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The President of an ICEM affiliate in Chile, Fenatrapech, the National Federation of Oil Workers, passed away at 5h30 on 23 August. Comrade Jorge Matute was 61 years old and dedicated 41 years to trade union work for Chile&rsquo;s oil workers. Twenty of those years were with Fenatrapech. 
 
Matute was the key oil workers&rsquo; leader during pivotal moments and struggles in Chile&rsquo;s energy. Unpopular Chilean President Sebasti&aacute;n Pi&ntilde;era has attempted to sell off the nationalised oil assets into private hands, along with other major nationalised industries. Workers at the National Petroleum Company, ENAP, have been under attack over the last two years, as government attempts to weaken the union to facilitate privatisation. 
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Jorge Matute was central in fighting to protect workers in this process, negotiating redundancy packages and against job cuts. 
 
An example of this struggle led by Matute was at the Bio Bio refinery in Central Chile. In tribute, his remains were taken there on the day of his death, before moving him to Valparaiso for his funeral on 24 August. 
 
Matute had suffered the disappearance of his son, Jorge Matute Johns. Trade union comrades in Chile now take comfort in the belief that Matute is reunited with his son. 
 
Words of support and mourning have been offered from many sides for the popular union leader. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda conveyed sincere condolences to Fenatrapech on behalf of the ICEM, calling for his good work and struggles on behalf of workers to be continued. &ldquo;We honour the life of a great fighter,&rdquo; said Warda. 
 
ENAP oil workers&rsquo; union President Alejandro Avenda&ntilde;o said that Matute had &ldquo;taught us the important value of the struggle for workers rights in Chile.&rdquo;

Jorge Matute: 1950-2011

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Madhukar Kashinath Pandhe, a steadfast champion of workers in India and elsewhere, died of a heart attack on 20 August in a New Delhi hospital. M K Pandhe was a champion for decades in India of carving gains for all workers, from unorganised workers in the informal sector to the skilled workers that drive India&rsquo;s economy. He was 86. 
 
Pande was an early leader of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). When he died, he was Vice President of CITU. He had served as the trade union&rsquo;s Secretary, General Secretary, and President. 
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He was also President of the All India Coal Workers&rsquo; Federation. The ICEM knew him as a tireless and dedicated partner on coal supply, work rights, pay, health, safety and other issues in the mining industry. 
 
Pande was born in Pune, Maharashtra, and joined the Communist Party in 1943. He joined the Goa liberation struggle against the Portuguese and after the Communist Party in India divided, be became a leader a CPI(M) &ndash; the Communist Part India (Marxist) party. 
 
His high prestige in India as a trade union negotiator who delivered for the working class was earned because Pandhe did it across all industrial sectors, from mining, steel, energy to all forms of transport, and from navy to shipping to aviation to many other jobs. He served on numerous national level bodies formed by the government, and his steady voice inside all of them never wavered from the defense of the working class. 
 
M K Pandhe is survived his wife, Pramile, a key leader in CPI(M) and also leader in the All India Democratic Women&rsquo;s Association, and a son.

M K Pandhe: 1925-2011

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At the triennial United Steelworkers Convention in Las Vegas, US, on 16 August, the union covering members in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean moved closer to formalising a unified North American trade union together with oppressed National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros. 
 
Los Mineros President Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia addressed the 3,000 delegates via teleconference from Canada, where he has been in exile for the last five years. These same charges blocked G&oacute;mez from travelling to the Las Vegas Convention. His wife, Oralia, gave an emotional speech instead. It had been planned that Los Mineros leader Juan Linares would sign the agreement, but he was blocked from leaving Mexico by authorities who are conducting a relentless campaign against Los Mineros. 
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&ldquo;A strong, unified union is needed to fight for workers from the northern tip of Canada to the most southern tip of Mexico, particularly in the age of the North American Free Trade Agreement,&rdquo; stated USW President Leo Gerard. 
 
Among other things, the agreement establishes worker councils for employees at multinationals in the three countries, &quot;to facilitate exchange of information, strategic cooperation, solidarity support, and organizing initiatives.&quot; 
 
The two trade unions formed a commission, charged with increasing strategic cooperation and exploring a fusion together following the aggressive police attacks on workers and their families at Cananea and Pasta de Conchos on 6 June 2010, announcing the bi-lateral trade union commission at the global &quot;Triple Crisis of Sustainability&rdquo; conference in Toronto on 19 June 2010. 
 
The commission was made up of five members from each of the union&rsquo;s leaderships, and will now be expanded to include the USW general counsel and director of international affairs. Los Mineros will get two additional representatives. 
 
The USW represents 850,000 workers in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, while Los Mineros represents about 180,000 in Mexico.

USW, Mexico’s Los Mineros Strengthen Alliance

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ICEM-affiliated United Steelworkers (USW) in the US is fighting to keep pension and healthcare benefits for 125 highly skilled mould repairmen at Owens-Illinois, and 175 at Ross International. US-based glass packaging manufacturers Owens-Illinois and Ross International are attempting to discriminate against younger workers by providing inferior retirement benefits to new staff. 
Also under attack in current negotiations are healthcare benefits contained in the two-tier proposals. The ICEM condemns this draconian stance of Owens-Illinois and Ross International in their collective negotiations. 
 
As reported by ICEM in July this year, Owens-Illinois has been attempting to squeeze more profit out of its operations elsewhere in the world by cutting workers&rsquo; benefits. In Colombia, ICEM-affiliated Sintravidricol members were forced to work dangerously long periods after restructuring at the plants in Envigado, Cogua, and Soacha. The company filled gaps by outsourcing work unilaterally, ignoring Sintravidricol&rsquo;s pleas for dialogue. 
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Tim Tuttle
Ross International also has a record of bitter disputes with ICEM affiliates. However, Sintravidricol in Colombia did achieve recognition and a collective agreement from the company following a 23-day strike in 2007. 
 
Both companies are now targeting USW members&rsquo; social benefits and those of future generations. These workers repair the moulds used to manufacture containers in the beer, wine, spirits, and food sectors of glass and other packaging. 
 
Tim Tuttle, Chairman of USW&rsquo;s Glass Industry Conference, reports that a further meeting with management is scheduled for Wednesday, 31 August, the same day the current agreement expires. Additional dates in September will be sought to continue discussions. 
 
In a letter to Owens-Illinois CEO, Albert Stroucken, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda condemned the company&rsquo;s stance against a fair contract for employees. &ldquo;This is an attempt by Owens-Illinois to bolster its bottom line on the backs of vulnerable retirees. It also appears to be a cynical attempt by Owens-Illinois to undermine the union by sewing divisions within it between current workers and newly hired workers,&rdquo; stated Warda. 
 
As Warda warned the CEOs of both glass packaging manufacturers, the ICEM will mobilise international support if managements fail to alter their regressive stance in North American bargaining.

USW Resists Concessions in Owens-Illinois, Ross International Bargaining

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In the midst of national unrest facing Chile President Sebasti&aacute;n Pi&ntilde;era, Mineworkers&rsquo; Federations meet together today in Iquique to push forward support for 1,500 union members of Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi, a major affiliate of Chile Federation of Miners (FMC), the trade union covering miners and workers employed by the world&rsquo;s major mining houses. 
 
The Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Collahuasi and FMC have set 2 September as a 24-hour day for industrial action, mainly in protest to the company sacking six workers during the last 24-hour strike, on 29-30 July. The union&rsquo;s planned strike is also in protest to the miners&rsquo; employer, Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi, reneging on collective agreement conventions put in place in the past. 
 
A delegation from Federaci&oacute;n de Trabajadores del Cobre (FTC), the Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation representing state-run copper company Codelco&rsquo;s staff, will likely participate in today&rsquo;s meeting. 
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Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi, the world&rsquo;s third largest copper mine, is jointly owned through 44% stakes each by AngloAmerican and Xstrata. The 29-30 July strike at Collahuasi was also done in support of a strike at another FMC major branch, Sindicato No. 1 de Trabajadores de Minera Escondida. Then, 2,375 miners where in a middle of a 15-day strike at Minera Escondida, the world&rsquo;s largest copper producer, owned by BHP Billion (57%) and Rio Tinto (23%). 
 
In the past few weeks, FMC President Cristi&aacute;n Arancibia has visited several mines where workers are represented by FMC branches and urged support for Collahuasi miners as the global copper enterprise ramps up for even more production. 
 
Today&rsquo;s meeting comes on the heels of a prior successful FMC-FTC solidarity meeting in Antofagasta &ndash; on 28 July &ndash; just prior to Collahuasi miners joining Escondida miners in a symbolic day-long shutdown of 10% of the world&rsquo;s copper supply. Another coordinating meeting between the Collahuasi mineworkers&rsquo; branch and the Escondida branch on 20 August produced official support from the Escondida union. And the Cobres have met amongst themselves to discuss ways to support the FMC Collahuasi miners, as well as narrowing issues in which to engage Codelco on. 
 
Dialogue has occurred between mine management at Collahuasi and Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi, reports FMC branch President Manuel Mu&ntilde;oz, but that dialogue is undermined by supervisors intentionally giving workers mis-information. Relations between Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi and mineworkers have been frayed for over a year and the two sides were pitted in a bitter 33-day strike late last year that still is being felt. 
 
In a 24 August letter to the company, Mu&ntilde;oz said that the company&rsquo;s Human Resource facilities have failed and the company is vulnerable to workers and supervisors leaving Collahuasi for other employment. He alluded to common misunderstandings that could get resolved in honest negotiations, but instead have become serious confrontations. 
 
Meanwhile, Codelco recognised that popular Chilean unrest in both mining and the general society is not good for the country&rsquo;s business climate. Last week, the company and the Cobres signed a framework agreement intended to remove communication barriers between labour and management. The agreement sets the conditions under which workers&rsquo; opinions are fostered for shaping the future direction of the company. 
 
FTC President Raimundo Espinoza said the framework agreement gives FTC stature to help develop Codelco&rsquo;s divisions &ldquo;including an analysis of the current and future workforce and compliance with the law for contract workers.&rdquo; The framework agreement results from a one-day strike on 11 July at Codelco mines over privatisation threats.

Mine Federations Meet Today in Support of Collahuasi Strike

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Trade union movements in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK will protest at Fiji missions in their respective countries this week over escalating union and civil society repression imposed by Fijian military dictator Josaia Voreque Bainimarama. These manifestations &ndash; in addition to protests at embassies of Fiji in several other countries &ndash; occur as Daniel Urai, President of the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC), and Dinesh Gounder, of the National Union of Hospitality, Catering, Tourism Employees, face a court hearing this week, 2 September, on charges of holding a union meeting without a permit. 
 
Gounder and Urai, formerly of ICEM affiliate Fiji Electricity Workers&rsquo; Union who also serves as General Secretary of the Hospitality, Catering, Tourism union, were arrested on 3 August for violating a four-day-old decree aimed at disempowering trade union activities. 
 
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will conduct two manifestations while Urai and Gounder are in the dock; one at the Fiji Consular General&rsquo;s office at 100 North Walker Street, North Sydney, the other at the Fiji High Commission in Canberra, 19 Beale Crescent. Both demonstrations begin at 11h.
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="120" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="120" height="120" />
Daniel Urai, Dinesh Gounder
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) will conduct a protest at 12h30 on Friday, 2 September, at Fiji&rsquo;s High Commission offices at 31 Pipitea Street, Thorndon, Wellington. 
 
In the UK, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) will hold a protest together with Amnesty International outside of Fiji&rsquo;s High Commission in London on Thursday, 1 September, from 16h to 17h. This Fiji mission is located at 34 Hyde Park Gate, London SW7 5DN. 
 
LabourStart has launched an online campaign in which opponents of this blatant repression of trade unionism can respond directly to the Fiji government. The&nbsp;<a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1086 ">LabourStart campaign</a> can be found here. 
 
The Fiji military regime has tightened the noose on human and trade union rights over the past months and it has flaunted it in full view of the international community. In May 2011, the regime imposed a draconian anti-social amendment to the Employment Relations Promulgation 2007 law that eliminates public-sector workers from the scope of the regulation. On 29 July, the regime of Commodore Bainimarama then published the Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree, effectively banning all industrial actions, voiding existing collective agreements in weeks to come, curbing overtime pay, and canceling wage adjustments and certain work terms in designated industries. The decree will severely hamper union ability to gain bargaining rights and maintain representation status. 
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The decree also prohibits people from holding union office unless employed by the respective company, and those that do not face large fines and jail sentences. The right to was previously limited, but the Essential National Industries decree now makes it near impossible, with strike authorisation only granted by government approval. 
 
The military regime last week also banned the annual conference of Fiji&rsquo;s Methodist Church because church leaders refused to accept a government demand that pro-democracy church leaders step down from their church roles. The Methodist religion is Fiji&rsquo;s largest religious affiliation. 
 
The ICEM joins national labour centres and other labour organisation in pressing Fiji to reverse these archaic decrees, as well as calling on Fiji to conduct free and democratic elections in the near future.

Days of Action This Week Against Fiji: Join!

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Union members of Sindicato No. 1 de Trabajadores de Minera Escondida, a branch of Chile&rsquo;s Federation of Miners (FMC), returned to work Friday night, 5 August, at the world&rsquo;s largest copper mine, majority owned by BHP Billiton. Some 2,375 miners at the Escondida mine ended a 15-day strike with a 65.5% to 34.5% vote the night before after two days of negotiating with mine management. 
 
The memorandum of agreement provides a remedy to a dispute over a 2010 production bonus but just as important, addresses several grievances and breaches by Escondida management from a 2009 labour agreement. 
 
Sindicato No. 1 said of the memorandum, &ldquo;the company promises to solve a series of labour issues such as establishing a new attendance policy, regularising a certification system based on competency for promotions, and reformulating the criteria for calculating a production bonus.&rdquo; These were just some of the issues in dispute inside a four-year labour agreement that was signed in November 2009. 
 
In 2010, Escondida &ndash; 57.5% owned by operator BHP Billiton, 30% by Rio Tinto, and 12.5% by Japanese holding companies &ndash; saw profits of US$4.3 billion, up 35% over that of 2009. Last week&rsquo;s amended bonus to each worker amounts to CHP 2.65 million (pesos), or US$5,800. Miners will receive that on 25 August.
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Sindicato No. 1 Files Papers in a Labour Court in late July
Escondida said the strike was illegal and indicated throughout the walkout that it would not negotiate with the union. But as the days wore on and the company was losing US$30 million per day, that changed. In a statement after signing the memorandum of agreement, the company said workers had ended their &ldquo;illegal work stoppage&rdquo; and &ldquo;this action is due to the success of talks between the parties. 
 
&ldquo;Minera Escondida reiterates that dialogue and respect are the foundation for maintaining a beneficial relationship with its workers.&rdquo; 
 
Besides the aforementioned labour issues, that respect includes a more transparent system for the production bonuses; restoration of a housing allocation that lifts restrictions on where miners may use the stipends; safer and higher quality buses for transportation to and from worksites, as well as compensation for tickets; no retaliation, redundancy, or punishment for union activity; and review of company-installed surveillance cameras. 
 
Miners will also be paid their salaries for the 15-day strike. Sindicato No. 1 de Trabajadores de Minera Escondida had filed labour court charges on several of the issues involved in the strike. 
 
For its part, the union said it hopes to maintain and deepen channels of communication with management, but also will remain vigilant that the issues agreed to in the memorandum will get resolved. 
 
Minera Escondida consists of two open-pit copper mines some 170 kilometres southeast of Antofagasta, in Chile&rsquo;s Region II. It also consists of two concentrator plants, Los Colorados and Laguna Seca, which have a combined capacity of 330,000 tonnes per day. The company operates two pipelines and a filter plant at the Port of Coloso. 
 
In 2010, Escondida&rsquo;s production totalled 1.087 million tonnes, consisting of 786,603 tonnes of copper concentrate and 300,098 tonnes of copper cathodes. It provides concentrates to smelters in Japan, China, Korea, India, and Chile, while the cathodes are sold to markets in France, the Netherlands, Italy, China, Korea, Canada, and Mexico. It provides a total of 7% of the world&rsquo;s copper supply.

Chile Copper Workers End Strike at Escondida with 65% Vote

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By the narrowest of margins on 2 August, members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 in Metropolis, Illinois, ratified a three-year labour agreement with Honeywell, Inc., officially ending a lockout that began on 28 June 2010. The ratification vote came a full 13 days following conclusion of a negotiating settlement (see <a href="/en/3-Energy-Oil-and-Gas/4564-USW-Union-at-Honeywell-Reaches-Tentative-Labour-Agreement">ICEM 22 July report</a>), primarily because Honeywell managers at the uranium converting facility were negligent in giving explicit back-to-work assignments to locked-out workers. 

The 228 steelworkers at Honeywell convert milled uranium, known as yellow-cake uranium, into uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which is used in nuclear fuel enrichment. The lock-out was marked by Honeywell&rsquo;s decision to resume full production nine weeks into the company&rsquo; s work stoppage and then re-start operations with inexperienced scab replacement workers. Twice in the months that followed, the plant saw near-miss tragedies due to mishandling of dangerous chemicals. 

The period between the 20 July 2011 tentative agreement and yesterday&rsquo;s ratification was just as contentious as was the entire lockout. Honeywell managers told Local 7-699 that it wanted experienced workers to return to the jobs they knew best, but then submitted a back-to-work roster which saw job postings many of the locked-out workers had never worked before. 

It took Local 7-669 leaders enormous time and effort in the 13-day interval to sort out the return-to-work roster. Meanwhile, Honeywell managers publicly denounced the union for not conducting the ratification vote. &ldquo;They were trying to force a vote before our people knew exactly which job they would return to,&rdquo; said local union spokesman John Smith.
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Local 7-669 members will begin returning to work on 15 August. Some 150 workers will return then to training and re-certification by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Forty workers will return two weeks later for the same, and the remainder two weeks after that. The unionised workforce will number about 220 workers when the experienced and qualified USW members are fully back to work. 

The negotiated settlement preserves most of the key union-protection provisions that Honeywell was trying to strip away at the start of the lockout, including seniority, job bidding, overtime, and retention of a defined benefit pension plan for existing workers, as well as retiree medical benefits that go along with that plan. 

On wages, the new three-year collective agreement calls for no increase in the first year, 1% effective 15 August 2012, and 2% on 15 August 2013. Local 7-669 proposed in bargaining over a year ago a freeze on wages and continuation of all terms and conditions of a prior three-year contract. But Honeywell seemed intent on taking away pension, the accompanying health care benefits, as well as union-protection provisions. 

Honeywell abandoned most of those contract concessions, perhaps realising that it needed experienced steelworkers to effectively operate the plant safety and productively. Production had plummeted to a reported 35% of pre-lockout levels and Honeywell was not meeting it order demand for UF6. 

USW Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie told the ICEM: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re highly appreciative of the tremendous support we have received from trade unions, those in the community and others throughout this long lockout. The donations, the international support, and the recognition by many here and abroad on what we were up against will never be forgotten.&rdquo;

Troubled to End, USW Union Ratifies US Honeywell Contract

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The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, a key ICEM global affiliate in the Materials Sector, held its quadrennial Convention in Las Vegas, US, from 25-28 July, and re-elected their top office-bearers with unanimous voice approval. The nine officers stood as the Proven Leadership Team. 
 
The convention marked the 32nd Convention of the US-Canadian union that has united boilermakers, cement workers, ship builders, forgers, and blacksmiths for the past 131 years in North America. 
 
Re-elected President was Newton B. Jones; Secretary-Treasurer, William Creeden; and Vice Presidents: Warren Fairley, US Southeast; James Pressley, Industrial Sector; Lawrence McManamon, US Great Lakes Region; Joseph Maloney, Western Canada; Edward Power, Eastern Canada; J. Tom Baca, Western US States; and David Haggerty, US Northeast. 
<img src="" width="358" height="144" alt="" />
Speaking on the closing day of the Convention, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda sincerely thanked Jones for accepting global responsibilities with the ICEM as a member of the Executive Committee and as Chairman of the ICEM Materials Sector. He also cited the importance of specific sector work, citing ICEM and European trade union influence in blocking Lafarge&rsquo;s attacks on retiree health insurance of IBB Local D-27 members in Sugar Creek, Missouri, in 2008 and 2009. 
 
&ldquo;I assure you the ICEM will always be prepared to mobilise global support and solidarity whenever you call and tell us of the need,&rdquo; said Warda. 
 
The ICEM leader also told of trade union repression by governments in Colombia, Iraq, and Mexico, and he reminded IBB delegates of the shameful deeds by US right-wing politicians in camouflaging deficit-reduction measures as direct attacks on trade unions. 
 
&ldquo;Wisconsin must be stopped before it becomes a virus spreading all around the world,&rdquo; said Warda to standing applause. 
<img src="" width="327" height="161" alt="" />
UMWA President Cecil Roberts
United Mine Workers&rsquo; of America (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts spoke on the convention&rsquo;s opening day and praised the leadership of the IBB. &ldquo;These people are the blood of your blood, the flesh of your flesh, and the soul of your soul,&rdquo; Roberts told delegates. &ldquo;They have shown the way for all of us.&rdquo;

US Boilermakers Hold 32nd Convention

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
from International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation 
 
Miners at Cananea, Sonora, Taxco, Guerrero and Sombrerete, Zacatecas, have now been on strike for four heroic years in defence of their labour and trade union rights. On 30 July and the following days, the miners will hold rallies to reaffirm their continued support for the strikes and the struggle of the Mexican Miners' Union. 
 
The National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros, affiliated to the ICEM and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) says it is willing &quot;to negotiate legal arrangements necessary to end the strikes, if a solution can be found that will respect the workers, recognize their collective agreements, definitively establish adequate health and safety conditions, and respect the miners' union led by Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia.&quot; 
<img alt="" src="" width="205" height="154" />
The three strikes continue because there has been no legal ruling to determine a definitive end to the strikes, explained the union. The union added that, throughout this period, the company has stubbornly refused to act peacefully and resolve the strikes in accordance with the law. 
 
During these years, the workers on strike have been persecuted and some judges have ruled that the strikes were invalid. However, the courts have ruled in the union's favour in response to union requests for legal protection. Workers have been subjected to repression in these four years, for example on 6 June 2010 at the Cananea mine, which was occupied by 4,000 armed men who maintained a climate of terror against the miners. 
 
In addition to the rallies that will take place on July 30 to commemorate four years on strike, the union will hold meetings to discuss how to strengthen the strikes and to call on the local communities to continue their support for the miners. 
 
The miners and the local communities are deeply concerned that neither the government nor Grupo M&eacute;xico has taken any steps to resolve the disputes, recognise the collective agreements, and respect the National Miners' Union.

Los Mineros Commemorates Four Years on Strike Against Mexican Mine Companies

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