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The F&eacute;d&eacute;ration des travailleurs de l&rsquo;Energie, des Mines et Eau et Assimili&eacute;s (FESYNEME) held its first Congress in Benin, West Africa, on 2 September 2006. 
 
Delegates from each of its five member-unions, all from the energy sector, were present at this first Congress, including from Syntra-Sonacop (Syndicat des travailleurs de la soci&eacute;t&eacute; nationale de commercialisation des produits p&eacute;troliers), the ICEM&rsquo;s affiliate in Benin. FESYNEME is, in turn, an affiliate of Benin&rsquo;s national centre CSA. 
 
The Congress chose Syntra-Sonacop&rsquo;s General Secretary Dieudonn&eacute; Lokossou as General Secretary for FESYNEME for the next four years.

First Congress for Energy Union Federation in Benin

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Seven trade unions representing Continental AG rubber workers in six countries gathered 18-19 October in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to discuss the German manufacturer&rsquo;s labour practices. The meeting was hosted by the independent SNTGTM in Mexico. 
 
A declaration resulted from the conference on undertaking future work, including a Day of Action at Continental&rsquo;s global worksites on 13 December 2006. The declaration includes a call to IGBCE of Germany, as the major trade union of Conti workers there, to conduct a meeting of Continental trade unions in order to work toward creation of a global union network. 
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Continental Tyre unionists 
in front of the San Luis Potosi plant
Trade unionists from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Mexico and the US attended the meeting in San Luis Potosi. The host union described how management at this plant sacked some union leaders, with SNTGTM taking the matter to court in order to get reinstatements. With that successful, the union has still found it difficult to bargain with the company each year. 
 
Mark Cieslikowski, a local union leader from US affiliate United Steelworkers (USW), told delegates of the harsh manner in which Continental closed a tyre factory in Charlotte, state of North Carolina, this year. Brazilian trade unionists told how, despite a collective agreement in place, managers at a facility in Cana&ccedil;ari block union representatives from entering the plant to speak with or organise workers. 
 
J&ouml;rg Schustereit, IGBCE member and member of the works council of ContiTech, called &ldquo;Euroforum,&rdquo; spoke about the process and workings of that council, while ICEM&rsquo;s Rubber Sector Officer, Michael Wolters, reported on Conti&rsquo;s economic situation, as well as the company&rsquo;s current business strategy. 
 
The ICEM will update Rubber Sector trade unions about developments at Continental, as well as alert unions at Continental worksites about the Day of Action, 13 December 2006.

Rubber Unions Gather to Discuss Continental; Issue Declaration

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Neo-conservative Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, issued sharp criticism at China last week for the way in which the country runs its investment projects in developing countries. According to Wolfowitz, Chinese banks should stop their current practice of ignoring workers and human rights when investing abroad. 
 
A key point in Wolfowitz&rsquo;s assertion was the fact that Chinese banks fail to adhere to the international Equator Principles. 
 
Earlier this year, dozens of commercial banks and lenders signed up to a revised version of the Equator Principles. These principles are a voluntary benchmark for the financial industry, consisting, among other things, of a set of environmental and social standards that should be met by banks when they fund global projects. To date, some 80% of all commercial banks have adopted the guidelines. 
 
Trade unionists everywhere might take an interest in this, since the Equator Principles are partially based on the social and environmental loan conditions of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank&rsquo;s lending arm for the private sector. Cause for some optimism is that the IFC, earlier this year, also adopted a new of social standards. These new IFC standards now include a commitment to respect all ILO's core labour standards, including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
 
When all is tallied, this means that a majority of the world&rsquo;s operating banks, of whom many are involved in mining, oil, gas or other extraction projects in developing countries, have now declared, albeit voluntarily, to demand the respect for the core ILO standards in their projects. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="100" /> 
 
Reg Green,&nbsp;ICEM&rsquo;s Health, 
Safety and Environment Officer
In reacting to a Financial Times article on this subject, Reg Green, ICEM&rsquo;s Health, Safety and Environment Officer, wrote in a letter-to-the-editor that the World Bank&rsquo;s quest for further endorsements of the Equator Principles a sound idea. However, in addition to endorsing the principles, he said that countries could, and should, go a step further. 
 
Green wrote, &ldquo;The single most important asset that African countries currently possess is their mineral wealth. It is also well known that where mineral wealth is concerned there are major temptations to corruption.&rdquo; 
 
Green said more African countries would do well to commit themselves to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) principles, an international effort to &ldquo;improve governance in resource-rich countries through the full publication and verification of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.&rdquo; ICEM has been supportive of the EITI initiative. In his Financial Times letter, Green describes the EITI as a promising development, even though it is still very young. 
 
Finally, and ironically, the World Bank, which criticises Chinese banks for not abiding by the Equator Principles and the ILO standards, recently issued a highly-circulated publication entitled &ldquo;Doing Business,&rdquo; which encourages violation of a number of ILO Conventions by countries in order to make their economies more &quot;investment friendly.&quot; 
 
For more information: 
EITI : <a href="http://www.eitransparency.org">http://www.eitransparency.org</a> 
Equator Principles: <a href="http://www.equator-principles.com">http://www.equator-principles.com</a> 
IFC adopting ILO standards: 
<a href="http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223448&amp;Language=EN">http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223448&amp;Language=EN</a>&nbsp;

On International Social and Environmental Principles

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The two Spanish ICEM affiliates in the oil and gas sector, FIA-UGT and FITEQA-CC.OO., jointly issued a call for a two-day general strike of all gas and petrol station workers, set for 7-8 November. In total, the strike would affect 41,500 workers, spread over some 8,700 petrol stations across Spain. 
 
The unions are protesting against a series of bad working conditions. Workers often work extra hours just in order to cope financially; they earn only &euro;800-900 euros a month, before taxes. They also face &ldquo;excessive rotation and temporary work,&rdquo; including shift and weekend work. Other issues include dangerous working conditions, specifically regarding frequent robberies, and the fact that workers are expected to perform extra shop duties without extra pay. 
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UGT and CC.OO. want a new three-year collective agreement to include a substantial salary increase and a reduction in average working hours. The unions say their demands are very reasonable, certainly given the current profits by the multinationals that control the distribution sector. 
 
And they remain open to negotiations with the employers. A meeting last week, however, failed to bring parties closer to an agreement. The unions and employers are meeting again tomorrow, in a last attempt to avoid a strike. Hopes are not that high though, since negotiations for this sector have been stalled since March.

Spanish Petrol Station Workers Threaten Two-Day Strike

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The mining world&rsquo;s largest stop-work action so far in 2006 ended on 31 August when Chilean copper miners of the Escondida Workers&rsquo; Union No. 1 voted, 1,607 to 121, to accept a 40-month collective agreement. 
A settlement, which ended the 25-day strike, occurred the day before when the union and BHP Billiton, the lead company in Minera Escondida Ltda., agreed to salary and bonus terms with the regional Labour Ministry serving as mediator. The Escondida mine is located in Chile&rsquo;s northern Region II. 
 
Miners won a satisfactory share of the huge profits made by the world&rsquo;s biggest copper producer. The union&rsquo;s 2,052 miners will receive a salary increase of 5% above Chile&rsquo;s inflation rate, or 8%, and a one-off bonus of US$17,000 per miner. The union had amended its demands in last week&rsquo;s bargaining to 8% above the inflation rate and a bonus of US$29,000. 
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The new agreement also includes universal health care coverage, education allowances, and interest-free loans, totalling about US$4,000 per miner. Workers began returning to their jobs late last week, with full production expected by the end of this week. 
 
Under Chilean labour law, workers can sign individual contracts and return to work after 16 strike days. BHP Billiton was hoping this would occur as it called for strike-breakers and a return to normal production. However, the company&rsquo;s scab plan failed and it increased a final pay offer when it became apparent that only a handful of miners &ndash; estimated at 20 &ndash; abandoned the strike. 
 
BHP Billiton, a 57.5% stakeholder in Minera Escondida, said in a statement that it is &ldquo;convinced that the final result of this large process will prove beneficial to both sides.&rdquo; The company and other stakeholders have seen profits triple from Escondida during the first six months of 2006, from US$936.9 million in the first half of 2005 to US$2.92 billion. The strike at the operation producing 8% of the world&rsquo;s copper supply stoked fears of a global shortage of the red metal. The current copper market is one of high demand, causing high pricing. 
 
The settlement will now loom large in negotiations between Chilean state-run copper company Corporacion Nacional del Cobre (Codelco) and its unions, covering 17,000 miners. Codelco&rsquo;s workers are among the lowest paid miners in Chile, while Escondida workers are now the highest. Negotiations between Codelco and unions at three of its four divisions begin in October 2006, with contract expirations coming on 30 November and 31 December. 
 
Codelco stands as the world&rsquo;s biggest copper company, with huge reserves at its Andina, Norte, El Salvador, and El Teniente mines. Some 25% of the world&rsquo;s total supply of copper originates from Chile.

Chile’s Copper Strike at BHP Billiton’s Minera Escondida Ends

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Several French trade unions are resisting the government&rsquo;s forced privatisation of Gaz de France through a merger with French-Belgian water and power concern, Suez Group. Three salaried administrators on the company&rsquo;s board, representing the trade union CGT, were successful last week before an Appeals Court in Paris in ordering the utility&rsquo;s management to hold an extraordinary board meeting to discuss anti-trust concerns raised on 18 August by the European Commission. 
 
That board meeting was held on 1 September, six days before French parliamentarians will take the matter up in the National Assembly. All four unions represented on Gaz de France&rsquo;s board, including FO, CFE-CGC and ICEM affiliate FCE-CFDT, claim that the objections by the European Commission present serious warning signs and warrant full disclosure. 
<img height="67" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The government-brokered merger deal was set in motion last spring by French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to block a hostile takeover of Suez by Italian energy company Enel. If a Gaz de France-Suez merger were to become a reality, it would break a pledge contained in a 2004 French law which states that at least 70% of Gaz de France would remain in the state&rsquo;s hands. The proposed &euro;72 billion merger would mean the government&rsquo;s stake in the combined company would be diluted to 34%.
The CGT is threatening a strike sometime in September if the proposal in the National Assembly to validate the merger isn&rsquo;t defeated. In addition, CGT, FO and CFTC have called for national mobilisations on 12 September against the privatisation. 
 
FCE-CFDT is hostile to privatising Gaz de France and believes the state must continue to be the major shareholder of the utility. But the union is not opposed to closer cooperation between Gaz de France and Suez.

French Unions Press Issue on Gaz de France Privatisation

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The Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) has scored an important victory for fixed-term contract workers at a diamond-cutting and polishing factory in the capital city of Windhoek. Last week, ICEM affiliate MUN successfully completed negotiations with the Namibian managers of Israel-based Lev Leviev Diamonds LLD. The agreement will make 356 mainly young workers into permanent employees, complete with rights and benefits. 
 
&ldquo;Workers are happy about the fact they have representation,&rdquo; MUN General Secretary Joseph Hengari told the ICEM. &ldquo;There have been many shortcomings in work procedures since this factory started and our duty now is to bring these technicalities to a close to the benefit of workers.&rdquo; 
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In late July, about a quarter of the workers at the Lev Leviev enterprise struck after they were given an ultimatum by managers to sign new 12-month-long individual contracts for the third time. Strike leaders contacted the MUN, whose intervention ended the strike and began collective negotiations with the company. 
 
MUN&rsquo;s involvement also proves beneficial to the company, which had been operating without knowledge of local laws, without a functioning human resources department, and without a proper method of salary calculations. In fact, one major grievance that led to the 27 July strike was the fact that individual contracts disqualified the workers from getting a basic salary unless they reached certain production quotas. 
 
MUN will soon become the official bargaining representative at the Lev Leviev plant. During two weeks of intense negotiations in August that covered a number of employment issues including salary and remuneration, MUN and the company agreed to make the 356 workers permanent effective 1 September. All 356 applied for membership to the MUN. In addition, another 56 were classified as trainees, but will progress from that status to permanent workers in the near future. The company also says it intends to bring another 120 trainees into the plant, with the aim of having a total of over 500 permanent workers. 
 
The diamond-cutting and polishing operation opened in mid-2004 and has a capacity to produce 25,000 carats of polished stones monthly. The factory currently is dependent on rough stones mined from another Lev Leviev enterprise, the Sakawa Mining Corporation of The Netherlands, located in offshore areas of southern Namibia. But the company is attempting to convince the Namdeb Diamond Corporation, the country&rsquo;s joint venture with DeBeers, to supply rough stones to the factory in order to fully promote local beneficiation of Namibian diamonds.

ICEM Namibian Affiliate Succeeds in Making Diamond Polishing Jobs Permanent

Nigerian oil workers&rsquo; unions NUPENG and PENGASSAN demand the immediate release of a comrade recently kidnapped in Bayelsa State. Nelson Ujeya, the Community Liaison Officer for Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd, a trade union member of white-collar PENGASSAN, was abducted on 8 August following an official visit to the Letugbene community to examine community projects. 
 
A NUPENGASSAN union communiqu&eacute; said the kidnapping occurred &ldquo;in the full glare of a team of senior Bayelsa State Government officials&rdquo; following the coordinated visit with officials to Letugbene. 
The two ICEM affiliates demanded in the statement &ldquo;that the Government and good people of Bayelsa should immediately produce our member whom they invited to a Community-related assignment.&rdquo; 
<img height="135" alt="" src="" width="130" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="126" alt="" src="" width="120" />
&ldquo;On our part, considering the escalation of kidnapping and other violent acts in the Niger Delta Region, we are under tremendous pressure to take action that will guarantee the safety of lives and properties of our members.&rdquo; 
 
In Nigeria, NUPENG and PENGASSAN have been consistent in the call for a stop to the senseless kidnappings of oil workers&rsquo; of any nationality, but also for state and federal governments, as well as oil industry enterprises, to do more inside Niger Delta communities. 
 
The two unions, operating under the aegis NUPENGASSAN, call for education and skill development, and other meaningful social protections that improve the quality of life in these oil-rich areas. The ICEM stands behind the efforts of NUPENGASSAN, and applauds their trade union voice on this extremely serious problem in the global oil industry.

Call for Release of Kidnapped PENGASSAN Member in Nigeria

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Two UK trade unions, the Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (TGWU) and Amicus, received a new pay offer last week after they issued a date for a one-day work stoppage. Pirelli of Italy increased its pay offer made to 1,100 tyre workers in the British Midlands to 3%, after attempting to force an unacceptable 2.2% raise on workers. 
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Workers and their union leaders at a Pirelli tyre plant in Carlisle and at another facility in Burton-on-Trent chose this coming Friday, 24 August, for industrial action. TGWU and Amicus members will now consider the offer in consultations. A Pirelli spokesman said the company was hoping to &ldquo;move forward from our national dispute&rdquo; to an agreement. 
 
The company offered 1.1% when bargaining began in April. Workers voted for industrial action by 75% after the company had revised the pay offer to 2.2%. TGWU represents most workers at the two Pirelli worksites, including the auto and light truck tyre plant in Carlisle.

Pirelli Heads Off UK Industrial Action with New Tyre Offer

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In a meeting with French building materials company Imerys last week, British trade union Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (TGWU) asked the company to reconsider its plans to cut 800 jobs by the beginning of 2008 in Cornwall, Devon, and Lee Moor in the country&rsquo;s South West. 
 
TGWU said the job cuts, which would bring economic devastation to the region, are &ldquo;totally unjustified&rdquo; and said the company must give serious consideration to counter proposals put forward at the 15 August meeting. 
<img height="55" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img height="62" alt="" src="" width="120" />
&ldquo;The company is in a strong position to have a bright future in Cornwall, and everything should be done to persuade them to stay,&rdquo; said TGWU National Secretary Jennie Formby. &ldquo;(Imerys has) a hardworking, long-serving workforce who deserve better than being dismissed with massive job cuts and a redundancy offer that will in no way compensate for their lost employment.&rdquo; 
 
Added Malcolm Mellow, TGWU Convenor at Imerys in the South West: &ldquo;Members have been rocked by the news that they will lose their jobs after devoting years of loyal service to Imerys. The workforce and their families deserve better.&rdquo; 
 
Imerys cut some jobs in the region in 2004, but promised then that the remaining 800 jobs would be secure. That pledge was breached early in July 2006 when a proposed restructuring plan surfaced saying the vast majority of jobs in kaolin mining and processing at former English China Clay operations would be lost, and the work transferred to Brazil. Imerys bought English China Clay in 1999. 
 
The ICEM is working with affiliate TGWU, as well as with UK affiliated trade union Amicus, which represents a smaller number of Imerys workers in the South West, to preserve the jobs and the region&rsquo;s economic viability.

UK’s TGWU Meets with Imerys to Dissuade Job Cuts

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