the roof of single Global Union Federation in manufacturing with three existing organizations, including the ICEM, will create a promising initiative, and the Congress pledges fully supports it.&rdquo; 
 
The Congress also amended the union&rsquo;s statutes by bringing new mechanisms into the current structure, particularly for special groups of workers. One union objective has been &ldquo;to struggle against child labour and to strive protecting and promoting the rights of young workers.&rdquo; Another now enshrined in Petrol-İş statutory objectives is gender equality, with the union pledging &ldquo;to take all necessary measures in practices at home, in workplaces, and within the trade union to build equality and struggle against all forms of gender violence.&rdquo; 
 
Mustafa &Ouml;ztaşkın was unanimously re-elected President of Petrol-İş, while Ali Ufuk Yaşar won election as General Secretary, İbrahim Doğang&uuml;l as Finance Secretary, Nimetullah S&ouml;zen as Organizing and Education Secretary, and Ahmet Kabaca as Administrative Secretary. The five trade unionists were named as members of the union&rsquo;s Executive Committee.

Turkey: Petrol-İş Congress Endorses Creation of New Trade Union International

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Following the first joint mission in October 2007, ICEM and Rhodia again visited the company&rsquo;s Chinese operations from 19-21. This second visit came within the context of the Global Framework Agreement (GFA) that was signed in 2005 and renewed twice since. The objective of such missions is to monitor implementation of the principles and indicators set out in the GFA. Such joint missions by ICEM and Rhodia have also been made to Brazil in 2008, the US in 2009, and to South Korea in 2010. 
 
The ICEM was represented by its General Secretary Manfred Warda and Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Kemal &Ouml;zkan. Rhodia had Jacques Kheliff, Group Vice-President for Sustainable Development, and Jean-Christophe Sciberras, Group Vice-President for Industrial Relations, on the mission. Rhodia&rsquo;s Asia &amp; Pacific Zone Chairman, Michel Ybert, Chinese General Manager Michael Zhu, and Asia &amp; Pacific Research and Development Director Pascal Metivier accompanied the joint mission. 
 
The trip coincided with 95% of Rhodia shares being tendered by Belgian-based chemicals company Solvay. Rhodia and Solvay together will create a chemicals company that will have &euro;12 billion in sales, with 40% of that generated in emerging markets. Rhodia will become the third sector of Solvay, in addition to its Chemicals and Plastics segments. This situation also made possible Olivier du Roy de Blicquy, President of Greater China of Solvay Group, being present during the first day of last week&rsquo;s joint mission. 
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The mission first received a briefing at Rhodia&rsquo;s zone headquarters in Shanghai. Employing over 2,800 workers in the zone and producing 23% total sales, Rhodia has sites in China, South Korea, India, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, and Vietnam. The zone&rsquo;s sales in 2010 increased 36% over that of 2009. Rhodia also has shown rapid development in China where the chemical industry has grown on average by 24% from 2005 to 2010. The recent takeover of Feixiang Specialty Chemicals gives Rhodia a leading position in the amines and surfactants markets in China. 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s Warda and &Ouml;zkan met with the chairperson and board members of the local trade union organizing employees of Rhodia at the Shanghai campus. Chairperson Jie Dong, who also serves as union representative for the Asia-Pacific region of the ICEM-Rhodia Global Safety Panel, gave a review of union activities at all plants of Rhodia, preparations for collective agreements, and social dialogue initiatives. 
 
She gave a specific attention to the joint training sessions between union and management representatives, which were launched through the GFA. Jie Dong&rsquo;s report stated that the local union committee got authorization from employees for collective consultation in early June. A questionnaire for getting views and demands of employees was answered with a high percentage. Salary and income (62.5%), insurance and welfare (62%), and rest and vacation (58.7%) were priority topics. 
 
She also reported that workers elected 35 representatives from each workplace section to prepare and negotiate a collective agreement. The collective agreement is expected to be signed at the end of 2011. 
 
ICEM and Rhodia representatives later met with the representatives of Association of International Chemical Manufacturers (AICM), which regroups multinational companies in China. Discussion focused on the Responsible Care initiative. The meeting then welcomed representatives of the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) from the Minhang area and Xinzhuang Industry Park. The parties exchanged information about union activities at multinational companies. 
 
The second day of the mission saw ICEM and Rhodia representatives travel to the city of Feixiang, where Rhodia recently acquired a plant that has been placed in its Novacare business. Warda and &Ouml;zkan met with union leaders and union members of the plant in a separate meeting where current topics were reviewed. 
 
During the mission&rsquo;s final day, representatives drove to a Rhodia plant located in Zhenjiang, where union delegates explained work conditions, union activities, and labour-management relations. This was followed by presentations on the site, business activities, employment-related matters, and how the GFA has been implemented at this site. 
 
Warda noted that there has been improvement and progression in union activities in the Chinese operations of Rhodia since the 2007 visit. &ldquo;The situation in China demonstrates how a GFA can prove instrumental in improving labour relations, even in China. Our clear hope and expectation is this good model of global industrial relations extends to the Solvay Group in the future.&rdquo;

ICEM, Rhodia Review Chinese Workplaces as Part of GFA

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BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) in Queensland, Australia, is a major global coal exporter to the metallurgical industry. In enterprise bargaining in the coal-rich Bowen Basin of Queensland, it has painted itself as a big bully. 
 
BMA and three Australian trade unions, the latter in unison in trying to preserve miners&rsquo; basic quality-of-life, have been locked in a ten-month dispute that has now become the bellwether on trade union rights under the nation&rsquo;s two-year-old Fair Work law. On issues of rosters, subcontracting, and other job conditions, BMA has tried to dictate, much like it could under the draconian WorkChoices Act of ousted Prime Minister John Howard a handful of years ago. 
 
The three unions, negotiating as the Single Bargaining Unit (SBU), are the Construction, Forestry, Mine and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU), and the Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union (CEPU). They are making a stand for fair rights and equitable job protections on behalf of workers so those workers can determine their own terms and conditions of work. 
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SBU Picket at Goonyella Riverside Mine, July
That is a tenet to Fair Work Australia. Over the weekend of 17-18 September, BMA used FWA to suspend bargaining, circumvent the SBU, and take its rotten work proposals directly to 4,000 miners. A ballot will be held between 29 September and 5 October. Knowingly or not, but characteristic in itself, BMA scheduled the ballot during Australian school holidays &ndash; many workers will be away with family. 
 
Nonetheless, the ballot will receive near 100% rejection. Ever since a strike vote passed by 92% on 2 June, miners at six collieries have gained ever more strength and unity, and have developed the ironclad fortitude that extended work rosters and Howard-era management rights are not good for family life and destructive to job security. 
 
The ICEM will continue to champion the workers under the SBU banner of our three affiliated unions. Their fight is one that must be won so that the bad choices made in WorkChoices finally make their way to the dustbin. The ICEM has chronicled this struggle and the lawful industrial actions taken by the SBU, and a sampling of past developments can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4611-CFMEU-Still-Seeking-Australian-Coal-Agreement-with-BHP-Billiton-Mitsubishi ">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4506-Stop-Work-Meetings-Raise-Stakes-in-Queensland-Coal-Talks ">here</a>. 
 
In sync with BMA&rsquo;s recent ballot initiative, shift-long work stoppages occurred early last week at four of the six mines &ndash; Norwich Park, Saraji, Gregory, and Crinum. The SBU has effectively called for quality-of-life balances in print and media advertisements and industrial actions have continued at all mines in recent weeks.

Coal Boss Conceit: BMA Tries to Bully Aussie Labour Law Back to Howard Era

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A Mexican coal mine explosion inside a Coahuila colliery of Altos Hornos de M&eacute;xico (AHMSA), a subsidiary of the Grupo Acerero del Notre steel and transport conglomerate, killed four miners early on 26 August. The explosion occurred at AHMSA&rsquo;s &ldquo;La Esmeralda,&rdquo; or No. 5 mine in the municipality of San Juan de Sabinas. 
 
Six other miners managed to escape the blast, which occurred during the 25 August night shift. The explosion caused a roof inside the mine to collapse, burying the miners who were operating machines. A total of 132 miners were at work at the No. 5 mine at the time of the blast. Bodies of the four dead miners were recovered late on 26 August. 
 
They are: Miguel Hern&aacute;ndez Mart&iacute;nez, 33; Mario Alberto Flores Mart&iacute;nez, 38; &Aacute;ngel Gonz&aacute;lez Pineda, 32; and Jes&uacute;s Tob&iacute;as Hern&aacute;ndez, 36. 
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The ICEM and Metalworkers&rsquo; affiliate, National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros, blasted the yellow union set up at La Esmeralda for remaining silent on the mine tragedy, just as it had when a 27 March 2011 tragedy happened at another AHMSA mine that killed two and injured three. That occurred at AHMSA&rsquo;s Monclova No. 7 mine, also in Coahuila state. 
 
Los Mineros leveled blame on the company and the &ldquo;irresponsibility, greed, and arrogance&rdquo; of AHMSA that caused the deaths, comparing it to Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s negligence in the 2006 Pasta de Conchos mine explosion that killed 65 miners. 
 
AHMSA is Mexico&rsquo;s largest vertically integrated steel producer and third largest overall, and is a company that strives to supply its own coal and iron ore reserves. The company, which was state owned until 1992, also has become a heavyweight in cross-border transport and export of pipe and tube, rolled steel products, carbon steels, and other iron and steel products. Construction of AHMSA&rsquo;s sixth blast furnace recently as part of the F&eacute;nix project, has lifted the firm&rsquo;s annual steel-making capacity to over five million tonnes annually. 
 
The La Esmeralda mine began production in 1999. 
 
Over two dozen mine deaths have occurred so far this year in Coahuila state, including 14 who died after an explosion in an illegal coal mine on 3 May. That <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4413-Mine-Blast-Near-Pasta-de-Conchos-Kills-14-in-Mexico ">Mexican safety travesty</a> can be read here in an ICEM May 2011 account.

Coal Mine Blast at Mexican Steel Company Unit Kills 4

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Australian union members of three trade union organisations are livid with the announcement that BlueScope Steel will lop 1,400 jobs in New South Wales and Victoria. Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), and the Electrical Trades Union of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (ETU-CEPU) met in Wollongong on 25 August and sternly moved to resist all restructuring until further labour-management consultations can occur. 
 
Today in Canberra, the unions met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and urged her Labour Government to launch an inquiry into Australia&rsquo;s manufacturing crisis. 
 
BlueScope, formed in 2002 when BHP Steel was spun off in the BHP and Billiton merger, announced on 22 August that it was shedding nearly half of its Port Kembla Steelworks staff of 3,100 and another 200 jobs at a hot-strip steel mill in Hastings, Victoria. 
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AMWU&rsquo;s Dave Oliver (left), AWU&rsquo;s Paul Howes, ETU National Secretary Peter Tighe (right) at Port Kembla Steelworks, 22 August
Photo: Illawarra Mercury
Last Thursday&rsquo;s heated union meeting came when workers also learned that senior managers of the troubled company are awarding themselves A$3.05 million in bonuses, including A$721,000 for CEO Paul O&rsquo;Malley. The company recently posted an operating loss of A$118 million plus an asset write-down of A$900 million, mainly from a rising Australian dollar, high raw material costs, and depressed order books. 
 
The BlueScope job cuts come at a time when booming Australian resource exports are driving up currency exchange rates to the detriment of Australia goods and product manufacturing. BlueScope is chopping 1,200 full-time and contract labour jobs by idling a blast furnace, coking battery, slab caster, and oxygen-based steelmaking vessel at Port Kembla south of Sydney, and the 200 steel-rolling jobs on Victoria&rsquo;s Mornington Peninsula. 
 
Speaking at Port Kembla the day BlueScope made the announcement, AMWU National Secretary Dave Oliver said, &ldquo;The benefits of the mining boom come with very big downsides and 1,400 families have learnt today the hard way about the downsides. &ldquo;Today is a massive wake-up call for to state and federal governments to take more action on this issue.&rdquo; 
 
In news interview yesterday, 28 August, before today&rsquo;s meeting with Gillard, Oliver said the federal government must take immediate action to bolster manufacturing. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s acceptable that 90% of the gear that goes into a resource project is imported from overseas,&rdquo; he said. 
 
AWU National Secretary Paul Howes called on the federal government and the Reserve Bank Australia (RBA) also to kick into action. Howes said the Labour government must impose &ldquo;robust&rdquo; anti-dumping measures, pressure China to stop currency manipulation of the Yuan, and he called on the RBA to lower interest rates in order to promote Australian manufacturing. 
 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to face the reality of the manufacturing crisis that&rsquo;s before us,&rdquo; said Howes. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t accept job losses as the norm and we can&rsquo;t rely on imported goods in our strategic sectors.&rdquo; 
 
The announcement of BlueScope&rsquo;s job losses in Australia last week came a week after steelworkers, members of New Zealand&rsquo;s Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), downed tools for 24 hours in a protest over outsourcing at New Zealand Steel, a wholly owned subsidiary of BlueScope. Over 850 EPMU members engaged in the industrial action on 15 August at a steel roll mill at Glenbrook, south of Auckland, and at company iron mines at Waikato North Head and Taharoa.

BlueScope Steel Sackings Reveal Crisis in Australian Manufacturing

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Jack Layton, the soul of a progressive Canada and leader of the NDP, passed away Monday, 22 August, of cancer. For the past decade and more, Layton has led a populist surge in Canada that has given NDP, the party of fairness and justice, the official opposition stamp &ndash; since May 2011 &ndash; to the ruling neo-liberal Tories. Layton was 61. 
 
Layton had recently been diagnosed with his second bout against cancer. He died early in the morning on 22 August in his home and surrounded by his family. 
 
Layton&rsquo;s energy and conviction inspired ordinary Canadians and statements on his passing testified to that. Statements by North American unions said Layton&rsquo;s inspiration, ideas, and vision must push forward at a faster pace now. 
 
In a statement to Canadian unions expressing condolences over Layton&rsquo;s passing, the ICEM said, &ldquo;What happens in Canada has global significance&rdquo; (see full <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/100.ICEM.Jack%20Layton.Canada.23August.pdf">ICEM letter</a>). The ICEM remembers Layton as a courageous fighter for social justice, depicted best in his own words on the labour strife brought by Vale, the Brazilian mining giant, or to the Mexican government on its union smashing. 
<img alt="" src="" width="290" height="161" />
Toronto: Tributes to Jack Layton
In Sudbury at the beginning of a bitter year-long strike Vale provoked against Canadian living standards, Layton stood among thousands of miners, and emphatically said, &ldquo;They cannot take away what working people have built over generations in this country, or this town.&rdquo; 
 
In 2009, Layton was part a global labour mission to Mexico sponsored by the ICEM and International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF). He accurately summarised the full trade union climate in Mexico: &ldquo;We made it clear that the government&rsquo;s interference in union governance, it&rsquo;s jailing of union leaders and freezing union bank accounts, declaring strikes illegal and failing to prosecute the killers of union leaders, are serious and unacceptable violations of basic human rights.&rdquo; 
 
Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada said: &ldquo;I knew Jack Layton as a principled social democrat who was utterly committed to social justice and peace. Thousands of our members knew Jack by his first name, as a leader who had reached out to them in their workplaces and communities. Jack Layton paid attention to our members&rsquo; deepest concerns and gave them unqualified support in their struggles.&rdquo; 
 
Ken Neumann, Canadian National Director of the Untied Steelworkers (USW), said: &ldquo;Jack reawakened Canadians to the reality that government can &ndash; and must &ndash; play a positive role in ensuring the economic and social wellbeing of its citizens. Steelworkers will help lead the way in honouring Jack&rsquo;s legacy by carrying on his fight to build a better Canada and a better world.&rdquo; 
 
Ken Lewenza, President of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) said in a message to the NDP: &ldquo;At Jack&rsquo;s passing, your voice of conscience is needed more than ever. Your efforts can and will make a difference in the direction of our country.&rdquo; The CAW also said that in mourning, progressive Canada must reflect on Jack&rsquo;s vision for Canada &ldquo;and how we can endeavor to make some of his cherished ideas a reality.&rdquo; 
 
Jack Layton was born in Hudson, Quebec, into a political family. He entered public service in 1982 as a member of the Toronto City Council after leaving academia. His years on the city council of Canada&rsquo;s largest city were marked by many accomplishments concerning poverty, homelessness, public transport, and environmental stewardship. In 2004, Layton won election to the federal Parliament as NDP leader, and the NDP has grown steadily to where it now is the logical political choice for a social Canada, and beyond. The ICEM letter said Jack stood always for workers, the poor, the disenfranchised. 
 
Jack is survived by his wife, Olivia, his dedicated political partner; and a son, Mike, a member of the Toronto City Council, and daughter, Sarah, who works for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Jack Layton: 1950-2011

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The ICEM affiliate Paper &amp; Paper Products Manufacturing Employees&rsquo; Union (PPPMEU) of Malaysia won ground-breaking collective agreement language on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) with Kimberly Clark, a global paper products company. In July at the company&rsquo;s Kluang pulp and hygiene products mill, PPPMEU and KC agreed to change a management rights clause in the Union Recognition article to specifically state that &ldquo;Contract workers are within the scope of the agreement.&rdquo; 
 
The renewal three-year agreement also gives all workers, some 500 in total, a 6% wage increase retroactive to 1 January 2011. In the month since the new agreement went into effect, 130 of the 180 temporary workers directly employed by Kimberly Clark have joined PPPMEU, a fact that speaks for itself. 
<img alt="" src="" width="180" height="109" />
All contract workers of Kimberly Clark Products Malaysia, beginning in 2012, will have entitlement to full social benefits, bonus payouts, public holidays, annual leave, retirement benefits, and all allowances as full-time staff. Many of the economic and social conventions in the renewal agreement applied retroactively to contract workers as well. 
 
Further wage increases will come in 2012 and 2013. The PPPMEU and Kimberly Clark in Malaysia bargained in the first half of 2011, but unwillingness to recognise all public holidays and other stumbling blocks prevented a timely agreement. In the end, PPPMEU deserves commendation in gaining from Kimberly Clark Products Malaysia an outstanding achievement on behalf of contract workers in the formal recognition of their union rights. 
 
There are still 100 third-party contractors working at Kimberly Clark&rsquo;s Kluang, Johor state, mill remain outside the scope of the collective agreement. These sub-contractors work for local companies. But for now, PPPMEU will continue recruitment inside the American company&rsquo;s Malaysian enterprise in order to build greater union power. The PPPMEU has had longstanding labour relations with Kimberly Clark dating to the 1980s. The company has had a market presence in Malaysia since 1969 and built its first manufacturing enterprise in 1983. About ten years ago, Kimberly Clark expanded at Kluang with nappie production. 
 
The ICEM congratulates PPPMEU in getting this ground-breaking collective agreement that brings immediate improvements to the work-lives of contract employees.

Malaysian Paperworkers’ Union Scores Big for Kimberly Clark Contract Workers

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Some 1,145 Bangladeshi coal miners went on strike against state-owned Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd. (BCMCL) and a Chinese contractor, led by the Bakapukuria Coal Mine Miners&rsquo; and Workers&rsquo; Union. The five-day strike ended today but workers did not return to their jobs, instead suspending the strike until 3 September while they celebrate the Eid vacation, an Islamic period of family gatherings. 
 
Negotiations two weeks ago between union leaders, BCMCL, and bosses for the China National Import and Export Corp. (XMC), the coal extraction contractor, failed on 22 August and staff stopped work at 6h on 23 August. 
 
All strikers are employed by XMC. They recently witnessed 226 BCMCL get huge pay bonuses due to profitability from the mine near Dinajpur. BCMCL Managing Director Md Quamruzzaman said profit sharing is only for BCMCL staff and miners working for XMC &ldquo;should get their bonus from their employer if there was any agreement in this regard.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="115" />
In the talks that ended early last week, however, BCMCL did step in with an offer. But it was insignificant. While the Miners&rsquo; and Workers&rsquo; Union is demanding a bonus of BDT 30,000 (&euro;280), management&rsquo;s offer was but BDT 4,200 (&euro;40). 
 
For at least three years now, the Bangladeshi miners also seek regularisation of their employment terms. As contract workers, they are not entitled to certain social protections, insurance, and pension benefits. The union staged a four-day strike in late March 2010 in which some pay gains were won. In both this strike and last year&rsquo;s, the union is enforcing blockades to prevent some 350 Chinese workers from working. And in last week&rsquo;s walkout, the strikers held BCMCL workers in offices as a symbolic protest to the discrimination in granting bonus pay-outs. 
 
Ironically, BCMCL was attempting to part ways with its Chinese partner when a contract ended last October. But after searching for bids, XMC, which has operated the mine complex since 2005, was the only bidder and BCMCL re-awarded the contract in May. At that time, the state company also installed a contractor to monitor wage levels paid by XMC in order to &ldquo;discourage (workers) from launching frequent demonstrations,&rdquo; in the words of the company. 
 
BCMCL produces to mine one million tonnes annually of thermal coal and is one of several subsidiaries of state-held Bangladesh Oil, Gas, Mineral Corp. (PETROBANGLA).

Bangladesh: Coal Contract Staff Strikes State Firm, Chinese Operator

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ICEM Belgian affiliate Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale-FGTB and the chemicals company Clariant Benelux made temporary peace nine days ago in a pitched industrial strike by blue-collar workers in Louvain-la-Neuve. Following talks between the union and the Swiss-based company, the blue-collar workforce accepted reinstatement of one of two discharged shop stewards (see previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4604-FGTB-Delegates-Sacked-at-Clariant-Chemicals-Plant-in-Belgium">ICEM article</a>) and resumption of social dialogue based on trade union rights and safeguards of freedoms.&nbsp; 
 
Mohamed Loukili and Kemal Bennaceur were sacked by Clariant on 27 July for faithfully carrying out union responsibilities inside the workplace. The recent negotiations came after a spirited strike manifestation and in the talks, FGTB won reinstatement for Loukili, while Bennaceur decided earlier to accept a pay-out package and depart the company. 
<img alt="" src="" width="231" height="164" />
Strikers Surround Mohamed Loukili (top, center) at 17 August Manifestation
The 17 August strike manifestation at Clariant plant gates in Louvain-la-Neuve saw 200 workers and supporters call on Clariant to reverse the anti-social sackings. Three days before the annual summer shut-down, managers announced dismissal of the two union representatives. That caused a strike by the entire 45-worker blue-collar unit, a strike that threatened the safety of some 100 white-collar staff when work resumed two weeks ago. 
 
The ICEM congratulates the FGTB on winning this important union rights test, and takes note that it is the second time in a month that Belgium&rsquo;s Socialist Union has won reinstatement rights for sacked job leaders. It happened at Belgian Refining Corp. (BRC), near the Port of Antwerp, when two union delegates were reinstated through dialogue on 15 July between FGTB-ABVV and BRC managers. (See that <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4558-BRC-Belgium-Conflict-Settled-Sacked-Oil-Workers-Reinstated">ICEM story</a> here.)&nbsp; 
 
Clariant&rsquo;s chemical plant in Louvain-la-Neuve is part of the Swiss company&rsquo;s Masterbatches division and produces colour chemicals for inks and textiles.

Belgium: FGTB Succeeds in Getting Staff Rep’s Job Back at Clariant

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Some 400 train drivers and car examiners at Rio Tinto iron ore operations in the Pilbara of West Australia have voted by 82% for a first collective agreement. The union that won those rights, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), now presents the three-year agreement to Fair Work Australia for approval. 
 
&ldquo;When Rio Tinto gave in principle support for the historic collective agreement back in June (see <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4505-CFMEU-Wins-Bargaining-Rights-for-Rio-Tinto-s-Pilbara-Train-Drivers">ICEM report</a> then), it marked a major milestone in industrial relations in the resources sector,&rdquo; said CFMEU West Australia Mining and Energy Secretary Gary Wood. 
 
We have now &ldquo;moved a little bit closer to greater workplace protection for the hardworking iron ore miners of the Pilbara.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="169" height="160" />
Gary Wood
Wood added that the new agreement &ldquo;and the strong support for it open up opportunities for negotiations down the track for further collective agreements at BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.&rdquo; 
 
The agreement is precedent-setting because it blows away a major barrier that for decades has stymied collective negotiations and collective action in the Pilbara. That has been the long-standing use of individual work agreements by mining houses to avoid enterprise agreements and to remain union-free. CFMEU breaks that barrier with this agreement and deserves hearty congratulations for doing so. 
 
Many of the 400 transport workers are fly-in, fly-out staff and move a good share of Australia&rsquo;s resource wealth to global markets. They are also to be commended because their unified vote means that the door has been flung wide open for future collective gains, be them big or small through the CFMEU.

Historic Collective Pact Takes Root for Rio Trainmen in Australia

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