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The second 24-hour strike at paperboard plants in Spain set for tomorrow, 3 March, was cancelled after ICEM&rsquo;s two affiliates and the employers&rsquo; association reached accord early today (2 March) in Madrid. 
 
Trade unions FSC-CCOO and FIA-UGT reached agreement with Aspapel on a three-year national labour agreement for the paperboard sector that wins a 3% retroactive increase for 17,500 workers to 1 January 2010. Retroactive to 1 January 2011 will be a one percent salary increase, plus the amount of Spain&rsquo;s consumer price increase (CPI). 
 
In 2012, another one percent was won atop the CPI. The Spanish unions also succeeded in keeping sweeping flexibility changes out of the national agreement. A special commission will be established to study that for possible future implementation on the local level. 
 
Without question, the success of a 23 February day-long work stoppage can be attributed to Aspapel and paper industry employers finally moving on a lapsed 2010 national contract. It is obvious by the terms of this agreement that employers did not want another such strike, scheduled for 3 March. 
 
Some 120 paperboard factories come under the new agreement. 
 
The ICEM congratulates paperworkers of both Spanish federations for their resolve in gaining a fair and current collective agreement, and we also thank the many pulp and paper unions worldwide who sent messages of Solidarity to Spanish paperworkers. 
 
An <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/4269-Spain’s-Paperworkers-Shut-Industry;-Will-Strike-Again-3-March">ICEM news piece</a> from 28 February, naming the companies involved and citing details on the 23 February general strike, is available for viewing.

2nd Spanish Paper Strike Called Off; Settlement Reached

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In a powerful display of international solidarity, the &ldquo;Global Days of Action for Trade Union Rights in Mexico,&rdquo; 14-19 February, were marked by events in over 40 countries, on five continents, including 17 cities in the US and Canada. 
 
The International Textile, Garment, &amp; Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) called for fundamental rights in the Mexican garment sector, where &ldquo;protection contracts&rdquo; deny workers of their basic labour rights, as is the case throughout Mexico. 
 
In Mexico, the independent labour movement conducted over 27 actions throughout the country, including visits to embassies of 23 countries, a march and demonstration in Mexico City from the Angel of Independence to the offices of Grupo M&eacute;xico, seminars, and a protest rally at the Monument of the Revolution. Each day of action was marked inside Mexico. The leaders of Los Mineros and the SME signed a pact of national unity. 
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Mexico City
An agreement was reached with the US embassy in Mexico City to begin regular discussions on the complaints presented, in particular the cases of Los Mineros and SME.
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Toronto, Canada
In Canada, high-level trade union delegations met with Mexican ambassadors and consuls in four cities, while pickets continued outside. The Vancouver action was marked by speeches from Los Mineros General Secretary Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez, SME General Secretary Martin Esparanza, and Jorge Castillo Maga&ntilde;a, Assistant General Secretary of the Telefonistas union. See video footage of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/D3Steel#p/a/u/0/Bu_BPIrvlaA">Vancouver, Canada, action</a> here. 
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Washington DC, USA
In the US, rallies, meetings with ambassadors and consuls, and pickets, sent the clear message to the Mexican Calder&oacute;n government that pressure is building inside the country&rsquo;s largest trading partner that labour rights abuses must end. See video footage of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usyexGRbDgI&amp;feature=player_embedded">Washington DC rally</a> in front of the Mexican Embassy here. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu83ni7mQHM&amp;feature=player_embedded">San Francisco</a>, <a href="http://www.fox11az.com/news/local/Mexican-consulate-picketed-by-angry-miners-116483178.html">Tucson Arizona</a>, <a href="http://www.house.state.tx.us/video-audio/press-conference/player/?ram=1102181PCB&amp;id=98&amp;session=82 ">Austin Texas</a>. 
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Geneva, Switzerland
In Switzerland, the office of the Ambassador to the United Nations was targeted by a rally, while ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, IMF Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes, and UNI SCORE Director Adriana Rosenzvaig met with the ambassador to convey the demands of the action. Ambassadors around the world expressed some concern, but generally denied wrongdoing by the Mexican government. Many made promises to follow-up on the demands. The dialogue and pressure will continue. 
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100 unionists rallied on the lawn in front of Parliament House in Canberra
See a video of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoImqEw00_M&amp;feature=player_embedded">Australia action</a> here, where a high-level, cross-sector delegation met with the Mexican Ambassador, and a large rally was organised in front of Parliament House in Canberra. 
 
Some of the other events around the world during the Global Days of Action included: 
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Mexico Embassy, Tokyo: meeting with the Japan Councils of the four GUFs, along with JTUC-RENGO 
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Sweden: IF Metall met with the Mexican Ambassador in Stokholm
Letters and press releases in Turkey 
 
Meetings and letters in Spain with Mexican Ambassador, Spanish Government, European Parliament. 
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A joint rally in Bangkok, Thailand, Ministry of Labour, as well as letters to the Mexican Ambassador. 
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A picket was conducted in front of the Mexican Embassy in Moscow, in temperatures of -25&deg;C, demands were transferred to the Ambassador
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In Brussels, the Mexican embassy was picketed, with a union delegation meeting the Ambassador, a meeting was conducted with the EU-Mexico Joint Parliamentary Committee
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The Mexican Embassy in Peru was picketed
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Picket of the Mexican Embassy in Indonesia
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Picket of the Mexican Embassy in New Zealand
Letters were sent from affiliated trade unions from Poland to Puerto Rico, from Norway and Germany to Bangladesh, and many others. 
 
Join the <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=863">LabourStart campaign</a> here and join thousands of protestors in writing to Calder&oacute;n. 3,000 messages were sent via the campaign in the first week, and the numbers are growing every day. 
 
The actions took place around the fifth anniversary of the Pasta de Conchos mine explosion, where the continued failure to exhume and recover the bodies of 63 of the 65 miners who died there, or to take responsibility for the &ldquo;industrial homicide&rdquo; of those workers, and properly compensate their families continues to anger the international labour movement. 
 
The action in support of the democratic and independent trade unions in Mexico was initiated by unions from around the world affiliated to the ICEM, International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), UNI Global Union, and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

Mexico Days of Action Occur Worldwide in Over 40 Countries

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Low-wage contract workers employed by OCS Group mounted a lawful two-day strike at Tata Steel in Port Talbot, UK, 14-15 February in protest to the cleaning and catering multinational&rsquo;s miserly pay offer. Some 70 members of UK union Community, most taking their first industrial action, blocked two entrances to Tata&rsquo;s Corus Strip Products mill in Port Talbot because a living wage has not been paid them since June 2010. 
 
The strikers took brave strike action under the banner &ldquo;OCS: Have a Heart&rdquo; in honour of the strike falling on Valentine&rsquo;s Day. The contract cleaners and Community call on OCS to make a pay offer that exceeds UK&rsquo;s minimum wage. Many OCS workers at Tata are paid as little as &pound;5.75 an hour. 
 
OCS responded to the strike by bussing in managers and others at 5h00 on 14 February to perform mill-site services. Corus Strip Products in Port Talbot employs 2,900. Reports quickly surfaced that unionised steelworkers at Tata were supporting the strike actions on the inside by not cooperating with scab cleaners. OCS, or Office Cleaning Services, is a Surrey-based property support service company that operates in 40 countries. 
<img alt="" src="" width="127" height="84" />
Community Region Campaigns Manager Susan Lewis termed the company&rsquo;s response to the strike a &ldquo;low blow. While bringing in staff from outside Port Talbot might be legal, it is most certainly not morally right and will do nothing to resolve this dispute. 
 
&ldquo;OCS workers do some of the toughest and dirtiest jobs on the plant,&rdquo; added Lewis. 
 
The strike action at Tata could re-occur. It comes at a time when India-based Tata is increasing employment at Port Talbot and another Strip Products division mill in Llanwern. A &pound;185 million investment is now underway on a blast furnace at Port Talbot, and a nearby coal deposit is being studied for extraction. Tata is utilising hundreds of agency workers inside the Port Talbot and Marjam mill, and very recently brought 75 of them into direct employment. 
 
Tata bought Anglo-Dutch Corus Steel in early 2007 for &pound;5.75 million. The Indian company recently sold its Teeside Cast Products mill in North-east England to Sahaviriva Steel Industries of Thailand in a move in which British unions successfully saved 700 jobs. 
Community is a union created in a 2004 merger between the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation and the National Union of Knitwear, Footwear, and Apparel Trades.

Contract Workers Strike Tata Steel’s UK Plant in Wales

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A joint affiliate of the ICEM and the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees&rsquo; Union (FTZ&amp;GSEU) of Sri Lanka, is in crucial need of international support, as workers at a branch of the union face severe intimidation by both management and police. 
 
Industrial relations at a women&rsquo;s underwear factory owned by Canadian-based Bratex Pvt. Ltd. has been bad since managers failed to make scheduled bonus payments due in January 2010. The date coincides with a new human resources director, Dusmantha Kumarasire, coming into the plant. 
 
Following that, there was a long period of FTZ&amp;GSEU asking for dialogue with the company, but with no result. Kumarasire and Bratex continued to avoid negotiations even after the Sri Lanka Board of Investment called for talks. 
 
The salary increment had been agreed to under a Memorandum of Settlement between Bratex and the union before Sri Lanka&rsquo;s Assistant Commission of Labour on 21 December 2009. But on 16 February 2010, a government official arrived at the plant with armed personnel. Siripala Amarasingha, an assistant to Sri Lanka&rsquo;s President for labour matters, boasted to textile workers of his record in suppressing 23 labour disputes, and warned workers against involvement in the union. 
<img alt="" src="" width="241" height="160" />
Amarasingha also instructed management not to avoid the union on salary talks and when this became known, workers took strike action on 18 February 2010. The strike ended when promises &ndash; now broken &ndash; were made to FTZ&amp;GSEU Joint Secretary Anton Marcus. 
 
Of further abuse to workers, who number 1,000 with 85% of them women, were the floods in May 2010. Many workers found it impossible to travel to work, and Bratex forced to them to work for no compensation for three days, or risk losing salaries and an attendance bonus. 
 
Company-police collusion increased in early January 2011 when officers showed up at a party to identify union activists. Bratex has provided two automobiles to local police, who use them patrol workers&rsquo; neighbourhoods and go house to house in pursuit of union activists. 
 
On 11 February, workers went on strike again. Two workers, Amal Santha and U.W. Gayan Predeep Kumara, were detained on 14 February. The arrests prompted a protest by Bratex outside the police station demanding their release. Protesting workers were then attacked by police and three more workers were arrested. 
 
Last week, 20 union activists were sacked inside the plant. The ICEM and ITGLWF are grateful to the Clean Clothes Campaign for assisting Bratex workers in this blatant abuse of trade union rights. 
 
Click here for <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1102.sri%20lanka%20textiles%20women%20contact.doc">contact information to send your protest</a> to the Sri Lankan government, police, and Bratex management. Demand an immediate end to harassment of workers by both police and mangers, reinstatement of the dismissed workers, and an immediate start to dialogue to make workers whole for their lost salaries.

Union Busting of Textile Workers in Sri Lanka Follows 2010 Strike

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The ICEM expressed deep condolences to the families of 29 miners declared dead yesterday at the Pike River coal mine disaster in New Zealand, as well as to their trade union &ndash; affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). 
 
In a letter to EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;It is with great sadness that the ICEM has learned of the deaths of 29 miners. Please accept my heartfelt condolences. 
 
&ldquo;We will now support your call for a full and thorough investigation into the causes of this terrible accident, and for all of the bodies to be returned as soon as possible to their families. The explosion illustrates the importance of our shared work in improving safety standards in mines, and moving the New Zealand Government toward ratification and proper implementation of ILO Convention 176, on safety and health in mines.&rdquo; (Full letter <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/145.ICEM.EPMU.New%20Zealand.24Nov.pdf">here</a>.) 
<img alt="" src="" width="208" height="161" />
Inside Pike River mine, before accident, Photo: NZPA
The miners, trapped since 19 November by a horrid methane gas explosion at Pike River Coal Ltd.&rsquo;s coking coal mine inside the Paparoa Range on the South Island, were declared dead yesterday by police charged with rescue. (See ICEM&rsquo;s initial report <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/4115-Hope-Still-Alive-for-29-Trapped-Inside-Pike-River’s-New-Zealand-Coal-Mine">here</a>.) The police announcement came minutes after a second massive explosion that lasted 30 seconds occurred inside the company&rsquo;s mine of the Brunner coal seam at 14h37, local time, Wednesday. The Pike River mine is located 50 kilometres from Greymouth. 
 
Rescue attempts proved prohibitive for six days because of high levels of methane gas and carbon monoxide that were registered inside. News of the secondary explosion&nbsp;yesterday and improbability that the 29 could have survived was brought to grief-stricken family members at 16h00 in Greymouth by Pike River CEO Peter Whittal. &ldquo;Exactly what we said would happen happened,&rdquo; he told reporters in explaining why rescuers had not been sent into the mine. Some 90 skilled mine rescuers, many flown in from Australia, were on standby for those five days. 
<img alt="" src="" width="182" height="173" />
EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little
EPMU National Secretary Little said: &ldquo;News of this second devastating explosion means there is now no prospect of a successful rescue and the lives of the 29 men trapped inside have been lost. It is time to let the families and the community grieve. 
 
&ldquo;Most of the miners killed were our comrades in the union, including Blair Sims who was an EPMU delegate at the Pike River mine,&rdquo; Little said. &ldquo;The EPMU will now make the practical arrangements to establish a fund to assist the families of the men whose lives have been lost.&rdquo; 
Little added the EPMU now calls on the government &ldquo;to establish an independent inquiry to investigate the circumstances of the explosion, including a public hearing in front of a senior judge and leading technical experts,&rdquo; adding the union will do everything possible to assist the investigation. 
<img alt="" src="" width="175" height="175" />
EPMU Delegate Blair Sims 
Sims was a 28-year-old loving husband and father of two small children. He was an exceptional rugby player who for the past two seasons was New Zealand West Coast player of the year. Eleven of the 29 miners were EPMU members. Those perishing included 16 full-time workers of Pike River Coal Ltd., owned 31% owned by New Zealand Oil &amp; Gas Ltd., and 13 contract employees. 
 
Little, who received the news 90 minutes after the blast yesterday, told New Zealand media that &ldquo;miners are special people. They are the foundation rock that much of New Zealand was built on. When you lose special people like that, 29 all in one go, it is a hard thing. I don&rsquo;t think any of us can imagine what the families will be going through tonight.&rdquo; 
The EPMU is assisting by setting up the &ldquo;EPMU Pike River Miners Family Support Trust&rdquo; to collect donations to support the 29 families.&nbsp;See more information on how to give financial support to the families of the dead miners <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1011.EPMU%20Pike%20River%20Miners%20Family%20Support%20Trust%20-%20flyer.pdf">here</a>.
&quot;Miners around the world are grieving their fallen comrades,&quot; said ICEM and South Africa's NUM President Senzeni Zokwana, &quot;our struggle continues to enure our members&nbsp;safety at work.&quot; 
 
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said at a press conference a special commission will be established and that the country&rsquo;s Cabinet, to meet on 29 November, will establish the perimeters of that inquiry.
See photos of all the lost Pike River miners <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pike-river-miners/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=1503001">here</a>.&nbsp;

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

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The ICEM is encouraging trade union activists from southern Africa nations, Brazil, and India to be one of 20 participants in the Global Labour University&rsquo;s (GLU) six-month &ldquo;Engage&rdquo; programme. A 1 November deadline for application approaches for a unique opportunity to engage in a diploma course that puts individuals on the front lines of current labour policies in the rapid globalisation of trade. 
 
The 20 trade unionists from those areas nations assuredly will strengthen their trade union capacities regarding analysis and then intervention on issues affecting labour struggles. &ldquo;We see this as a big advantage for affiliated trade unions to have people with this experience return home and be involved in strategic national issues,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re very enthused about this shortened curriculum and what it has to offer.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="92" height="87" />
For details, including application and scholarship availability, visit the site <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/216.html">here</a>. Applications should be sent to <a href="mailto:engage@uni-kassel.de">engage@uni-kassel.de</a>. 
 
The curriculum will run from April to September 2011, and takes place at Kassel University in Germany and the Berlin School of Economics, as well as an internship at a global trade union federation. The programme was developed by the GLU, InWent Capacity Building International, a German labour-management development centre, the two German universities, and the global trade union federations. 
 
The six-month course includes 3.5 months of academic instruction that includes policy workshops with trade union representatives, and then a two-month internship on policy initiatives with a global trade union organisation. This is the second offering of the &ldquo;Engage&rdquo; programme. The first was a pilot project this year. 
 
The six-year-old GLU, part of the ILO, has trained trade unionists in economics and in social sciences from 49 countries in its short existence. The &ldquo;Engage&rdquo; programme gives national or local trade union staff the opportunity to pick up specific curriculums tailored to improve their skills at home.

Global Labour University’s ‘Engage’ Deadline Nears on 1 November

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The ICEM was saddened to hear of the death on 10 September of Mahjoub Ben Seddik, the Secretary-General of the Union Marocaine du Travail (UMT), who died in Paris at the age of 88. He was buried in the &ldquo;cimitiere des chouhadas,&rdquo; the martyrs cemetery in Casablanca, Morocco. 
 
In attendance at the funeral were the entire political class of Morocco, encompassing leaders of political parties, past and present government ministers, trade union centres, as well as numerous Moroccan intellectuals and wider civil society. All had gathered to pay homage to a great trade union leader who had been of massive importance in the trade union world, and the Moroccan struggle for independence. 
<img alt="" src="" width="130" height="160" />
Mahjoub Ben Seddik, the late Secretary-General of the Union Marocaine du Travail (UMT) 
In a message of condolences, Manfred Warda, ICEM General Secretary, echoed the words of UMT national official, Milourdi Moukharik, in stating: &ldquo;Moroccan workers, their trade union movement, as well as the Arab trade union world, and indeed the international trade union movement, have lost a great leader and fighter for trade union independence and struggle. 
 
&ldquo;He founded and continued to lead a vibrant and independent trade union structure firmly grounded in the workplace. The ICEM and the whole international trade union movement have lost a good friend and colleague. His passing really seems to be the end of an era.&rdquo; 
 
Mahjoub Ben Seddik spent his entire life defending the interests of the Moroccan workers. He never deviated from his conviction that the trade union movement should be independent of political parties, but at the same time was immensely political. He played a major role in the struggle for Moroccan independence and was imprisoned for two years in 1952 and again in 1954 before independence was achieved in 1956. 
 
He remained an active leader of UMT until his death and was a key supporter of wider international trade union, and the work of the ICEM in particular. UMT has been an active ICEM member for many years and has played an important role in the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s recent increased activities throughout the Middle East/North Africa Region (MENA), with Abdesalam Mansour being the MENA member of the ICEM Executive Committee.

ICEM Mourns Moroccan Trade Union Leader Mahjoub Ben Seddik

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
Some 90 members of Unite the Union in the UK, employed at the Saxon Way, Corby, warehouse of Oxford University Press, will begin a second round of strike actions this week over the publishing house&rsquo;s inferior 2010 wage offer. Members of the GPM Section of Unite staged an initial 24-hour strike on 12-13 October, following a lawful strike ballot and formal rejection of a 2.5% increase. 
 
Last year, warehouse workers accepted a wage freeze in recognition of the financial crisis, only to learn after signing that managers, call centre workers, and admin staff of Oxford University Press had been awarded 2% increases. The 90 workers, who will soon be moved to new warehouse space at Prologis Park, Ketterling, are seeking a 2010 increase of 4.2% to offset last year&rsquo;s loss. 
<img src="" width="92" height="108" alt="" />
&ldquo;The company is doing well. It recorded an 8% increase in profit last year, on the back of a &pound;500 million turnover, so our members believe they are well within their rights to ask for 4.2%,&rdquo; Unite National Officer Steve Sibbald told the industry publication Printweek. 
 
Further industrial actions are scheduled for next week on 28 October and again on 3 November. Messages of support to workers can be sent to Unite Regional Officer Kathy Brooks <a href="mailto:Kathy.brooks@unitetheunion.org">here</a> who will relay all solidarity notes to striking warehouse workers.

Warehouse Workers of Oxford University Press to Strike Again

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For the first time, collective negotiations in Germany&rsquo;s paper industry will cover both the western and eastern regions of Europe&rsquo;s largest economy. Those talks between ICEM affiliate IGBCE and Deutschen Paperindustrie (VAP), the employers&rsquo; association, started 7 October in Dresden and cover 39,000 paperworkers. 
 
Led by IGBCE Chief Negotiator for the Paper Sector, Holger Nieden, the union insisted in the first round of talks that orders in the industry have picked up, productivity has vastly improved, recovery in the sector is apparent, thus wage increases are justified for both regular workers and apprentices. VAP contended in opening talks that the financial crisis is still in effect due to high raw material and high energy costs. 
<img alt="" src="" width="190" height="115" />
A second round of negotiations is scheduled for 12 November in Sulzbach, near Saarbr&uuml;cken, Germany. IGBCE and VAP are coming off a two-year social accord covering workers at some 220 paper mills and paper converting operations. 
 
Without specifying an exact pay gain, the union said it seeks a noticeable remuneration gain, improvements in general conditions of work, and common collective agreement time frames between enterprises in the east and in the west. The current contract in the west expired on 31 August, while in the east, the two-year agreement runs until 30 November. IGBCE is also seeking special criteria for union members in a new accord. 
 
After 20 years of gradual wage adjustments and improvements in working conditions for paperworkers in eastern Germany, it is the first time that a common agreement is being negotiated for both the western federal states and the eastern ones.

IGBCE Seeking Wage Gains as East, West Enjoined in German Paper Talks

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Negotiations between the United Steelworkers Local 7-669 and Honeywell Inc. failed 11-12 October to resolve a company-imposed lockout on 228 union members at a uranium conversion plant in the US. The failure to resolve the 17-week lockout in Metropolis, Illinois, means scab workers will continue to mix dangerous chemicals in a process that mills yellow-cake uranium into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), and then is sold to nuclear enrichment facilities. 
 
The talks last week were the third set of bi-lateral negotiations since the lockout began on 28 June. Progress was made on the first day on one of the major issues &ndash; health coverage and retiree medical insurance &ndash; but talks broke down on 12 October over retirement benefits and Honeywell&rsquo;s demand to create a two-tier pension scheme. Talks could re-start within the next few weeks. 
 
Other issues separating USW and Honeywell are the transnational&rsquo;s insistence on gaining broad contracting-out rights, a weakening of workers&rsquo; seniority rights, and hours of work. The company is offering a 3% wage increase, but its other demands are so detrimental to workers&rsquo; interests that the union has countered with a wage freeze and continuance of the current entitlement terms. 
<img alt="" src="" width="128" height="192" />
Metropolis, the fictional home of Superman, is now a US nuclear safety risk 
Honeywell, together with subcontracting agent the Shaw Group, has used US political leverage to gain certification from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), allowing the use of 200 replacement workers to perform dangerous tasks inside the nuclear supply chain. 
 
After initially signaling to USW Local 7-669 that it would not operate the plant during the lockout, Honeywell in July began staffing the conversion plant with scabs provided by the Shaw Group, and moved Honeywell supervisors from other areas to Metropolis. On 3 September, the NRC granted approval to Honeywell to re-start the final two steps of a four-step converting process. 
 
On 5 September, the town of Metropolis in southern Illinois along the Ohio River was shook by a loud boom that could be heard two kilometers away. Inside the plant, accumulated hydrogen reacted with fluorine gas during a venting process, causing the boom. NRC inspectors were on site at the time, and local police came to the scene. A NRC spokesman said the accident occurred in a non-regulated area of operation, meaning away from the handling of yellow cake uranium. Honeywell and the NRC jointly stated no damage to assets occurred and no one was injured. 
 
The Honeywell plant in Metropolis is the only such uranium conversion plant in the US and takes yellow cake uranium from Canada, Russia, and Australia and transforms it into UF6 through the four-stage process. That process includes ore preparation, through green salt preparation, to fluorination and distillation, before frozen and shipped to nuclear enrichment sites in US sites of Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, as well as to plants in Russia and some Asian countries. 
 
A previous ICEM report on this US lockout is <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3977-Lockout-of-USW-represented-Uranium-Processing-Plant-in-US-Continues ">here</a>.

Talks Fail Between USW, Honeywell in US Uranium Lockout

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