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The ICEM Asia-Pacific Region Oil and Gas Industry Network conducted a meeting on 21-22 August, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The meeting was co-hosted by ICEM, FES, VGCL, and the Vietnam Oil and Gas Union. 
 
Mr Koyanagi, representative of JEC Rengo, ICEM&rsquo;s largest sector union in the region, was elected as Chairperson for the meeting. 
 
Keynote presentations were given by ICEM and fellow global union federation the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF). 
 
For ICEM Geneva, Director of Organisation Jim Catterson presented a broad and detailed overview of the state of the sector, touching on current and future/projected industry patterns, emphasizing the ICEM global sectoral meeting scheduled for Stavanger which started today. Catterson highlighted the ICEM/ITF collaboration on and around offshore oilrigs, aiming to achieve unionization &ldquo;from well to wheel&rdquo;. Focus was also on the impact of the 2008 Economic Crisis, the importance of the Caspian area, the expected resurgence of Iraqi oil production, the oil industry ICEM Global Framework Agreements, the growing role of China as an investor and user of oil and gas, and the problem of the growing gap between drilling technology and security and safety technology.
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For the ITF, Mick Doleman, representing the ITF&rsquo;s Offshore Taskforce Group, recalled the 2006 alliance between ITF and ICEM on offshore issues, and along the &ldquo;pit to the port&rdquo; chain. Mick also emphasized the focus of Australian unions in solidarity work in the sub- region, in Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea in particular, stressing the need for the building of strong and active trade unions. 
 
Delegates received country reports by Japan, India, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia. 
 
The co-hosting Vietnam Oil and Gas Union presented themselves and the political context in which they operate, detailing union membership at 45,000-51,000 in the industry, at 129 workplaces. Current challenges faced by the union are growing use by employers of contract and agency labour (CAL); and union officials paid by management. 
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ICEM Asia-Pacific responded by recalling the developing contact with VO&amp;GU since 1993, now moving towards formal affiliation, and commended the detailed and structured report presented. 
 
There was a strong emphasis on the importance of solidarity and support amongst and between affiliates themselves. The value of regular sectoral meetings at the regional level was agreed, but the need for active information exchange and interaction between any such meetings was stressed. 
 
The meeting received motivation for two solidarity resolutions, on Linde Group&rsquo;s ongoing anti-union practices in Thailand, and in support of Los Mineros in Mexico, as well as one recommendation to the World Energy Conference. The three resolutions were unanimously accepted.

ICEM Asia-Pacific Region Oil and Gas Industry Network Meets

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The United Auto Workers (UAW) union became the eighth US trade union to join the Blue Green Alliance, a well-honed collaboration in place between major trade unions and major environmental groups in America. The announcement two weeks ago weds one of the US&rsquo;s founding industrial unions to a commitment to build cleaner and more fuel-efficient automobiles. 
 
&ldquo;We are thrilled to become part of this unique partnership of working people and environmentalists who are striving to build a cleaner, more efficient and more prosperous American economy,&rdquo; stated UAW President Bob King in the announcement that brought US auto industry labour into the alliance. &ldquo;We have enormous opportunities to revitalize this industry, and the American economy, by embracing the clean energy economy of the future.&rdquo; 
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UAW President, Bob King
The Blue Green Alliance started in 2006 between the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Sierra Club, and since has grown as a labor-environmental bond between leading American unions and both the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 
 
The Blue Green Alliance now has 8.5 million American workers pursuing Good Jobs, a Clean Environment, and a Green Economy. Besides the leading role the USW has taken in forming the alliance, other US-based unions include the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the Service Employees&rsquo; Union (SEIU), and the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (SMWIA).

American Auto Workers Join Blue Green Alliance

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ICEM&rsquo;s Canadian affiliate the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union has lead the way in donating CA$30,000 to the relief efforts in flood hit Pakistan 
 
The CEP first donated CA$25,000 through its Humanity Fund, with the money going to Oxfam&rsquo;s emergency flood relief. The union followed with a second donation of CA$5,000. 
 
&ldquo;The need continues to be great in Pakistan and CEP members and their families have a proud tradition of helping those in need&rdquo; stated CEP President Dave Coles. 
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CEP President, Dave Coles
The CEP Humanity Fund is a member-supported fund that helps people facing disasters and poverty, promotes decent work and supports equitable development in Canada and around the world. 
 
In addition to the CEP&rsquo;s very generous flood relief contribution, thousands of workers at the Pakistan Steel Mills donated one day&rsquo;s salary to Prime Minister Syed Yousef Raza Gilani Flood Relief Fund. A leader of the Pakistan Steel People&rsquo;s Workers Union presented a check in the amount of Rs 15.5 million (US$180,000) to the Prime Minister in Islamabad. 
 
And workers of Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. donated a flat sum payment of Rs 20 million (US$233,000), plus one day&rsquo;s salary of management staff to the PM&rsquo;s Flood Relief Fund. It also sent large consignments of relief goods to flood-stricken areas. From Turkey, a freight train completely filled with relief goods was sent through a Turkey-Iran-Pakistan rail link in late August.

Canada’s CEP Donates $30,000 to Pakistan Emergency Flood Relief Effort

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A ten-day strike by the ICEM North American affiliate Teamsters Union against a subsidiary of Swiss-based Holcim ended 25-26 August when 130 union members at two branch locals ratified a three-year collective agreement with a 90% vote. 
 
The strike in the US state of Massachusetts was highlighted by Teamsters members from three other local branches blockading some 20 cement plants and terminals in Massachusetts and neighbouring New Hampshire. Those locals have contracts that expire in the future, making the show of support to truck drivers and plant operators of Locals 25 and 170 an exemplary example of solidarity. 
 
The strike and rolling actions came against Aggregate Industries, a wholly-owned Holcim subsidiary in the US and UK. 
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Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 25, Mark Harrington
The Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 25, Mark Harrington, described terms of the new agreement as satisfactory, with the union solidly protecting wages, pensions, and health care coverage, while compromising with American management over some work rules. 
 
&ldquo;The strategy worked,&rdquo; said Harrington. &ldquo;By extending picket lines we were able to impact the company economically.&rdquo; 
 
Harrington himself extended gratitude to Swiss trade union Unia for its intervention in the strike. He said company negotiators made note of that fact &ndash; with some surprise &ndash; at the US federal mediation session on 25 August that produced the settlement. The ICEM also intervened with Holcim during the strike. 
 
Teamsters Locals 42, 633, and another unit of Local 25 that has a different expiration date with Aggregate Industries not only honoured roving pickets at the company&rsquo;s New England operations, but members of those local branches joined the pickets. 
 
Regarding those solidarity actions, the ICEM considers it heroic deeds in defending and winning a new labour agreement because the Holcim subsidiary was readying the hire of replacement workers as its strategy to break the strike.

US Teamsters Union Settles Holcim Cement Strike in US

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Latin America&rsquo;s largest company by market value, Petrobras, was hit hard by a one-day warning strike on 3 September. Eighty percent of ICEM-affiliated Federa&ccedil;&atilde;o &Uacute;nica de dos Petroleiros&rsquo;s (FUP) 35,000 members shut refineries, distribution terminals, offshore platforms and rigs, and administration offices across Brazil last Friday in a stern message to the largely state-owned company that it will not be shortchanged in current negotiations. 
 
In a statement, the FUP umbrella grouping of unions &ndash; by far the largest at Petrobras &ndash; said workers&rsquo; intent was to &ldquo;interrupt the main operations, keeping only the essential activities operating for the maintenance and security of equipment.&rdquo; 
 
The union was angry that Petrobras had granted large bonuses to senior managers while negotiations were in progress, and then suddenly halting talks. 
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Some seven refineries in Brazil stopped producing, as did 30 offshore drilling platforms and countless other facilities. FUP is seeking the Brazilian inflation rate from September 2009 to August 2010, or 5%, and also seeks productivity pay totaling 10% for undertaking training and development programmes. 
 
The union federation also wants guaranteed safeguarding of labour standards and establishment of a national forum as a dialogue platform to discuss structural changes with management over health, safety, and the environment. 
 
The company&rsquo;s response to the warning strike was that it would conduct an &ldquo;open and transparent&rdquo; set of negotiations with workers&rsquo; representatives. 
 
The warning strike came on the same day that Petrobras announced it would conduct a massive stock offering in order to raise US$64.5 billion in capital funds.

FUP Launches Day-Long Warning Strike Against Petrobras

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Australian building materials maker James Hardie Industries lost a tax appeal case in a courtroom on 1 September that likely will inhibit the troubled company&rsquo;s ability to make payments under terms of the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund. Under a mandatory agreement with the state government of New South Wales, Hardie must pay 35% of its annual cash flow to the fund. 
 
A federal court judge ruled last week that James Hardie owes back taxes to the government in the amount of A$357.4 million, plus interest, for dodging taxes in 1998 when it formally moved ownership of US subsidiaries out of Australia. 
 
The 1 September decision by a federal court judge in Australia, upholding a Taxation Office ruling from that 1998 case, means that Hardie will need a fresh infusion of money to meet its liability commitments to victims of asbestos and asbestos-related diseases, according to the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). Lawyers who represent victims also expressed fear that the company will completely default on immediate and future obligations. 
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The AMWU said prior to last week&rsquo;s ruling that if James Hardie were to win the appeal, it would demand that the A$275 million cash windfall due the company go directly to the compensation fund. The AMWU said James Hardie has not made a payment into the fund in 2009-2010, and the bottoming-out of the home-building market inside the global financial crisis seriously jeopardizes the compensation fund. 
 
The AMWU further states that victims&rsquo; claims average A$110 million per year, but that James Hardie has made sufficient profits only once in the past seven years to cover a full year&rsquo;s of liability. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s case involved the company&rsquo;s wholly-owned affiliate RCI Pty. using a tax avoidance scheme, as determined by the Tax Commissioner, for the purpose of the subsidiary gaining a tax benefit. 
 
One Australian press account said last week&rsquo;s verdict &ldquo;cements the reputation of James Hardie&rsquo;s board and management of the 1990s and early 2000s as putting more effort into minimizing liabilities than was good for the company. 
 
&ldquo;James Hardie has been mired in scandal after using legal arguments in 2004 to deny liability to pay asbestos compensation,&rdquo; said the press report. &ldquo;The furor over asbestos, which forced the company to resume responsibility, was prompted by a global restructure in 2001, which built on a 1998 restructure that is at the centre of the tax dispute.&rdquo;

Asbestos: James Hardie’s Failed Tax Appeal Clouds Victims’ Payments

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Bargaining again will be held in efforts to resolve the bitter 13-month strike between United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9508 in Voiseys Bay, Labrador, and Brazilian-based mining company Vale. Two days of talks will open on 19 September in the eastern Canadian province of Labrador/Newfoundland. 
 
Two previous days of negotiations on 19-20 July proved futile, with the company continuing its harsh push to lower the living standards of Canadian miners. Some 230 members of USW Local 9508 have been on picket lines at rich copper, nickel mines and port and processing plants in eastern Canada since 1 August 2009. 
 
The strike now exceeds, by 42 days, the 360-day strike brought on by Vale in its assault against 3,500 USW miners and nickel processing workers in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, which was settled with a compromise on 8 July but not without much bitterness lingering. 
 
In Voiseys Bay and remote Goose Bay, where many of the USW strikers are First Nation people, Vale is boasting that it is at or near full production by using scab replacement workers and contractors. The company displayed abominable social behaviour following public comments made by USW Local 9508 President Darren Cove after the break-down of the July talks. 
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USW Local 9508 President Darren Cove
Cove said Vale was treating Local 9508 members like second-class citizens because Vale refused to offer similar terms that ended the strike by USW Locals 6500 and 6200 in Sudbury and Port Colborne. Vale responded by filing a defamation lawsuit in Canadian courts against Cove for making that statement. 
 
Besides the 230 members of three bargaining units of Local 9508 on strike, 50 workers employed by Ushitou Maintenance have been on strike since 1 June 2010. These workers are also members of Local 9508, and perform electrical, pipefitting, instrumentation, and other functions for Vale at its Voiseys Bay operations. 
 
The ICEM reminds trade unions across the globe that the high-profile Canadian labour dispute with hugely profitable Vale will not be over until justice reaches the courageous Steelworker strikers of Labrador / Newfoundland Province.

Canadian Negotiations to Resume Between Vale, USW in Bitter Voiseys Bay Strike

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Grupo Mexico reacted with violence to a 20 August worker ballot at the Esqueda smelter in Sonora State, where workers voted to end the protection contract with a company union, and re-join Los Mineros Section 207. The Calder&oacute;n government again supplied the police units, who moved into the mine, aggressively intimidating workers. 
 
The police attack occurred on the morning of 31 August, when over 1,000 heavily armed federal and state units occupied the smelter and surrounding area. 
 
The company union was imposed on Esqueda&rsquo;s workers three years ago through the use of firings, threats, and repression. Roheri Cruz Sanchez, leader of Section 207, reports that the company union systematically ignored workers&rsquo; concerns, signed a &lsquo;protection&rsquo; collective agreement without consulting workers, and never even revealed the terms of the collective agreement to workers. 
 
Grupo Mexico has already begun sacking all of the workers involved in resisting the police siege. 
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&ldquo;This blatant act of repression clearly puts Grupo Mexico&rsquo;s anti-union vendetta ahead of the company&rsquo;s interest in having stable labor relations,&rdquo; declared Leo W. Gerard, USW international president. 
 
Following the international outcry over the violent police attack on Cananea&rsquo;s striking miners in February this year, the Calder&oacute;n government and Grupo Mexico&rsquo;s continuation of its brutal repression of workers&rsquo; rights is extremely concerning. 
 
As continuing efforts&nbsp;to free the trapped miners in Northern Chile have received special attention from the country&rsquo;s president Sebastian Pi&ntilde;era, Los Mineros renewed calls for a full governmental inquiry into the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster, 19 February 2006, which killed 65 miners. The decision to reissue the demand for justice for the 65 killed miners was taken by the National Executive Committee of the National Union of Mineworkers, known as Los Mineros, on 24 August. 
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Pasta de Conchos Widow
There has never been a criminal conviction over the Pasta de Conchos disaster, described by Los Mineros General Secretary Napole&oacute;n Gomez as &ldquo;industrial homicide&rdquo;. The parallels between the aftermath of the Chile mine collapse and that of Pasta de Conchos are striking, while national and local government came to the San Esteban Primera mine to support rescue efforts, Mexican presidents Fox and Calder&oacute;n have never appeared at Pasta de Conchos, neither has Germ&aacute;n Larrea CEO of Grupo Mexico. 
 
The most poignant difference in rescue efforts for Los Mineros and the families of the 65 dead miners at Pasta de Conchos, is that at the Chile mine accident the trapped workers were found seventeen days after the collapse of the mine shaft, while rescue efforts were halted after five days in Mexico, when families were only a few metres away from their trapped loved ones. As Grupo Mexico and the Mexican government halted rescue efforts, and disconnected the electricity making any continuation of the search impossible, they made it impossible to carry out a proper investigation into the cause of the mine collapse, believed by many to be illegal safety conditions in the mine. 
 
Sixty-three of the 65 mineworkers killed at Pasta de Conchos are still buried in the mine. Their widows and families have never been properly compensated.

ICEM Condemns Repression of Workers by Mexican Government, Grupo Mexico

Bayo is the General Secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
How Prevalent is Contract and Agency Labour and Casualisation in Nigeria? 
 
CAL is increasing and alarmingly taking over Nigeria&rsquo;s Oil and Gas industries. It encompasses various dimensions of precarious work and the worst forms of employment. CAL gives room for unfair labour practices that are repugnant to decent work principles. About 60% of our workforce is now composed of contract and agency workers. Standard, permanent employment is declining. 
 
Is the Issue of Casualisation and Temporary Work Practices a Bigger Problem than it was Before? 
 
The issue is a bigger problem in the Nigeria Oil and Gas Sector now than it was before due to the fact that employers and the government&rsquo;s standpoint is that CAL is now a reality that cannot be wished away. This leaves trade unions with no other option than to tackle the adverse effects of CAL, which are: 
 
&bull; Use of this work practice to replace direct and permanent employment; 
&bull; To adversely change employment forms and conditions, to avoid social responsibilities and obligations which employers circumvent through gaps and inadequacies in our extant laws; 
&bull; To weaken trade union membership, solidarity and relevance, and to prevent union organising and recognition of the collective bargaining principle; 
&bull; It widens the exploitation gaps particularly by user enterprises who prefer to minimise cost and increase profit, at the expense and detriment of labour; 
&bull; It increases workplace discrimination and inequitable terms and conditions of employment; 
&bull; It seriously challenges trade union ability to protect job security; 
&bull; There are conflicts in the definition of employment relationships and the obligations of user enterprises, particularly where laws and employment regulatory agencies do not clarify these issues; 
&bull; And an underlying factor, casualisation and temporary work is a growing phenomenon due to the unemployment situation. Employers are exploiting workers&rsquo; desperation for a means of subsistence for their own profit mongering. 
 
 
What are Differences in Nigeria Regarding Working Conditions Between CAL Workers and Permanent Workers? 
 
Number one, casual and temporary workers are subjected to conditions that are not in accord with the general work conditions in the Oil and Gas Sector. Where CAL workers are lucky and are allowed to organise and bargain collectively, the mandate for negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement is seriously curtailed by the contracts between the contractors and agencies on the one side and by the primary enterprise on the other side. 
 
In addition, these workers are subject to limited or no provisions for basic welfare, pensions and social security, health, safety, security and environmental protection, and other stipulated core ILO conventions. And to cite just one small example, Global Framework Agreements that are signed with Global Union Federations, where functional, are not usually made available and applicable to contract and agency workers. 
 
Any set of negotiations in Nigeria that involves a collective agreement for these workers is prone to grievances, disputes, threats, resistance, and action from labour unions, contractors and agencies, and user enterprises. 
 
What are the Main Ways in which Trade Unions are Supporting Casual and Contract and Agency Labour Workers? 
 
It has become a priority to use union resources and machineries to mobilise support and confront the overall denial that contract and agency workers&rsquo; rights have not right to organise and bargain collectively. We are doing this through increases levels of sensitisation through mobilisations, campaigns, solidarity actions, protests, rallies, pickets, strikes, media work, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, and litigation. 
 
We now have the task of entrenching the more effective and protective organising and collective bargaining strategies for contract and agency workers, with financial and organisation support from our union&rsquo;s Union Solidarity Reserve fund, from organisations like the ICEM, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation of Germany, and the US Solidarity Center. 
 
We are constantly implementing union resolutions, directives, and decisions in the area of campaigns, lobbying, engagements, and advocacy for contract and agency workers&rsquo; issues. 
 
Which Ways Do You Feel the ICEM&rsquo;s Global Campaign on CAL can be Helpful and Most Effective in Confronting the Challenges of CAL in Nigeria&rsquo;s Oil and Gas Sector? 
 
The Global CAL Campaign of the ICEM must use donors&rsquo; resources and mechanisms to mobilise support and confront resistance to full rights of contract and agency workers to organise and bargain collectively. The ICEM must increase awareness of the CAL situation, by all possible means, and it must effectively implement the Campaign through communication, engagement and evaluation, and correcting deviations/gaps in the global campaign strategies. 
PENGASSAN&rsquo;s best hope is that the ICEM will carry out advocacy and lobbying for fair labour policies and laws which are favourable to contract and agency workers, as to campaign for best practices in dealing with employment and working conditions issues relating to this most serious issue.

Interview: Bayo Olowoshile, PENGASSAN General Secretary

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Last Spring, trade unions of the Netherlands and the Dutch Association of Temporary Work Agencies, Algemene Bond Uitzendondernemingen (ABU), agreed to an across-the-board 1% wage increase for all temporary workers in the country. 
 
An increase of 0.5% took effect on 5 July and a further 0.5% increase will be awarded on 3 January 2011. The 1% wage increase granted to the employees was based on the average of increases taken from a selection of 30 collective agreements in other sectors. 
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Marcel Nuyten, Director Temp Workers, FNV Bondgenoten
The agreement was reached between the ABU, the ICEM-affiliated FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Dienstenbond, the executives&rsquo; union, and LBV, an independent union. An agreement was also reached whereby wages may be increased every year on 1 July, amending the Collective Employment Agreement for Temporary Employees 2009 &ndash; 2014. 
 
The Collective Employment Agreement, which can be found <a href="http://www.abu.nl/abu2/?fileid=14231">here</a>, stipulates conditions which must apply to temporary agency workers, including the relationships between the worker, agency, and user enterprise; training entitlement; and the conditions under which temporary employment contracts may be terminated.

Dutch Unions Get Wage Increase with Employers’ Federation for Agency Workers

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