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Bumper pay packages were negotiated last week between British unions, including Unite the Union, and Corus, the steel producer owned by India&rsquo;s Tata Group. In what Unite termed a &ldquo;breakthrough&rdquo; in talks that dated to last May for 12,000 UK steelworkers, labour and management agreed to a 2010 pay deal of 3.2%, backdated to 1 April. 
 
The tentative agreement, which also includes a &pound;200 lump-sum bonus, will now be voted on by Unite&rsquo;s 8,000 members, with results due in early September. Two other UK unions representing Corus workers, GMB and Community, accepted the same deal, with its bargaining leaders empowered to ratify the agreement. 
 
The 2010-2011 collective agreement covers steelworkers at some 15 Corus worksites. 
 
In June, the pay offer by Corus was between one and two percent. The culmination of hard bargaining last week pleased trade union leaders of all three organizations, particularly since workers agreed to take a pay freeze last year that was included in &pound;1 billion in savings served up to the steelmaker in order to help the company through the recession. 
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&ldquo;This new deal offered by Corus will go some way to rebuilding trust with management,&rdquo; stated Unite National Steel Officer Terry Pye. &ldquo;Whatever the outcome of the ballot with our members on the revised pay offer, we are pleased that the company has made a significant improvement to the pay offer, which we are recommending to our members.&rdquo; 
 
GMB National Secretary Keith Hazlewood said, &ldquo;After last year&rsquo;s pay freeze and a very turbulent 18 months it would be nice to think that we have seen the worst, and have the makings of a foundation to build on for a secure future for our members and local steel communities going forward.&rdquo; 
 
India&rsquo;s Tata Group bought Anglo-Dutch Corus in 2006 for US$12 billion. UK unions remain hopeful that one Corus site that was partially shuttered in February in North-east England will reopen under new ownership. Union leaders, together with national and local officials have been negotiating with Sahaviriya Steel Industries of Thailand to operate the Teesside Cast Products mill.

UK Metal Workers Realize Pay Dividends with Tata’s Corus Steel

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Oil and transport trade unions in the Suleymania area of Iraqi Kurdistan returned home from a recent meeting of the ICEM, International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) Oil &amp; Gas Trade Union Alliance in Beirut and quickly organized a wider meeting of unions from both petroleum and transport sectors at the regional level. (See the ICEM/ITF story <a href="/en/3-Energy-Oil-and-Gas/3932-'Well-to-Wheel'-Forum-in-Beirut-Focuses-on-Oil-Transport-Work-in-Iraq ">here</a>.) 
 
Salam Rachid of the Iraqi Kurdistan Workers Syndicat Union of Suleymania arranged the meeting of local union activists to report back on the results of the seminar and explain the importance of the Alliance. 
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ICEM, ITF, and the Solidarity Center of the US, which supports the &ldquo;Well to Wheel&rdquo; Alliance in Iraq, are delighted to see the immediate follow-up work at local level, which is considered essential to the success of the Alliance. This is especially important given the draconian measures taken recently against trade unions of electric power workers&rsquo; in Iraq, in what has become the latest attempt by the Baghdad government to destroy independent trade unionism. 
 
The ICEM views the recent crack-downs on electric power workers as an extension of failure by Iraq&rsquo;s government to enact ILO-compliant labour legislation and its excuse to impose old legislation from the Saddam era, which banned trade unions in the public sector and heavily restricts all trade union activity and work.

Rapid Iraqi Follow-up to ICEM, ITF ‘Well-to-Wheel’ Work Praised

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In the US, recruiting new union members was to become easier with passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a solid piece of labour reform legislation meant to balance the current one-sided advantages that employers have in blocking workers&rsquo; from joining a union. But despite mass support generated by US unions and their members in 2008 to elect Barack Obama and Party Democrat majorities in both houses of Congress, reciprocation by prioritizing EFCA for passage never happened. 
 
Last week, on 1 August, the new President of the United Auto Workers (UAW), Bob King, turned that page by telling the annual Management Seminars of the Center for Automotive Research that American workers deserve to have their constitutional First Amendment rights of free association and free speech protected. He called on senior managers to help make that happen in good faith by signing a union election protocol. 
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Bob King, President of the United Auto Workers (UAW)
King said the UAW will not passively &ldquo;sit and wait&rdquo; for passage of EFCA, but instead will present to executives of auto and auto-related industries &ndash; now operating without unionization &ndash; a &ldquo;Principles and Fair Union Election&rdquo; protocol that guarantees workers will have their basic rights upheld in free and unencumbered union certification elections. The UAW will make those principles public following an upcoming executive board meeting of the union. 
 
But they are certain to include equal access to workers seeking to form a union by both the union and management, and the principles would ban derogatory, insulting, and false statements by either party. Perhaps more significantly within the US landscape of union, the UAW principles ban any threats, coercion, or pressure by either management or the union in the run-up to or after elections. 
 
King told the US auto industry&rsquo;s leading management seminar that for those companies that sign on and abide by the principles, &ldquo;we will respect the decision of their workers whether they vote to join the union or not. 
 
&ldquo;However, if companies do not agree to these principles, and instead engage in threatening behaviour towards workers who want to organise a union, or fire workers who try to organise, or close down facilities to thwart union activity, then the UAW will not tolerate the violation of workers&rsquo; First Amendment rights.&rdquo; 
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King added, &ldquo;So, any company that does not agree to the UAW Principles is essentially declaring war on freedom of speech and assembly, and it is our duty and mission to enforce that right.&rdquo; 
 
King, who was newly-elected to head the 400,000-member union in June, told the industry that &ldquo;the 21st century UAW&rdquo; will be less adversarial and has already proven to the three major US automakers to be a partner in flexibility, innovation, quality, teamwork, productivity, continuous cost-savings, and mutual respect. 
 
&ldquo;We respect not only the employers with whom we have relationships, but we also have enormous respect for the transnational companies who have build factories in the US,&rdquo; said King. &ldquo;We welcome you as partners and colleagues in the industry. We appreciate the fact that you are providing good jobs here. We admire many of your good policies and practices, including the focus on continuous improvement, quality, and productivity. The transplants are an important and essential part of preserving, maintaining, and growing our manufacturing base in this country.&rdquo; 
 
King, the first UAW President to speak before the US auto industry&rsquo;s managers&rsquo; forum since 1994, told executives that the choice was up to non-union employers whether or not to sign the UAW&rsquo;s Principals. But, he suggested, &ldquo;the best business practice, the best way to deliver shareholder value, is to partner with the UAW on quality, productivity, attendance, employee morale, and the overall goal of providing the best product at the best price to the customer.&rdquo;

US Auto Workers Seek Bilateral Accords with Employers over Unionisation

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Good relations between the ICEM affiliate Mexican National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros, and Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal have made it possible for the union to post 14% overall gains in renewal negotiations recently. 
 
The contract covers 4,000 steelworkers at massive ArcelorMittal&rsquo;s L&aacute;zaro C&aacute;rdenas SA de CV complex in Michoacan state. 
 
The new agreement was signed on Wednesday, 4 August, in Vancouver, Canada, between Los Mineros General Secretary Napole&oacute;n Gomez Urrutia, Sergio Beltr&aacute;n Reyes, Javier Zu&ntilde;iga Garc&iacute;a of the union&rsquo;s executive, and Mario Garc&iacute;a Ort&iacute;z of Los Mineros in Michoacan state, with William Chisholm, CEO of ArcelorMittal Mexico, and Jose Luis Fuentes Quiroz Director of Human Resources. 
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from left, ArcelorMittal&rsquo;s Jose Luis Fuentes Quiroz-Pacheco and William Chisholm, Los Mineros General Secretary Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez, Sergio Beltr&aacute;n Reyes, the union&rsquo;s Secretary of Interior, Exterior and Acts
The agreement was signed in Canada where Napole&oacute;n Gomez continues to lead the union while in exile. 
 
There was no involvement by the Mexican Ministry of Labour in the negotiations. 
 
The new agreement increases direct wages by 8%, and benefits by 6%, to be paid retroactively from 1 May 2010. The agreement also includes a one-time payment of US$1,300 to each worker for outside social benefits, including those permanently employed and those employed through subcontractors. 
 
Los Mineros and ArcelorMittal had been negotiating for several weeks prior to a 1 August expiration of a prior agreement. It was extended by three days to allow the Los Mineros leadership to attend the 14th National Mineworkers Forum on 30 July in Cananea, marking the third anniversary of the Cananea copper strike in northern Sonora state. 
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Standing: Javier Zu&ntilde;iga Garc&iacute;a, Los Mineros Secretary of Labor, and Mario Garc&iacute;a Ort&iacute;z, Los Mineros Section 271 Special Delegate from Michoacan 
ArcelorMittal posted net profits in second quarter 2010 of US$1.7 billion. This compares to a net loss of US$792 million for the same period in 2009. At L&aacute;zaro C&aacute;rdenas, Los Mineros gave approval in May for merger of the company&rsquo;s four business units, a move that will give the company greater flexibility and mobility of raw materials and resources between its flat steel and slab steel production processes. 
 
Prior to the signing of the ArcelorMittal collective agreement, meetings were held in Canada between Napole&oacute;n Gomez and another General Secretary of an ICEM-affiliated Latin American mining trade union, Luis Castillo Carlos of the National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP). 
 
Meeting in Vancouver on 21-24 July, the two General Secretaries discussed regional issues facing mineworkers, looking towards building a strategic regional alliance. 
 
The two unions share common difficulties with Grupo M&eacute;xico, the mining corporation that is accused of corrupt ties with the Calder&oacute;n government in Mexico. Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s Southern Copper subsidiaries in Peru include mines at Toquepala and Cuajote, and smelters and refineries in the Moquegua and Tacna regions. FNTMMSP has been attempting to negotiate with Southern Peru Copper for eight months in the Tacna region, but has faced repeated refusals from management on union demands. 
 
Both unions face governments that systematically side with employers in disputes with workers. Currently, the Peruvian Minister of Labour, Manuela Garc&iacute;a Cochagne, is refusing to mediate talks to resolve the Tacna conflict. Instead, he is carrying out bilateral discussions with the company. This is in breach of the Peruvian Constitution.

Los Mineros of Mexico Achieves 14% Gains with ArcelorMittal

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A deadly accident killed four maintenance workers at the Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n mine complex in La Guajira department, north-eastern Colombia, on Wednesday, 4 August. The ICEM affiliated trade union at the mine, Sintracarb&oacute;n, represents 3,500 direct employed workers, and has been fighting to organise many of the 4,000 outsourced at Cerrej&oacute;n, Latin America&rsquo;s largest coal mine. 
 
As prior ICEM reports indicated, organising efforts were countered with harassment and persecution by contractors, while Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n management refused to intervene. 
 
This latest fatal accident underlines the urgent need for free trade unions among all the contractors of Cerrej&oacute;n in order to end unsafe working conditions. Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n, and its owners Xstrata, AngloAmerican, and BHP Billiton, cannot continue to turn a blind eye to anti-union contractors. 
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Wednesday&rsquo;s accident occurred at 19h50, when a high platform holding 16 workers collapsed and fell. Contract employees of Conconcreto and Ticom were carrying out repair work in one of two coal storage silos in the massive facility&rsquo;s crushing plant. 
 
Three workers died at the scene. While 12 of the 16 were injured and taken to hospital, one died en-route. The bodies of the three dead workers could not be recovered until late into the night. 
 
Seven of the hospitalized workers have since been discharged, and the others are all in stable condition. 
 
Sintracarb&oacute;n, as well as communicating shock and sadness, moved quickly to demand a full inquiry into the accident, with a view to fully understanding its causes, and establishing a strict safety policy throughout the Cerrej&oacute;n operations. The company has responded, with external investigators due to release findings in two weeks. 
 
Production at Cerrej&oacute;n reached 30.5 million tonnes in 2009, and is expected to reach 40 million tonnes by 2011.

Contract Workers Killed at Colombia’s Cerrejón Mine, Renewing Cry for Unionisation

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After three days of a partial petrol blockade on the federal capital district of Abuja, Nigeria, ICEM affiliate Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the union&rsquo;s tank-truck drivers lifted the strike on 6 August. That occurred when government ministers and leaders of NUPENG and PENGASSAN, ICEM&rsquo;s Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association affiliate, met and crafted memorandums of understanding on both the worsening conditions of Nigerian roads and the repugnant and growing use of casual labour by oil and gas companies, particularly multinational concerns. 
 
NUPENG did, however, issue a 14-day strike notice to the government on another issue: that of rehabilitation of Nigeria&rsquo;s Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA). If the federal government does not call together a forum to correct the lack of transparency and alleged willful mis-allocation of products to marketers, NUPENG will strike the oil and gas depots of several multinationals across the Niger Delta later in August. 
<img alt="" src="" width="165" height="220" />
NUPENG President Achese Igwe
&ldquo;There is serious corruption inside the allocation process of petroleum products,&rdquo; said NUPENG President Achese Igwe. &ldquo;We question the activities of the PPPRA in allocating products to marketers of unknown identity, and the PPPRA has shown no interest in revealing records or data on fuel allocations.&rdquo; 
 
Friday&rsquo;s meeting did create separate memorandums on road conditions and on casualisation. Meeting with Minister of Labour and Productivity Chukwuemeka Wogu, Minister of State for Works Chris Ogiemwonyi, officials of both the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Co. (NNLG), and the employers&rsquo; grouping of multinationals operating in Nigeria, the Oil Producers&rsquo; Trade Section (OPTS), leaders of NUPENG and PENGASSAN did get immediate commitments. 
 
Regarding casualisation and the ever increasing use of temporary or non-regular workers, a tripartite &ldquo;Technical Working Group on Casualisation and Contract Staffing in the Oil and Gas Sector&rdquo; was created. This working group will, between 30 and 90 days, produce a road map that will include analysis on why prior memorandums were not adhered to, and it must issue acceptable guarantees ensuring job security for casual workers. 
 
NUPENG and PENGASSAN insist that such staff, across all oil- and gas-producing companies, be given immediate opportunities for full-time staff positions if they have the prerequisite skills. When this is not possible, the unions demand that conditions of employment be published and strictly adhered to that grant temporary workers all work rights and social benefits that permanent workers get. 
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Igwe said that the vast number of casual workers in oil and gas have no pension scheme and are without health insurance. 
 
Following Friday&rsquo;s meeting, Wogu was thankful the short, targeted blockade of fuel products to the Abuja region was terminated, and stated, &ldquo;The strike was capable of scuttling the economy because NUPENG is too strategic.&rdquo; 
 
Regarding road conditions, which has caused the deaths of eight NUPENG tanker-truck drivers in the past three months, a Roads Monitoring Team was created that will consist of two members from NUPENG. Within a two-month time frame, this team will monitor roads and determine which ones need immediate improvement. 
 
Igwe stressed the importance of this issue by stating that poor road conditions have caused unnecessary stops, resulting in robberies and kidnappings of truck drivers. The risk to public safety is also inherent since poor roads causing accidents has meant monumental disasters, considering the inflammable cargos that lorries carry. 
 
On the issue of the PPPRA, Igwe said it remains a mystery as to which ministry or department of government the pricing authority reports to. The issue of transparency and accountability by the PPPRA is all-important in Nigeria with the country about to enact the Petroleum Industry Bill.

Horrid Roads, Casualisation Force Direct Action by NUPENG in Nigeria

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ICEM affiliate Petrol-İş, the Petroleum, Chemical, and Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union of Turkey, used manifestations and ICEM intervention to win reinstatement for 11 union activists at a plastics factory in Orhangazi, Bursa province. The factory is owned by French-based auto-parts supplier Faurecia. 
 
A month after the successful conclusion of renewal negotiations between Petrol-İş and the company, talks underscored by the fact that auto exterior parts-maker Faurecia Polifleks Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. would be expanding and adding 50 new workers, local management on 23 July sacked the 11 union activists, including two local branch leaders and a shop steward. No reason was given for the firings. 
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Petrol-İş reported that the hostile actions easily escalated tensions inside a factory employing 306 in Turkey&rsquo;s automotive manufacturing hub. On 27 July, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda intervened, and in a letter to Faurecia Chairman and CEO Yann Delabriere, said: 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM understands that an enterprise collective agreement was concluded between Petrol-İş and Faurecia Polifleks Otomotiv Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. on 21 June 2010. But just after signing the agreement, management immediately dismissed 11 trade union members of Petrol-İş, including the chief trade union representative and two local branch officers. The ICEM considers this egregious discrimination against workers who practice legitimate trade union rights. Further, this is a flagrant violation of international-recognised labour standards.&rdquo; 
<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="144" />
At the front of the factory, scores of Petrol-İş members took up protests, while talks between the union&rsquo;s executive members and managers started to address the discharges. Finally, on 29 July, the talks ended in a &ldquo;mutual framework of goodwill,&rdquo; according to Petrol-İş, and local mangers agreed to reinstate the union leaders. 
 
&ldquo;In this process,&rdquo; said Petrol-İş General Secretary Mustafa &Ccedil;avdar, &ldquo;international support and solidarity provided by the ICEM contributed to solve the conflict. Many thanks to the ICEM for its valuable contributions.&rdquo; Petrol-İş has had a collective bargaining relationship with the company dating back to 1985. 
 
Faurecia operates some 190 factories in 30 countries, producing car seats, auto-exhaust systems, vehicle interior and door modules, and exterior parts. PSA Peugeot Citro&euml;n controls 57% of Faurecia&rsquo;s stock, while One Equity Partners &ndash; a private equity company from which Faurecia recently bought US-based auto-exhaust factories &ndash; holds a 17% share.

Petrol-İş Gets Jobs Back for Turkish Activists at Auto-Parts Supplier Faurecia

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The ICEM was shocked and angered by the arrests of labour and political rights advocate, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, and Associate Professor Suthachai Yimprasert, in Thailand, and will be detained until earliest 6 June.
The pair presented themselves to police on hearing of their arrest warrants.&nbsp;Neither of them were members of the core Red Shirt group, they were following events closely in their capacity as journalist and academic.
Both friends of the international labour movement, Somyot and Suthachi are detained at the Adisorn Army Base in Saraburi, 115km north of capital Bangkok. Suthachai is on hungar strike in protest of his arrest.
ICEM affiliates and supporters around the world are requested to write to your local Thai embassies and call on the release of both men.
Somyot is a former ICEM project coordinator in Thailand. 
The arrest warrants were issued in connection&nbsp;to the incident on 21 May 2010 at 13.00, when Somyot and Suthachai, in the name of the 24th of June Democracy Group, held a press conference in front of the House No. 111 Foundation. This was a completely peaceful event.
The ICEM joins calls for the immediate release&nbsp;of both men.

ICEM Angered by Thai Arrests

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The Workers&rsquo; Network of Bayer meeting, held 6-7 May at the Hotel Terras Altas in Itapecerica da Serra, S&atilde;o Paulo, was supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany and was attended by workers, members of factory committees, and managers from Bayer plants in Brazil and Argentina. This eighth meeting was also attended by representatives by CNQ/CUT, the National Confederation of Chemical Industry, the Social Observatory Institute, CUT&rsquo;s Multi Action on Multinationals Project from the Brazilian national labour centre&rsquo;s International Relations Secretariat. 
 
The participation of comrades from the pharmacists' union in Argentina stimulated the discussion on the regional expansion of the network and also allowed a better understanding of the reality of Bayer employees in that country. The Argentine trade unionists spoke on collective agreements, benefits, restructuring and acquisitions in the region, and on relations between business, workers, and unions. 
 
According to CNQ International Relations Secretary Antenor Nakamura, the network must engage in regional expansion, but in order to do that it has to consider the differences in trade union structures in the region. According to Eder Correa, manager of labor relations at Bayer in Brazil, the company acknowledges the Brazilian network, but emphasized that the Brazilian structure cannot interfere in Bayer&rsquo;s positions in other countries. &quot;We can&rsquo;t guarantee recognition of the network in other regions, but we can make a strategic disclosure of the dialogue practices,&quot; he said. 
The impact of nanotechnology for workers was another topic discussed during this eighth meeting. The coordinator of the research institute Renanossoma, Dr. Paulo Martins, introduced the theme and spoke about the lack of regulation for products made with nano particles and the lack of research investment and that impact on processes. 

<img src="" width="227" height="180" alt="" />
&quot;Nanotechnology allows the creation of new products, but we still do not know if they are safe. The social, environmental, and ethical concerns should be taken into consideration,&quot; he stated. 
 
During the two-day meeting, workers and Bayer managers covered topics such as fundamental rights at work, moral harassment in the corporate world, control system of working hours, incorporation of benefits, dissemination of social dialogue in all areas of the company, newsletters, and the functioning and structure of the network. The next meeting of workers network at Bayer will be held in April 2011. 
 
At the social dialogue forum, Bayer representatives were present during the whole meeting and discussed all themes proposed by workers. They presented an overview of the business in the country and its prospects for the future. The President of Bayer Brazil, Dr. Horstfried Laepple, stressed the importance of transparency in dialogue with workers, unions, and factory committees. In his institutional presentation, Laepple spoke about the positive results of the company in 2009 in Brazil, with R$3.8 billion in sales, about the possibility of business expansion, and also the positive projections for 2010. That includes investment of R$180 million in technology upgrades and amplification of plants. 
 
The company also presented the project Hamonia, a people management tool that uses the methodology of skills. The tool has recently been installed in its plant in Belford Roxo, in order to align human resource practices between the two businesses in that plant and set career tracks, as well as giving more transparency to the criteria for evaluation, promotion, and remuneration. The theme of &quot;Jobs and Wages,&quot; discussed by the Bayer Workers&rsquo; Network until 2008, was one of the instigators to this project. 
 
The signing of a term that will deal with Bayer's commitment to adopt and respect the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in the restructuring theme should be discussed by company and workers network in the future.

Bayer Workers’ Network Seeks Regional Expansion Across Latin America

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Errol McLeod, the former head of the Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago, was named Minister of Labour on Friday, 28 May, by newly-elected Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the first woman to ever lead the twin island republic in the Caribbean. 
 
McLeod, also a former ICEM Executive Committee member, will head a Cabinet ministry entitled Labour, Small, and Macro Enterprise Development. He retired as President of OWTU a year ago after 21 years as leader of one of the world&rsquo;s most militant trade unions. 
 
The newly-founded Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) political party, which counted McLeod as a candidate for elections to Parliament a week ago, is part of a multi-party coalition&nbsp;called the People&rsquo;s Partnership that elected Persad-Bissessar and won 29 of 41 seats in Parliament on 24 May. 

<img height="167" alt="" src="" width="180" />
Those elections proved a crushing defeat to former Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his People&rsquo;s National Movement party. 
 
McLeod came on the political scene as a strong and charismatic leader of workers in the early 1980s when he founded the Committee for Labour Solidarity in Trinidad and Tobago. Even prior, his confident demeanor and apt leadership were apparent in the 1960s when he first worked at the former Texaco refinery in Pointe-&agrave;-Pierre. That complex is now part of state-owned Petrotrin and sits at the vanguard of workers&rsquo; militancy in Trinidad and Tobago. 
 
McLeod&rsquo;s fearless, honest, and tactful leadership over 30 years won working class gains for tens of thousands not just in his home country, but all across the Caribbean and the Commonwealth nations. 
 
&ldquo;The entire family of ICEM trade unions extends its hearty congratulations to Errol,&rdquo; stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;His great number of achievements on behalf of workers bodes well for all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago and we truly look forward to working again with him.&rdquo;

Errol McLeod Named Labour Minister in Trinidad and Tobago

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