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An eleventh hour agreement was reached late on Saturday, 30 September, just hours before 800 Canadian members of United Steelworkers (USW) were set to strike the Highland Valley copper mine and operations near Kamloops, British Colombia. 
 
USW Local 7619 and the mine&rsquo;s owner, Teck Cominco, reached a tentative five-year labour agreement that will now be voted on by union members over the next week. The USW local issued a 72-hour strike notice on 26 September, and the Vancouver-based global mining house began shutting down operations in anticipation of a strike at the expiration of a prior agreement on 1 October. The tentative agreement came with the help of a provincial mediator. 
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The Highland Valley operation is Canada&rsquo;s largest copper producer and generates 1.2% of the world&rsquo;s copper supply, with roughly 80% headed to Asian manufacturers. 
 
In Eastern Canada, a strike by USW members at Inco&rsquo;s Voisey Bay nickel operations ended 23 September, after 120 workers ratified a new labour contract. The strike started on 28 July 2006. 
 
The accord gives Voisey Bay steelworkers a 15.5% raise over the three-year contract, as well as a retention bonus of C$6,000. It also allows the nickel miners to gain parity with unionised Inco miners in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.

Strike Averted at Canada’s Largest Copper Mine

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Trade unionists from a number of countries in which mining-energy multinational BHP Billiton operates attended an initial forum in Brisbane, Australia, on 9-11 October. The conference was aimed at constituting a formal network of unionised workers at BHP Billiton. It was jointly conducted by the ICEM and the International Federation of Metalworkers (IMF).
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Unions attending included the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU), the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia, the Australian Workers&rsquo; Union (AWU); the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA), both of South Africa; Confedera&ccedil;&atilde;o Nacional dos Metal&uacute;rgicos (CNM/CUT) of Brazil; Sindicato de Trabajadores de Escondida of Chile; Sindicato &Uacute;nico de Trabajadores de Compa&ntilde;&iacute;a Minera Antamina (SUTRACOMASA) of Peru; Community (formerly the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation) of the UK; and the United Steelworkers (USW) of the US. 
 
The conference was highlighted by two panel discussions, one detailing collecting bargaining within the Anglo-Australian company, as well as plant closures, industrial actions, and strategies in dealing with a company making unprecedented profit. The second dealt with building union strength in the face of massive labour outsourcing and other attacks on collective agreements. 
 
In country reports, the effect of imposing individual work agreements in Australia in place of collective agreements was discussed, as was health and safety concerns. Several unions reported on the company&rsquo;s failure to report lost-time injuries in order to be able to report positive sustainability data, and South American unions reported on widespread environmental problems from mines and smelting operations in those countries. NUMSA reported on a high incidence of occupational illnesses stemming from a manganese operation in South Africa. 
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Company representatives were invited to discuss employment concerns and problems, but declined the invitation. 
 
The unions agreed to hold a demonstration and speak at a November AGM of the company in Adelaide, Australia, and they also agreed to each prepare and distribute written dossiers on work conditions at BHP Billiton mines and other workplaces. 
 
The ICEM and IMF agreed to oversee the running of the workers&rsquo; network over the next year. ICEM was represented at the meeting by President Senzeni Zokwana of NUM in South Africa and Joe Drexler, the director of Industry and Corporate Affairs. IMF was represented by Rob Johnston, its director of Steel, Shipbuilding, Non-ferrous Metals, and Health and Safety.

ICEM, IMF Hold Initial BHP Billiton Workers’ Meeting

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ICEM affiliate Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) successfully brought 600 new members into its fold recently. Senior staff at AngloGold Ashanti&rsquo;s Obuasi Mine joined the GMWU, and will become the Professional and Managerial Staffs Union of the GMWU. 
 
At an inaugural event on 5 October, Ghana Trade Union Congress General Secretary Kwasi Adu-Amankwa called the integration a milestone event for the 65-year-old GMWU, a union, he said, that has dramatically improved work conditions and community life in Ghana&rsquo;s gold belt.
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GMWU General Secretary Prince William Ankrah stated that having senior staff in the union will go far in healing the colonial legacy of the 50-year-old west African nation that once saw senior and junior workers pitted against one another by the divide-and-rule dictums of labour relations by mining companies. 
He welcomed the senior staff of the South African-based company into the GMWU, stating they will now be offered the same excellent services built over many years, including job security, career development, dependent educational opportunities, and other social programmes. 
 
The Obuasi Mine is AngloGold&rsquo;s most productive of three mines in Ghana, and the only one that is underground. Gold mining, which accounts for 30% of all revenues derived from the country&rsquo;s exports, occurs at 1.6 kilometres deep at Obuasi, with a current project now underway to dig deeper, expecting to extend the mine&rsquo;s life span beyond the year 2040.
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This mine was the major catalyst behind the 2004 merger of AngloGold and Ashanti Goldfields of Ghana. The company also operates open cast mines at Iduaprim and Teberebie. With several other gold producers operating in Ghana, including Goldfields, Newmont Mining, Red Back Mining, and Golden Star of Canada, the country is Africa&rsquo;s second largest gold producer behind South Africa. 
 
The Professional and Managerial Staff of GMWU has an eight-member executive, including Chairman Seidu Adam Bogobiri, Deputy Chairman Charles Owusi, Secretary Samuel Dwamenah, Deputy Secretary Isaac Newton Kusi, First Trustee Collins Ankomah, Second Trustee Eric Obeng Foshuhene, Chaplain M.C. Turkson, and Women&rsquo;s Representative Doris Apem.

Ghana Mine Workers&#039; Union Organises Senior Staff of AngloGold Ashanti

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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) petitioned South Africa&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) last week to conduct a one-day strike. The strike would call attention to severe safety deficiencies by mining houses operating in South Africa in the wake of the near catastrophe at Harmony Gold&rsquo;s Elandsrand Mine on 3-4 October. 
 
Some 3,200 miners were trapped there when a piece of steel pipe dropped 2.2 kilometres down an elevator shaft, severing electrical cables and shattering the framework of the mine&rsquo;s main elevator. Fortunately, all were rescued, but it took the company 38 hours to complete the rescue.
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But even after that near tragedy, the death toll in South African mines&nbsp;has risen. On 10 October, three miners were killed at Goldfields Kloof gold mine near Westonaria when a rope hoisting a skip loaded with rock snapped, sending the load back down a shaft and crushing the three miners. On the same day, another Goldfields miner was killed by falling rock 2,700 metres underground at the company&rsquo;s South Deep Mine. 
 
Three NUM members at Northam Platinum in Thabazimbi lost their lives in accidents recently. The NUM said the company had failed to report the deaths. The company responded by stating that its policy has been not to report single fatalities. On 17 October, one miner at AngloPlatinum&rsquo;s Paardekraal Mine in Rustenburg perished and another was critically injured and remains hospitalised from an underground rock fall. 
 
A day earlier, Reuters in Johannesburg reported that the subsidiary of Anglo American was contemplating reducing the number of contract workers in its mines because the safety record of such workers is not as good as for permanent staff. &ldquo;We have identified this as the key challenge,&rdquo; stated AngloPlats head of Strategy, Frances Petersen. 
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NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni
The NUM formally applied to the CCMA for a certificate to strike on the same day of the AngloPlats Rustenburg tragedy. The strike could come as early as next week, or the first week of November. It would mark the first time in 20 years that the ICEM affiliate took strike action across the country&rsquo;s entire mining sector.
In a statement, the NUM said a &ldquo;genocide is unfolding, and the NUM is preparing for a strike that seeks to divert attention from the obsession with production targets to the one that deals with realising the sacrosanct human life.&rdquo; 
 
NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni added that the loss of black miners has come at the expense of enormous profits made through continuous operations.

NUM Files for One-Day Safety Strike in South Africa’s Mine

ICEM Dutch affiliate FNV Bondgenoten and four other unions at DSM&rsquo;s chemical plant in Geleen engaged in a stop-work march and rally 12 April at the firm&rsquo;s headquarters in nearby Heerlen in the southern NL province of Limburg. Some 2,500 workers participated in this first-ever such action against DSM. Under the slogan &ldquo;Stop the Breakdown of DSM Employment in Limburg,&rdquo; the unions protested DSM&rsquo;s recent announcement that 1,000 workers at sprawling industrial chemicals operations would be made redundant this year. DSM intends to replace the 1,000 with 500 contractors. The Geleen complex once had 15,000 employees. Prior to this most recent announcement, it employed 5,000.

FNV Bondgenoten Protests DSM’s Retrenchments in the Netherlands

The National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa still has not received answers to the sudden lay-offs of 400 diamond miners employed by Antwerp-based Rex Diamond Mining at the Loxton Mine in the Northern Cape. Despite inquiries by the NUM and ICEM over the status of the miners, the firm has said only the retrenchments are of a &ldquo;short term arrangement,&rdquo; yet has provided no information that would clarify the benefits due the workers.

South Africa’s NUM Awaits Answers from Rex Diamond

The Communications, Energy, Paperworkers Union of Canada picked Suncor Energy last month as the pattern-setter for this year&rsquo;s round of oil talks. That means some 10,000 CEP members at five majors and several smaller companies will have similar terms in pay hikes, shift increases and other wage-related premiums at their bargains. General pay hikes agreed to at Suncor are 3%, 3.5% and 3% over three years. The Suncor agreement has a unique company contribution to CEP&rsquo;s Humanity Fund, the union&rsquo;s assistance fund to workers in developing nations. Union leaders have made it clear that CEP members across Canada&rsquo;s oil sector are determined to get the same terms as those achieved at Suncor.

Canadian CEP Sets Oil Pattern with Suncor

A dispute has surfaced between ICEM affiliate Associated Mineworkers of Zimbabwe and that country&rsquo;s Council of Mines. The employers&rsquo; group walked out of negotiations after refusing to award reasonable wage and salary adjustments, and then unilaterally granted inferior pay hikes amounting to half of what AMWZ considers a liveable wage. Zimbabwe&rsquo;s Ministry of Labour has intervened and ordered the matter be put before conciliation.
&nbsp;

Mining Dispute in Zimbabwe Centers on Wages

The hostile Trade Union Act in Nigeria may have begun to fall apart in the country&rsquo;s Senate. Amendments to President Olusegun Obasanjo&rsquo;s union-busting measure passed last week included removal of a &ldquo;no strike&rdquo; clause to the bill, as well as language making all union membership voluntary. The General Assembly&rsquo;s lower chamber began debate late last week with the leader of the All Nigerian People&rsquo;s Party, Salik Ahmed, calling for outright dismissal of the bill.

Nigerian Unions Paring Worst Aspects from Labour Reform Bill

In South Africa at an ethylene plant run by Sasol, seven workers were killed following a gas blast on 1 September. The section of the plant in Secunda, Mpumalanga, where the explosion occurred was down for maintenance while some 450 contract workers and 100 permanent employees worked in the area. Reportedly, a valve was mistakenly opened. It was the third accident at the Sasol complex over the past three months in which deaths occurred. ICEM affiliate CEPPWAWU, one of three unions representing workers at Sasol, is attempting to be part of the investigation team, but the South African firm is trying to limit the probe.

Recent Blast at Sasol in South Africa Kills Seven

Archive

Strike Averted at Canada’s Largest Copper Mine

ICEM, IMF Hold Initial BHP Billiton Workers’ Meeting

Ghana Mine Workers' Union Organises Senior Staff of AngloGold Ashanti

NUM Files for One-Day Safety Strike in South Africa’s Mine

FNV Bondgenoten Protests DSM’s Retrenchments in the Netherlands

South Africa’s NUM Awaits Answers from Rex Diamond

Canadian CEP Sets Oil Pattern with Suncor

Mining Dispute in Zimbabwe Centers on Wages

Nigerian Unions Paring Worst Aspects from Labour Reform Bill

Recent Blast at Sasol in South Africa Kills Seven

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