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A 17-day strike by members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU) ended last Wednesday, 15 September, against Megabolt Australia Pty. Ltd., a Campbellfield, Victoria, producer of nuts, bolts, roof plates and other metal gear primarily sold to the mining industry. The 25 metalworkers won an exceptional contract in their first enterprise labour agreement with the company, owned by the Hutchins family&rsquo;s Wham Investments. 
 
Megabolt workers took up the AMWU banner after being stymied by a thriving company over wages. Some employees had worked up to ten years at wages of A$15 an hour, barely above the Australian minimum wage.
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photo: Tim Laurence
After maintaining 24-hour picket lines since the strike started on 30 August, Megabolt General Manager Tom Hutchins admitted he wanted labour peace and a resumption of production because, as he stated in a local newspaper, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got more business to win and jobs to create &hellip; I don&rsquo;t want anything more than to get a resolution.&rdquo; 
 
That resolution came in the excellent three-year accord. Workers won a 10% wage increase, backdated to 2 June 2010, with 4.5% increases to come each in 2011 and 2012. In addition, the AMWU won an A$750 ratification bonus for each worker, and the union negotiated permanent and full-time work status for all casual workers who have been on the job for longer than six months. 
 
Other gains include monthly rostered days off, improved redundancy provisions, an award-aligned classification structure, language on use of contractors, as well as health and safety and union rights. 
 
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re ecstatic with the outcome,&rdquo; said AMWU delegate Zelko Cimboro inside Megabolt. &ldquo;We got the outcome we wanted and the workers definitely feel stronger together now.&rdquo;

Australia: Vigilant Strike Leads to Superior Gains for AMWU Members at Megabolt

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The Mining and Energy section of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) welcomed remarks by BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers last week that carbon pricing in Australia must be part of the mix in meeting the challenges of climate change. 
 
CFMEU National President Tony Maher said in a statement on 17 September that BHP Billiton&rsquo;s breaking from the rest of industry on a future carbon tax is &ldquo;a big step in the right direction.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;As the world&rsquo;s largest mining company, BHP has laid down a challenge to the other mining operations and the Minerals Council,&rdquo; said Maher. &ldquo;The scare campaigns on climate change cannot be repeated,&rdquo; he added, referring to a hot-button issue inside Australia that was at top of the list in the toppling of the Kevin Rudd government.
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CFMEU National President Tony Maher&nbsp;
Kloppers made his comments in a speech on 15 September at a lunch in Sydney to a forum of the Australia-British Chamber of Commerce. He said eventually a global initiative regarding carbon pricing will come and when it does, &ldquo;Australia will need to have acted ahead of it to maintain its competitiveness.&rdquo; 
 
The BHP executive said, &ldquo;Carbon emissions need to have a cost impact in order to cause the consumer and companies to change behaviour and favour low-carbon alternatives.&rdquo; Before the business leaders, Kloppers called for &ldquo;a mosaic of initiatives&rdquo; to reduce carbon emissions, including a &ldquo;combination of a carbon tax, land use actions and limited (carbon) trading systems&rdquo; covering power plants. 
 
The speech marked a dramatic shift in public views voiced by resource-rich mining houses and industry alike on the climate change debate in Australia. Following the speech, both business and industry leaders denounced the speech. 
 
However, CFMEU suggested BHP Billiton&rsquo;s shift, along with the appointment of Parliamentarian and former Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Secretary Greg Combet as new Minister for Climate Change, has turned the tide on the debate. The Labour Party&rsquo;s Combet is currently assembling a climate change committee in hopes that legislation implementing a carbon pricing system will be readied by 2012. Opposition parties in Australia, the Liberals and Conservatives, are boycotting the committee.

CFMEU Applauds BHP Billiton’s Shift to a Carbon Tax in Australia

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Members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa strongly rejected last Thursday (16 September) a weak wage proposal from Northam Platinum Ltd., thus extending a 15-day strike by 8,600 miners at the company&rsquo;s Zondereinde mine in Limpopo province. The two sides will meet again tomorrow, 21 September, under auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) in Polokwane, but the two sides are far apart. 
 
The strike started with the night shift on 5 September, following NUM strike notice served to the South African-based company on 2 September. In August, a certificate of non-resolution was served by the CCMA.
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Last week&rsquo;s company wage offer of 8.5% is less than fair for NUM members at Northam, who are paid notoriously low wages. The offer was presented as &ldquo;a take-it-or-leave-it&rdquo; proposition from bosses, and NUM members at Zonereinde rejected it resoundingly with a heavy &ldquo;no&rdquo; vote. 
 
Northam&rsquo;s offer was a mere half-percent above its original proposal, and it rather miserly raised its monthly living-out allowance in last week&rsquo;s offer from 1,600 rand to 1,700, or US$237. The NUM is seeking a wage increase of 15% plus a living-out stipend twice the company&rsquo;s offer, 3,500 rands per month, or US$485. 
 
Salaries at Northam are as low as 3,500 rands per month before taxes, about US$480. Very recently, South African Mvelaphanda Resouces sold a 12.2% stake in Northam to London-based but Asian-centered Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. Plc. for 2.2 billion rand (US$295.9 million). 
 
Two other NUM strikes, both in South Africa&rsquo;s mineral sands sector, ended in September. A CCMA dispute between the NUM and Richards Bay Minerals, a 50/50 joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in northern KwaZulu-Natal, was resolved with a three-year labour accord that ended a week-long strike in early September. Richards Bay Minerals produces titanium minerals mined from sand dunes, such as zircon, titanium slag and rutile, and titanium dioxide. 
 
The other strike, against Exxaro&rsquo;s KZN Sands operation also in KwaZulu-Natal that involved 600 miners, ended on 14 September with a satisfactory 2010 wage gain and re-writes to job grades. That strike began 24 August.
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NUM Spokesman Lesiba Seshoka
In other NUM news, the powerful union continues its longstanding policy of downing tools for a day in remembrance to comrades killed on the job. That will again happen this week, following the 14 September death of a NUM member at AngloGold&rsquo;s TauTona mine near Carletonville. The death was caused by an underground tram accident and workers at TauTona will observe the tragedy this week, in the words of NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka, &ldquo;to ensure that the company gets the message loud and clear that if you continue to claim the lives of innocent workers, we will claim your profit.&rdquo;

NUM Members at Northam Platinum in South Africa Reject Inferior Offer

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Mineworkers&rsquo; in northern Spain in September have taken to blocking roads, clashing with police, and staging sit-down strikes deep inside coal mines to protest wage arrears brought on by the government&rsquo;s inaction in renewing subsidies for utilities that operate coal-fired power plants. 
 
The series of strikes, blockades, and other manifestations in the provinces of Palencia and Leon have led now to leaders of energy unions of the nation&rsquo;s two labour federations calling for four days of a general coal strike &ndash; starting this Wednesday, 22 September &ndash; across Spain. That announcement came after senior union leaders, on 15 September, failed to convince Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian to remedy wage arrears for hundreds of Spanish coalminers and to implement a decree passed last February renewing the subsidies. Some 8,000 coal miners are expected to take part in the four days of strikes. 
 
When last week&rsquo;s meeting failed to move the government, the senior trade union leaders blockaded themselves overnight in an Industry Ministry room in Madrid as symbolic protest to miners at collieries in the north who are striking underground.
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Leaders of the UGT and CC.OO announced general coal strikes for 22-23 September and 29-30 September. The 29 September strike will tie in with a Spanish and Euro-wide day of mobilization against austerity and labour market reforms being pushed by governments and monetary institutions. 
 
For 19 days now, 52 miners of the Uni&oacute;n Minera del Norte (UMINSA) company have locked themselves 500 metres underground in the Las Cuevas colliery near Guardo in Palencia province because wages have not been paid since mid-July. Above ground, as many as 3,000 family members and supporters have led protests that have snarled roads and blocked train lines in and out of the northern part of the province. 
 
Despite a promise to the Industry Ministry weeks ago that it would pay wages, UMINSA owner Victorino Alonso, who also heads the coal producers&rsquo; association Carbunion, said poor cash flow by companies brought on by reduced buying of domestic coal has meant no ability to meet payroll, pay taxes, or make social security contributions. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not paying anything. We have no liquidity,&rdquo; he said. 
 
On 6 September, 14 miners repeated the Las Cuevas action by beginning a sit-down strike inside the Alto Bierzo company mine near Tremor de Arriba in Leon province. That strike was followed by 200 supporters manifesting in Ponferrada, as well as several traffic tie-ups on roads between Leon and Oviedo. 
 
The government of Prime Minister Jos&eacute; Luis Rodr&iacute;guez Zapatero has been reluctant to implement the decree from last February that would renew the subsidies to utilities using Spanish coal rather than imported coal. The government&rsquo;s reluctance is based on official European Commission objections to the subsidies. A Commission ruling has called for all state subsidies for domestically-mined coal to end by 31 December 2010.

Spain’s Miners Feel Pain as Government Coal Subsidies Shrink

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The rescue of 33 miners, trapped 47 days today 700 metres under Chile&rsquo;s Atacama desert, brightened considerably over the weekend. On Friday, 17 September, one of two rescue drills perforated a ceiling of a work room near where the miners are entrapped. And yesterday, 19 September, a third drill began boring a separate rescue hole. 
 
An oil-drilling rig, made by a Canadian manufacturer and leased to Chilean state oil company ENAP, began boring Sunday through high-silica rock to get to 597 metres and an area 300 metres from where the miners are trapped. 
 
But the big news at the weekend was the American-built Schramm T-130 reaming through ceiling rock of a workshop at 624 metres. That lifted hope and renewal, across Chile, particularly with Saturday, 18 September, being the celebration of Chile&rsquo;s bicentennial independence. The miners, already frustrated and bedeviled by topside doctors and psychologists controlling supply tubes, celebrated Independence Day with song and dance, and roasted meat pies and pasties, a diet different than the usual one of liquid nutrients and vitamin juices.
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Top side, the Schramm T-130 drill was changing bits in order to re-drill the hole to a wider 74 centimeters. 
 
Two mine-drilling rigs have been operating since 31 August and early September, with South African mine, construction, and engineering giant Murray &amp; Roberts overseeing operations through Chilean associates Terraservices and Cementation Sudamerica. The first to begin drilling, an Australian-made Strata 950 Raisebore drill developed&nbsp;by South African company RUC Cementation that is boring a 38 centimeter hole, temporary stopped drilling last week at 250 metres for maintenance purposes. The Strata 950 is built for raise-boring of holes from one underground area to another, and was transferred to the site from state-owned Codelco&rsquo;s Andina mine. 
 
The larger Schramm T-130 rig, made by US-based Center Rock Inc. that is blind reaming another hole, hit a steel support beam in an abandoned shaft at 268 metres on 11 September, causing a two-day delay before spare parts were flown in. But days later, it had drilled through to an area close to the entrapped miners. 
 
Those 33 miners, employed at the San Jose mine of junior miner Campa&ntilde;ia Minera San Esteban Primera, escaped their deaths on 5 August when a shaft collapsed due to an explosion. The San Esteban company, a family-owned enterprise that stands now as a black mark on Chilean safety regulations inside non-major mining companies, extracts copper and gold and sells to Codelco. As a result of the mine collapse and entrapment, San Esteban has filed bankruptcy. 
 
A Chilean court has seized the firm&rsquo;s assets of US$1.8 million, or &euro;1.43 million, but the state has not made arrangements over lost wages. For sure, 100 San Jose miners who were not underground on 5 August, as well as another 170 San Esteban miners at the neighbouring San Antonio mine, are not being paid wages. Reportedly, Campa&ntilde;ia Minera San Esteban&rsquo;s insurance carrier is responsible for wages of the trapped miners. 
 
Together with the Murray &amp; Roberts contractors, Chilean state officials and officials of Codelco are leading the rescue, and the use of three separate bore holes is intended to give the greatest chance of faster freedom to the miners. The oil-drilling rig, Rig 421, is expected to reach 597 metres and is drilling away from the other rescue drills because its heavier size likely would cause rock slides. 
 
Once widening occurs by the mine-drilling rigs, as it begins today for the Schramm T-130, a steel &ldquo;rescue pod&rdquo; will be erected by both the miners below and technicians on top in order to lift the miners out one at a time in the 15-minute ride to the surface. 
 
Estimates of when the miners will earn and win their freedom have now been moved up, perhaps to happen in early November.
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In the meantime, and perhaps the biggest indignity for miners still working for a bankrupt company, has their strength been restored enough to clear the rock and construct the cage to ensure rescue? They suffer from skin sores, foot fungi, and abrasions caused by handling rock. With temperatures at 35 degrees Centigrade and humidity at 88%, the risk of infections and bacteria in a low-oxygen environment is very high. Three, small, 15-centimetre holes used to ferry capsules of food, liquids, medicines, and other essentials is now their only portage to the outside. 
 
The ICEM has received scores of requests from trade unions seeking to lend support to the miners. The ICEM has been in contact with one of the leaders of Union No. 2 of Compania Minera San Esteban, its Secretary, Javier Castillo, and we encourage trade unions and trade unionists to send messages of goodwill to the miners at <a href="mailto:jcastillojulio@gmail.com">jcastillojulio@gmail.com</a>. 
 
The ICEM also congratulates the humanity and solidarity shown from throughout the world to the trapped miners of Union No. 2. In just one example of such solidarity, through a call by Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU), hundreds of construction workers in West Australia at a building site donated A$50 each to pay for food, housing, and other costs for family members. That inspiring response to the now longest underground mine survival in human history is being repeated in one form or another by trade unions and others all across the world.

Rescue of Chilean Miners Hits Stride

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According to Economic Populist and based on reliable data from a company that monitors layoffs, 25 American-based companies were responsible for 700,000 jobs lost during the financial crisis. And the statistics reveal that most of the lost US jobs were caused by outsourcing jobs offshore. 
 
The list of 25 includes a few industrial companies, but the most consisting of tech companies, service-oriented forms, and, of course, financial services. 
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The 25 are: General Motors, 107,357 jobs lost due to outsourcing; Citigroup, 73,056 jobs gone; Hewlett-Packard, 47,540 jobs eliminated due to outsourcing; Circuit City Stores, 41,495 (not attributed to outsourcing); Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, 40,650; Verizon Wireless, 39,000; Pfizer, 31,771; Merck and Co., 24,400. 
 
Lehman Brothers, 23,340; Caterpillar, 23,024; JP Morgan Chase, 22,852; Starbucks, 21,316; AT&amp;T, 18,401; Alcoa Aluminium, 17,655 jobs lost to outsourcing; Dow Chemical, 17,530; Dupont, 17,000; Berkshire Hathaway Capital, 16,900 jobs lost due to unknown reasons; 
 
Ford Motor, 15,912; KB Toys, 15,100; US Postal Service, 15,000; DHL Express USA, 14,900; Sprint Nextel, 14,500; Sun Microsystems, 14,000; Boeing Aviation, 13,715; and Chrysler, 13,672. 
 
Many of these companies demanded US taxpayers&rsquo; dollars in the form of stimulus monies, all the while they were loping jobs.

US: 25 Companies, 700,000 Jobs Lost Due to Outsourcing during Financial Collapse

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A draft report on precarious women workers has been presented to the European Parliament by Danish Social Democratic MEP, Britta Thomsen. 
 
The report expresses disappointment that EU employment law and the directives on fixed-term, part-time, and temporary agency work do not adequately address the precarious nature of employment and calls on the Commission and the Member States to take further specific legislative measures, such as introducing binding minimum social standards for employees and granting all employees equal access to social services and benefits, including maternity leave, health care, and pensions, regardless of their employment conditions. 
 
The report underlines the need for unionisation of women in precarious jobs and calls on the Member States to penalise those who create obstacles to trade union participation. 
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Danish Social Democratic MEP, Britta Thomsen
Member States are encouraged to combat undeclared work by means of preventive measures, such as granting immunity from prosecution to employees who report their illegal employment status and taking dissuasive action against employers. The report further calls on the Commission and the Member States to improve data collection and monitor progress in this field. 
 
The Commission and the Member States are called on to enhance their monitoring of minimum health and safety requirements in the workplace, paying particular attention to the specific risks to female workers. 
 
With regard to migrant workers, the report calls on the Commission, in its new gender equality strategy, to strengthen its commitment to promoting gender equality in migration and integration policies, in particular with a view to fully utilising migrant women&rsquo;s employment potential and encourages employers to take specific measures to facilitate the social integration of women migrant workers. 
 
Attention is drawn to the limited amount of research on the subject of precarious work and the report calls on the Commission and Eurofound to initiate targeted research in order to assess the cost of the de-skilling and welfare loss resulting from precarious employment. 
 
The report will be voted on by members of the European Parliament Committee on Women&rsquo;s Rights and Gender Equality on 10 October 2010.

Draft European Parliament Report on Precarious Women Workers

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At a side meeting in Geneva at the 2010 International Labour Conference of the ILO in June 2010, the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, Professor John Ruggie, requested the ILO&rsquo;s expertise in determining the impact of precarious work on human rights. 
 
In preparing to make operational the 2008, &ldquo;Respect, Remedy, Protect&rdquo; framework, Ruggie is consulting with a wide range of actors, including through an online consultation forum. Ruggie&rsquo;s request to the ILO follows online submissions by the Global Union Federations International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association (IUF) and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), which both highlighted the fact that CAL and other forms of precarious work are being used to undermine the human rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
<img alt="" src="" width="145" height="73" />
John Ruggie
In its submission to the consultations, the IMF&rsquo;s statement said, &ldquo;It is our submission that precarious work threatens the very survival of stable employment and collective bargaining,&rdquo; adding, &ldquo;As with other human rights, exercise of the fundamental enabling rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining is severely constrained by fear. That fear comes from the vulnerability that employers are imposing on workers every day, in developed and developing countries alike, with the explosion of precarious work practices.&rdquo; 
 
Ruggie&rsquo;s &ldquo;Respect, Remedy, Protect&rdquo; framework is based on three pillars: it is a state duty to protect human rights abuses by third parties, including businesses; corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and that there must be greater access by victims to effective remedies, judicial and non-judicial.

UN Human Rights Special Representative Ruggie Seeks ILO Help on Precarious Work

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An agreement has been reached at the Labour Ministry of S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, state between BASF and the chemical workers of Guaratinguet&aacute;. The agreement aims to regulate the use of Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) and requires the company to pay the same salary and benefits to agency workers as is paid to permanent, directly-employed workers. Failure to implement the agreement will result a fine of 500 Reales per worker/per day. 
<img alt="" src="" width="300" height="104" />
This Guaratinguet&aacute; plant is the largest BASF entity in Latin America and has about one non-regular worker for each directly employed worker.

Brazilian Social Partners Agree on CAL Regulation at BASF

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The Americas Regional Contract and Agency labour (CAL) conference was held in Recife, Brazil, on 27 June 2010. The conference was attended by ICEM affiliates from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Uruguay, as well as by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, the ICEM Vice-President for Latin America, Sergio Novais, the ICEM Women&rsquo;s Officer and Latin America Contact Person, Carol Bruce, and Ashling Seely, the Global CAL Project Coordinator. 
 
Affiliates at the conference spoke about how CAL is being used to undermine freedom of association, for example with Sintracarb&oacute;n in Colombia, the ICEM&rsquo;s Mine Workers&rsquo; affiliate. Representatives from that union told how trade union activists are being transferred from permanent positions into what are known as &ldquo;rubbish contracts.&rdquo; 
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CAL Project Coordinator for Latin America - Rosane Sasse
Another ICEM affiliate, Sintravidricol, the Colombian Glass Workers&rsquo; Union, spoke about how workers at Owen-Illinois are being dismissed and replaced by agency workers. Affiliates also spoke about the problems of triangular employment relationships, with CAL workers not being clear on who is ultimately responsible for their working conditions. 
 
Participants exchanged information on the increasing efforts being made to halt the outsourcing of employment and abusive use of short-term contracts. For example, the Union of Rubber Workers of S&atilde;o Paulo, representing 26,000 workers, is attempting to negotiate a collective agreement clause prohibiting outsourcing in the manufacturing sector. 
 
In Brazil&rsquo;s oil sector, more than two thirds of the workforce is outsourced. The Single Federation of Oil Workers (FUP) has held several debates, regional and national meetings in various regions of the country, to raise awareness of the negative impact of CAL. The umbrella federation of oil workers&rsquo; unions at state-owned Petrobras has also worked with its affiliated organisations to encourage them to restructure in order to improve the full involvement of outsourced workers in their unions. 
<img alt="" src="" width="214" height="160" />
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda
ICEM&rsquo;s Warda concluded the meeting, saying that governments must be made aware that ILO Conventions apply equally to contract and agency workers, and that, where there are obstacles to full rights for CAL workers, these should be tackled with legal actions. Warda also spoke about the need to work against the practices of the World Bank and the IFC, organisations which are still advising governments that they need to create more &ldquo;flexible&rdquo; labour markets. 
 
Affiliates agreed that the day 28 July would become a day of action on outsourcing.

CAL Regional Conference in Latin America Gathers Important Case Studies

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