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Finland&rsquo;s papermaking unions, Paperiliitto and Ammattiliitto Pro, have new 25-month labour agreements with the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF) that take effect in March 2012. That was assured one week ago, on 28 November, after the employers&rsquo; association in the transport, ports, and shipping industry signed an accord with AKT, the Transport Drivers&rsquo; and Port Workers&rsquo; Union. 
 
Even though the FFIF came to terms with the two ICEM affiliates separately in the pulp and paper sector on 23 November, the FFIF was unwilling to sign off on the agreements until they had a guarantee that strikes would not occur in the transportation and export of pulp and paper products. 
<img alt="" src="" width="130" height="93" />
The agreement in the paper sector follows a framework agreement made between the three national trade union confederations &ndash; SAK, STTK and STTK &ndash; and the Confederation of Finnish Industries on 13 October. 
 
In March 2012, Ammattiliitto Pro members will receive a 1.6% across-the-board wage increase, in addition to an average 0.8% increase that will be negotiated locally and is part of a new salary structure. That amount will reward new work demands, personal skill developments, and greater efficiencies by workers on the local level. 
 
Paperiliitto members will receive a 1.5% increase, with 0.9% to be negotiated locally. 
 
Essentially, this new salary structure was recognized by employers through strike actions taken last spring by Ammattiliitto Pro, Finland&rsquo;s white-collar and clerical workers&rsquo; union, which represents about 4,000 staff at some 50 paper enterprises. 
 
In April 2013, the wage increase for Ammattillio Pro will be 1.3%, with a 0.6% award won on the new locally-negotiated salary structure. Paperiliitto's 2013 increase will be 1.2%, with 0.7% awarded locally. 
<img alt="" src="" width="190" height="46" />
Two other important aspects of the pulp and paper agreement include extra protection for workers when mills close. In effect, employers take on more responsibility for re-training and skill development, as well as workers given the flexibility to take new work in another enterprise and still qualify for redundancy benefits. 
Also, shop stewards and safety representatives who receive slightly higher pay for their responsibilities will get a 10% supplement on top of that higher pay. The two unions also won a universal three-day paid leave annually for vocational training and education. 
 
Both Petri Vanhala, President of Paperiliitto, and Markku Palokangas, Pro&rsquo;s Vice President for the Industrial Sector, expressed satisfaction with the 25-month agreement, especially with the gains made through the national framework agreement. Paperiliitto represents some 19,000 blue-collar workers across Finland&rsquo;s pulp and paper industry.

Paper Unions in Finland Make Gains in 2012-2014 National Labour Accord

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The ICEM Brazilian affiliate, Federac&atilde;o &Uacute;nica dos Petroleiros (FUP), or Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Unified Federation, carved important new safety protections for deepwater oil platform workers in a new collective agreement recently approved. 
 
The union twice came to the edge of beginning strike actions, but postponed walkouts when the Brazilian state company agreed to better pay and more FUP and worker involvement in safety matters on the platforms in the Campos and Esp&iacute;rito Santo Basins, as well as across the company nationally. 
 
Following the FUP General Board accepting a revised company proposal that spells out specific safety requirements on 22 November, the contract won favour from 35,000 oil workers in local meetings, many coming on 26 November. 
<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="110" />
The new contract stipulates mandatory union representation of 150 safety specialists on platforms in the Campos Basin, for instance, and it requires three annual inspections per rig. Petrobras is underway with a US$225 billion investment in downstream and upstream projects, including exploration and development of 19 new wells next year in the deepwater Campos Basin off S&atilde;o Paulo state. 
 
FUP leaders throughout seven rounds of bargaining called for the same safety criteria that Norwegian state company Statoil has with ICEM affiliate IndustriEnergi (IE). Since the 2001 killing of 11 workers in the explosions and subsequent sinking of its P36 platform in the Roncador offshore fields, Petrobras has seen some 80 workplace fatalities, including one in September from a fire on a diesel fuel tanker. 
 
The FUP in 2010 forced suspensions on both Platforms 33 and 35 off Brazil, and the company itself shut operations on different vessels in both January and February this year over safety concerns. 
 
Worker safeguards in the agreement came only after FUP set a second strike deadline of 16 November. Following a first strike threat some weeks before, Petrobras agreed to improve health and pension fund benefits for workers. 
 
The pay package, another key issue throughout talks, will see Petrobras oil workers get a 10.71% pay rise, which represents 3.4% in real wages when factoring in Brazil&rsquo;s inflation rate.

Strike Threat Gets FUP Major Safety Protections for Brazil’s Petrobras Workers

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Workers throughout Britain are scrambling to fight to protect their pensions, as companies follow the government&rsquo;s tactics of attacking pension schemes. Last week members of three joint affiliates of ICEM and the International Union of Food, Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) at the food and cosmetics manufacturing multinational Unilever voted to strike. 
 
Unilever is attempting to unilaterally scrap the final salary pension scheme for existing members and replace it with a career-average scheme that would cut as much as 40% of the expected retirement benefits of long serving employees. 
 
The company already blocked the final salary scheme to new entrants in 2008, but this plan to move 5,000 existing members has caused outrage, especially as part of the justification for the 2008 move was to preserve the benefits of existing members. 
<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="90" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="175" height="70" />
If the company does not act swiftly to avert the strikes, it will be the largest strike action it has faced in its 80 year history, and the first time a FTSE 100 company has faced a strike purely on the issue of pensions. 
 
5,000 workers producing well-known products such as Persil detergent and Marmite voted resoundingly in favour of the strike ballot. 85% of Unite members, and 75% of GMB members, and a large majority of USDAW members all voted on 28 November in support of the strike which will probably be conducted at 12 factories in December. 
 
&quot;The vote also shows that ordinary workers will not stand idly by to watch profitable employers like Unilever jumping on the pensions robbery bandwagon,&quot; stated Allan Black, national officer at GMB and ICEM Executive Committee member. 
 
Union negotiators offered the company alternatives to reduce the risk of the final salary scheme and cap benefits, but were frozen out of discussions by the talks by management. 
 
This month Unilever CEO Paul Polman received shares worth &pound;1,069,986. 
 
Unilever also just announced 600 redundancies in closing the Alberto Culver plant in Melrose Park near Chicago, Illinois in 2013. Workers at the 50 year old factory are members of United Steelworkers Local 9777, most of whom are very long-serving employees. The factory produces well known products VO5, TRESemme and Nexxus shampoos and conditioners, and St. Ives lotions and body wash.

UK Unilever Workers Vote to Strike to Protect Pensions

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A day-long strike on 30 November in the UK brought a standstill to public services and a stark reminder that the Tory-led coalition government&rsquo;s proposed rollbacks to public-sector pensions is intolerable and will be met by street resistance. An estimated two million British workers conducted strikes at over 1,000 separate manifestations and it marked the country&rsquo;s largest mass actions since the &ldquo;Winter of Discontent&rdquo; strikes in 1979. 
 
Dubbed &ldquo;Pensions Justice Day of Action,&rdquo; 30 unions in the UK held strike votes in the months before 30 November against a government trying to impose austerity measures that include making public-sector employees work longer and pay more into what will result in smaller pension benefits. 
<img alt="" src="" width="269" height="161" />
Photo: Mac Urata
The rallying cry on 30 November was that it was bankers and lack of government oversight that caused revenue shortfalls, so why should the men and women who make Britain&rsquo;s public services work pay the price with lower pensions and more working years? 
 
The 30 November strikes brought 75% of all schools to a close, with teachers protesting more work through larger class sizes and less pay and pension money. Work stoppages brought reduced services inside hospitals, to National Health Service agencies, to public transport, in the courts, and throughout government departments and agencies. 
 
Perhaps the shrillest message against the Cameron/Osborne government&rsquo;s austerity plan came from civil servants at the Tax Ministry. A full 90% of them abandoned their jobs and took part in the day of protest last week. 
 
A group from Occupy London used the day to protest against global mining company Xstrata and its CEO Mick Davis. Activists were arrested at a sit-in inside Xstrata&rsquo;s London headquarters near Piccadilly Circus. They were protesting Davis&rsquo;s &pound;18 million compensation packaging, the largest among executives of the FTSE 100. 
 
Mass demonstrations shut down the city centre of Manchester, brought picket lines to government buildings and a 25,000 march through Liverpool, made 150,000 court workers leave their jobs, delaying and postponing court dockets, and saw the largest strike in Northern Ireland history where 10,000 civil servants rallied at city hall in Belfast. 
<img alt="" src="" width="252" height="160" />
NGWF, ITGLWF lead Bangladesh solidarity march for UK strikers
The UK strikes were felt globally as well. The ICEM was informed that the National Garment Workers&rsquo; Federation (NGWF) of Bangladesh held a sympathy strike for British workers in Dhaka at mid-day on 30 November that included addresses by NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin and International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation Education Secretary Steve Grinter. 
 
The Tory coalition government&rsquo;s public-sector austerity plan calls for an increase in the pension age from 60 to 66 in the year 2020, and then to 67 in 2026. It seeks increased pension contributions to come out of the pockets of workers, and a pension formula based on average lifetime earnings rather than the current end-of-career pay. 
 
And a day before the 30 November strikes, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne further fueled worker discontent by announcing that when the current public-sector pay freeze expires in 2012, the government will insist on a 1% cap to salary increases over the following two years.

2 Million Strike in Resistance to UK’s Public-Sector Cuts

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The Indonesian national government and Papua province Manpower officials will both participate in bargaining today in Timika, Papua, in further attempts to resolve the wage and benefit issues behind an 11-week strike. The strike is against US-based Freeport-McMoRan by the PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union of the Chemical, Energy, Mine Workers Union (CEMWU), or SP KEP SPSI. 
 
Meanwhile, as talks continue into the fifth straight week with little progress to report, the union this week is making plans to issue another official notice to extend the strike a fourth time, again a 30-day extension that will continue the stoppage from 15 December to 15 January 2012. Some 10,000 mineworkers have blocked all production from Freeport-McMoRan&rsquo;s Grasberg mines, the world&rsquo;s largest recoverable gold and copper deposits, since the first 30-day strike began on 15 September. 
 
In a report on bargaining to the ICEM late last week, leaders of PT Freeport Workers&rsquo; Union said management has not moved off an average 35% wage offer over two years. (See previous <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4784-Indonesian-Miners-Resume-Talks-Again-Today-with-Freeport-McMoRan">ICEM report</a>.)&nbsp; 
<img alt="" src="" width="170" height="78" />
The union is seeking uniform wage increases for all workers, with a goal of US$7.50 per hour for non-staff workers in the second year. Workers earned a wage of between US$2.13 per hour and US$3.54 at the start of the strike. 
 
The union is seeking a fixed metal bonus scheme, while the PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) subsidiary is insisting on a bonus tied to the company&rsquo;s variable costs. The company has rejected the union&rsquo;s demand for monthly Housing, Education, and Risk Allowance Work benefits of two million rupiah each (&euro;165, US$222) and a daily premium for shift work of 100,000 rupiah (&euro;8.26, US$11). The union met with Indonesia&rsquo;s National Wage Council on Friday over the company&rsquo;s effort to impose a wage deal through the government&rsquo;s mediation process. 
 
The ICEM believes Freeport-McMoRan must do better in its wage and benefits offer to Grasberg miners, many of whom work 12-hour shifts in 4,200- metre altitudes and have an excruciating roster schedule in which they work five days on, two days off, followed by six days on and one day off, and then four days on, three days off. 
 
But if the company wants a return to production and an end to Indonesia&rsquo;s longest work stoppage, it must break from pressures being exerted by other extractive industry employers to hold down wage and benefit offers so their workers do not follow the example set by the PT Freeport Workers&rsquo; Union. Again, PTFI must make a more conciliatory contract offer and the company should take note on how Newmont Mining and Sumitoma Corp. two weeks ago ended a four-day strike at their 49% copper and gold holdings called Batu Hijau on Indonesia&rsquo;s Sumbawa Island. They acceded to workers&rsquo; demands for adequate compensation on overtime work.

Indonesian Mine Talks Continue Today; Union Ready with Another 30-day Strike Notice

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="59" />
Finland&rsquo;s papermaking unions, Paperiliitto and Ammattiliitto Pro, have new 25-month labour agreements with the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF) that take effect in March 2012. That was assured yesterday, 28 November, after the employers&rsquo; association in the transport, ports, and shipping industry signed&nbsp;an accord with AKT, the Transport Drivers&rsquo; and Port Workers&rsquo; Union. 

Even though the FFIF came to terms with the two ICEM affiliates separately in the pulp and paper sector last Wednesday, 23 November, the FFIF was unwilling to sign off on the agreement until they had a guarantee that&nbsp;strikes would not&nbsp;occur in the transportation and export of pulp and paper products.
<img alt="" src="" width="130" height="93" />
The agreement in the paper sector follows a framework agreement made between the three national trade union confederations &ndash; SAK, STTK and STTK &ndash; and the Confederation of Finnish Industries on 13 October. 

In March 2012, Ammattiliitto Pro members&nbsp;will receive a 1.6% across-the-board wage increase, in addition to an average 0.8% increase that will be negotiated locally and is part of a new salary structure. That amount will reward new work demands, personal skill developments, and greater efficiencies by workers on the local level.
Paperiliitto members will receive a 1.5% increase, with&nbsp;0.9%&nbsp;to be negotiated locally. 

Essentially, this new salary structure was recognized by employers through strike actions taken last spring by Ammattiliitto Pro, Finland&rsquo;s white-collar and clerical workers&rsquo; union, which represents about 4,000 staff at some 50 paper enterprises. 

In April 2013, the wage increase for Ammattillio Pro&nbsp;will be 1.3%, with a 0.6% award won on the new locally-negotiated salary structure. Paperiliitto's 2013 increase will be 1.2%, with 0.7% awarded locally.
<img alt="" src="" width="190" height="46" />
Two other important aspects of the pulp and paper agreement include extra protection for workers when mills close. In effect, employers take on more responsibility for re-training and skill development, as well as workers given the flexibility to take new work in another enterprise and still qualify for redundancy benefits. 

Also, shop stewards and safety representatives who receive slightly higher pay for their responsibilities will get a 10% supplement on top of that higher pay. The two unions also won a universal three-day paid leave annually for vocational training and education. 

Both Petri Vanhala, President of Paperiliitto, and Markku Palokangas, Pro&rsquo;s Vice President for the Industrial Sector, expressed satisfaction with the 25-month agreement, especially with&nbsp;the gains made&nbsp;through the national framework agreement. Paperiliitto represents some 19,000 blue-collar workers across Finland&rsquo;s pulp and paper industry.

Finnish Pulp, Paper Unions Make Gains in 2012-2014 Industry-wide Pacts

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
A three-week strike by 4,000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) spilled into the streets of Johannesburg on 15 November, with workers employed at Xstrata&rsquo;s Boshoek and Wonderkop ferrochrome smelters near Rustenburg took a protest to the Swiss company&rsquo;s Alloys headquarters. NUMSA members presented a petition to company managers demanding wage parity with workers employed at the Xstrata Lion ferrochrome smelter in Tubatse, Mpumalanga province. 
 
Both operations are undergoing big expansions. Xstrata owns 79.5% of the ferrochrome complexes in South Africa, while publicly-listed Merafe Resources holds a 20.5% stake. Both companies also mine chrome in South Africa. 
 
The strike by NUMSA in the North-West province began on 24 October after conciliation efforts by the country&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) failed. NUMSA and Xstrata Alloys met two days earlier, but a revised pay offer by the company fell short and workers rejected it. 
<img alt="" src="" width="211" height="140" />
NUMSA President Cedric Gina (rear) gets Xstrata's Edwin Hlatshwayo Sign Receipt of Petition
NUMSA is seeking an immediate 10% pay increase for Boshoek and Wonderkop metalworkers and a reduction of job grading systems from eight to five. That would close the wage gap with workers at the Lion smelter and equalize the grading system. Currently, Boshoek and Wonderkop workers earn 14 to 39% less than at Lion, depending on pay grades. 
 
NUMSA is also seeking a housing allowance of R3,500. 
 
The petition handed to Xstrata Alloys management last week states: &ldquo;(The company) has angered workers and instead of focusing on negotiations, they have decided to apply cheap apartheid-era tactics of bashing members through police intimidation of the strike. NUMSA is very angry that workers who went on a legal and protected strike have been treated like common criminals.&rdquo; 
 
NUMSA President Cedric Gina and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) Second Deputy Vice President Zingiswi Losi led the march and handover of the petition. The petition asks the company to respond within 48 hours. 
 
Xstrata is world&rsquo;s largest producer of metal alloys, which besides ferrochrome includes vanadium and platinum, and accounts for one-third of total global production. The Boshoek smelter is currently seeing an expansion that will lift production to 240,000-tonnes-per-year by the end of next year. A second smelter, meanwhile, is now being constructed at the Lion operation that will see production double from the current 360,000 tonnes when it goes on line in the first half of 2013. 
 
The Xstrata-Merafe joint venture in South Africa will then yield 2.3 million tonnes yearly of ferrochrome, which is used in stainless steel production.

NUMSA Takes Xstrata Ferrochrome Smelter Strike to Streets of Johannesburg

M&uuml;zeyyen Acunal is a 27-year-old single mother of one who was and still should be employed at the Tezol T&uuml;t&uuml;n ve Kagit (Twezol Europap) recycled pulp, paperboard, and tissue mill in Izmir, Turkey. In July, she and 35 others at the 250-worker mill tried to organise with ICEM affiliate Sel&uuml;loz-İş. 
<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="106" />
M&uuml;zeyyen Acunal
Management then maliciously called each of the 35 in individually and gave them a choice: resign from the union and maintain employment, or resign from the company and collect the meager, statutory state entitlements under Turkish law. Acunal did neither. When she turned up for the work the day following her interview, managers put her in the middle of the workplace to perform meaningless and humiliating work chores for the sole purpose of other workers to witness. 
 
When she complained and said she wanted to return to the machine operator job she had held for seven years, she was fired. She has filed suit, through her union, with both a labour court and a civil prosecutor. In the meantime, she and her child are living on stipends coming from the individual pockets of Sel&uuml;loz-İş officials, while long court cases wait. 
 
In your own words and in your own language, send a message of support to M&uuml;zeyyen Acunal at <a href="mailto:muzeyyen-acnl@hotmail.com">muzeyyen-acnl@hotmail.com</a>. 
 
If you care to make a contribution to help with her subsistence, write to ICEM Pulp and Paper Officer Dick Blin at <a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>. He will provide bank details in order to make a bank transfer. 
 
Also in Turkey during the final week of October, at the Mondi Tire Kutsan Paper Mill in Tire, near Izmir, seven workers were fired for attempting to organise with Sel&uuml;loz-İş. Reportedly, South African-based Mondi, which owns 64% of the recycled pulp and corrugated packaging mill, is trying to install a yellow union inside the 400-worker mill. ICEM will provide more details on this as information becomes available.

Turkish Woman Fired for Union Organising at Izmir Packaging Mill

The quest to resist austerity measures imposed on public services and public-sector workers in the wake of the financial crash is a noble one and one worth fighting. But global unions need also look within boundaries of certain countries to witness an unparalleled assault on public-sector workers and trade unionists who courageously step up to lead those workers. 
 
I refer specifically to the troubling and untenable trade union situation in Iraq, where reconstruction to essential, publicly-owned industrial sectors has come at a steep price to ordinary Iraqi workers and the brave men and women who lead them toward a true democratic society. 
 
In Iraq, roughly 80% of all industries are in the public sector. Yet even as foreign investment arrives, and privatization of certain manufacturing sectors appears inevitable, trade unionism is prohibited. It is still illegal to be a member of a trade union, just as it was under the dictator Saddam, and two years into the rule of the occupation forces (2005), Decree 8750 was mandated that forbid unions from owning property, holding bank accounts, or collecting fees from workers. 
 
It is unconscionable that seven years after the fall of Saddam, and 23 years after his notorious Public Law 150 banning all trade union activity in the public sector, Iraq is still without a legal framework for industrial relations that meets ILO standards. Sadly, the Saddam-era ban was one of the few laws not overturned by the occupation administration when it took power. 
 
In 2005, the provisional government of Iraq did re-draft the country&rsquo;s constitution. Section 22 of that constitution calls for a new labour law to defend the rights of workers to unionize and bargain collectively. But due to political stalemate, lack of will by Iraqi politicians across all political parties, and indifference by the United States government, a Labour and Social Security Law that was written by the ILO has not even been considered by Iraq&rsquo;s Council of Representatives. 
 
Instead, Iraq&rsquo;s Cabinet members resort to ministerial orders that close union offices, confiscating all materials, equipment, and literature. The most recent such order, in July against all unions attempting to operate in the electric power industry, was carried out in a day, showing the government to be serious in its clamp-down on unions, perhaps as a signal to foreign investment. 
 
With the order shutting electrical union offices, a threat was also issued warning workers and trade union leaders that they would be incarcerated under Iraq&rsquo;s Anti-Terrorism Act of 2005 if they tried to protest the shutdowns. This came only months after the al-Maliki government laid down an order banning trade unionists from travelling abroad unless they got a hard-to-get &ldquo;internal visa&rdquo; from the Supreme Ministerial Committee. 
 
This was the government&rsquo;s response to trade unionists from a whole range of Iraqi unions who for several years had travelled to Jordan, Lebanon, Europe, or America for union training and development programs. Donors and trade union organizations such as the British Trades Union Congress (TUC), the American AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, and ICEM have supplied that support and training. 
 
In 2007, at the ICEM&rsquo;s World Congress in Bangkok, Iraqi trade union development and full trade union rights for the country&rsquo;s unions became a priority in our work plan. That was reiterated at our 2010 Executive Committee where a strongly worded resolution was adopted condemning the government&rsquo;s most recent repressive tactics. &ldquo;We demand the immediate repeal of all restrictions on union activity and the immediate enactment of fair labour legislation which fully complies with ILO Conventions and provides fundamental human and trade union rights as provided in the Iraqi constitution,&rdquo; read the statement. 
 
To be sure, other trade union bodies and Global Union Federations have taken up the cause in order to achieve this. At the 97th International Labour Congress in June 2008, five labour organizations, including ICEM, TUC, AFL-CIO, Public Services International (PSI), and Education International (EI), stood in front of the Committee of Standards and condemned Iraq&rsquo;s ruthless attack on trade unionism. 
 
The ICEM is proud of the work it has done with Iraq&rsquo;s unions and with trade union leaders, but we know that far more needs to be done. The ICEM is even prouder of the great trade union leaders who have risen inside Iraq against what would seem insurmountable odds to carry out a most noble struggle with perseverance and self-sacrifice. 
 
One is Hashmeya Muhsin Al-Saadawi, the first woman to head a trade union in the Arab world and one leader who was forcefully removed from her office in Basra this past July when the government closed the union offices in the electrical sector. As president of the General Union of Electricity Workers and Technicians of Iraq (GUEWT), affiliated to both the ICEM and the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), Hashmeya Muhsin in 2009 won the Dutch labour center FNV&rsquo;s prestigious Febe Elisabeth Velasquez award. 
 
The award, along with a cash prize, is given to a trade union leader who takes risks in defending workers&rsquo; rights in countries where they are routinely violated. In poverty-ridden Iraq, however, what she did with the prize money is most exemplary: she produced a training manual for launch of an Iraqi social security campaign to promote social justice and equality as means to achieve job opportunities, decent work, and health, education, and quality living. 
 
The ICEM offers this as the way in which to go about nation-building. 
 
There are many other Iraqi trade union leaders who have stood tall in the face of repression, and we owe it to them to raise full ire outside Iraq to what is happening to them within. Some have been arrested, others forced from their work and transferred away from co-workers and their families to remote job sites because they led protests against salary curtailments, cuts to food rations, or common social entitlements withheld. 
 
I would be remiss to not mention the dozens of Iraqi trade union leaders have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their union activities &ndash; their lives. Dedicated unionists such as Hadi Saleh of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), Shukry al-Shukry, a founder of the IFTU, Ali Hassan Abd of the Oil and Gas Workers&rsquo; Union, Dr. Adnan Al-Abed, an academic and adviser to the GFIW who reviewed the ILO&rsquo;s labour law proposal, Moaaid Hamid of the GFIW, Ahmed Adris Abas of the Transport and Communications Workers&rsquo; Union, Thabet Hussein of the General Union for Health Sector Workers, General Secretary Najim Abd-Jasem of the Mechanic Workers Union, Hassan Hamza, president of the Hotel and Tourism Workers&rsquo; Union, and Majiid Karim, an executive member of the GFIW, to name only a few, all were assassinated in order to stifle union activity. 
 
The assassination of journalists, as well, has regrettably set civil society back in Iraq. In recent weeks, the lives of Ryad al-Saray in Baghdad and Safaa al-Khayat in Mosul ended because cowards could not bear a free and open society, and their deaths serve as reminders that public-sector life in Iraq is dangerous and deadly. 
 
One has to ask, how far has Iraq come since the overthrow of Saddam? Is destroying Iraq&rsquo;s labour movement the way to ensure a stable, civil society in which democratic institutions can thrive? By neo-liberal norms in an age of greed-filled privatization, free and democratic trade unions do stand in the way to unfettered access of a country&rsquo;s resources. 
 
But for the vast majority of Iraq&rsquo;s citizens, after five decades of living under severe repression, they want better. Nationalist sentiment inside Iraqi society considers electricity, the oil sector, pipelines, ports, transportation, and other enterprises as integral public services that stand as guarantees of sovereignty and economic well-being for all citizens. 
 
There can be little debate that war makes privatization easier. First you destroy the infrastructure, and then you re-build with no-bid contracts awarded to favored corporations. Iraqi unions have seen this first-hand over the past seven years, and the fights they wage to defend what is rightfully theirs, against forces of neo-colonialism, are heroic and just. Global Union Federations like the ICEM recognize this, we recognize it as a shining example of what public-sector trade unionism is all about, and we pledge to continue to do what is necessary to assist Iraqi trade unions in winning their fight.

Iraq: Trade Union Repression Must End

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Negotiations to end a 23-week lockout by Honeywell Inc. against 228 members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in the US state of Illinois failed last week. The American company, which converts yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) at the Metropolis, Illinois, plant, continued its inflexibility in finding a resolve to the dispute and to return experienced workers to their jobs. 
 
The 22-23 November bargaining came four days after many of the locked-out workers rode a bus throughout the night to demonstrate at Honeywell&rsquo;s corporate headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey. The manifestation was meant to convince senior Honeywell executives that it was finally time to conduct serious bargaining and end the lockout, according to Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie. 
<img alt="" src="" width="177" height="148" />
Local 7-699 members at Honeywell's New Jersey offices, 18 November
But at last week&rsquo;s bargaining, Honeywell only agreed to pay workers their accrued 2009 vacation time in pay, something owed them anyway because most workers had been denied their legitimate work furloughs this year due to the lockout. Further bargaining is scheduled for 13-14 December. 
Meanwhile, the transnational technology and manufacturing company continues to use scab replacement workers to run the highly dangerous plant, one which transforms uranium into UF6 gas and then is frozen and sold for feed to the nuclear enrichment process. 
 
Honeywell has replaced the locked-out workers with 200 scabs from the Shaw Group, Unbelievably, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted certification to re-start the four-stage production process in September. Since, the NRC has issued a number of violations for work infractions. 
<img alt="" src="" width="186" height="139" />
Issues that separate USW Local 7-699 and Honeywell are retirement benefits and the company&rsquo;s demand to create a two-tier pension scheme; Honeywell&rsquo;s insistence on gaining broad contracting-out rights, which could mean the loss of many jobs and possible elimination of entire in-house departments; and weakening of workers&rsquo; seniority rights. 
 
Honeywell has offered a 3% pay increase, but its pension and work-rule demands are so detrimental that Local 7-669 has offered to accept a wage freeze for continuation of current contract items. 
 
The union has been uplifted by the tremendous support given workers by trade unions in southern Illinois, Kentucky, and elsewhere. Notably, Plumbers &amp; Pipefitters Local 160 of Murphysboro, Illinois, has provided money and food to locked-out steelworkers, and soon will hold a Christmas party for workers&rsquo; children. 
 
USW Local 550 in nearby Paducah, Kentucky, whose members are employed by US Enrichment Corp., a private sector company that buys Honeywell&rsquo;s UF6, also has contributed greatly, as has local branch unions of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and the United Auto Workers (UAW). And recently, a financial contribution was sent to Local 7-699 from Germany&rsquo;s IGBCE union. 
 
Prior ICEM reports on this lockout in the US can be found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4066-Talks-Fail-Between-USW-Honeywell-in-US-Uranium-Lockout">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3977-Lockout-of-USW-represented-Uranium-Processing-Plant-in-US-Continues">here</a>.

Talks Again Fail in Honeywell’s US Lockout of Steelworkers

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