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In a rare advisory referendum taken amongst members of the Dutch national union FNV, 80% of those voting agreed with the negotiated result between unions and employer federations to raise the basic retirement pension (AOW) age of the country. 
 
In balloting between 19 June and 1 July, 160,000 of 1.4 million union members voted that the Dutch retirement age ought to be raised from 65 to 66 in the year 2020, and then possibly to 67 in 2025 if a national evaluation of higher life expectancy after 2020 warrants it. The advisory vote goes to FNV&rsquo;s Council on 14 July, which is now expected to endorse the 4 June negotiated agreement between social partners. 
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FNV Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk
The negotiated social plan is seen as a guiding measure to a deadlocked government on retirement policy. The results of a 9 June election in the Netherlands revealed that any coalition government quite likely would come up with an even worse solution on pension revenue shortfalls and mandatory retirement age. 
 
Under the proposed social plan, workers would still have the option to retire at 65, but they would face a 6.5% reduction in pension benefits. And under the union-business plan, the lowest-paid workers, and workers who do heavy physical jobs, would be exempt from any rise in the current pension age. 
 
FNV Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk said he was pleased with the outcome of the late June balloting, calling it &ldquo;a clear result.&rdquo; The advisory referendum, a difficult administrative undertaking, was only the fifth time that FNV has even taken such a vote from its entire union membership.

FNV Members Give Nod to Raise Future Pension Age in the Netherlands

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A strike by 100 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) against an intransigent Brazilian multinational is now in its 18th week with no bargaining occurring since the outset. CAW Local 222 in Bowmanville, Ontario, 65 kilometres east of Toronto, is resisting deep pension and other cuts being forced it by Votorantim Cementos and its St. Marys Cement subsidiary, 
 
&ldquo;Workers have the right to a decent pension,&rdquo; said CAW National President Ken Lewenza. &ldquo;This is outright bullying of this small group of workers. This company is far from destitute and the rollback of any hard won workers' benefits is out of the question.&rdquo; 
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The strike began on 12 March. CAW Local 222 members last month began extending their picket lines to other St. Marys Cement plants and terminals in Canada. Local 222 saw their prior collective agreement expire on 31 January 2010, with the company demanding a change from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution plan. 
 
The change could mean as much as a 400% drop in annual pension earnings for workers. St. Marys is also seeking deep work-rule cuts. &ldquo;This is an important struggle against a company&rdquo; attempting to attack workers pensions, said Local 222 President Chris Buckley. 
 
Votorantim purchased seven cement plants and terminals, as well as 39 ready-mix operations from Lafarge&rsquo;s Blue Circle operations in Canada and the US in 2001 for US$700 million. It then revived the name St. Marys to the Toronto-based subsidiary, a name the operations went by for eight decades prior to Blue Circle buying them in 1997. Votorantim is a privately-held S&atilde;o Paulo-based industrial conglomerate that controls one-third of the Brazilian cement market. 
 
The ICEM supports CAW Local 222 in its struggle to retain a fair labour contract in Ontario.

Canadian Cement Strike Now in Its 18th Week

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Two UK trade unions are demanding an independent inquiry into the explosion at Total&rsquo;s Lindsey oil refinery in the afternoon of 29 June that killed one union member, and injured two others. The explosion was followed by a fire in a crude oil distillation unit of the massive refinery in North Lincolnshire. 
 
Twenty-four-year-old Robert Greenacre, a pipe fitter, was killed. He did not answer a safety roll call following the blast and his body was recovered late in the evening of 29 June. Greenacre, a member of Unite the Union, was an employee of a sub-contractor working for Jacobs Engineering, the primary contractor for Paris-based Total at Lindsey. 
 
&ldquo;Unite puts the highest premium on health and safety in the workplace and we are calling for an immediate, independent, and comprehensive inquiry into what happened,&rdquo; stated Unite National Officer for Construction Tom Hardacre. &ldquo;We would particularly like to know why further searches were not made when our member was unaccounted for in the roll-call when employees were evacuated.&rdquo; 
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Robert Greenacre
The GMB National Organiser for Engineering and Construction, Phil Whitehurst, also demanded that Total be held accountable. He said hard questions need to be asked both of the company and UK&rsquo;s Health and Safety Executive over why a &ldquo;Permit to Work&rdquo; was issued for pipefitting work inside the HDS-3 plant of the refinery. This &ldquo;brings into question Total&rsquo;s safety record yet again,&rdquo; said Whitehurst. &ldquo;They have to be held accountable.&rdquo; 
 
The GMB union leader was referring to a very recent verdict in a case from Total&rsquo;s Buncefield oil depot in which the French company admitted health and safety regulations had been breached, causing a 2005 explosion that injured 40 workers. 
 
In the days following the 29 June Lindsey blast, Total did send home 2,000 workers from the site because of asbestos exposure concerns due to damage from the explosion. Those workers began returning to work today, with the remainder due back to work tomorrow. All received full pay while idled. 
 
Greenacre, who had worked at his trade for five years, was engaged to be married and he and his wife-to-be recently purchased their first house together. The ICEM extends its condolences to the young worker&rsquo;s family, to Unite and GMB, and to all workers at Lindsey.

UK Unions Want Answers to Total’s Lindsey Refinery Blast, Killing One

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Following three days of intense negotiations, 2-4 July, South African state-owned electric utility provider Eskom and three trade unions won 2010 wage terms with increases of 9%, plus long-awaited housing allowances. With the threat of a strike looming during the final week of the World Cup &ndash; despite a labour court ruling now on appeal that deemed the entirety of Eskom an essential service &ndash; the company met the unions wage demands in talks before the nation&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA). 
 
The ICEM affiliated unions National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), and a third union, representing a combined 28,000 workers, are expected to sign the agreement this week, with the across-the board salary increase backdated to 1 June. 
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A major issue throughout bargaining was the housing allowance. In that, a compromise was reached in which workers will receive a R1,500 (US$194) monthly allowance. Entering early July&rsquo;s final mediated bargaining session before workers were prepared to strike, Eskom had an 8.5% wage offer and a R1,000 housing stipend on the table. The unions had demanded R2,500 for housing. 
 
The housing allowance issue was a carry over from last year&rsquo;s bargaining, when Eskom promised to establish a commission by year&rsquo;s end to award a first-ever stipend for staff who work away from home. That never materialized. 
 
Labour unions and management are expected to decide this week when the R1,500 allowance will take effect, with unions arguing it should be backdated. Also this week, talks will continue towards reaching a minimum service agreement, an accord that will determine which Eskom employees are not essential state workers and thus have the right to strike. The unions also have this matter before a labour appeals court. 
 
The NUM represents 16,000 workers at Eskom, while NUMSA represents about 5,000.

Eskom and South African Unions Agree to 9% Wage Hikes

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Seven miners were killed in three separate underground mine accidents in South Africa last week, including five contract workers at Aquarius Platinum&rsquo;s Marikana mine in the Bushveld area near Rustenburg, North West Province. 
 
The other deaths occurred at AngloGold Ashanti&rsquo;s Tau Lekoa gold mine on 7 July, where an explosion took the life the life of a miner, and at Imperial Platinum&rsquo;s Rustenburg mine, where an underground rock slide crushed a worker. Both are also in North West Province, with the Tau Lekoa mine extending into Free State Province. 
 
At Aquarius, two other miners were trapped at the Marikana mine late in the evening of 6 July when a large segment of an underground shaft collapsed. One of those miners suffered serious injuries, while the other was rescued unscathed. Rescue teams from nearby Impala Platinum and a Lonmin mine assisted in the rescue. All workers were employed by Murray and Roberts Cementation. 
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Aquarius has closed the No. 4 shaft of Marikana, which supplies the Australian-based company, the world&rsquo;s fourth largest platinum producer, with 50% of Marikana&rsquo;s production. 
 
The shaft remained closed early this week, and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it would take its mandatory one-day period of mourning once the mine reopens. 
 
&ldquo;Once this suspension is lifted, we will embark on a day of mourning, which means there won't be any work done at the mine on that day,&rdquo; said NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka. 
 
&ldquo;This is a disaster,&rdquo; added NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. &ldquo;At a time when the industry brags of so-called improved safety, we now have disasters raising their ugly heads again,&rdquo; he added. The NUM has called for a full investigation. 
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NUM General Secretary, Frans Baleni
Impala Platinum&rsquo;s Rustenberg mine death comes 50 weeks after nine miners tragically died at the Lease Mine No. 14 near Rustenburg, which was South Africa&rsquo;s worst disaster in 2009. Impala, the world&rsquo;s number two platinum producer, led all producers in South Africa in mining deaths last year. The country mines and processes 80% of all global platinum, which is used in electronics, catalytic converters, and jewelry. 
 
AngloGold has had a deal in place since 2008 to sell the Tau Lekoa mine to Simmer and Jacks, but internal problems within the latter company has prevented conclusion of the sale.

Seven Die in South African Mining Tragedies Last Week

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With a 75% ratification vote announced late on 7 July, Canadian nickel mining and processing workers represented by United Steelworkers (USW) Locals 6500 and 6200 in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, ended a 360-day strike against Vale SA. The Brazilian mining company and 3,500 USW members now begin a five-year collective agreement after a contentious strike that ended with both sides compromising on terms in mediated bargaining. 
 
Those terms were pieced together in high-level mediation from 19-22 June in Toronto. But final accord still eluded both sides due to differences in setting forth a just process through arbitration of Vale&rsquo;s unilateral sacking of nine strikers. Over 3-4 July, through the insistence of Ontario Provincial Labour Minister Peter Fonseca, a process was established, opening the way for the 6-7 July contract vote. 
 
Still to be resolved, however, is another strike over a separate labour contract between Vale and USW Local 9508 involving 200 steelworkers in Voiseys Bay and Goose Bay, Labrador. Those strikers have been out since 1 August 2009. The USW and Vale are expected to return to bargaining in mid-July in eastern Canada&rsquo;s maritime province, and resolution appears imminent following the Ontario approval. There, 84% of total membership of the two branch unions turned out last week to ratify. 
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The contract acceptance in Ontario thus closes a chapter to one of Canada&rsquo;s most acrimonious labour disputes, a dispute that saw mining and other unions from around the world galvanize behind the USW in efforts to preserve previously negotiated wage and work terms. The ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) helped coordinate the global campaign. 
 
In a joint statement, ICEM and IMF General Secretaries Manfred Warda and Jyrki Raina said: &ldquo;The perseverance and character of USW members in Ontario and Labrador is what trade unions everywhere will remember about this strike. Their fight became our fight and thus they laid the building blocks on how to wage a coordinated global campaign.&rdquo; 
 
The five-year agreement in Ontario includes yearly wage increases that, coupled with cost-of-living increases, will increase salaries between C$2.25 and C$2.50 per hour over the life of the agreement. The existing defined benefit pension plan for current workers also increases in increments over the contract term, with cost-of-living indexing and life-time health care benefits preserved. 
 
In compromises made by the two sides, a defined contribution pension plan for new hires was agreed to that provides company contributions equal to 8% of employees&rsquo; regular basic earnings, with workers able to contribute additionally between 2% to 6% of regular earnings. This plan includes long-term disability coverage that is the same as that contained in the defined benefit pension plan. 
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The nickel production bonus was retained, although at levels less than the previously negotiated bonus. Workers can still supplement regular earnings by up to C$15,000 per year, with compromise struck on the price of nickel in which the trigger kicks in. The prior trigger of US$2.25 per pound was increased to US$3.75, less than the US$5.00-per-pound originally sought by Vale. 
 
The new contract includes a C$2,000 signing bonus for all returning and retiring employees, with two additional C$1,000 bonuses linked to production numbers in the last one-third of 2010. 
 
It also includes a side agreement setting forth rigid contracting-out criteria, which will serve as a job security measure. 
 
A retirement incentive bonus was negotiated that will give workers with 30 years service a one-time C$30,000 retirement stipend, with C$15,000 granted to those with 27-29 years. A reduction in force was also agreed to of 113 jobs, with those redundancies very likely to come by way of attrition. 
 
The return-to-work agreement calls for Vale to recall USW members beginning in the next to the last week of July, and no later that 11 August. In the separate agreement involving the fate of the nine discharged USW Local 6500 members, the two sides agreed to have the Ontario Labour Relations Board make a determination on whether or not the unjust firings will go to independent arbitration. Those governmental hearings began on 9 July. 
 
In the USW&rsquo;s statement announcing the ratification, District Six Director Wayne Fraser said, &quot;Our members have spoken and I believe everyone respects the decisions they have made in extremely difficult circumstances.&rdquo;

Canadian USW Members Ratify 5-Year Collective Agreement with Vale

Policy positions differ in the trade union movement, both at national and international levels concerning the use of temporary work agencies. Views vary from total bans on such agencies, to partial bans, to strict regulation. There are also differences as to on what basis workers should be covered by collective bargaining agreements. However, there are certain views shared by all Global Unions. 
 
The first principle is that the primary form of employment shall be permanent, open-ended and direct employment. 
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Concerns and challenges 
 
The use of workers provided by temporary work agencies raises concerns and challenges for trade unions. This includes the effect that the use of temporary work agencies has on workers with regular and permanent employment as well as on the conditions under which work is performed by workers engaged through such agencies. The triangular relationship between the worker, the user enterprise and the temporary work agency that supplies the worker can undermine labour and social protection, as well as the effective realisation of the right of all workers to form or join trade unions and to bargain collectively. 
 
Agency workers must be specifically guaranteed the right to join a union with a collective bargaining relationship with the user enterprise and be part of a bargaining unit comprising direct employees of the user enterprise and be covered by all collective bargaining agreements applying to the user-enterprise. 
 
Using temporary work agencies as a way of replacing direct and permanent employment 
 
There may be legitimate demand-driven or business reasons for using temporary agency workers, including surges of work and seasonal employment, although such work can also be performed through direct employment. However, not all reasons for using temporary agency work are related to staff shortages or the &ldquo;fluctuation of business&rdquo; and it has become common to use temporary agency workers to fill previously permanent and direct positions and to reduce costs. Increasingly, workers provided by agencies are used to fill &ldquo;core&rdquo; jobs but are not given any opportunity to transition to direct permanent employment. In a growing number of instances, entire workforces are provided by temporary work agencies. 
 
Using temporary work agencies to adversely change employment conditions, avoid social responsibilities and evade laws 
 
Employers often use temporary agencies in order to avoid their legal obligations. This can and does lead to abuses such as social dumping and all kinds of discrimination. Work then becomes precarious and workers are denied the employment rights and working conditions to which they would otherwise be entitled. Sometimes these agencies are creations by the company or employer concerned, with the user enterprise becoming the sole client. 
 
Workers provided by agencies frequently receive significantly lower compensation than regular employees performing the same work. Such workers are also often not entitled to the same levels of social protection, such as retirement provision, the right to unemployment compensation, sickness benefits or maternity leave. Employers commonly do not invest sufficiently in the education or training of agency-supplied workers. Inadequate education and training may undermine the quality of service provided by the agency workers, while lack of training on health and safety increases the risk of occupational accidents and diseases. 
 
The cost of downsizing is lower if temporary agency workers are engaged because ending a commercial contract is often less costly than terminating an employment relationship. In various countries and sectors, the financial crisis resulted therefore in massive job losses for temporary agency workers, who are not generally entitled to any of the compensations that are required to be paid in the case of forced redundancies. This experience heightens the danger that as economies recover, employers will increasingly favour temporary agency work as a means to avoid the costs of terminating regular employees. This would add additional instability and volatility to the economy. 
 
Where more and more workers are made &ldquo;disposable&rdquo;, many business risks are shifted from employers to workers. 
 
Using temporary work agencies to weaken trade unions, avoid collective bargaining or prevent union organising 
 
Employers are, at times, deliberately using temporary work agencies to reduce the number of workers covered by collective bargaining at their enterprises or to prevent unorganised sections of the workforce from seeking union representation and exercise their right to bargain with the user enterprise, which effectively controls terms and conditions of employment. 
 
One of the principal reasons why workers do not form or join trade unions is fear of discrimination or dismissal. Temporary agency employment increases this fear because it is a way to avoid dismissal legislation, which has the effect of, indirectly, protecting the right to organise. Too often, contracts are simply ended. In addition, temporary agency employment reduces the workers&rsquo; stake in an enterprise, as well as the opportunity to participate in trade unions. 
 
The use of workers supplied by temporary work agencies to replace striking workers or to undermine industrial action at a user enterprise is a serious violation of trade union rights. 
 
Using temporary work agencies as a means of exploitation. 
 
Where temporary work agencies are permitted to operate, they must be properly regulated and monitored in order to prevent abuses of workers, such as human trafficking or fee charging in cross border placements. When agencies involved in recruiting workers in one country for work in another country charge fees to the workers concerned instead of to the user enterprise, those abuses lead to extreme exploitation, including bonded or slave labour. All recruitment fees, including visa, transportation and hiring fees, must therefore always be borne by the user enterpriser. 
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Fundamental principles on temporary work agencies 
 
&bull; The primary form of employment shall be permanent, open-ended and direct employment. 
 
&bull; Workers provided by temporary work agencies must be accorded equal treatment and opportunities, including equal pay for equal work, with regular and permanent employees with respect to terms and conditions of employment. 
 
&bull; Workers employed through temporary work agencies must have a recognised and enforceable written contract of employment, specifying their terms and conditions of employment. 
 
&bull; Where agencies are permitted to operate, they must be strictly regulated, including through licensing. 
 
&bull; Temporary work agencies must not be used to eliminate permanent and direct employment relationships, diminish the conditions under which work is performed, avoid collective bargaining relationships with trade unions or effectively make it impossible for an agency worker to join a trade union. 
 
&bull; Employers should consult trade unions before agency workers are used and negotiate over any effects that the use of these agency workers might have on regular employees, on working conditions or on the collective agreement. 
 
&bull; The use of temporary agencies should be restricted to cases of legitimate need. As a minimum, there should be defined limits on the use of agency workers, as well as restrictions on the duration of such employment. 
 
&bull; Workers provided by temporary work agencies must be guaranteed access to information on health and safety regulations in the workplace and be given the same equipment, induction and training as permanent workers. 
 
&bull; Adequate and continuous social protection for agency workers, including social security coverage, must be ensured by employers and government alike. 
 
&bull; Temporary work agencies must treat workers without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, colour, sex, sexual orientation, religion, political opinion, nationality, social origin, age, disability or any other form of discrimination. Appropriate regulatory frameworks (governmental, co-regulation or self-regulation) on private employment agencies should include and promote these principles, rights and obligations. These include the minimum standards outlined in ILO Convention No. 111. 
 
&bull; Given the general over-representation of women in agency employment and the disparity in wages between permanent and agency workers, particular attention must be given to ensure that the equal pay provisions of Convention No. 100 are applied, including equal pay for work of equal value. 
 
&bull; The ILO should play a much more active role in ensuring that temporary employment agencies respect basic labour standards, as well as in collecting data on abuses and best practices, while at the same time monitoring and analysing trends in employment in both the private and public employment agency sector. This research should focus on issues relating to the economic crisis and the Global Jobs Pact. The Global Unions should participate in this work. 
 
&bull; Workers supplied by temporary work agencies must never be used to replace striking workers or undermine industrial action. 
 
&bull; Temporary work agencies must not charge any fees to workers for dispatching them. 
 
&bull; The user-enterprise must be held liable for all financial and other obligations with respect to temporary agency workers should the agency fail to honour its responsibilities. 
 
 
Principles of public policy with respect to temporary agency work 
 
&bull; Governments have the responsibility to protect the interests of society in stable employment relationships and to ensure the applicability of labour law, the branch of law developed to protect workers in both public and private sectors, in their unequal relationship with employers. 
 
&bull; Governments can limit or ban the use of temporary work agencies in order to protect these broader societal interests. 
 
&bull; Government must set strict regulations and licensing conditions if agencies are permitted to operate. 
 
&bull; Governments should consult trade unions on issues related to working and employment conditions of the agency workers, as well as on conditions of use of temporary agency work prior to making changes in the regulatory framework. 
 
&bull; The respective roles, obligations and rights of the workers, the temporary work agency and the enterprise using the worker must be clarified when there is an employment relationship between a temporary work agency and a worker. 
 
&bull; Governments must take genuine and concrete measures such as changes in legislation to ensure that workers dispatched by temporary work agencies are able to effectively exercise their right to join or form trade unions. This includes the right to join a union with a collective bargaining relationship with the user enterprise and be part of a bargaining unit comprising direct employees of the user enterprise and be covered by all collective bargaining agreements applying to the user-enterprise. 
 
&bull; Governments should strengthen labour inspection, including through providing adequate resources, in order to effectively apply labour law and regulations to employment via temporary work agencies. 
 
&bull; Governments should provide effective mechanisms to protect all workers from health and safety hazards and ensure health &amp; safety conditions of temporary agency workers are the same as of permanent ones. Governments should introduce sanctions for user-enterprises, public and private, not complying with health &amp; safety requirements. 
 
 
Migrant workers dispatched through temporary agencies face specific problems. 
 
&bull; Migrant workers should receive details of their living and working conditions in a language they understand before leaving their country of origin. 
 
&bull; Governments must take active measures to prevent human trafficking and the exploitation of migrant workers by labour intermediaries, both public and private, including temporary work agencies. 
 
&bull; Governments should ensure that immigration legislation governing migrant workers recruited through agencies does not conflict with labour laws by imposing restrictions on migrant workers&rsquo; rights to join trade unions or bargain collectively. 
 
&bull; Workers should not be required to pay deposits, visa, transportation and hiring fees. In the case of agencies dispatching workers to other countries, the agencies should be required to repatriate workers in the event that their employment ends or the user company disappears. 
 
&bull; Workers must not be required to surrender their passports or other travel or identity documents. 
 
&bull; Temporary migrant workers should have full rights to legal redress in the country where they work.

Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies

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Svetlana Klochok was elected to lead the ICEM affiliate, Belarusian Chemical, Miners&rsquo;, and Oil Workers&rsquo; Union (Belchimprofsoyuz) early this month, despite heavy intrusion by the national labour centre Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FPB) and its president, Leonid Kozik. The election and Belchimprofsoyuz&rsquo;s Fifth Congress took place on 3 June in Minsk. 

During the final week of preparations for the Congress, strong pressure was exerted on the 197 delegates to place into leadership a colleague of Kozik&rsquo;s. The effort failed and Klochok won in a free and democratic vote of delegates, signaling a very strong slap to FPB for meddling in the internal affairs of an affiliated union. 

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Klochok had served as Vice President of the union. She succeeds Ludmila Grushetskaya who, after many years leading the union, decided not to run for re-election. 
 
The Congress took note of the global financial crisis, and despite it, the Belchimprofsoyuz secretariat reported the union did remarkably well in protecting working collectives, particularly in the oil and chemical industries. It achieved higher salary levels and maintained the number of jobs at levels near the number before the crisis. 
 
Some 90% of all workers in Belchimprofsoyuz&rsquo;s sectors are union members. The union&rsquo;s membership is 153,000, and it added 12,000 new members over the past four years. 
The Congress was attended by international trade union delegates from Russia and Italy, and the ICEM was represented by its Central Europe and Eastern Europe/Central Asia Coordinator Anatoly Surin. 
 
The ICEM welcomes the new President of Belchimprofsoyuz, Svetlana Klochok, and looks forward to continued good and fruitful relations with the Belarusian union.

Belarus Affiliate Wards Off National Centre Interference, Elects Democratic President

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From 1-3 June, the second meeting of unions organizing in Spanish multinationals was held in Bogot&aacute;. It was attended by 25 trade unions from across Latin America. The meeting was organized by ISCOD, the Spanish Trade Union Development Institute that is connected to one of Spain&rsquo;s national labour centres, the UGT, as well as ICEM and Union Network International (UNI). 
 
The main objective of the meeting was to monitor the activities and to provide for measures to assure trade union rights are adhered to in Spanish multinationals. The activities must be geared to strengthening union organization, promoting unity processes, and reinforcing trade union alliances as well as campaigns for equality. 
 
Representatives were present from the private oil and gas workers&rsquo; federation of Argentina, CNQ Brazil, Sintraelecol of Colombia, and UGT delegates from Endesa, Gas Natural-Fenosa, and Repsol in Spain. 
 
One of the aims of holding the meeting in Colombia was to address the issue of murders of trade unionists. Sub-contracting in Colombia as it contributes to union busting is a further concern. The recent passing of the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the European Union was one further topic of discussion. The meeting demanded assurances for respecting trade unions, citizens and consumers.
<img src="" width="120" height="131" alt="" />
ICEM Latin American/Caribbean Region Vice Presdient Sergio Novais&nbsp;
Sergio Novais, ICEM Vice-President for the Latin American/Caribbean Region, said, &ldquo;At this second meeting, we insist that multinationals have the same conduct in Latin America as they do at home. In the specific case of Colombia, there is no guarantee that trade union leaders can perform their duties with impunity. ICEM has seven affiliates in Colombia, and leaders of all of them have to carry out their activities with bodyguards. We have been denouncing this outrage for many years.&rdquo; 
 
The participants were concerned about the impacts of the crisis in Spain and the possible effects on Spanish multinationals and their employees in Latin America. A more profound exchange of experience was seen to be one way to avoid abuses. This project is on-going through the auspices of ISCOD and ICEM&rsquo;s Spanish affiliate, the FIA-UGT, who are thanked and congratulated for their support.

Murders, Union Rights Discussed at Observatory of Spanish Firms in Bogotá Meeting

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On the heels of a gainful first contract victory against with Covanta on the US east coast, a branch of the ICEM affiliate Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) mounted another mobilisation in the US Midwest to stave off unneeded concessions, winning another excellent collective agreement. 

This one was with DTE Energy, the electric and gas provider that formerly was known as Detroit Edison. Some 4,000 UWUA Local 223 are now voting on a three-year labour agreement that will give them 3% annual salary increases, plus a US$750 contract signing bonus.
<img src="" width="220" height="146" alt="" />
&nbsp;UWUA President Mike Langford, at 1 June Local 223 meeting. At left, Executive Vice President Steven VanSlotten and Local 223 President Rich Hawkins. At right, Local 223 President Jim Harrison
The proposed agreement, negotiated in contentious bargaining that went right up to the 6 June expiry of a prior three-year agreement, came primarily because of workers&rsquo; anger in being presented with concessionary proposals by a company posting rich (US$230 million) net profits in first quarter 2010, and then handsomely rewarding its top executives. 

DTE Energy had proposed huge increases to the portion of worker-paid health care coverage, elimination or cuts to retiree health care, and the stripping of job security provisions. On 1 June in a fiery, over-full mass union meeting that needed the police of Livonia, Michigan, for crowd control, Local 223 members voted 97% to give strike authorization to the bargaining committee. 

Workers were angry that they contributed US$100 million in continuous improvements at Edison and MichCon. At the mass meeting, UWUA President Mike Langford said, &ldquo;The national union will not allow this to happen. We won&rsquo;t let DTE line the pockets of executives while it empties the wallets of our workers.&rdquo;
<img src="" width="300" height="200" alt="" />
Local 223 members turned out in force on 1 June to resist DTE Energy&rsquo;s takeaways&nbsp; 

Bargaining resumed the next day and by the time weekend (4-6 June) talks concluded, the company had moved from its entire slate of concessions. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re proud that we were able to work together to achieve an outcome that values our employees, serves our customers and supports Michigan&rsquo;s economic recovery,&rdquo; appropriately stated the company in a joint news release. 

UWUA Local 223 represents electric line workers, skilled trades-persons, technical staff, power plant operators, electric and gas service and distribution workers, and customer service, office, and clerical staff. Local 223 members also serve as first responders in times of crisis and in times of life and death situations in Detroit and surrounding communities.

US Utility Workers Win Again, This Time with Detroit Electric Company

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