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For third time since management shut the copper, lead, and zinc mining and smelting operations of Doe Run Per&uacute; at La Oroya in June 2009, members of a branch of ICEM affiliate National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP), along with two other unions, agreed to extend the shutdown until 29 April, only this time the 3,200 mines and metalworkers will receive 70% of their salaries and labour benefits. 
 
That agreement was reached late last week and extends an enforced vacation agreement that first went into effect in August 2009. The shutdown then lasted three months with workers receiving 63% of pay, and an extended 90-day negotiated vacation shutdown took effect in November 2009, which saw workers receive 65% of their standard pay. That expired at the end of January. 

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FNTMMSP Gen. Sec. Luis Castillo Carlos
FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo Carlos said the union&rsquo;s number one priority is to reopen the La Oroyo complex in Yauli Province, 175 kilometres east of Lima, with all workers receiving full pay and full benefits. Castillo said the company also agreed to meet weekly with unions to apprise them of financial developments in regard to re-opening. 
 
Doe Run Per&uacute; has been hard hit by debt, including money owed ore suppliers and financiers. The Peruvian Congress has given the company until 27 July 2010 to restart, a deadline that also saw the government give a 30-month extension to the American company for environmental clean-up that will cost US$156 million. 

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The company&rsquo;s troubles were also compounded early this month when it was expelled from Peru&rsquo;s National Society of Mining, Oil, and Energy (SNMPE) for violations of three codes of conduct: negligent health and safety conditions for workers, disregard for the environment, and mining exploration that fails to comply with Peruvian legislation. The smelter is known to have caused serious lead poisoning along the River Mantaro. 
 
Doe Run is owned by privately-held Renco Group, a New York-based holding company controlled by industrialist Ira Rennart. Renco also owns AM General, a maker of armored vehicles for military use, and US Magnesium. Its Doe Run affiliate also has lead recycling and processing operations in the US states of Arizona, Missouri, and Washington. 
 
In Peru in 2008, Doe Run&rsquo;s La Oroya smelter produced 114,259 tonnes of lead, 53,831 tonnes of cooper, and 43,440 tonnes of zinc. The polymetallic smelter also produced a host of minor metals as well.

Peruvian Miners Give Doe Run Management until 29 April to Reopen

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Difficult talks in the Netherlands between Akzo Nobel and trade unions climaxed in late January when the Dutch chemicals company came to social terms with 5,000 workers. Negotiations had dragged on since last autumn, but talks on 26 January quickly produced results following 24-hour strike actions a day earlier. 
 
Those results are favourable to workers thanks to the four unions: FNV Bondgenoten, CNV Vakmensen, De Unie, and VHP AkzoNobel. The new labour accord will now extend through the end of 2011. 

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The highlights include the existing social plan stays in force, incentives are realized for workers between ages 57 and 60 are in place, and there&rsquo;s an improved sickness benefit. In addition, workers will receive a 1.25% wage increase over 15 months, and the unions negotiated added severance benefits and more financial assistance in job help for workers made redundant. Some 150 Dutch jobs have been cut by the company. 
 
A commitment to examine and improve the pension scheme in separate, upcoming talks was also a result of the 26 January settlement. The wage increases include a retroactive 0.5% hike to April 2009, 0.75 in January 2010, and a one-off raise of 0.5% in January 2011. 
 
On 25 January, union members conducted a highly successful strike at 12 Akzo Nobel worksites in the Netherlands, actions that proved pivotal in the company acceding to workers&rsquo; demands.

Strike Action Brings Akzo Nobel to Terms with Dutch Unions

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Workers of ICEM affiliated union GMB in the UK will likely see issuance of a ballot for industrial action this week British Gas, the largest gas supplier in the country that is a part of Centrica Plc. The intended job actions are in response to an opaque but and aggressive flexibility and management performance agenda that could cost up to 5,000 jobs. 
 
In a survey of its members, GMB reported that out of 3,000 responses, by a margin of eight to one, workers say there is a &ldquo;bullying management culture&rdquo; within British Gas. The survey directly contradicts the company&rsquo;s own Employee Engagement programme, and affirms that workers are facing unnecessary pressure and feel alienated from the company due to poor planning and bad management. 
 
The situation has been exacerbated by the fact that workers have been forced to work long hours during the coldest winter in decades, all the while hearing mixed messages and getting competing demands from management. Contained in British Gas internal documents, the company is proposing that 5,000 jobs be cut, which could mean job loss for many skilled engineers who work on domestic appliances. 

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Gary Smith
&ldquo;Our members are starting to understand that there is a threat to the terms and conditions of employment that we have fought for over many years,&rdquo; said GMB National Secretary Gary Smith. &ldquo;Employees are sick to the back teeth of the pressure they face day to day from senior management.&rdquo; 
 
Much of the staff anger is pointed at Managing Director Phil Bentley, who has not given the union a straight answer on the job cuts and stands accused by GMB of creating a &ldquo;new macho management&rdquo; culture, with its only purpose to cut costs. This cost cutting is across the board and affects such things as the purchase of parts for boilers. Bentley&rsquo;s new work culture, for example, means creation of an arbitrary performance management process that could lead to easy discipline of employees. 
 
In an e-mail, Bentley stated that at One British Gas, the retail arm of the utility, &ldquo;the big, hairy, audacious goal I&rsquo;ve thrown down on One British Gas is to reduce our non-customer-facing full-time employment equivalent by 25%.&rdquo; The 5,000 job cuts, if they materialize, could prove devastating for British Gas and Scottish Gas workers in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leicester, Southampton, Uddingston near Glasgow, and Edinburgh. 
 
If the industrial ballot is issued this week, it will be counted and assessed in late February. 
 
Centrica serves 15.6 million residential electricity and gas customers in the UK, largely under the British Gas name. Through its Direct Energy subsidiary, Centrica also supplies residential gas and power service in the US, Canada, Europe, Egypt, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago.

GMB to Take Strike Ballot at British Gas This Week

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Nigerian workers are being victimized, while Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) continues to rely on expatriate workers in the Niger Delta, according to ICEM&rsquo;s two oil and gas union affiliates, PENGASSAN and NUPENG. MPN is subsidiary to the world&rsquo;s largest energy company, ExxonMobil. 
 
The two unions combined last week, 3 and 4 February, to shut down the company&rsquo;s worksites and operating facilities in a show of protest over the sacking of casual workers by Mobil&rsquo;s contractors and the company&rsquo;s failure to address those sackings with the unions. 
 
Strikes shut down MPN operations at Onne, Port Harcourt, as well at the Eket jetty and other installations in Akwa Ibom state, and protests were seen at the company&rsquo;s main export terminal, Qua Iboe, also in Akwo Ibom state. A manifestation was also made at MPN headquarters in Lagos. 

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Since September 2009, up to 100 Nigerian nationals have been discharged by contractors serving under MPN, which is the operating manager of oil and gas facilities along the delta in a joint venture with Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC). The casuals were sacked because they responded to a workers&rsquo; collective voice of protest to gain fair and equitable remuneration. 
 
At PENGASSAN and NUPENG&rsquo;s joint National Executive Council meetings in mid-December, union leaders decided to take direct industrial action as reaction to unfair labour practices, illegal separation, and persistent victimization of casual workers employed in the energy sector. 
 
PENGASSAN General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile called last week&rsquo;s actions the first phase of industrial strikes against the US-based company, and promised further actions to intensify this dispute will occur if management does not stop exploitation of casual workers, as mandated under national statute and past conventions with the unions. 

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Bayo Olowoshile
&ldquo;PENGASSAN restates that management of Mobil Producing Nigeria engages in medium and long-term casualisation of highly skilled, professional, and experienced nationals in core technical, engineering, administrative, and commercial operations,&rdquo; said Olowoshile, &ldquo;and this amounts to the flagrant contravention of the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.&rdquo; 
 
Olowoshile added, &ldquo;The picketing of Mobil Nigeria last week will continue as long as the management is recalcitrant and until they yield to the demand of the union.&rdquo; 
 
Due to MNP&rsquo;s reluctance to address the issues of its contractors in negotiations with the unions, Nigeria&rsquo;s Ministry of Labour has intervened and the case is heading for arbitration. The ICEM supports the Nigerian unions in their direct action initiatives.

Nigerian Energy Unions Strike ExxonMobil over Sackings of Casuals

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The Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF) and the All-Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (APLF) jointly held a manifestation on 13 January at the Quetta Press Club to protest safety inaction by Balochistan provincial authorities in coal mining. In the first half of January, at least 21 miners perished in roof cave-ins and methane gas explosions. 
 
The federated mining unions expressed outrage that neither Balochistan authorities nor the Chief Inspectorate of Mines removed the bodies of five dead miners in the days following the tragedies. On 2 January, a gas explosion at the Al-Rahman mine near Marwar killed ten miners, including three Afghan workers. 

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The blast, which caused a cave-in, occurred 2,000 metres underground. And then on 11 January, two separate mine accidents occurred at the Habibullah Coal Mines Co. near Spin Karez. Three miners died when a roof collapsed, while eight others were trapped and killed following a blast at the mine in the Marwar coal fields. 
 
Speakers at the unions&rsquo; 13 January protest said governmental authorities demonstrated &ldquo;criminal silence&rdquo; over the loss of lives, as well as denouncing Balochistan officials for not extending financial assistance to the families of the deceased. 

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Sultan Muhammad Khan
PCMLF Secretary General Sultan Muhammad Khan called it a travesty that miners are denied social benefits, and he said the fact that five miners from the first incident are still entombed at Al-Rahman &ldquo;speaks volumes about the performance of the Mines Inspectorate.&rdquo; 
 
Other mine union officials that condemned the inaction, as well as the lack of preventative safety measures in the province&rsquo;s mines included Bakht Maweb Yousatzai, Abdul Sattar, Syed Altaf Ilussain Shah, Muhammad Jamil, And Rehmatullah Baloch. The mine union leaders said the average death rate in Balochistan coal mining, in southwestern Pakistan, had been 86 known deaths, but that this rate has increased of late because of lack of safety measures in mines.

Pakistan Mine Unions Protest Killings in Balochistan Coal Pits

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Hashmeya Muhssin Saadawi, ICEM Executive Committee member and President of the Basra Electricity Workers&rsquo; Union, has long been fighting for the rights and welfare of women, as well as for men, in Basra, Iraq, for many years. She has now launched a campaign inside the worn-torn country for social security, a campaign funded in large part by money awarded to her upon winning the Dutch Human Rights Award, the FNV&rsquo;s prestigious Febe Elisabeth Velasquez Trade Union Award. 

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Hashmeya Muhssin Saadawi
She was awarded that on 12 May 2009, after being nominated by the ICEM, for her courageous work under challenging circumstances and great personal risks, in the furthering of the trade union struggle in Iraq. (See report of that award <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3218-Dutch-FNV-Trade-Union-Award-to-Goes-to-Iraq’s-Hashmeyia-Muhsin-Saadawi ">here</a>.) 
 
The elements of the social security campaign are equality and social equality, as well as security, social security, work, housing, and education. Land needs to be redistributed, health insurance has to be provided, and cures for different diseases have to be found. Click <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/denicezelmalombard/IraqSocialSecurity#">here</a> to view the campaign manual in English.&nbsp; 
 
Hasmeya Muhssin is the first female trade union leader in the Arab-speaking world.

Hashmeya Muhssin Launches Social Security Campaign in Iraq

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The ICEM reported <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3571-Safety-Benefits-Won-by-Iraqi-Leather-Workers-after-53-Day-Strike">here</a> of the successful leather workers&rsquo; strike that concluded in December in Iraq, a strike that spawned a shorter strike in the clothing and textile sector in the Baghdad area. Both workers&rsquo; units come under the Federation of Workers&rsquo; Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI), a national labour centre that counts two ICEM affiliates to its rolls. 
 
In January, the Ministry of Industries has retaliated by predictably reverting to something that other Iraqi ministries have done: It has taken the leader of the textile strike, FWCUI President Falah Alwan, and transferred him from a Cotton Industry enterprise, under the State Company for Textiles, to another enterprise in order to suppress his union activities. 

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Falah Alwan
The ICEM condemns this action and urges trade unionists and human rights activists globally to protest. The ICEM notes that global protests in the past produced reversals for other Iraqi trade unionists who were exiled for trade union building, including port workers of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) in Um Asr and eight leaders of ICEM-affiliated Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) in the Basra area. 
 
Please send an e-mail in your own words to Minister of Industry and Minerals, Fawzi Hariri, <a href="mailto:minister.office@industry.gov.iq">here</a> and <a href="mailto:minister@industry.gov.iq">here</a>, and copy the State Company for Textiles <a href="mailto:textile@industry.gov.iq">here</a>. 
 
Trade unions in Iraq are under constant pressure, considering neither the occupation forces nor the Iraqi government has lifted the draconian Saddam era Decree150 that prohibits independent unions from existing in the all-encompassing public sector. The Iraqi government has also failed to pass into law a meaningful labour code, a set of fair and universally accepted statutes that have been drawn up by Iraqis with assistance from experts at the ILO.

Iraqi Government Reprimands Falah Alwan by Exiling His Work Posting

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The ICEM supports the International Trade Union Confederation-led trade union appeal for victims of the earthquake disaster in Haiti. The trade union relief work is being carried out primarily by ITUC&rsquo;s affiliates in the Dominican Republic, in cooperation with Haitian colleagues across the border. 
 
We urge ICEM affiliates to support this Appeal. 
 
Funds for the appeal can be transferred to the following ITUC bank account: 
 
No. 375-1008200-61 
Banque ING, Brussels Branch Institutionals, 1 rue du Trone, B-1000 Brussels 
Code IBAN: BE 62375100820061 
Code BIC/Swift: BBRUBEBB 

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The ITUC requests that the words &ldquo;SOS Solidarity &ndash; Haiti&rdquo; are included with each transfer to this account. 
 
ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder has called for the cancellation of Haiti&rsquo;s debt, in the aftermath of the disaster, to increase the country&rsquo;s chances of reconstruction. 
 
As has been widely reported in the mainstream media, the huge earthquake hit Haiti on 12 January, and was followed by a number of aftershocks. Along with the reported death toll of over 100,000, Haiti&rsquo;s infrastructure has been severely damaged, with many buildings and roads completely destroyed. The humanitarian situation is desperate and aid is needed. 
 
Once the immediate humanitarian effort passes, the solidarity campaign will continue to use funds raised to help Haitians in their recovery from this natural disaster.

ICEM Urges Haitian Relief Funds through ITUC

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In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS newsletter, we report on the HIV/AIDS workshops in Trinidad and Tobago and in Ethiopia, and inform on the Global Fund approvals for Round 9, as well as on the 2009 Epidemic Update. 
 
The ICEM Calls on its Affiliates to Contribute to this e-bulletin 
 
ICEM affiliates are already engaged in a wide range of HIV/AIDS activities. To spread the information on new agreements, awareness, and prevention campaigns, and educational activities, affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org</a>. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 

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World AIDS Day 
 
In his statement on World AIDS Day, 1 December, the ICEM General Secretary focused on the &ldquo;I AM&rdquo; theme, with the key slogans: &ldquo;I am accepted; I am safe; I am getting treatment; I am well and I am living my rights&rdquo;. &ldquo;Our approach is also rights-based &ndash; we never forget that our first responsibility is to protect the rights, health and livelihoods of our members, their families and the wider community&rdquo;, he stated. &ldquo;Above all, we have to advocate Know-Your-Status campaigns for voluntary counselling and testing. If for every two people who go on antiretroviral treatment five more are newly infected, then we know that prevention must be the focus of our HIV/AIDS work&rdquo;. 
 
The ILO contributed to the &ldquo;I AM&rdquo; theme with the slogan &ldquo;I am living my rights. I am working.&rdquo; 

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World AIDS Day: HIV/AIDS Workshop in Trinidad and Tobago 
 
The Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago, with the support from the Humanity Fund of the ICEM Canadian affiliate, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), organised the opening of their HIV/AIDS workshop for OWTU General Council members to coincide with World AIDS Day, 1 December. 
 
Speaking at the opening, OWTU President General Comrade Ancil Roget emphasised the importance of fighting HIV/AIDS at the workplace. He highlighted that the World AIDS Campaign and World AIDS Day are about understanding that access to prevention, care and treatment is for ALL, not just for some. He also reminded the participants that high HIV infections are a manifestation of the deeper social and political crisis we are in and we cannot ignore the fact that poverty, inequality and social injustice make people more vulnerable to HIV. He pledged that his union, in line with the World AIDS Day slogan, will keep the promise to stop HIV/AIDS and protect the rights of workers living with HIV. 
 
Carol Ann Senah, Technical Director of the National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC), pointed out that the infection does not just hitch rides with truck drivers on lonely highways; it also travels business class with men in dark suits. The number of people living with HIV and AIDS has gone up from 14,000 to 20,000 in a short time. With the productive workforce,&nbsp;the age group 15-49 years hardest hit, the workplace must be an enabling environment to fight the pandemic. She called on everybody to be tested on national testing day, 4 December. 
 
During the three-day workshop, some 45 participants discussed behaviour change, preventing HIV transmission, negotiating on HIV and AIDS and they elaborated the elements of an HIV/AIDS workplace policy on the basis of a presentation by Hans Schwass, the ICEM HIV/AIDS Consultant and the OWTU&rsquo;s own HIV/AIDS policy presented by Executive Officers, Comrades Chandersain Ramsingh &amp; Sati Gajadar-Innis, which was adopted in June 2009. Their work in groups was also informed by the excellent presentation of the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work by the regional ILO HIV/AIDS specialist, Madhuri Supersad. 
 
Participants came up with many ideas for HIV/AIDS activities at their workplace and within their communities to be organised within the next six months and to be reviewed and further carried forward at an HIV/AIDS workshop in 2010. 
 
One of the highlights of the workshop was the participation in a mixed performance of pantomime, music and testimonies of people living with HIV, which addressed stigma and discrimination. 

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HIV/AIDS Workshops in Ethiopia 
 
In two consecutive workshops in Addis Ababa in November, stakeholders advanced the LO/FTF-sponsored HIV/AIDS project in cooperation with the ICEM and its affiliate, the National Industrial Federation of Energy, Chemical and Mine Trade Unions (NIFECM). 
 
In the first workshop, officials revisited the NIFECM HIV/AIDS Policy which was adopted by Congress in August and the excellent leaflet which was produced in Ethiopia. They also reviewed and selected materials which should go into a toolbox for peer educators. 
 
A larger group of 20 participants, of whom 9 were women, with unionists from the basic unions discussed strategies to negotiate on HIV/AIDS, elaborated an HIV/AIDS workplace policy, acquired campaigning skills and brainstormed campaigning ideas. 
 
The Project Advisory Committee with participation from NIFECM, the LO/FTF and ICEM also met on the occasion. Priorities for the next few months are the training of peer educators and the starting of awareness and prevention campaigns in mining localities, as well as training on bargaining skills. 

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Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation Receives ILO Certificate, Organises Peer Educators Training for Women and Commemorates World AIDS Day 
 
On behalf of the INMF, its General Secretary B.K. Das received a certificate from the ILO Delhi Office in recognition of the contribution made to the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the world of work through the successful implementation of the HIV/AIDS Project sponsored by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim and the ICEM. 
 
In September, the Federation organised a training course for women to become HIV/AIDS peer educators. Peer educators courses held so far have shown a low participation by women, due to strong cultural barriers. Yet the potential of women and their involvement with families and the community has to be harnessed to fight HIV and AIDS. 
 
On World AIDS Day, 1 December, master trainers and peer educators, trained by the HIV/AIDS project, organised meetings, symposiums and rallies in major coalfields. The programmes did not only involve workers but also reached out to local authorities, teachers and students of schools and colleges, non-governmental organisations and organisations of people living with HIV. The HIV/AIDS project provided campaign materials for the events. 

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Global Fund Board Approves 85 Grants in Round 9 
 
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, meeting in Addis Ababa from 9-11 November, approved 85 grants (out of 159 proposals received) worth almost USD 2 billion over the first two years for the three diseases. 54 grants received immediate approval, whereas 31 were approved in principle, subject to funding becoming available. 
 
Of the total amount, 44 percent are for HIV/AIDS grants. TB and malaria grants received 28 percent each. Of the grants approved, Africa (East, Southern, West and Central) will receive 56 percent. 
 
Subject to confirmation by the Board meeting in April 2010, Round 10 will be launched at the start of May 2010. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, Issue 110 of 12 November. GFO is a free service of Aidspan (<a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>); to receive GFO send an email to 
<a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 

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2009 AIDS Epidemic Update: New HIV Infections Down 
 
New infections in 2008 were 30 percent lower than they were 12 years ago, according to data released by UNAIDS and the WHO. The 2009 Epidemic Update, available at <a href="http://www.unaids.org">www.unaids.org</a>, confirms a trend first observed about two years ago. 
 
UNAIDS and WHO state that the spread of HIV appears to have peaked in 1996. An estimated 2.7 million new infections occurred in 2008, the same number as in 2007, but well below the estimated 3.5 million new infections in 1996. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most heavily affected region, accounting for 71 percent of all new HIV infections in 2008. According to the report, there seems to be evidence that the declines are due to HIV prevention measures. 
 
However, the number of people living with HIV continues to grow. In December 2008, an estimated 33.4 million people were living with HIV, compared to 33.0 million in 2007. The reason that this number continues to grow while new infections are levelling off is that HIV-positive people are living longer, due in large part to expanded antiretroviral (AARV) coverage. The percentage of those needing ARV treatment who actually receive it rose from 7 percent in 2003 to 42 percent in 2008 or 4 million. That also means that over half of those in need of treatment or about 5 million people are still not receiving it. AIDS-related deaths in 2008 amounted to 2 million. 

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President Zuma Addresses the Nation on World AIDS Day 
 
In a national address on World AIDS Day, South African President Jacob Zuma declared that drug therapy for HIV-positive women and babies would be broadened and start earlier. 
 
The new policy on pregnant women, aimed at ensuring that babies are born healthy, is in line with the new treatment guidelines issued by the WHO just a day before. This new policy and extended access to antiretroviral drugs gives substance to Zuma&rsquo;s break with the views of his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, who during almost a decade in office had questioned whether HIV causes AIDS. It is estimated that delays during this decade caused the death of 35,000 babies and that 330,000 people died prematurely for lack of treatment. 
 
With more people being HIV positive than in any other country, Zuma called on South Africans to struggle against AIDS as they had against apartheid. 
 
(Source: Right Vision News, 4 December) 
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News from Global Union Federations 
 
The International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation <a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a> reports in its HIV/AIDS Updates 75 and 76,&nbsp;1 and 15 November, on the opening of an HIV/AIDS drop-in centre on the Indian-Nepalese border which is designed to reach out to those working on the 2000 trucks that cross the border every day. It further reports on the private sector workshop held in Ghana which focused on the role of the private sector in Global Fund processes. It also informs on preparations for the 18th International AIDS Conference to be held in Vienna from 18-23 July 2010. 

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This ICEM HIV-AIDS Newsletter &ndash; How to Subscribe 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an email to <a href="mailto:press@icem.org">press@icem.org</a>. Please put &ldquo;subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin&rdquo; in the subject line.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 51, December 2009

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The founding congress of PRO.GE was held 26 November in Vienna, a union that is the result of a merger of the former Chemical Workers&acute;Union (GdC) and the GMTN (metal, textile, food, energy, and mining union). Rainer Wimmer, originally from the foodworkers, was elected President, while Alfred Artm&auml;uer (former President of the chemical workers), Karl Hass, Franz Riepl (metalworkers) and 6 others were elected vice-presidents. Peter Schissler (former General Secretary of the chemical workers and Executive Committee member of the ICEM) and Manfred Anderle were elected new executive federal secretaries. Manfred Anderle will remain as contact to the European and International Trade Union organizations. 

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="80" />
The Congress was held under the motto &quot;Self-confident, combative, solidary&quot;, and brings together over 250,000 blue collar members in Austria. The new union will be negotiating some 140 sectoral collective agreements in 16 different sectors. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda addressed the congress and congratulated delegates on the successful merger which, he said, sets a good example to those at the international level, who also seek to unite unions in the manufacturing industries.

Founding Congress Takes Place of New Austrian Manufacturing Union PRO.GE

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