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Members of two ICEM affiliates in Belgium carried out a 24-hour strike at two glass factories in western Flanders on Friday, 26 November, as an immediate response to Japanese-based Asahi Glass&rsquo;s decision to radically downsize two AGC (formerly Glaverbel) plants near Zeebrugge. In an extraordinary meeting of the company&rsquo;s board a day earlier, the board failed to give reason why it would eliminate 101 of 297 jobs at AGC Zeebrugge and AGC Seapane. 
 
The strike was carried out by De Algemene Centrale ABVV, ICEM&rsquo;s Socialist affiliate in Belgium, and by Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond ACV, the Christian affiliate. The company must still negotiate with the unions over the redundancies. 
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The announcement is the second major restructuring by Asahi in Belgium in just over a year and the fourth in ten years. In October 2009, AGC Automotive caused industrial unrest in the Wallonia region of Belgium by making redundant over 200 of 475 workers employed at a factory in Fleurus and an administrative centre in Seneffe. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s announcement in Flanders comes as a blow to a pair of factories that have a reputation for innovation, advanced technical design, and high-value glass applications among Asahi&rsquo;s worldwide operations. The company also announced job sackings, numbering between 60 and 90, at glass production facilities in Kryry, Czech Republic, the AGC Klin factory near Moscow, and one in The Netherlands. 
 
In addition to the planned 101 sackings in Zeebrugge, eight temporary workers will be let go. 
 
At the ACG Zeebrugge factory, a maker of automobile mirrors and high-value glass used in the furniture industry, 72 of 176 jobs are proposed to be cut. At ACG Seapane, a maker of heat-insulated glazed architectural glass used in the construction industry that had seen its job ranks grow up through last year, 29 of 121 workers are scheduled for redundancies. 
 
ABVV Regional Secretary Luc Geerardyn said the board&rsquo;s decision last week is flawed. He said AGC failed to provide any hard evidence for the proposed sackings, nor did it provide any financial figures to justify the decision.

Belgian Glass Workers Strike Over Asahi’s Unwarranted Job Cuts

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The President of the Union of Workers&rsquo; of the Collahuasi Copper Mine, Manuel Mu&ntilde;oz, told the ICEM on Friday, 26 November, that the 24-day copper strike in Chile&rsquo;s northern Region I now enters a pivotal period. There is strong likelihood that mass violence could break out because of threatening, strong-arm tactics of company-controlled local police in Iquique, as well as by federal police. 
 
The company is Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi, a leading global copper producer owned by Xstrata, AngloAmerican, with a smaller share held by Japan&rsquo;s Mitsui &amp; Co. The lurking possibility of violence surrounds the union&rsquo;s daily peaceful manifestations in the city of Iquique, 185 kilometres from the open cast copper mines of Collahuasi. 
 
What is exasperating Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi are company efforts to break the strike by offering individual miners a bonus and pay increase &ndash; above what it is offering the union &ndash; to quit the strike and return to work. Labour law in Chile allows workers to abandon a work stoppage and return to work after 15 days on strike without the union imposing repercussions. If over 50% of a workforce does that, the strike can be legally terminated. 
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Mu&ntilde;oz told the ICEM that as of early Friday, 100 of the 1,551 miners had accepted the offer and abandoned the strike, even though a local court ruling last week deemed that illegal. Collahuasi has inflamed tensions by making direct appeals to family members and coercing them to convince husbands and fathers to quit the strike. 
 
Collahuasi is nowhere near the 50% mark, and the company&rsquo;s strike-breaking tactic is reflected in the fact that it has extended the deadline for individual workers to accept the enhanced pay package. The copper mining concern said ten days ago that the deadline for strikers to accept a bonus of 14 million pesos (US$28,733) and a 42-month pay increase of 16.3% was midnight on 23 November. 
 
But even after stating early on 23 November that the deadline would not be extended, Collahuasi did just that later in the day, extending it until midnight 26 November. 
 
Mu&ntilde;oz is less concerned about Collahuasi breaking the strike than he is about police and renegade thugs that side with the company precipitating violence. 
&ldquo;We are in a state of worry because our strategy of peaceful protests might be met with violent conflict,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There is frustration by our members because of company tactics including coercion on families and this has not helped.&rdquo; 
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The union has attempted to re-start negotiations, both with a direct appeal to Chile&rsquo;s Labour Minister and an offer by Roman Catholic Bishop Marco Antonio &Oacute;rdenes to mediate the pitched copper dispute. Collahuasi has rejected the offer by the Catholic bishop, while the Labour Ministry told the union that its efforts ended in the run-up to the strike when it fulfilled its lawful duties by offering mediation services once the parties hit impasse. 
 
There was a small ray of light on 25 November when an Iquique Labour Court Judge, Marcela Diaz M&eacute;ndez, issued an order stating that under Section 492 of the Labour Code, the company has a legal obligation to declare collective negotiations with the union not complete. The order thus negates direct appeals to workers to abandon the strike. It is expected that Collahuasi will appeal the judge&rsquo;s order. 
 
For the Union of Workers&rsquo; of Collahuasi, the strike is about far more than gaining adequate pay and bonus claims against a mining enterprise that saw net earnings last year of US$1.56 billion. The union is also seeking an increase in company-paid health coverage from 80% to 100%, and education benefits for children of miners hiked from 50% to 100%. 
 
The health issue is a major concern. Collahuasi is located in the Atacama Desert, some 4,000 metres high in the Andes where oxygen levels are low and stress on the body is high. As well, a US$750 million mine expansion is underway that will lift production from the current 550,000 tonnes per year to one million tonnes, with new mining areas to be located in altitudes of 5,000 metres. 
 
In these open-cast copper mines, workers are exposed to dust clouds containing crystalline silica particles from crushed rock. Such conditions are prone to miners contracting silicosis, a deadly lung disease.

Chile’s Collahuasi Copper Strike Now in Crucial Stage

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The ICEM&rsquo;s ongoing Turkey Organising and Social Dialogue Project, supported by the Dutch trade union confederation FNV, took an important initiative toward mobilizing young unionists in starting organizing drives last month. The two-year project saw a seminar on 21-22 October in the Aegean town of Kusadasi. 
 
The workshop was organized at the education and holiday facility of one of ICEM&rsquo;s Turkish affiliates, Belediye-İş, the General and Municipal Workers&rsquo; Union. The hotel is the Grand Belish, which hosted some 7,500 union members with their families in the summer of 2010. 
 
The facility also welcomes ICEM affiliates from around the world (for information on the union&rsquo;s hotel, click <a href="http://www.grandbelish.com">here</a>).&nbsp;&ldquo;Hosting such an important event for youth organizing at our facility gives us a great honour and motivation,&rdquo; said Nihat Yurdakul, President of Belediye-İş, at the opening of the seminar. &ldquo;Thanks to international solidarity and co-operation, active involvement and increasing the union density of young people is a priority for us. 
 
&ldquo;The ICEM project is a driving force to all of us in this direction,&rdquo; he added. 
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Belediye-İş President Nihat Yurdakul
With a population of 75 million, Turkey has a workforce of 22 million that includes 16 million men and six million women. An important statistic is that 65% of all Turkish people are under age 30. 
 
But regarding work, four million out of 5.5 million employed in various industries work, on average, over 45 hours per week. For the rest, the average work-week is more then 60 hours. The proportion of workers employed in the informal economy is larger than that of the formal one. 
 
The youth seminar in Kusadasi was attended by 60 young militants, shop stewards, and local officers, with women comprising 40% of the participants. 
 
The seminar also hosted a large group of international participants: Paulo Lage, Sergio Novais, Juvenil Nunes, Fabio Lins, and Nilton Freitas from the ABC Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union of Brasil; Liv Christensen and Anders Lapon from Dansk El-F&ouml;rbund of Denmark; Celil &Ccedil;oban and Mail &Uuml;rker of FNV Bondgenoten in the Netherlands; Philippe Gousenbourger, Youth Officer of International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Brussels; and Dick Blin, ICEM Information, Campaigns, and Pulp &amp; Paper Officer, and Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemical and Rubber Industries&rsquo; Officer, from Geneva. 
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Guest speakers exchanged their knowledge and experiences with the participants, particularly on youth organizing. 
 
The seminar also gave support and solidarity to a 27-year-old trade union woman named M&uuml;zeyyen Acunal, an activist for the Turkish paper and packaging affiliate Sel&uuml;loz-İş. She was fired for initiating a union organising drive at a paper company in the city of Torbali. 
 
Her situation clearly demonstrates the difficulties that Turkish trade unions face in organising. (For further information, click <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/4100-Turkish-Woman-Fired-for-Union-Organising-at-Izmir-Packaging-Mill ">here</a> to see how you can assist M&uuml;zeyyen Acunal.) 
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M&uuml;zeyyen Acunal 
As a regular exercise during the FNV Mondiaal project, Turkish trade union expert &Uuml;zeyir Ataman, Director of Education and Collective Bargaining of Lastik-İş, also presented union history and the current labour relations situation in Turkey. Later, the seminar focused on Power and Weak Points, Challenges and Opportunities, and Concrete Organising Targets Inside Turkey, with contributions and inputs by participants from different sectors and regions. 
 
Participants also created an e-mail group for continuing communication among future leaders of the unions, which will allow them the opportunity to exchange information, as well as to further solidarity. 
 
&ldquo;The Kusadasi Seminar gives us great hope and motivation for the future of our Turkish unions,&rdquo; said &Ouml;zkan, coordinator of the two-year project. &ldquo;We now feel more obliged to do more work towards organising young workers, not just in Turkey, but also throughout the world.&rdquo; 
 
The project will conclude with an Evaluation Seminar scheduled to occur late this month, 29-30 November, in the Turkish capital Ankara.

ICEM, FNV Mondiaal Turkey Project Mobilizes Young Unionists to Organise

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ICEM Australian affiliate Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Construction Union (CFMEU) won a precedent-setting case last week before the full judicial panel of Fair Work Australia. The matter involves global mining house Xstrata&rsquo;s redundancies at the Ulan coal mine near Mudgee, New South Wales, and whether or not those sackings were &ldquo;genuine redundancies,&rdquo; or if the employer had first to deliver alternative jobs at other company enterprises. 
 
On 12 November, the full bench of Fair Work Australia rejected an Xstrata appeal and ruled that the company had an obligation not just to make vacancies at other company enterprises known to the dismissed workers, but to offer positions and facilitate transfer to those worksites. 
 
In effect, the ruling establishes concise guidelines regarding &ldquo;genuine redundancies&rdquo; and ensures that employers can be held liable if they do not fully offer and then redeploy sacked workers in all reasonable circumstances. 
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In 2009, Xstrata Coal Pty. Ltd. made redundant over 100 workers at its 500-worker Ulan mine. The CFMEU claimed the company would replace many of those workers with contract employees. Last week&rsquo;s ruling covers six of ten miners whose rights, under Australia&rsquo;s new labour statute, were violated because the dismissals were not &ldquo;genuine redundancies&rdquo; since their jobs were still being performed. 
 
The other four were found not to have reasonable redeployment options due to light-work injury status or unwillingness to travel. 
 
Last week&rsquo;s full bench ruling stated: &ldquo;Where an employer decides that, rather than fill a vacancy by redeploying an employee into a suitable job in its own enterprise, it will advertise the vacancy and require the employee to compete with other applicants, it might subsequently be found that the resulting dismissal is not a case of genuine redundancy. This is because it would have been reasonable to redeploy the employee into the vacancy.&rdquo;

CFMEU Wins ‘Fair Work Australia’ Case Involving Xstrata’s Illegal Dismissals

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In the first bi-lateral bargain since a 2006 binding government-arbitrated labour agreement, 420 offshore oil workers on the Hibernia platform in the North Atlantic scored a remarkable first-year pay gain in a four-year contract through their union, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada. 
 
The oil workers, employed by 14 separate oil-servicing companies under a common labour agreement led by ExxonMobil-controlled Hibernia Management Development Corp., won a minimum 8% pay gain and adjustment that is retroactive to 1 July 2009. 
 
The first-year increase actually ranges from 4.5% to 12.5%, but for workers employed by companies on the platform in which the negotiated backpay increase was 4.5% to 7%, a lump sum payment was negotiated bringing the total pay gain to 8%. Noble Drilling, Weatherford Wellhead, Schlumberger Ltd., and Petroleum Geo-Services are just a few of the 14 companies that are signatory to CEP Local 2121&rsquo;s common agreement. 
 
In the second (2010), third, and fourth years of the contract, offshore workers will see wage increases equal to what the CEP negotiated in its national energy and chemicals pattern agreement in Canada. Those increases are 2.5%, 3%, and 3.25%. 
<img alt="" src="" width="169" height="147" />
CEP National Representative Brian Campbell
&ldquo;We recouped in retroactive pay what the arbitration award did not give us,&rdquo; said CEP National Representative Brian Campbell, referring to a 38-month initial agreement delivered through first-contract arbitration by the Labour Ministry of the province of Labrador/Newfoundland. 
 
&ldquo;There were some workers who were underpaid in the arbitration deal,&rdquo; Campbell added, &ldquo;and the 2009 pay gains and lump sums adjust that.&rdquo; Campbell said other highlights of the new contract, approved by a 68% vote following a final ratification meeting on 5 November, includes increased day rates for salaried workers and a first-ever supplementary paid vacation. 
 
Four of the service companies operate with salaried staff, and the day rate &ndash; or actual work days on the rig &ndash; was increased in the second and fourth years. Hibernia staff work a 21-day on, 21-day off schedule, and the new vacation scheme will allow workers to take a total 63-day hiatus each year. 
 
Hibernia is located 315 kilometres southeast of St. John&rsquo;s, Newfoundland. It is 33.1% owned by ExxonMobil, 26.9% by Chevron, 20% by Suncor Energy, 8.5% by the government&rsquo;s Canadian Hibernia Holdings, 6.5% by Murphy Oil, and 5% by Statoil. In early November, reserve estimates of Hibernia&rsquo;s fields were adjusted upward by 12% to show a reservoir of 1.395 billion barrels of oil. 
 
In the offshore waters of North America, including the Gulf of Mexico, only two platforms are unionised &ndash; Hibernia and Terra Nova, also off Labrador/Newfoundland. Oil workers there are also represented by CEP Local 2121. The 180 workers of Terra Nova, in which the licensed operator is Canadian-based Suncor, are in the early stages of renewal bargaining on a contract which expired 1 October 2010. 
 
Besides Suncor, which owns 34% of Terra Nova through its 2009 purchase of PetroCanada, other stakeholders include ExxonMobil (22%), Statoil (15%), Husky Energy (12.5%), Murphy Oil (10%), Mosbacher (3.5%), and Chevron (1%).

High Pay Gains Mark Hibernia Offshore Pact for CEP Members

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Leading negotiations from exile in Canada, General Secretary of ICEM-affiliate Los Mineros of Mexico, Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia achieved wage gains for four locals of the union. Direct salaries were increased by 8% in each, apart from Section 269 in Guerrero, Mexico, where Los Mineros members saw their overall income increase 10%. 
 
The negotiations were conducted in direct dialogue with company management, with no involvement by the Federal Ministry of Labour, a further indication that the Ministry is not regarded as able to fulfil its role as a fair adjudicator. 
 
The 10% gains for Section 269 were achieved through bargaining with Canadian-owned Gold Corp, a producer of gold and silver. Direct salaries were increased 8% and additional social benefits were improved by 2%, including scholarships for workers&rsquo; children, among other advantages. 
<img alt="" src="" width="205" height="137" />
Los Mineros General Secretary Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia
The 8% salary increases were achieved for members of Fraction 1 of Section 269 with employer Mineral Raw Materials in Puebla; members of Section 247, Western Jalisco, at Minera El Pilon; members of Section 16 in Coahuila, employed by coal producer Industrial Materials; and members of Section 274 at the Port of L&aacute;zaro C&aacute;rdenas at the Sadcom de Occidente company. 
 
The ICEM salutes these significant advances by Los Mineros for its members, in the face of continuing persecution by the government of Felipe Calder&oacute;n. 
 
Elsewhere in Mexico, last week the ICEM-affiliated United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) launched a legal campaign, calling on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCHR) to investigate the continuing violation of Mexican workers&rsquo; rights to free association. The UE, together with the National Lawyers Guild and Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers, are soliciting letters of support from labour, legal organizations, and law firms. See more <a href="http://www.nlginternational.org/action/current.php#134">here</a>.&nbsp; 
 
The letters will be filed to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, on 20 November. 
 
View the ICEM&rsquo;s letter <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/138.ICEM.Mexico.OHCHR.15Nov.pdf">here</a>, which can serve as a model letter.

Mexico’s Los Mineros Achieves Wage Gains Despite Persecution

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The copper-mining strike by 1,551 members of Sindicato de los Trabajadores de Collahuasi in Chile enters its second week today, with miners emboldened by both fervent loyalty among union ranks and knowledge that company rhetoric concerning ongoing production is a deception for the benefit of world copper markets. 
 
The company is Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi, the world&rsquo;s fourth largest copper producer, owned by global mining giants Xstrata and AngloAmerican, with a smaller share held by Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsui &amp; Co. 
 
Since the strike began on 5 November, the Collahuasi Workers&rsquo; Union has been united in a stand that most assuredly will bring them a fair share of the mine&rsquo;s profits and more importantly, improved social provisions for their families. The ICEM has pledged global support to the union (see <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/19%20Collahuasi%20ICEM%2013%20Nov.b.pdf">letter in Spanish</a>)&nbsp;and commends Chilean mining unions for doing the same inside the South American nation. 
<img alt="" src="" width="224" height="149" />
Just One of the Daily Manifestations in Iquique
The union asked management to resume negotiations last week but the company refused, saying it would not re-enter talks without assistance from government mediators. 
 
Even though Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi managers say publicly the open-cast Rosario mine is operating normally under a strike contingency plan, union spokesman Luis Espinoza Garrido told the ICEM the fallacious contingency plan consists of 300 scab workers from outsource companies providing output of no more than 18% of total production. 
 
&ldquo;Three hundred inexperienced workers cannot do the work of 1,550 miners,&rdquo; said Espinoza. &ldquo;This is unsustainable and the company will come to realise this.&rdquo; 
 
Espinoza said the strike is about far more than just pay and bonuses. He said key issues include health benefits, education for miners&rsquo; children, and work schedules. Considering Collahuasi vast profits &ndash; net earnings last year totalled US$ 1.56 billion &ndash; the union wants company-paid health costs raised from the current 80% to 100% and education costs hiked from 50% to 100%. 
<img alt="" src="" width="195" height="146" />
Strikers are Living in Santa Mar&iacute;a School
A major concern is the health of miners. The Collahuasi mine, located in the Atacama desert in Chile&rsquo;s remote Region I, finds miners working at an altitude of 4,000 metres where oxygen levels are low and stress levels on the body are high. A US$750 million mine expansion is also underway that will lift production from 550,000 tonnes per year to a million tonnes annually, with altitudes expected to reach 5,000 metres in new mining areas. 
 
Another concern is silicosis. Because of massive dust clouds at the mine containing crystalline silica particles, miners are endangered by the deadly lung disease. 
 
Miners work seven days on, seven days off, and a further point of contention is management&rsquo;s proposed changes to exceptional days off. 
 
Since day one of the strike, most of the 1,551 strikers have taken up residency in the shuttered Santa Mar&iacute;a School in the Pacific port city of Iquique, 285 kilometres from the mine. In Iquique, both Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi managers and local governmental authorities siding with management accuse squatting miners of displacing the activities of youngsters. 
<img alt="" src="" width="224" height="168" />
Strikers Watch Children&rsquo;s Sports Class Activities at School
In fact, the opposite is true. Strikers are encouraging children&rsquo;s activities and yesterday, 14 November, the union held a community cultural event in the closed school. 
 
The Collahuasi Workers&rsquo; Union has taken their protests to the streets of Iquique each and every day. On 11 October, 800 strikers occupied the offices of the company in Iquique, headquarters for the company, and have protested at a company molybdenum plant just south of there in the port town of Patache. 
 
On 10 October, mine union leaders from BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto&rsquo;s Escondida copper mine, BHP&rsquo;s Spence and Cerro Colorado mines, Canadian Aur Resources Quebrado Blanca mine, Xstrata&rsquo;s Lomas Bayas mine, Canadian Castle Rock Resources Sierra Miranda mine, and Chile&rsquo;s Minera Cerro Dominador conducted a manifestation with the striking Collahuasi miners at the Santa Mar&iacute;a School.

Miners Dig In at Chile’s Collahuasi Copper Strike

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The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), ICEM&rsquo;s white-collar affiliate in Africa&rsquo;s most populous country, halted a strike on 4 December against Mobil Producing Nigeria Ltd., a subsidiary of the American energy giant ExxonMobil, so that negotiations over breaches to a collective agreement could begin. 
 
The strike was conducted by the Mobil Producing Nigeria Branch of PENGASSAN over the energy company&rsquo;s sudden and unilateral sacking of 84 Nigerian workers. The union blocked entry at the company&rsquo;s administrative offices in Eket in Akwa Ibom State, as well as at other Mobil Producing facilities in Lagos and Port Harcourt. 
 
The strike began on 30 November and was called off on 4 December when Mobil decided to discuss the issue, stating that it would return the workers to their jobs. 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="99" />
The company, the operating partner in a joint venture with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corp., dismissed 66 offshore workers and 18 office employees employed by various contractors. Under the collective agreement, the workers are covered by provisions of the agreement. 
 
By late last week, negotiations did prove that Mobil had violated the contract, both in terms of failing to meet and discuss the layoffs with PENGASSAN prior to the sackings and failing to establish redundancy pay with the union. 
 
The union and company agreed to establish a working group to calculate the exact remuneration owed dismissed workers but Mobil&nbsp;has not returned Nigerian nationals to their rightful jobs. 
 
PENGASSAN has constantly had to defend its collective agreements is the rapid escalation of casualisation in Nigeria&rsquo;s oil and gas sector, with Mobil Producing consistently being one of the worst violators.

PENGASSAN Halts ExxonMobil Strike in Nigeria for Talks

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Some 45,000 German paperworkers will see a 2.5% wage increase come 1 January. That was the negotiated result in Gernsbach in the third round of bargaining that concluded early on 2 December between ICEM affiliate IGBCE and Deutschen Papierindustrie (VAP), the employers association. 
 
The new collective agreement will run until 30 November 2011 and for the first time, ties together under one collective agreement workers employed at some 220 paper mills in both the western and eastern regions of Europe&rsquo;s biggest economy. 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="102" />
IGBCE and VAP agreed to improve the pension plan effective 1 January 2012 by &euro;100 from &euro;234.98. IGBCE also won improved holiday pay and shift work increases effective 1 January 2011. 
 
Perhaps most significantly, the two sides used a working group to reach a common understanding over the use of temporary workers, thus preventing the abuse of such workers. 
 
IGBCE Chief Negotiator for the Paper Sector, Holger Nieden, called the results satisfactory, stating that some paper industry employers in Germany have weathered the financial crisis in good economic shape, while others have workers that are still employed at still reduced hours.

IGBCE, German Paper Producers Reach Wage Terms for 2011

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The ICEM and the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) jointly held a discussion panel entitled &ldquo;Cutting Emissions - Transforming Jobs,&quot; exploring the links between the economic, environmental, and social crises. The 7 December panel was part of a trade union-sponsored side event at COP16 and was held at the Universidad del Sur in Canc&uacute;n, Mexico, under the general banner &quot;World of Work.&quot; 
 
Several high-profile trade unionists gave their perspectives on how to preserve and create decent, sustainable jobs, and the role of trade unions in fighting climate change. 
 
Shoichiro Kaneko, IMF-JC/JBU of Japan, emphasized the progress that nation has made in controlling carbon emissions through technological advances, and the support offered to the proposed climate fund. However, he expressed concern about the potential for carbon leakage if a new accord does not include all the major emitters and is not enforceable. 
<img alt="" src="" width="233" height="166" />
Left to right: ICEM's Brian Kohler, CFMEU's Michael O'Conner, ITUC's James Howard, IMF-JC/JBU's Shoichiro Kaneko
Michael O'Connor, National Secretary-elect of Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) told of how his union had forged a working relationship with environmental groups to unlock the economic potential for a new pulp and paper mill in Tasmania. 
 
He said the key was to remember that a trade union represents workers, and to ensure that their voice is heard. 
 
James Howard of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) elaborated on ITUC's policy of Just Transition. Far from simple, a Just Transition will only be achieved through research, dialogue, union-employer agreements, strong social programmes, investments in industry, and training and education of workers. 
 
The keynote speaker was Izura Kobayashi of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), part of the Japanese official negotiating team in Canc&uacute;n. He presented a very frank resume of the ongoing climate talks.
<img alt="" src="" width="220" height="128" />
Izura Kobayashi of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, and CFMEU's Michael O'Connor
Besides explaining Japan's position (Japan believes that the Kyoto process does not have sufficient country support to prevent carbon leakage) he also explained the status of many of the important main track and subsidiary body discussions. As of 7 December, the unusual situation has evolved of the high-level talks commencing while the ad-hoc working groups have not completed their tasks. 
 
What this means for the final outcome is difficult to guess, but progress has been made on some important issues. Japan, of course, believes that efficient energy use in its manufacturing industries and investment in new technologies is one of the key paths forward. 
 
Brian Kohler of the ICEM and Kan Matusuzaki of IMF presented ICEM and IMF policies, the outcomes of the World Conference on Sustainability held in June along with the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF), and a discussion paper on &quot;Anticipating Change&quot; that examines how the proposed climate fund could be a starting point for discussions on industrial policies and worker participation in such areas as training. 
 
The ICEM-IMF World of Work event was well attended, and feedback following the event was extremely positive.

ICEM, IMF Forum at Climate Conference Presents Industrial Perspectives

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