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ICEM&rsquo;s two affiliated oil workers&rsquo; unions &ndash; the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) &ndash; joined the call of Nigeria&rsquo;s two labour federations in a nationwide strike today over the government&rsquo;s sudden 1 January removal of consumer fuel subsidies. 
 
The indefinite strike by Nigerian workers in all sectors was authorized last week by the executive boards of both the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). NUPENG&rsquo;s board approved today&rsquo;s walkout at a meeting of union leaders yesterday, while PENGASSAN&rsquo;s National Executive Council (NEC) gave strike approval on 5 January. 
 
In a statement issued after the NEC meeting in Lagos, PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun called government&rsquo;s fuel subsidy removal &ldquo;illegal, hasty, without consultation, and lacking of transparency.&rdquo; The union challenged the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to work on behalf of Nigerian people rather than for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. 
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Both PENGASSAN and NUPENG called on the government to rescind the New Year&rsquo;s Day elimination, roll back fuel prices to 2011 levels, and then engage the unions of Nigeria in honest dialogue. 
 
The lifting of subsidies immediately shot fuel prices up as much as 225% one week ago. It also sparked a price rise in food and transport costs across Nigeria. Many human rights groups and civil liberty organizations began protests last week. Petrol filling stations in many states were blockaded and protests spilled into many roads across the country, blocking traffic. 
 
Even though Nigeria produces about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil, the government is forced to import roughly 70% of its gasoline supply because of inadequate and run down refineries. The country of 160 million people depends on only three operable refineries for retail consumption. 
 
Jonathan acted on the recommendation of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), a body notorious for irregularities and one that has paid billions of naira to so-called &ldquo;brief-case companies&rdquo; and middle men in import subsidies. 
 
Nigeria&rsquo;s National Industrial Court ruled on 6 January that Labour&rsquo;s indefinite strike would be illegal but similarly to a mass national strike in 2003 when a previous government attempted to lift remove fuel subsidies, strikes across the country went ahead today and are expected to continue throughout the week.

Nigerian Oil Workers’ Unions Strike in Fuel Subsidy Removals

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The ICEM CAL Mini Guide to Dealing with CAL is available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and Bahasa Indonesian. 
 
The guide gives an overview of what the ICEM and its affiliates around the world are doing to promote permanent, direct employment and at the same time to promote better conditions for CAL workers. It also suggests ways in which unions can build relations with CAL workers, for example by creating a dedicated precarious workers&rsquo; section or rep, or considering the introduction of different membership fee levels and/or an alternate method of dues collection. ICEM affiliates are encouraged to initiate a discussion on CAL within their own unions, and the Guide suggests a number of questions which may help to get these discussions started. 
 
The <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/ICEM%20Mini%20Guide%20CAL%20HQ.pdf">CAL Mini Guide in English</a> is available here. 
 
The <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/ICEM%20Mini%20Guide%20CAL%20French.pdf">CAL Mini Guide in French</a> is available here. 
 
The <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/ICEM%20Mini%20Guide%20Spanish%20HQP.pdf">CAL Mini Guide in Spanish</a> is available here. 
 
The <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/ICEM%20Mini%20Guide%20CAL%20Portuguese.pdf">CAL Mini Guide in Portuguese</a> is available here. 
 
The <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/ICEM%20Mini%20Guide%20CAL%20Hindi.pdf">CAL Mini Guide in Hindi</a> is available here. 
 
The <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/ICEM%20Mini%20Guide%20CAL%20Bahasa.pdf">CAL Mini Guide in Bahasa Indonesian</a> is available here.

ICEM Mini Guide to Dealing with CAL Available in Multiple Languages

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From International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation 
 
At the ILO Global Dialogue Forum on private employment agencies, unions put on record their experiences of employment through agencies being used to drive down wages and prevent agency workers from joining a union and bargaining collectively. 
 
On 18-19 October, representatives of governments, private employment agencies, and trade unions exchanged views on the role of agencies in promoting decent work. The discussions revealed that unions and agencies have completely different views on the impact of the growth of agency labour on employment. 
 
The agencies repeatedly insisted that agency work is decent work, that it creates jobs and that it is never used to undermine or replace open-ended, direct employment. All of these claims were rejected by trade union representatives, who presented a catalogue of situations from a variety of industries around the world that demonstrate that agency employment is being used to systematically replace permanent jobs, lower wages and work conditions and leaving workers with no social protections and no possibility of joining a union or bargaining collectively with their employer. 
 
Worker delegates insisted that triangular employment relationships by their very nature make collective bargaining virtually impossible. 
 
It rapidly became clear that the representatives of private employment agencies were using the meeting to seek legitimacy for their industry, to grow their markets and to be recognized as the sole counterpart for collective bargaining, at the exclusion of user enterprises. 
 
For their part, unions were seeking equal treatment for agency workers and restrictions on the circumstances under which agency employment is permissible, its duration and extent. Unions also wanted action to strengthen freedom of association and collective bargaining for agency workers which included user enterprises and unions representing workers in user enterprises. 
 
At the end of the meeting, a very limited number of potential consensus points were put forward for discussion, but finally the meeting ended with no conclusions when labour hire representatives showed that they are not ready to negotiate in order to reach agreement. 
 
Unions will continue to work within the framework of the ILO to ensure greater protection for agency workers and to limit the spread of agency work and triangular employment relationships.

ILO Meeting on Labour Agencies Exposes Abuses, No Consensus Reached

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The devastating floods which killed more than 600 people in Thailand have had a serious impact on the livelihoods of CAL workers. Many agency workers were not paid as plants have been shut down since the crisis began in October 2011. As the flooding continued in November and December, hundreds of thousands of agency workers were laid off. 
 
The electronic sector, which employs a high proportion of precarious workers, has been amongst the hardest hit by the flooding. In the Ayutthaya and Pathumthani provinces, north of Bangkok, thousands of electronic factories located across several industrial estates remain swamped by more than two metres of water. Several companies have announced lay-offs and plans to relocate production facilities from Ayuttaya to Malaysia. 
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The Thai government is providing a package to assist companies to retain their workforces. Companies that commit to a policy of no lay-offs, maintain the same level of worker benefits, and pay workers no less than 75% of their wages are eligible for this relief package. 
 
Some unionised companies have continued to pay wages &ndash; from 100% of wages in the first month, to 75% and 50% for November and December. The Goodyear Tyre company paid full wages to both regular and fixed-term workers since its only plant in Rangsit, north of Bangkok, was hit by the floods on 21 October. 
 
Production has not yet resumed at the plant but management and the union are working hand in hand in the recovery process. Workers on fixed term workers at Goodyear whose contracts came to an end on 30th November 2011 did not have their contracts renewed. 
 
At the same time, several companies in the eastern seaboard which were not directly affected by the flood have used the flood as an excuse to delay CBA negotiations or to avoid implementing CBAs.

Flooding in Thailand has devastating impact on CAL workers

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An ICEM report has found that the rights of workers in the cement industries of the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and India are being routinely violated through the use of precarious forms of employment. 
 
In many of the plants covered by the research, Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) is being used to restrict or prevent workers from exercising their right to freedom of association. Lafarge in the Philippines, for example, has been using CAL workers to fill permanent positions ever since workers took part in industrial actions as far back as 2000. At one Lafarge plant in Indonesia, all permanent workers are union members, whereas none of the CAL workers are. In India, contract workers at Holcim were dismissed after they joined the union. To make it worse, the company started criminalising the union leaders. 
 
ILO Conventions 87 and 98 apply to all workers, as explicitly stated in the 350th report of the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association: &ldquo;The Committee emphasizes that all workers, without distinction whatsoever, whether they are employed on a permanent basis, for a fixed term or as contract employees, should have the right to establish and join organizations of their own choosing.&rdquo; 
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The report further specifies that the non-renewal of a contract for anti-union reasons constitutes a prejudicial act within the meaning of Article 1 of Convention 98. 
 
In all five countries covered by the research, CAL workers earn less than permanent workers &ndash; despite performing work of equal value &ndash; and are denied access to many of the benefits enjoyed by their permanent counterparts. 
 
In both the Philippines and Thailand, permanent workers are increasingly being used only in supervisory roles. This division of responsibilities highlights the fact that it is often contract and agency workers who are performing core labour tasks. 
 
CAL workers in many cement plants live with the burden of uncertainty. As one interviewee explained, he felt his job would continue only &ldquo;as long as I will cooperate.&rdquo; In the Philippines, some CAL workers reported that they do not even have written contracts. In many cases and countries, CAL workers are also not clear who is responsible for their welfare. In Thailand, agency workers are the most likely to suffer workplace accidents, yet in many plants they are denied the same health care benefits as permanent workers. 
 
The ICEM decries these exploitative practices, and demands that multinational cement companies such as Lafarge and Holcim that operate in Asia guarantee equal rights for CAL workers and take urgent steps to bring their practices in line with not only the various applicable national legislations, but also with all existing international labour standards - including ILO Conventions 87 and 98 and the Employment Relationship Recommendation 198. 
 
Cement companies must also act to ensure that they meet their obligations under the OECD Guidelines for MNEs and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. 
 
The <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/Cement%20Report.pdf">CAL Cement Report</a> is available here.

ICEM Report Exposes Asian Cement’s CAL Practices

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By acclamation, Senzeni Zokwana was re-elected President and Manfred Warda re-elected General Secretary of the 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM) at the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s 5th Statutory Congress in Buenos Aires on 25 November. 
 
Some 800 delegates from over 200 national trade unions are attending the ICEM&rsquo;s Congress, which closes today with an address by Argentina Labour and Social Security Minister Dr. Carlos Tomada. Delegates also elected, by region, a 59-member governing Executive Committee that includes 20 Vice Presidents. 
 
The Congress postponed electing representations from the Middle East / North Africa Region due to political unrest in several countries, with statutory representation from the MENA region expected to come at the regional conference in March 2012. (The complete <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1111.ICEM_EXCO_PRESIDIUM_LISTS_FINAL[1][1].pdf">listing of ICEM Executive / Presidium members</a> can be found here.) 
<img alt="" src="" width="141" height="140" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="143" height="140" />
Newly re-elected ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, President Senzeni Zokwana
Day two of the Congress on 25 November also saw delegates adopt a forward-looking Action Plan that is meant to continue the trade union activism of the ICEM as it enters integration next year with two other GUFs &ndash; the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF). The ICEM Congress today will pass a definitive resolution to dissolve the ICEM in June 2012, followed by a founding Congress of a new industrial trade union organization. That will occur from 18-20 June in Copenhagen. 
 
Zokwana, the President of the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa, begins his second full term at the helm of the ICEM. First elected in a special election in October 2005, he began his trade union activism in 1980 in apartheid-era South Africa at the President Steyn gold mine in the Free State. 
 
He at first was a shift overseer on safety matters and in 1995 he joined the NUM staff as a Safety Officer, after proving himself a forceful advocate of modern mine safety techniques. In 2000, he was elected President of the 300,000-member NUM and besides his leading global role today on mine safety matters, he is an outspoken anti-poverty campaigner throughout Africa. 
 
Warda has served as General Secretary of ICEM since 1 January 2007, and began his trade union career in 1971 with Germany&rsquo;s Mineworkers' Union in his home city of Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia. After serving as assistant and then Head of the President&rsquo;s Office, he was head of the International Department of the country&rsquo;s Industrial Mining and Energy Union (IGBE) from 1991-1997. Following the merger of IGBE and IG Chemie in 1997, he was named head of the International Department of IGBCE. 
 
The Congress concludes today with debate on resolutions regarding furthering the ICEM&rsquo;s work in the MENA region, particularly with Iraqi and Palestinian unions; on an active response to the financial crisis and support for a Financial Transaction Tax; labour rights in Colombia; repressive postures of governments in Hungary and other European countries; European-based companies hampering trade union and human rights in Turkey; electric energy; the Trans-Pacific trade partnership agreement; and on support to the striking PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union in Papua Province in their courageous struggle against the multination Freeport-McMoRan.

Zokwana, Warda Re-elected ICEM Leaders at Buenos Aires Congress

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The ICEM opened day two of its 5th Statutory Congress in Buenos Aires with moving observance today, 25 November, of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. ICEM Executive Committee Member Tony Maher, the General President of the Mining &amp; Energy Division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining &amp; Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia, opened the session by proclaiming ICEM awareness to the issue. 

&ldquo;Until men stop perpetrating violence against women, it will continue. It won&rsquo;t stop until men stand up and put a stop to it,&rdquo; said Maher, who explained Australia&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.whiteribbon.org.au/">White Ribbon</a> anti-violence campaign to the 800 ICEM delegates.
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Tony Maher&nbsp;
Maher added: &ldquo;Unions in male dominated industries have a special obligation to take up the campaign. We are in a unique position to make a significant difference in the workplace.&rdquo; 

Delegates to the Congress also turned their attention to a <a href="http://www.ituc-csi.org/violence-against-women-in-eastern.html">joint study</a> released today by the ICEM and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) entitled &ldquo;Violence Against Women in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: Whose Responsibility? Whose Complicity?&rdquo; 

The study inspects violence against women in the DRC, whether domestic, violence on the job, or violence from conflict, where rape is a weapon in war. The ICEM/ITUC study, in part, depicts rape in the context of war as the most striking form of inequality between men and women. 

In the DRC, men seek to conquer other men by attacking and raping women, and women are raped for punishment and for revenge. 

Today marks the 12th year that world civil society has marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, with the UN General Assembly designating the day at its 54th session. The date 25 November was designated because it was that day in 1960 that three political activists in the Dominican Republican &ndash; the Mirabal sisters &ndash; were brutally assassinated by the regime of dictator Rafael Trujillo. 

Today also marks day one of 16 Days Against Gender Violence, as designated by the Global Campaign for Women&rsquo;s Human Rights. From 25 November to 10 December, the campaign links the connection between women, violence and human rights, and encompasses 25 November, the 1 December World Aids Day, the Montreal Massacre of 6 December 1989, when 14 female engineering students were gunned down in Canada for being feminists, and 10 December, Human Rights Day.

ICEM Congress Focuses on Halt to Violence Against Women

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Members of the International Association of Machinists &amp; Aerospace Workers (IAM) Lodge 778 will begin returning to work this week after ratifying a six-year labour agreement last night, 20 November, with Honeywell Federal Manufacturing &amp; Technologies LLC. in Kansas City, Missouri. 
 
The vote by a wide margin ends a 42-day strike by 940 workers against Honeywell at the US government owned Bannister Federal Complex, where the company makes non-nuclear components for the government&rsquo;s nuclear weapons system. 
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Although contract terms were not immediately known following last night&rsquo;s late vote, it is believed much of the American company&rsquo;s original offer was accepted. That includes a two-tier pay scheme for new workers hired after 1 January in which such workers come in at lower hourly rates and fall into slower wage progressions than current workers. It also will see reductions to retiree health insurance coverage for those retiring after 8 October 2017. 
 
The contract also contains higher out-of-pocket health care costs for staff. Current workers will see a 13.5% wage increase over the six-year period, and an 11.7% pension hike also will be realized in that period. 
IAM Lodge 778 had given Honeywell with four different proposals up to 17 November through a US federal mediator, but all were rejected by the company. Finally on 17 November, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) official presented the six-year deal and Lodge 778&rsquo;s bargaining committee recommended it last night to membership. 
 
The 840 workers will return to Honeywell&rsquo;s payroll this week by undergoing four-hour re-orientation training, and all staff will resume their normal job functions effective 28 November.

US Machinists End 42-Day Honeywell Strike in Missouri

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Five days of bargaining last week failed to resolve the 53-day strike between 1,200 Peruvian miners of ICEM-affiliated National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP) and Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde, Peru&rsquo;s third largest copper produce that is 53.7% owned by US-based Freeport-McMoRan. 
 
According to the branch General Secretary of the FNTMMSP at Cerro Verde, Leoncio Amudio Pe&ntilde;a, bi-lateral talks brought the two sides no closer to agreement, and the legal strike in Peru&rsquo;s southern Arequipa region likely will last another two-to-three weeks while the union waits for the company to give it financial documents related to the operation. 
 
Cerro Verde management has offered a 3% pay increase and a US$735-per-worker bonus in the first year, while the union is seeking a 6-7% increase in the first year and a 5-6% hike in the second. Other unresolved issues include a union demand for proper food distribution, medical insurance, fixed working hours and restructuring of job classifications. 
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While management has offered to submit the dispute to private arbitration, the union rejected that offer because doing so under Peruvian law would mean the FNTMMSP branch would have to suspend the strike during the arbitration process. The union prefers continuation of mediation by the Arequipa Region labour ministry. 
 
The strike started on 29 September and the very next day the government declared the strike legal. Cerro Verde is using some 600 &ldquo;volunteer&rdquo; workers and management staff to continue ore supply to the leaching platform and the mine&rsquo;s concentrator, but use of such scab workers during a lawful work stoppage is illegal. The government of Peru has termed this a &ldquo;serious infraction&rdquo; of the law and the company faces fines of between US$15,000 and US$26,383. 
 
Daily production of copper and its by-product molybdenum averaged 303,000 metric tonnes in 2010. Freeport-McMoRan has reported to markets that the strike will reduce average output this year by one-third, or 200,000 tonnes per day, which likely is a high estimate. The mine produced a net profit of US$1.05 billion last year. 
 
Besides the majority ownership that operator Freeport-McMoRan holds in Cerro Verde, SMM Cerro Verde Nederlands, a unit of the Japanese Sumitomo Corp., owns a 21% stake, while Peru-based Compania de Minas Buenaventura owns 19.3%.

FNTMMSP Continues Copper Strike Against Freeport-McMoRan in Peru

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Actrav&rsquo;s biennial symposium was held from 4-7 October 2011 at the ILO in Geneva, and was devoted to exploring Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) and other forms of precarious work. Over 100 unions from around the world participated in the symposium, including ICEM affiliates and experts from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Africa. 
 
Participants analysed the use of CAL around the world, the impact of the degeneration of permanent employment on the rights of workers, and what steps must be taken to mitigate these impacts. 
 
Participants agreed that combating precarious work requires a comprehensive policy response that includes economic, fiscal, and social policies geared towards full employment and income equality, a regulatory framework to reduce and ultimately eradicate precarious work, and greater efforts to empower workers by promoting the extension of collective bargaining. This will ensure that all workers can access and exercise their right to associate and to bargaining collectively, freely, and without fear. 
 
Basic income security through a universal social protection floor and minimum wages globally are indispensable to limit precarious and indecent employment and living conditions, as well as policies to combat the erosion of the employment relationship. 
 
The symposium drew attention to the vital role the ILO must play in providing a regulatory framework to stop the growing circumvention of labour and social protections through precarious employment arrangements. The conclusions call on the ILO to produce a Law and Practice Report and convene an ILO expert meeting on obstacles to collective bargaining for precarious workers. They also recommend increasing efforts to implement the Employment Relationship Recommendation 198 and other relevant ILO standards. 
 
A copy of the <a href="http://www.ilo.org/actrav/what/events/lang--en/WCMS_153972/index.htm ">Symposium&rsquo;s conclusions</a> as well as all documents relating to the Symposium can be found here.

Unions from Around the World Ask ILO to Take Action on CAL

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