English

Español

Français

Русский

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Action Plan 2021-2025

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

Women

Youth

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Under the auspices of the &lsquo;ICEM Asia MNCs and Social Dialogue Project&rsquo;, worker representatives and management of Thai Industrial Gas (Linde) participated in a joint training session on social dialogue, 28 June in Bangkok, Thailand. 
 
The purpose of the joint training was to seek a possibility of establishing peaceful and cooperative labour relations by analysing how the international standards for social dialogue are respected inside the company. 
 
Forty participants joined the training, with seven participants from senior management, including the Managing Director and heads of all major departments. 
 
The other 33 participants were trade unionists. Four participants came from the ICEM Thai Committee and the other 29 participants from the TIG/LINDE union including Nopphadol Sanom, president of TIG Labour Union, and Sutthirak Yalomphan, Vice-president. 
 
Union participants came from 5 plants, all near to Bangkok; TIG/LINDE has a total of 13 plants in Thailand. The union participants had to use their own annual leave to participate in the training, and applied voluntarily to take part. 
<img alt="" src="" width="357" height="120" />
The company Managing Director, Mr. Keerin, gave a welcome speech on behalf of management, while Nopphadol, union president, emphasized the importance of implementing international standards agreed by LINDE HQ at the local level. 
 
Dr. Ahn Pongsul, ILO Bangkok Office Senior Specialist, made a presentation on the Basic Principles of Social Dialogue. He stressed the basic enabling conditions to materialize social dialogue at enterprise level, such as a democratic environment, union recognition, two-way communication, mutual commitment and good will, respect, and adequate institutional support. 
 
Mr. Keerin (MD) made a presentation on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy of TIG/LINDE. A union participant said that he had never heard of the company&rsquo;s CSR policy in his 12-year service. 
 
Yoon Hyowon, ICEM&rsquo;s Project Coordinator for MNC monitoring and Social Dialogue, made a presentation on ILO Core Conventions, OECD Guidelines and the UN Global Compact. The information on the international standards was almost new to management participants. Management participants had not been aware that LINDE had joined the UN Global Compact in 2005. 
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="179" />
Yoon pointed out that the Linde Code of Ethics had not been translated into Thai, while it had been into Chinese and Korean in Asia. Mr. Sansern, Head of Human Resources, said that the translation was in process. 
 
In the meeting with union leaders on 27 June prior to the joint training, they said that management had consistently interfered with union activity, that collective agreement were poorly implemented or often ignored, that management had discriminated against CAL workers and union members, that any company information such as financial data and outsourcing had not been disclosed, that unconditional 12-hour work for drivers had been systematically forced by management, and that management had not provided any union facility for constructive collective bargaining. 
 
In concluding the joint training, Yoon Hyowon proposed management and the union to implement the following points: 
1. To organize training for all employees on international standards agreed to by Linde HQ; 
2. To organize a social dialogue forum to compare the actual situation of the company with international standards, especially the chapters 3 and 4 of OECD Guidelines on MNEs; 
3. To translate the Linde Code of Ethics into Thai; 
4. To post and distribute the UN Global Compact inside factories; 
5. To post and distribute OECD Guidelines inside factories. 
 
In the closing session, all participants from management and the union acknowledged that there was a long way to go for both parties to properly implement international standards promised by Linde HQ. At the same time, all participants from both sides expressed their commitment to social dialogue.

Thai Gas Industry Social Dialogue Meeting, Brings Management, Workers to the Table

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
In a rare advisory referendum taken amongst members of the Dutch national union FNV, 80% of those voting agreed with the negotiated result between unions and employer federations to raise the basic retirement pension (AOW) age of the country. 
 
In balloting between 19 June and 1 July, 160,000 of 1.4 million union members voted that the Dutch retirement age ought to be raised from 65 to 66 in the year 2020, and then possibly to 67 in 2025 if a national evaluation of higher life expectancy after 2020 warrants it. The advisory vote goes to FNV&rsquo;s Council on 14 July, which is now expected to endorse the 4 June negotiated agreement between social partners. 
<img alt="" src="" width="166" height="130" />
FNV Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk
The negotiated social plan is seen as a guiding measure to a deadlocked government on retirement policy. The results of a 9 June election in the Netherlands revealed that any coalition government quite likely would come up with an even worse solution on pension revenue shortfalls and mandatory retirement age. 
 
Under the proposed social plan, workers would still have the option to retire at 65, but they would face a 6.5% reduction in pension benefits. And under the union-business plan, the lowest-paid workers, and workers who do heavy physical jobs, would be exempt from any rise in the current pension age. 
 
FNV Bondgenoten President Henk van der Kolk said he was pleased with the outcome of the late June balloting, calling it &ldquo;a clear result.&rdquo; The advisory referendum, a difficult administrative undertaking, was only the fifth time that FNV has even taken such a vote from its entire union membership.

FNV Members Give Nod to Raise Future Pension Age in the Netherlands

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
A strike by 100 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) against an intransigent Brazilian multinational is now in its 18th week with no bargaining occurring since the outset. CAW Local 222 in Bowmanville, Ontario, 65 kilometres east of Toronto, is resisting deep pension and other cuts being forced it by Votorantim Cementos and its St. Marys Cement subsidiary, 
 
&ldquo;Workers have the right to a decent pension,&rdquo; said CAW National President Ken Lewenza. &ldquo;This is outright bullying of this small group of workers. This company is far from destitute and the rollback of any hard won workers' benefits is out of the question.&rdquo; 
<img src="" width="345" height="226" alt="" />
The strike began on 12 March. CAW Local 222 members last month began extending their picket lines to other St. Marys Cement plants and terminals in Canada. Local 222 saw their prior collective agreement expire on 31 January 2010, with the company demanding a change from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution plan. 
 
The change could mean as much as a 400% drop in annual pension earnings for workers. St. Marys is also seeking deep work-rule cuts. &ldquo;This is an important struggle against a company&rdquo; attempting to attack workers pensions, said Local 222 President Chris Buckley. 
 
Votorantim purchased seven cement plants and terminals, as well as 39 ready-mix operations from Lafarge&rsquo;s Blue Circle operations in Canada and the US in 2001 for US$700 million. It then revived the name St. Marys to the Toronto-based subsidiary, a name the operations went by for eight decades prior to Blue Circle buying them in 1997. Votorantim is a privately-held S&atilde;o Paulo-based industrial conglomerate that controls one-third of the Brazilian cement market. 
 
The ICEM supports CAW Local 222 in its struggle to retain a fair labour contract in Ontario.

Canadian Cement Strike Now in Its 18th Week

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
Two UK trade unions are demanding an independent inquiry into the explosion at Total&rsquo;s Lindsey oil refinery in the afternoon of 29 June that killed one union member, and injured two others. The explosion was followed by a fire in a crude oil distillation unit of the massive refinery in North Lincolnshire. 
 
Twenty-four-year-old Robert Greenacre, a pipe fitter, was killed. He did not answer a safety roll call following the blast and his body was recovered late in the evening of 29 June. Greenacre, a member of Unite the Union, was an employee of a sub-contractor working for Jacobs Engineering, the primary contractor for Paris-based Total at Lindsey. 
 
&ldquo;Unite puts the highest premium on health and safety in the workplace and we are calling for an immediate, independent, and comprehensive inquiry into what happened,&rdquo; stated Unite National Officer for Construction Tom Hardacre. &ldquo;We would particularly like to know why further searches were not made when our member was unaccounted for in the roll-call when employees were evacuated.&rdquo; 
<img src="" width="190" height="230" alt="" />
Robert Greenacre
The GMB National Organiser for Engineering and Construction, Phil Whitehurst, also demanded that Total be held accountable. He said hard questions need to be asked both of the company and UK&rsquo;s Health and Safety Executive over why a &ldquo;Permit to Work&rdquo; was issued for pipefitting work inside the HDS-3 plant of the refinery. This &ldquo;brings into question Total&rsquo;s safety record yet again,&rdquo; said Whitehurst. &ldquo;They have to be held accountable.&rdquo; 
 
The GMB union leader was referring to a very recent verdict in a case from Total&rsquo;s Buncefield oil depot in which the French company admitted health and safety regulations had been breached, causing a 2005 explosion that injured 40 workers. 
 
In the days following the 29 June Lindsey blast, Total did send home 2,000 workers from the site because of asbestos exposure concerns due to damage from the explosion. Those workers began returning to work today, with the remainder due back to work tomorrow. All received full pay while idled. 
 
Greenacre, who had worked at his trade for five years, was engaged to be married and he and his wife-to-be recently purchased their first house together. The ICEM extends its condolences to the young worker&rsquo;s family, to Unite and GMB, and to all workers at Lindsey.

UK Unions Want Answers to Total’s Lindsey Refinery Blast, Killing One

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Following three days of intense negotiations, 2-4 July, South African state-owned electric utility provider Eskom and three trade unions won 2010 wage terms with increases of 9%, plus long-awaited housing allowances. With the threat of a strike looming during the final week of the World Cup &ndash; despite a labour court ruling now on appeal that deemed the entirety of Eskom an essential service &ndash; the company met the unions wage demands in talks before the nation&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA). 
 
The ICEM affiliated unions National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), and a third union, representing a combined 28,000 workers, are expected to sign the agreement this week, with the across-the board salary increase backdated to 1 June. 
<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="96" />
A major issue throughout bargaining was the housing allowance. In that, a compromise was reached in which workers will receive a R1,500 (US$194) monthly allowance. Entering early July&rsquo;s final mediated bargaining session before workers were prepared to strike, Eskom had an 8.5% wage offer and a R1,000 housing stipend on the table. The unions had demanded R2,500 for housing. 
 
The housing allowance issue was a carry over from last year&rsquo;s bargaining, when Eskom promised to establish a commission by year&rsquo;s end to award a first-ever stipend for staff who work away from home. That never materialized. 
 
Labour unions and management are expected to decide this week when the R1,500 allowance will take effect, with unions arguing it should be backdated. Also this week, talks will continue towards reaching a minimum service agreement, an accord that will determine which Eskom employees are not essential state workers and thus have the right to strike. The unions also have this matter before a labour appeals court. 
 
The NUM represents 16,000 workers at Eskom, while NUMSA represents about 5,000.

Eskom and South African Unions Agree to 9% Wage Hikes

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Seven miners were killed in three separate underground mine accidents in South Africa last week, including five contract workers at Aquarius Platinum&rsquo;s Marikana mine in the Bushveld area near Rustenburg, North West Province. 
 
The other deaths occurred at AngloGold Ashanti&rsquo;s Tau Lekoa gold mine on 7 July, where an explosion took the life the life of a miner, and at Imperial Platinum&rsquo;s Rustenburg mine, where an underground rock slide crushed a worker. Both are also in North West Province, with the Tau Lekoa mine extending into Free State Province. 
 
At Aquarius, two other miners were trapped at the Marikana mine late in the evening of 6 July when a large segment of an underground shaft collapsed. One of those miners suffered serious injuries, while the other was rescued unscathed. Rescue teams from nearby Impala Platinum and a Lonmin mine assisted in the rescue. All workers were employed by Murray and Roberts Cementation. 
<img height="154" alt="" src="" width="160" />
Aquarius has closed the No. 4 shaft of Marikana, which supplies the Australian-based company, the world&rsquo;s fourth largest platinum producer, with 50% of Marikana&rsquo;s production. 
 
The shaft remained closed early this week, and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it would take its mandatory one-day period of mourning once the mine reopens. 
 
&ldquo;Once this suspension is lifted, we will embark on a day of mourning, which means there won't be any work done at the mine on that day,&rdquo; said NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka. 
 
&ldquo;This is a disaster,&rdquo; added NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. &ldquo;At a time when the industry brags of so-called improved safety, we now have disasters raising their ugly heads again,&rdquo; he added. The NUM has called for a full investigation. 
<img height="142" alt="" src="" width="100" />
NUM General Secretary, Frans Baleni
Impala Platinum&rsquo;s Rustenberg mine death comes 50 weeks after nine miners tragically died at the Lease Mine No. 14 near Rustenburg, which was South Africa&rsquo;s worst disaster in 2009. Impala, the world&rsquo;s number two platinum producer, led all producers in South Africa in mining deaths last year. The country mines and processes 80% of all global platinum, which is used in electronics, catalytic converters, and jewelry. 
 
AngloGold has had a deal in place since 2008 to sell the Tau Lekoa mine to Simmer and Jacks, but internal problems within the latter company has prevented conclusion of the sale.

Seven Die in South African Mining Tragedies Last Week

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Started in 2009 with the support of the Dutch national labour centre FNV, ICEM&rsquo;s Organising and Social Dialogue Project continued its seminars in Turkey last month. Regional seminars involving local union officials and militants in April were held in Thrace and Gebze, both areas considered to be emerging industrial zones that surround Istanbul. 
 
There are a number of multinational companies within ICEM sectors in both cities, some of which are organised by ICEM-affiliated trade unions. There are also a number of organsing efforts by the unions. 
 
With the overall objective to build Turkish trade union ability to recruit new members, as well as to discuss the establishment of a base to create a functioning industrial relations system, prioritizing human and trade union rights, and to promote healthy social dialogue, the seminar in Thrace was attended by 64 local trade union leaders, shop stewards, and militants from ICEM-affiliated unions, while those attending in Gebze numbered 68. 

<img alt="" src="" width="321" height="157" />
Participants at the Thrace, Turkey, workshop 
The Thrace seminar welcomed several international trade union leaders from the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Spain. Celil &Ccedil;oban and Mail &Uuml;rker of FNV Bondgenoten in the Netherlands, Sylvain Lefebvre and Jacques Caltot of French FCE-CFDT, Michael Wolters of IGBCE of Germany, and Isidor Boix of Spain&rsquo;s FITEQA-CC.OO exchanged the experiences and trade union knowledge from their countries. 
 
ICEM Health, Safety, Sustainability Officer Brian Kohler also shared his trade union experiences from Canada. During the seminar, a solidarity visit was made by the French delegation to the plant of Zentiva, a part of the multinational Sanofi-Aventis. The Zentiva plant is organised by ICEM Turkish affiliate Petrol-İş. At the time of the visit, there was a collective bargaining conflict. The French delegation met with company managers as well as workers, and it was decided to put the dispute on to the agenda of the European Works Council through the help of FCE-CFDT. 
 
The seminar in Gebze in May hosted international trade union leaders from the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Celil &Ccedil;oban and Mail &Uuml;rker of FNV Bondgenoten and Michael Wolters of IGBCE again participated, as did Mats Svensson from Sweden&rsquo;s IF Metall and Jorgen Juul Rasmussen of Dansk-El F&ouml;rbund of Denmark. 

<img alt="" src="" width="320" height="121" />
Participants at the Gebze, Turkey, workshop 
ICEM Central and Eastern European Coordinator Anatoly Surin shared his trade union experiences from Russia, as well. As a prompt practical result of the seminar, IGBCE&rsquo;s Wolters visited the plants of two German-based multinationals, Bayer and BASF, where he met with union officials and company managers with a view to enhancing social dialogue at local levels. It was decided to develop this particular agenda in the upcoming period. 
 
Both seminars got presentations from Turkish trade union expert &Uuml;zeyir Ataman, Director of Education and Collective Bargaining of Lastik-İş, on union history and the current labour relations situation in Turkey. Later, the seminar focused on Power and Weak Points, Challenges and Opportunities, and Concrete Organising Targets inside Turkey, with contributions and inputs by participants from different towns around both Thrace and Gebze. 
 
&ldquo;Both seminars in Thrace and Gebze created a good environment for international solidarity after many militants did get together with their comrades from different countries,&rdquo; said ICEM Rubber and Chemicals Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan, coordinator of the two-year project. &Ouml;zkan also made a presentation on globalisation and labour relations. 
 
The project will continue with similar seminars in the second half of 2010. One such session will occur in September in the city of Bursa, said to be the &ldquo;Detroit&rdquo; of Turkey for its auto industry, as well as being known as the capital of the textile and garment industry. The other will be devoted to youth organising in the Eagean region. That will occur in October. The project will close with a conference at the end of October in Ankara.

ICEM’s Turkish FNV Mondiaal Project Continues in Thrace, Gebze

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
ICEM has traditionally been very active in Central Asia and the Caucasus region since the sectors it has membership in are major economic drivers in these countries. Within this framework, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Rubber and Chemicals Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan visited Armenia and Georgia in early May. 
 
In Armenia, Warda and &Ouml;zkan met Eduard Tumasyan, President of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Armenia and Levon Khachatryan, Executive Secretary and Head of the Education-Research Centre of the confederation. Warda stressed the importance of boosting the role of trade unions in shaping civil society, and said the Armenia trilateral agreement that was signed by the government, Trade Union Confederation and Employers&rsquo; Association on 27 April 2009, establishing extra guarantees regulating labour relations and requiring parties to engage in joint actions was a major step in this direction. 
 
Thanking the ICEM for the visit, Tumasyan stated the need to introduce new tools for developing labour relations in order to combat high unemployment through social partnering. 
<img alt="" src="" width="361" height="190" />
In Armenia, Levon Khachatryan; the Deputy Chair of the Textile and Light Industry Workers&rsquo; Union; Hrach Tadevosyan; the ICEM&rsquo;s Manfred Warda; Karine Aloyan; Anastas Pahlevanyan; and ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan
A recent report issued by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on core labour standards in Armenia stated that the right to strike is limited, and most work rights for public-sector workers is banned. The report also says collective bargaining and tripartite agreements at the national level have been virtually non-existent until 2009. 
 
The ITUC adds that most workers are unable to exercise the right to unionise and bargain collectively due to flexibilisation in the labour code and the government&rsquo;s tolerance of a high level of informal employment relationships. 
 
The ICEM delegation also met with Anastas Pahlevanyan, President of the Mining and Metallurgical Workers&rsquo; Union, ICEM&rsquo;s lone affiliate in Armenia, Karine Aloyan, President of Energy Workers&rsquo; Union, and Hrach Tadevosyan, President of the Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union in a meeting arranged by the confederation. Mining is one of the important economic forces in Armenia, and a major portion of the state budget is financed by taxes yielded from mining. 
 
But the negative effects from the global economic crisis have been felt in the mines, where there are several multinational companies that have investments. In the city of Kapan, for example, Deno Gold Mining Co. was shut down for three months during the crisis, while more than 1,000 employees of Armenian Copper Program Co., located in Alaverdi, were also laid off. 
<img alt="" src="" width="250" height="115" />
This also holds true for the chemicals sector, where the biggest company, Nairit employing some 3,000 workers that produce rubber, laid off more than half its staff for over four months. In the energy industry, nuclear power takes an important position in generation and the unions raise major concerns on health and safety. 
 
Following a presentation by Warda, the parties decided to continue cooperation in the near future with training activities. 
 
The ICEM delegation then passed to neighbouring Georgia, where a first meeting was held with Irakli Petriashvili and Gocha Aleksandria, President and Vice President, respectively, of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC). Petriahvili explained GTUC efforts to reform the trade union movement in Georgia, but admitted a number of challenges. 
 
He said changing the mentality of government, workers, and society as a whole is difficult, mainly because Georgia is considered a &ldquo;champion&rdquo; in adopting and practicing the prescriptions of global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. 
 
This puts the trade union movement in a more precarious position, and carrying out union activities is next to impossible. The legal landscape tends to restrict union organising and collective bargaining. &ldquo;The existing labour law, in our view, is a declaration of rights of employers,&rdquo; stated Gocha Aleksandria. Warda conveyed the full support of the ICEM toward the struggle of trade unions in Georgia. 
 
According to last year&rsquo;s ITUC report, Georgia&rsquo;s Labour Code of 2006 severely reduced workers&rsquo; basic trade union rights through limitations on freedom of association and the right to organise, namely the threshold for establishing a trade union, which is excessively high. 
 
There are severe restrictions on the right to strike. Solidarity strikes are prohibited and in practice, trade unionists get threats and intimidations and face dismissals without explanations. The labour code and government authorities provide insufficient protection against anti-union discrimination, and the law grants a de facto green light to union busting and a marginalisation of collective bargaining. 
<img alt="" src="" width="205" height="154" />
ICEM's Manfred Warda, at Georgian Press Conference
The ICEM delegation then attended a press conference in which support was conveyed to the public over changing these positions. There was also a television interview of Warda with a national channel, and all ICEM messages were well covered by the national media. 
 
The ICEM delegation also met with Gocha Kvitatiani, President of Oil, Coal, and Gas Industry Workers&rsquo; Union, an ICEM affiliate, representing around 4,000 members; Naumi Nebieridze, President of the Energy Workers&rsquo; Union, representing 5,000 members: and Amiran Zeniashvili, Vice-President of the same union; and Tamaz Dolaberidze, President of the Mining, Metallurgical and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union, which represents some 11,000 workers. 
 
All the union officials explained the difficulties in their respective sectors in carrying out union activities. Warda presented the ICEM and its activities to a group composed of 25 union leaders from the three unions and the GTUC. It was then decided to deepen solidarity and cooperation. 
 
Warda and &Ouml;zkan then travelled to Zestafoni for a meeting with workers engaged in a conflict with the Zestafoni Ferroalloys Plant and Georgian Manganese Mines. 
 
Commenting on the mission to the nations of the Caucasus, Warda, said, &ldquo;Our overall programme in Armenia and Georgia, and in general in the Trans-Caucasus, was intensive and very successful. The ICEM will continue its support of trade unions in both countries through various means.&rdquo;

ICEM Boosts Presence in the Caucasus

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Corporate leaders of US-based Massey Energy Co., including CEO Don Blankenship, came under harsh fire in Richmond, Virginia, on 18 May at the company&rsquo;s Annual General Meeting (AGM). The meeting came just six weeks after a methane gas explosion at Massey&rsquo;s non-union Upper Big Branch mine in the state of West Virginia killed 29 miners, the worst mining tragedy in 40 years in the US. 
 
The closed and highly-secured meeting saw hundreds of protesters from US trade unions, environmental groups, and health and safety advocates march from Monroe Park to the historic and posh Jefferson Hotel, the venue for the AGM. They sang songs, waved placards, and chanted slogans that Blankenship belonged in jail, not running a publicly-traded company for his arrogant abuse of mine safety and environmental stewardship in America&rsquo;s Appalachia Mountains. 

<img alt="" src="" width="288" height="216" />
Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) West Virginia Local 69 officers Charlie Rittenhouse and Bryan Ash joined AGM protests against Massey Energy
A corporate governance proposal put before Massey shareholders by a US labour federation&rsquo;s investment arm called for three of the Richmond-based company&rsquo;s directors to be dropped from the board. Despite the fact that there were no alternative candidates, the three &ndash; Richard Gabrys, Dan Moore, and Massey President Baxter Phillips Jr. &ndash; won with just over 50% of the vote. 
 
That constituted a near majority of institutional shareholders who have no-confidence in these directors, and caused United Mine Workers&rsquo; of America (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts to say to a news outlet, &ldquo;They got clobbered, considering the fact that they didn&rsquo;t have anybody running against them. They ran unopposed and almost lost.&rdquo; 
 
The AGM was brief and over with in less than one hour. Reporters were sequestered in another room of the hotel and when the question-and-answer period came, the video and audio feed into that room was cut off. Two protesters were arrested inside the hotel&rsquo;s ballroom, after unfurling a banner that read, &ldquo;Massey: Stop Putting Profits Over People.&rdquo; 

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="167" />
UMWA President Cecil Roberts
The Upper Big Branch tragedy of 5 April has caused the US Congress to conduct an unprecedented number of hearings. There have been three since the tragedy. At a US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on 20 May, Roberts said Massey has seen 52 miners die inside its mines in the past ten years. Blankenship testified at the same hearing that federal mine safety recommendations on ventilation upgrades actually make mines less safe. 
 
&ldquo;We opposed the changes because our engineers believed they made the ventilation less effective,&rdquo; he said, adding the company does not know if ventilation played a role in the 5 April blast. Blankenship said he thought Massey&rsquo;s safety and casualty rate in the US was &ldquo;about average,&rdquo; to which Roberts, who had both his grandfathers killed in mine accidents, said, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t come up with another coal company that&rsquo;s had 23 miners in ten years die.&rdquo; 
 
At a subsequent US House Education and labor Committee hearing that was held near Upper Big Branch in Beckley, West Virginia, on 24 May, one miner who was fortunate to escape stated, &ldquo;we never had proper air on that longwall.&rdquo; Relatives of the deceased called Upper Big Branch &ldquo;a ticking time bomb.&rdquo; 

<img alt="" src="" width="280" height="203" />
Environmentalists from Rising Tide delivered a message from inside the meeting
The father of a 21-year-old victim, Adam Morgan, testified: &ldquo; &hellip; about every shift he had to do some kind of ventilation repairs and some &hellip; he had to do on his own.&rdquo; Steve Morgan said that when his son complained to supervisors on ventilation problems, he was told to find a different line of work if he was &ldquo;scared.&rdquo; 
 
An uncle of Adam Morgan also testified. Eddie Cook, a miner at a UMWA-represented colliery in West Virginia, made the point that with a union, you have the right to refuse unsafe work. At Massey, he said, &ldquo;if you refuse, they tell you to get your bucket and go home. They know if they were union that these people wouldn&rsquo;t work like they wanted them to.&rdquo; 
 
According to Massey&rsquo;s US federal regulatory filings, just 1.3% of its 6,000 US employees are members of the UMWA. And of that small portion, all work in coal preparation plants, not in underground mines.

Annual Massey Energy Meeting in US Brings Protest, Discontent

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
Members of one of ICEM&rsquo;s Turkish mining affiliates, Genel Maden-İş, staged one-hour strikes across several collieries in the coal-rich Zonguldak region on 26 March in protest to government inaction over unsafe conditions in mining, as well as to government treatment of 12,000 of TEKEL, the former state tobacco company that was privatised. 
 
The one-hour strike actions, more specifically, were aimed at the horrid working conditions that caused the tragedy inside the Karadon mine, where 30 contract workers were killed on 17 May. The mine is owned by the Turkish Anthracite Coal Foundation and operated by Yapitek Construction. 
 
Genel Maden-İş, or the General Mine Workers&rsquo; Union of Turkey, which represents miners in the Zonguldak region, carried out stop-work actions for one-hour periods in each of three shifts on 26 May in scores of collieries in the Black Sea region of Zonguldak. Some 10,000 miners participated. The ICEM Executive Committee, meeting in Geneva, endorsed the strikes, calling the downing of tools a fitting response to the government of Turkey&rsquo;s non-response to repeated calls to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 

<img alt="" src="" width="216" height="143" />
Announcing the 26 May strikes, (center) T&Uuml;RK-İŞ President Mustafa Kumlu and Genel Maden-İş President Rasim Muslu 
Mustafa Kumlu, President of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (T&Uuml;RK-İŞ) and an ICEM Executive Committee member, said the mining industry is indispensible in Turkey, and it is the responsibility of employers and the government to reduce the risks to a very low minimum. 
 
Genel Maden-İş General President Rasim Muslu said adoption of the 2004 Mining Law in Turkey set safety in mines back, since the law opened up the mining sector to increased privaitisation. Introduction of flexible work conditions has led to inadequate training of unskilled workers, and lax safety inspections, many of which are never done on-site. The law also has brought an increase in temporary and part-time contract miners. 
 
At the ICEM&rsquo;s Executive Committee meeting, the president of another Turkish mining affiliate, T&uuml;rkiye Maden-İş President Ismail Aslan, a substitute ICEM Executive member, said obstacles inside Turkey to effectively organise workers into unions also contribute to unsafe conditions inside mines. He said it is unheard of for sub-contract employees to be affiliated to a union. 
 
The explosion at the Karadon mine, a colliery whose operations were privatised in 2006, could have been caused by dynamiting new sectors some 540 metres underground. The blast collapsed walls and support structures. Rescue efforts did manage to free eight miners. 
 
Emotions in the mining community were set aflame upon the visit on 19 May by Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Speaking at the mine gates, Erdogan callously declared that mine deaths had become the &ldquo;fate&rdquo; of mining communities, with people of the Zonguldak region &ldquo;quite used to events like these.&rdquo; 
 
The remarks triggered clashes between distraught relatives, protesters, and police.

Turkish Miners Conduct Hour-Long Strikes in Wake of Zonguldak Mine Catastrophe

Archive