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Negotiations concluded on 19 June in Baku, Azerbaijan, between ICEM affiliate Oil and Gas Industry Workers&rsquo; of Azerbaijan (OGWUA) and the Caspian Shipyards Co. Ltd., producing wage gains and health and safety improvements for some 1,000 contract employees. 
They work in the construction of offshore rigs for Agip, a subsidiary of Italian energy firm Eni, as well as repairing and upgrading other offshore equipment.
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The mostly Azeri workforce staged a wildcat strike on 11 June over disparate pay and unfair working conditions. 

The workers at Caspian Shipyards, majority owned by Keppel FELS of Singapore, will now have a legitimate workplace organisation under OGWUA. The negotiations result in a US$78 increase to offset inflation, as well as a 6% wage increase retroactive to 1 June 2008. Minimum salaries have also been increased from a low of $US140-per-week to US$300. Further wage talks will occur annually, beginning in February 2009. 

Management at Caspian Shipyards also agreed to continue dialogue on making health and safety improvements, signing long-term contracts, annual paid leave, and reducing the disparity between foreign workers and Azeri workers.
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&ldquo;Our union views the results of these negotiations to resolve the Caspian Shipyards conflict as positive,&rdquo; said OGWUA Chairman Jahangir Aliyev. &ldquo;At the same time, we fully realise that not all of the issues have been resolved. However, the work to resolve the social and economic issues will now continue and appropriate monitoring and implementation has been put in place.&rdquo;

Azerbaijan Oil and Gas Workers’ Union Again Wins Recognition, Pay Gains for Contractors

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A second four-day strike by contract drivers of Royal Dutch Shell in the UK was not necessary for 20-23 June. ICEM affiliate Unite, representing 600 tank-truck drivers of Hoyer and J.W. Suckling Transport Ltd., won a two-year, 14% pay increase for the drivers instead, thanks to a strike two weeks ago that pressured Shell. 
 
The agreement came in the days following the end of the first industrial action on 17 June. Drivers voted by a 453-56 margin to accept a pay package that will give them a 9% this year, and 5% in 2009. The wage gains met Unite&rsquo;s goal of lifting drivers&rsquo; gross pay to &pound;36,000 per year.
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A strike from 13 June to the early morning hours of 17 June stopped petrol supplies at Shell&rsquo;s 950 retail stations in the UK, and severely impacted delivery of fuel for BP, Total, and Esso. Most drivers for those companies refused to cross picket lines at Shell depots and terminals. 
 
The dispute was unique for contract workers, since it saw a union successfully bring pressure on a primary company over low contract fees paid to service providers. Unite&rsquo;s pressure on Shell brought the wage increases for drivers, who are directly employed by Hoyer UK, a transport company based in Germany, and J.W. Suckling, wholly owned by the UK equity firm, Harris Holdings.

Tank-Truck Contract Drivers’ Dispute Ends in UK with Pressure Against Shell

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The seven unions representing more than 3,000 workers at a Michelin tyre plant in the northern Spanish province of Alava have united behind a comrade stricken with Mesothelioma. The unions last week sent a petition to both the company and to the regional Institute of Work Security to trace the presence of asbestos in the 42-year history of the plant. 
 
The Michelin plant is in the city of Vitoria and manufactures 36,000 units per day of car and heavy equipment tyres. In early June, the regional health and safety authority reopened an investigation after a worker employed by Michelin for 30 years was diagnosed with the cancer caused by asbestos exposure.
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Workplace representatives of ICEM affiliates CCOO and UGT were joined by five other unions in the call to clarify the causes of the illness. Michelin denies that it currently uses or has any form of asbestos in the plant, but the company did import the product in years past to insulate the factory&rsquo;s heating pipes. 
 
The Vitoria workers, through their union representatives, sent a pledge of solidarity to the stricken worker, as well as committed to conduct voluntary tests of other workers and to assist in the investigation in any way possible.

Unions Mount Pressure on Cause of Asbestos inside Spanish Michelin Plant

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A workers&rsquo; ballot over work time restructuring at the Goodyear-Dunlop twin plants in Amiens, France, apparently passed on 27 June, but controversy remains because the majority union &ndash; CGT &ndash; boycotted the vote. 

In balloting overseen by the regional employment bureau, 72.8% of rubber workers accepted the company&rsquo;s social plan, which would reduce weekly rotation teams from five to four, as well as make other costs savings related to weekend work. Just over 54% of 2,700 workers at the southern Dunlop and northern Goodyear plants voted on the restructuring, which also is aimed at integrating work at the two factories. 

The restructuring of work time, scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2009 with last week&rsquo;s balloting, also prevents 402 staff from being sacked. It also commits Goodyear to make a &euro;52 million modernisation investment over the next three years in order to produce high-performance tyres.
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&nbsp; 
ICEM affiliate CFDT and French union CFE-CGC endorsed the re-negotiated social plan, while CGT called on its members to boycott the ballot. An initial plan put to ballot in November 2007 failed with a 65% rejection. 
 
The three unions are now expected to confer on the matter in July to determine if the social plan will be jointly signed.

Restructuring Plan Passes at Goodyear’s Amiens Plants, But French Unions Split on Ballot

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The ICEM is proud to play a role in the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union&rsquo;s second effort to stem the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Nigeria. Through the Canadian union&rsquo;s Humanity Fund, CEP is contributing half of a C$20,000 budget to train HIV/AIDS counsellors within ICEM&rsquo;s two oil and gas union affiliates, NUPENG and PENGASSAN. 
 
The project will extend ICEM&rsquo;s work in Nigeria in training peer counsellors to provide AIDS awareness, education and testing for workers and their families. The CEP&rsquo;s fund is also partner with the Canadian Labour Congress&rsquo;s Labour International Development Programme, on another Nigerian HIV/AIDS project. That project also has financial support from the federal Canadian International Development Agency.
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CEP&rsquo;s Humanity Fund is unique in that funding comes through negotiated agreements with Canadian employers. Local unions negotiate either an employer contribution of C$0.01-per-hour; C$0.02-per-hour, which includes an employee&rsquo;s matching contribution; or the CEP local branch union can vote to make the contribution. To date, some 100 CEP locals, numbering 30,000 workers, have successfully negotiated payments into the Humanity Fund with employers. 
 
In 2007, contributions to the Humanity Fund increased by 30%. 
 
At the union&rsquo;s 2004 National Convention, delegates pledged to raise C$500,000 to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS through the Humanity Fund. The CEP currently is also funding a project in partnership with the F&eacute;d&eacute;ration des Travailleurs de Qu&eacute;bec on HIV/AIDS awareness with an oil workers&rsquo; union in Chad.
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In 2008, the fund&rsquo;s directors have approved humanitarian aid for victims of the earthquake in China, funded a programme for the Canadian Friends of Burma, and lent support to workers&rsquo; and women&rsquo;s rights programmes in the garment industries of Mexican, Central America, and Asia. The Humanity Fund also spends 15% each year on domestic projects. 
 
CEP heralds the fund as not charity, but rather solidarity in &ldquo;building partnerships with workers&rsquo;, community, and women&rsquo;s organisations in developing countries.

Canadian Affiliate’s Humanity Fund Teams with ICEM on Nigerian HIV/AIDS Awareness Efforts

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ICEM Peruvian mining affiliate, Federaci&oacute;n Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros Metal&uacute;rgicos y Sider&uacute;rgicos (FNTMMSP), began a national strike today over the National Assembly&rsquo;s inactivity on two key pieces of labour legislation. 
 
Despite President Alan Garc&iacute;a signing into law on 24 June a measure which gives new rights to contract workers, legislation remains stalled on raising the national threshold for profit-sharing plans and on improvements to pension schemes.
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The union had twice previously &ndash; in May and again on 16 June &ndash; postponed strike actions by its 28,000 members in hopes that the government would act on all three issues to avert a national mining strike. The indefinite strike began at midnight today by several of FNTMMSP&rsquo;s 70 branch unions, and is expected to spread over the next few days. 
 
&ldquo;There is a total lack of political will by the government to solve the demands of miners,&rdquo; said FNTMMSP Secretary-General Luis Castillo Carlos late last week. &ldquo;Many miners Exist on starvation wages, they do not have access to health benefits, nor do they have the right to retirement benefits for their service work.&rdquo; 
 
On 28 May, the National Assembly passed an outsourcing law that affects 85,000 contract workers in the mining sector. Garc&iacute;a had 30 days to sign it into law and did so three days before it was to expire. The law places stricter regulations on contract employers, including adherence to the nation&rsquo;s labour code. It also grants contract workers the right to grieve adverse work conditions to the primary employer, and sets up an agency to monitor such abuses. Employers with contract workers can now face first-time sanctions. 
 
The FNTMMSP had been the driving force inside Peru for the law, which was ardently opposed by business groups on the basis on restricting labour market flexibility.
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Today&rsquo;s strike is expected to hit Peru&rsquo;s copper, gold, silver, zinc, and iron ore production, as well as send prices upward on world markets for those commodities. The strike will also again close Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s Southern Copper mining and smelting operations in Peru&rsquo;s southern Moquegua province. 
 
Southern Copper was closed for ten days in mid-June as roads were blocked in a regional dispute with the central government over tax revenue sharing. That dispute saw mayors of several towns in the south embarking on hunger strikes in Lima.
&nbsp; 
And Peru&rsquo;s largest national labour centre, the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), has called a strike of its member unions on 9 July over rising food and energy prices, as well as on the legislative inertia over the profit-sharing and pension issues.

Mining Strike Begins in Peru over Government Inaction on Pension, Profit-Sharing Issues

1. ICEM Women&rsquo;s Committee Holds Meeting in Geneva 
 
ICEM Women&rsquo;s Committee met on 19 June 2008, in Geneva, and appealed to the federation&rsquo;s leadership to return to the usual practice of holding the committee meetings prior to Presidium and Executive Committee meetings. Since it was the first meeting of the Congress period, the women introduced themselves at length. Some of the highlights from the introductions were the following: given that there are not many women leaders in Japanese trade unions, there is a desire to train women leaders there. In Thailand, unions have been mobilizing in recent months against the high food prices. Four men were present at the meeting. 
 
Sister Hashmeya Muhssin, President of the Iraqi General Union of Electricity Workers&rsquo; and Technicians, reported on the situation in Iraq. Iraq not only suffers from the occupation of foreign forces, but also from intervention from neighboring countries. Things are getting worse. Many armaments are entering the country. Most services are blocked &ndash; there is no electricity, no drains, and no petrol, mainly due to the lack of security. Women have been killed. 
 
The police claim that they are killed because they are not dressed properly. Women have crimes committee against them. Women sit home, unemployed, because of the dangerous security situation. The situation for women has regressed. They must shake themselves and rise up. Women in unions are trying to develop a women&rsquo;s role, often together with NGOs. Despite the difficulties, some women are active. Nevertheless, the lack of security and isolation means that not all women can be reached. The women in the dockworkers&rsquo; union and the oil workers&rsquo; unions need support. 
 
Women once played a key role in the economy. When men went off to war, the women managed the economy. At one point, 75% of the workforce was women. Women make up 65% of the population in Iraq. Bur unemployment among women is about 60%. There are many women workers, but few women are in trade unions. Unions are prohibited from existing in the public sector. 
 
Trade unions are starting out new, so people have no experience. Young people are working as volunteers. People make mistakes but they are willing to learn. Three women organized a conference, which was covered by the press, to fight against Decree 150, the Saddam-era decree prohibiting unions in the public sector. The Iraqi government implements laws that are imposed by other countries. 
 
Angeline Chitambo, President of Zimbabwe Electricity Workers&rsquo; Union and a Vice President of the ICEM, reported on the crisis in Zimbabwe. Women make up 52% of the population. Women are especially faced with food shortages. Most of the people in rural areas are women, because that is where food sources are supposed to be. But violence has been unleashed in the rural areas, and women have been tortured. Food supplies are now scarce. Farms do not produce enough. 
 
There is a shortage of transport; transport to hospitals, due to the fuel shortage, is non-existent. HIV/AIDS drugs are unavailable. Women resort to prostitution to make ends meet. There is no sanitary protection available to women in general, and only those with money have access to it. 
 
The government uses thugs, and everything functions on the basis of bribes. Women used to support the government, but now they want change. Women&rsquo;s organizations and coalitions are organizing to mobilise women to vote. Recommendations were made to ICEM for practical support. ICEM published an Action Alert on the Zimbabwe situation on 20 June, and the points contained were sent out in an ICEM Circular. 
 
A brief report was given on the situation of women in Colombia on the basis of the visit to Colombia by ICEM leadership in March 2008. A peace march was attended on 6 March. On 8 March, ICEM Colombia held a seminar to commemorate International Women&rsquo;s Day. Colombian women examined their history and reflected on how their lives were different from their mothers&rsquo; and grandmothers&rsquo; lives. An NGO of women was visited and the issue of armed conflict was discussed. Special consideration must be given to women in indigenous communities and how they are affected by the oil industry. El Cerrej&oacute;n mine provides treatment for HIV/AIDS to indigenous communities near the mine in a model project. 
 
Special thought has to be given to the issue of women, and the effect that armed conflict has on women, both as victims and perpetrators, women as guerrillas or ex-guerrillas. Terrorism means a new challenge. 
 
In connection with the discussion on the seven points from the 19 June ICEM Women&rsquo;s Conference, Baru Khumo, General Secretary of the Botswana Diamond Sorters and Valuators&rsquo; Union, reported on the ICEM Sub-Saharan Africa Region&rsquo;s Women&rsquo;s Committee meeting, held in Accra, Ghana, in early June 2008. The meeting covered the seven points adopted by the ICEM Women&rsquo;s Conference of 2007. The three axes of the meeting were Decent Work, gender justice, and HIV/AIDS. 
 
In France, the CFDT has been talking about equality for decades, but inequality persists. A new law determines that equal pay has to exist by 1 January 2010. Negotiations are required. The chemical industry had a recent agreement. There is a legal requirement to have delegations made up of women and men in negotiations to reflect women&rsquo;s real representation in the sector. This would mean 35 to 40% women in delegations. One proposal is to include clauses in Global Framework Agreements to respect equality between women and men. 
 
In Denmark, there is a slight move away from pure equal pay and toward evaluating and appreciating job categories. 
 
A brief report was provided on EMCEF, where the main challenge is to find out why women do not attend meetings. 
 
As far as the point on peace is concerned, in the Asia-Pacific Region, an environment must be created for women to work in peaceful conditions, particularly in Myanmar and Nepal. 
 
In Costa Rica, a women&rsquo;s trade union agenda was drafted with the support of FES. The six axes coincide to a great extent with ICEM&rsquo;s points. Serious problems exist at a refinery due to a crisis situation, which means that gender work has stalled. Nevertheless women are now participating in spaces that before were open only to men. 
 
In Spain, work is proceeding on implementing the equality law. Agreements exist with Michelin and Bridgestone as well as St Gobain and BASF. The law is valid for companies with more than 250 employees. A project to combat violence is soon to be launched together with the Nordic and Baltic countries. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s seven points should form part of the Worldwide Day on Decent Work on 7 October. 
 
One further point for debate was gender and sustainable development. The paper provided by ICEM should be amended to form part of a larger study. Gender equality is part and parcel of sustainable development. 
 
Items such as women as consumers and users of energy in the home, the food crisis, biofuels, escalating oil prices, and living wage must be added. Women need to be empowered in order to achieve sustainable development. 
 
Work will continue on Decent Work, sustainable development and the seven points. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda suggested that the seven points and their implementation should be on the agenda of the ICEM Executive Committee in 2009.
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2. ICEM Sub-Sahara Africa Regional&nbsp;Women Meet 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Sahara Africa Region Women&rsquo;s Committee met from 5 to 7 June in Accra, Ghana, to draft a women&rsquo;s charter for Africa. Women from Ghana, Botswana, Nigeria, Zambia, Cote d&rsquo;Ivoire, South Africa, Tanzania, DRC, Zimbabwe, and Guinea attended the meeting. After a brainstorming session, in which women identified all of their objectives, three focuses were identified: Decent Work, gender justice, and HIV/AIDS. These were seen to cover all of the needs that had been expressed. The objectives were matched with target groups and time frames. 
 
Decent Work covers equal pay for equal work, discrimination in recruitment, and maternity protection, as well as women in the informal economy among other things. Gender justice refers to women&rsquo;s structures, work-life balance, gender-sensitive policies, sexual harassment, and violence. Particular points that were discussed related to HIV/AIDS were the cultural values such as polygamy and female genital mutilation which present particular challenges for the spread of HIV. 
 
The solution to all of the above-mentioned issues is women&rsquo;s empowerment. If gender equality is more of a focus in the labour movement, then women&rsquo;s interests will be promoted. One other solution is integrating gender into the mainstream. Gender and cultural dynamics must be scrutinized. 
 
The women&rsquo;s structure will monitor and evaluate the achievements and weaknesses.
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3. ICEM Nepal Works on Women&rsquo;s Health and Maternity Care 
 
A session on women&rsquo;s health and maternity care was organized by ICEM Nepal on 20 to 22 May, in Kathmandu. Dr Sarita Pandey started the program with the question, &ldquo;What is women&rsquo;s health?&rdquo; The distinction was made between health and reproductive health. Adolescent health was one focus with the effects detailed of psychological and physical changes. Apshara Pandey explained the different methods of family planning with the benefits and drawbacks of each. Information was given on pregnancy and abortion as well as laws regarding abortion. The use of different types of contraceptives was explained. 
 
Pemba Lama presented maternity health and maternity care. Prenatal and postnatal care was the focus. The pros and cons of the different types of contraceptives were explained such as norplant, condoms, and copper T. Beli Maya Ghale presented the symptoms and consequences of uterus prolapse as well as the methods to control it. In addition, Janak Chaudhary presented the laws the government has passed for women. All sessions were very interactive.
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4. UN Calls for Greater Efforts to End Sexual Violence in Conflict 
 
On 19 June 2008, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon led a session calling for an end to the scourge of violence against women in conflict areas. A task force will be set up in an effort called the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. It will involve various issues, including peacekeeping, HIV/AIDS, and human rights to help stop rape and other sexual crimes in conflict-ridden countries. He also called for more involvement of women in conflict prevention, peace negotiations and recovery efforts. 
 
In addition, women&rsquo;s representatives from different organizations in Africa also met from 16 to 18 June in Nairobi at the FAO Africa conference, where they made a statement on the food crisis. It was felt that improved women&rsquo;s access, control and ownership of land and natural and productive resources would help eradicate hunger and poverty.
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5. United Kingdom: &nbsp;Government Hosts Conference for Trade Union Equality Representatives 
 
The UK Government organized a conference on trade union equality representatives on 24 June. Equality reps are supposed to inform people of their rights at work and, hence, achieve fairness on the job. 
 
Up to now, the government has been funding projects to promote equality reps. Equality reps can assist people facing discrimination and support them in many issues, such as flexible work for parents and those caring for the elderly, disability, age, equal pay, and harassment. They can also negotiate with the employer to assure a fair deal at work and support disabled people to keep them on the job. 
 
Equality reps can raise awareness about rights and keep people at work who otherwise would tend to stop work to care for older or disabled relatives. Child poverty can be combated by negotiating deals for single parents to keep them at work as well. 
 
Equality reps can do the following: promote equality and diversity issues, help employers engage with employees, help carry out equal pay audits, be involved in devising a full range of equality policies, help create a more equitable work-life balance to help workers combine their domestic and work responsibilities, ensure that part-time and other atypical workers receive fair treatment, help employers develop positive action schemes, and help perform access assessments for disabled persons.
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6. United States/Mexico: Women of Steel Express their Solidarity with Mexican Workers 
 
A delegation of 14 women from the United Steelworkers went to the Cananea mine in Sonora, Mexico, to express their solidarity with miners and their families. They have been on strike since 31 July 2007. Most of the women in the delegation were of Hispanic origin. They came from the Southwest of the United States and from California. Their aim was to get the employer and the government to stop the repression against the mineworkers&rsquo; union. They got to know the history of the strike, and saw first hand the conditions that miners&rsquo; families live in.
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7. Western Sahara: National Union of Sahrawi Women Appeals for Support 
 
The Sahrawi women&rsquo;s union was created in 1974 to support the fight for independence and self-determination. The women suffer from the hard desert life, a lack of the minimum needs for subsistence, isolation, the absence of men so that they have to assume family burdens, a low level of education, lack of knowledge of how to care for those suffering from war. 
 
The women try to create awareness at national level about women&rsquo;s position and their role in national independence. They try to make women realize the importance of participating. The women would like to contribute to education on the basis of equality for girls and boys at school. Preventive health care is one more area in which women develop consciousness. 
 
The organisation has close relations with women&rsquo;s organisations in Africa and the Arab world, as well as organizations that work for peace. The women appeal for moral and political support for the Sahrawi people in its fight for self-determination and independence.

ICEM Women&#039;s Bulletin: June 2008

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ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa last week declared wage disputes with three mining houses, DeBeers, Exxaro Resources, and Kumba Resources&rsquo; Sishen Iron Ore mine. The wage dispute filings come just days after NUM announced that it would take industrial action at Gold Fields&rsquo; four mines in August. 
 
The world&rsquo;s fourth largest gold producer, Gold Fields, has let safety lapse in South Africa, accounting for 23 of the country&rsquo;s 87 mining deaths between January and June, 2008. 
 
In late June, NUM and diamond miner DeBeers agreed on salary adjustments for 2008 of 12%. But the company pulled the offer and &ldquo;put forward a different draft that spoke a different language,&rdquo; said the NUM. DeBeers offered 11% over a two-year period, an obvious slight to miners, with run-away inflation in South Africa with due to rising food and fuel prices.
<img height="120" alt="" src="" width="120" />
 
The two sides will meet on 21 July before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) in an effort to resolve the dispute. If agreement is not reached, some 6,000 miners at six DeBeers operations will then take industrial action. 
 
The dispute at Exxaro&rsquo;s three coal mines is over wage disparities between the collieries that are both inside and out of the Chamber of Mines. NUM is also seeking to establish minimum wage levels. Exxaro is majority owned by private equity company Main Street, with AngloAmerican Plc. holding 9.84%. 
 
At the Sishen Iron ore mine, where 4,000 miners are employed, the dispute is over wages promises that have not been met. 
 
But the continuing story in the South African mining industry revolves around safety. The NUM held a Safety Imdaba from 3-4 July in Boksburg. There, NUM Health and Safety Chairman Peter Bailey stated bluntly, &ldquo;We need to have the same passion about safety as we did in defeating apartheid.&rdquo;
<img height="243" src="" width="220" alt="" />
&nbsp;NUM's Peter Bailey 
 

The summit caused South African Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to call on the nation&rsquo;s Justice Ministry to join it in investigating and then prosecuting companies negligent over safety. Despite 1,500 workers dying in the mines in the past five years, the Justice Ministry has not taken up a single prosecution case. A new Mine Health and Safety bill is under consideration in South Africa&rsquo;s Parliament. It is intended to mandate stricter enforcement measures, and impose harsher fines on those responsible for safety lapses. 
 
At Gold Fields, the company experienced 15 mining deaths between late April to early May at its South Deep and Driefontein mines. And then on 29 June at its 15,000-worker Kloof mine near Westonaria in West Rand, just hours after the company boasted that it had achieved one million fatality-free shifts, two miners were crushed and died 3,000 metres underground due to a ground shift.
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The company&rsquo;s most egregious accident occurred on 1 May. Nine miners, including two from the same family, plunged 2,880 metres to their deaths at South Deep when a lift cable snapped on a cage that was carrying them. Sonjica said then that the deaths could have been avoided if the infrastructure had been properly checked and maintained. &quot;When you don't service equipment, it will collapse,&rdquo; she told a South African newspaper. 
 
Six other miners employed by Gold Fields, including five at Driefonteion, had died because of rock falls or earth tremors in the week before.

NUM Files Strike Notice on 3 South Africa Mining Houses; Safety Strike Looms at Gold Fields

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Unilever has not always been top of the class in its treatment of agency workers in Asia. In 2004, when Unilever Pakistan sold off a plant producing Dalda brand edible oils and fats to a group of company managers, it came as no surprise that the new Dalda managers began applying the lessons learned at Unilever. 
 
As well as buying out the competition, their labour relations&rsquo; behaviour involved reducing permanent employment and keeping potential union influence to a minimum. Dalda workers, however, are challenging the denial of trade union rights to agency workers, and are currently fighting back through a newly formed union. 
 
They were encouraged by a successful challenge to casualisation at Coca-Cola Pakistan, and then contacted the IUF and the Coca-Cola union for support. Over 430 workers have signed up as members of the Dalda Food Employees Union, which then applied for official recognition from Pakistan&rsquo;s relevant authority.
<img height="120" src="" width="120" alt="" />
Since they feared a backlash, and were aware of Unilever&rsquo;s savage reprisals against temporary workers&rsquo; at the company&rsquo;s Rahim Yar Khan factory in Pakistan in November 2007, the union applied to the courts for a &ldquo;stay order.&rdquo; This blocked the company from firing workers, or closing the plant. But management violated the order and fired 266 workers at the end of May 2008. 
 
By early June, the union had received official union registration, and with the support of the IUF-affiliated Pakistan National Federation of Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Workers&rsquo; Union, applied for collective bargaining status. 
 
Dalda management challenged this, and workers have set up a permanent encampment in front of the plant with support from the Federation. With daily visits from representatives of trade unions, political, and civil society organisations, the camp has become a living symbol of the struggle against Pakistan&rsquo;s repressive regime of outsourcing and use of casual labour.

Pakistani Food Workers Challenge Unilever’s Casualisation

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New Zealand&rsquo;s labour agency workers are hopefully on the road to have minimum wage protection soon. That follows passage of the second reading in Parliament in May of Labour Party MP Darien Fenton's Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill. 
 
The bill is intended to give protection to agency workers by fixing an anomaly that allows them to be paid below the minimum wage for their services. 
 
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Secretary Carol Beaumont said that people doing contract work for less than minimum wage deserve the full wage protections that are afforded to other workers.
<img height="72" src="" width="160" alt="" />
&ldquo;There are people doing (agency) work right now who are paid poverty wages, and these people need the full protection of minimum wage laws,&rdquo; she said. 
 
&ldquo;Most (agency workers) in New Zealand should be remunerated at well above the minimum wage. For those that are not, this bill would provide protection against being exploited by companies wanting to unreasonably drive down costs. 
 
&ldquo;Contracting practices are certainly widespread in industries such as acting, cleaning, and forestry,&rdquo; she stated.
<img height="58" src="" width="115" alt="" />
The bill has the support of the Labour Party, the Greens, and the Maori Party, with opposition coming from parliamentarians in NZ First and the National Party, which argue there is not a need for minimum wage protection. They also argue that the bill will create too many &ldquo;compliance costs.&rdquo; 
 
After the second reading met passage, the bill now moved to a Select Committee. From there, it goes to the House for one more reading, before passed into law.

Minimum Wage Bill for Agency Workers Passes Major Hurdle in New Zealand

Archive

Azerbaijan Oil and Gas Workers’ Union Again Wins Recognition, Pay Gains for Contractors

Tank-Truck Contract Drivers’ Dispute Ends in UK with Pressure Against Shell

Unions Mount Pressure on Cause of Asbestos inside Spanish Michelin Plant

Restructuring Plan Passes at Goodyear’s Amiens Plants, But French Unions Split on Ballot

Canadian Affiliate’s Humanity Fund Teams with ICEM on Nigerian HIV/AIDS Awareness Efforts

Mining Strike Begins in Peru over Government Inaction on Pension, Profit-Sharing Issues

ICEM Women's Bulletin: June 2008

NUM Files Strike Notice on 3 South Africa Mining Houses; Safety Strike Looms at Gold Fields

Pakistani Food Workers Challenge Unilever’s Casualisation

Minimum Wage Bill for Agency Workers Passes Major Hurdle in New Zealand

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