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The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of the US is seeking a rare 10(j) court injunction, under the country&rsquo;s labour code, to compel Massey Energy Co. to re-hire 85 members of ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at a mine in the state of West Virginia. The 85 were fired for their union affiliation in 2004 when Massey purchased the Cannelton Mine from Horizon Natural Resources after Horizon went into bankruptcy. 
 
The NLRB filed for the injunction on 31 January in a federal district court in Charleston, West Virginia. If the injunction is granted, not only must anti-union Massey rehire the 85, but it would require the Richmond, Virginia-based company to recognise the UMWA as lawful representative for all miners at its Spartan Mining subsidiary. It would also have to adhere to terms of the 2002 national bituminous coal agreement, and begin renewal negotiations with the UMWA.
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&nbsp;UMWA President Cecil Roberts welcomed the labour board&rsquo;s effort to take immediate remedial action. &ldquo;As workers know too well, the appeals process in labour cases can take years, while workers who have been harmed by a company&rsquo;s action get no relief,&rdquo; he said. 
 
&ldquo;But this time, things are different. We belief the NLRB&rsquo;s case for injunctive relief is a strong one, and we believe a judge will quickly see that and grant the injunction,&rdquo; said Roberts. 
 
In late November 2007, an administrative law judge of the NLRB ruled that Massey must re-hire the miners, pay backpay, and recognise the UMWA. Massey immediately said it would appeal that decision to the top five-member panel of the NLRB in Washington, DC, which could take years, and even further to the US Circuit Court of Appeals if the labour board panel rules against the company.
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In September 2004 when Massey took over Horizon&rsquo;s mine, it fired all 160 miners at the unionised operation, stating that it would seek better qualified workers. A bankruptcy judge also nullified the collective agreement, but the UMWA filed unfair labour practice charges before the NLRB. 
 
On two occasions, Massey was hit with unfair labour practice citations by the labour board, and the 21 November 2007 decision of Administrative Law Judge Paul Bogas verified the company&rsquo;s intent to discriminate against UMWA members &ldquo;on the basis of their membership in the predecessor&rsquo;s bargaining unit and their pro-union sentiments. 
 
Massey is the US&rsquo;s fourth biggest coal producer who&rsquo;s Chairman, CEO, and President, Donald Blankenship, is the most anti-union coal executive in America. Massey has renamed the Cannelton Mine and now calls it Mammoth Mine.

US Labour Board Wants Court Order to Force Massey to Re-hire Unionised Mineworkers

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A US-based company has provoked a strike in New Zealand because it has refused to join Multi-Employer Collective Agreement for the Metals Industry. Members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) struck Ecolab in Hamilton, New Zealand, in March. 
 
Despite mediation efforts to resolve the dispute, 16 EPMU members continued to picket outside the plant last week. Workers voted to enter joint negotiations for the Metals Industry earlier this year, but local managers declined to abide by the decision.
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Ecolab, a chemicals company, is a manufacturer of cleaning and sanitizing products for institutional and industrial companies. The state of Minnesota-based company also makes infection-control products for health care customers. 
 
EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little stated the Metals Industry&rsquo;s bargaining platform provides a benchmark for wages and conditions, and that Ecolab workers have a right to expect a collective agreement that is not sub-standard. &ldquo;These workers have made a democratic decision to negotiate a deal which is consistent with industry standards, but their employer has a policy of refusing all industry negotiations,&rdquo; said Little. 
 
The publicly-traded, multi-national company, 29% owned by German chemicals producer Henkel, provides its Australian workers with higher pay and extra shift leave, the EPMU states. Besides achieving industry standards, Ecolab workers stand to gain an extra week&rsquo;s leave if they can bring Ecolab into the fold. The Multi-Employer Collective Agreements for Metals covers more than 100 general manufacturing companies in New Zealand.

New Zealand Chemical Workers On Strike Against US-based Ecolab

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Nuclear workers in the UK &ndash; members of three trade unions &ndash; are currently meeting to consider whether or not to conduct industrial action. If taken, job actions could affect 11,500 workers at several nuclear sites just as the British Nuclear Decommissioning Authority prepares to sell the last of the country&rsquo;s state-owned nuclear assets.
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Meetings this week by trade unions Unite, GMB, and Prospect will discuss a proposed 2% pay offer by employers, a proposal considered inferior and below inflation. Bosses did present an extra 2% bonus, but union negotiators say too many strings are attached to the bonus. 
 
A consultative ballot is expected at this week&rsquo;s meeting over the 2% pay proposal, and the unions will then move that an industrial ballot be taken if the pay offer is refused. The nuclear sites that are affected are Sellafield in Cumbria, its technical facility in Risley, and Capenhurst, a former uranium enrichment plant in Cheshire.

UK’s Nuclear Workers Consider Industrial Action

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An active exchange of solidarity occurred between Turkish and Bulgarian trade unions last year over a glass dispute in Targovishte, Bulgaria, at a company called Trakia Glass, which is a subsidiary of rapidly-growing, Turkey-based multinational Şişecam Group.
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Şişecam has production facilities in Turkey, Bulgaria, Russian, and Georgia, and employs over 17,000 workers. They produce flat glass, glassware, chemicals, and packaging. The company also has a joint venture with Belgian-based chemicals company Solvay in Bulgaria called Solvay-Sodi. 
 
Gaining full ICEM involvement, the dispute at Trakia served as a springboard for a recent day-long ICEM workshop between unions of the two countries in the chemicals and related industries, with support from the German-based Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation.
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The workshop, held 1 April in Sofia, Bulgaria, was entitled &ldquo;Cooperation between ICEM Turkish and Bulgarian Affiliates on Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in the Chemical and Related Industries.&rdquo; Participants from Turkey included Petrol-İş, the Oil, Chemical and Rubber Workers Union, and Kristal-İş, the Cement, Glass and Soil Workers Union, while Bulgarian participants included the National Labour Federation of Chemistry and Industry (KNSB Confederation) and the National Federation of Chemical Workers Union (CL-Podkrepa). 
 
Employers from both countries were also represented at the conference, with attendance by delegates from the Turkish Glass Employers Association (Cam İşveren) and Bulgarian Chemical Industry Chamber (BI). Those delegates included Lilyana Dombalova from Bulgaria, and Ali Nafiz Konuk and Hakan Yildirimoğlu from Turkey&rsquo;s glass employers. 
 
The workshop created a platform of exchange on knowledge and experience on both labour and industrial relations, and means for social dialogue in the two countries. It also served as a forum for national unions in both countries to gain experience at international and European levels. The workshop was facilitated by ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan.
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Participants at the 1 April Workshop in Sophia&nbsp;
It also featured a presentation called &ldquo;European Level Social Dialogue&rdquo; by Mira Kovacheva of the Bulgarian Foundation for Advanced Social Trust (FAST). Trade union presentations were made by Krasimir Krastev, President of Bulgaria&rsquo;s Chemicals Workers&rsquo; Union; Todor Birindjiev, President of Podkrepa Chemical Workers; and Mustafa &Ouml;ztaskin, President of Petrol-İş, and Aziz &Ccedil;elik, Education and International Director of Kristal-İş. 
 
The workshop established a framework of lasting cross-national dialogue between trade unions and employer organisations. This will prove vital, considering the two strikes that occurred at Trakia Glass in Targovishte, as well as the fact that Şişecam and the Bulgarian union continue to negotiate for a new term agreement, hopefully to be accomplished in constructive social dialogue.

Social Dialogue Workshop Brings Turkish and Bulgarian Unions Together

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Some 13,000 contract workers of several Indian trade unions ended an eight-day strike Saturday, 5 April, against state-run Neyveli Lignite Corporation, a mining and electric generating company in southern Tamil Nadu state that supplies power to four neighbouring states. 
 
The contract workers, employed for as long as 12 years at the company&rsquo;s three mines and three power stations, are seeking permanent work status and payment of bonuses. Reportedly, the company had filed a petition with India&rsquo;s Supreme Court to vacate a recent Madras Hugh Court ruling calling on Neyveli to make all contract workers full-time employees.
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Contract workers were also seeking housing provisions, and medical and transport allowances. The strike, which began on 29 March, was highlighted by mass demonstrations in front of two of the power plants. At one, Thermal Power Station No. 2, all 2,000 demonstrators were arrested by police. 
 
The end of the strike indicates that contract workers obtained their demand for regularisation. A spokesperson for Neyveli Lignite, founded in 1956, which went public in 1986, said during the strike that 4,000 contract workers had been absorbed into the company, and that an 8.33% had been awarded. The company mined 22 million tonnes of lignite in 2007, and saw a 10.57% increase in power generation.

13,000 Contract Workers End Strike Against India’s Neyveli Lignite Corporation

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A pending strike by ICEM Nigerian Affiliate PENGASSAN was called off on 26 March after Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. made promises in a high-level meeting before the Nigerian Labour Minister in Abuja. The nationwide strike by the white-collar oil workers union was called a week earlier, after Mobil Oil &ndash; 100% owned by US-based ExxonMobil &ndash; took advantage of a restructuring to sack over 100 PENGASSAN union leaders. 
 
Union General Secretary Bayo Olowoshile told the ICEM at the weekend that a number of understandings were made by the two sides before the Labour Minister, including reinstatement of the unionists. Although those PENGASSAN members are not yet back on their jobs, their salaries continue to be paid.
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PENGASSAN General-Secretary Bayo Olowshile&nbsp;
The dispute in the downstream sector surfaced in early March when local managers failed to show up for an industry-wide mediation session over work practices and severance procedures. That meeting was attended by other refiners in the downstream sector. In the following days, Mobil Nigeria began discharging the unionists. 
 
The ICEM intervened on behalf of its Nigerian affiliate with a letter to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson demanding that the PENGASSAN union leaders, including the National Treasurer, a zonal Financial Secretary, and all shop stewards and bargaining committee members at Mobil Nigeria, be reinstated. 
 
In part, the 11 March letter charged the company with &ldquo;using the restructuring to deliberately target PENGASSAN members and representatives for job redundancy. Management has more than doubled the number of redundancies from the original numbers in order to eliminate the trade union and its members, which is illegal and an affront to the security and prosperity of Nigeria.
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Tillerson later visited Nigeria and President Umaru Musa Yar&rsquo;Adua on 28 March on proposed construction of a 100,000 barrel-per-day natural gas to petrol plant. A day earlier, Mobil Oil Human Resources Manager Udom Inoyo responded to the ICEM intervention. He stated the company is committed &ldquo;to working closely with PENGASSAN within normal internal channels of communication to resolve the (severance) issue.&rdquo; 
 
Olowoshile said that the union was now in a wait-and-see stance, pending deliverance on pledges made during the 28 March meeting in Abuja.

Mobil Oil Nigeria Must Now Deliver on Pledges Made to PENGASSAN

The ICEM, the Global Union Federation representing workers in the Mining and Energy sectors, has expressed deep concern over the mine tragedy in the central Donbass region of the Ukraine that occurred yesterday. The Geneva-based federation of trade unions understands the Karl Marx mine near Yenakiyevo to be a low producer of coal and questions whether necessary safety and methane-detection equipment were in place at the time of the blast. 
 
The ICEM has reached out to one of its mining union affilates in the country, the Coal Mining Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine (PRUPU), whose members work this particularly mine. The mine produces a low-yield tonnage of coal each day and has a steep gradient of coal veins, which could enhance safety risks if proper safeguards are not met. 
 
&ldquo;We understand this particular mine is barely economically viable, and we question why this mine was even operating,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;Certainly any mining operation that produces coal in Ukraine should and must have proper methane detection devices and other modern safety equipment in place,&rdquo; he added.
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This is the second major mine tragedy to have occurred in the Ukraine in the past seven months, and the ICEM calls on the government of the country to take immediate steps toward ratification of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
In the ICEM letter to PRUPU today, the Global Union Federation expressed condolences to the families of miners who have died and extended &ldquo;our greatest hope that rescue efforts will succeed for those who might still be alive inside the mine. 
 
&ldquo;The 20-million-member ICEM stands behind PRUPU in calling on the new Minister of Coal and other Ukrainian authorities to conduct a full investigation of this tragedy.&rdquo; 
 
The Geneva-based International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) represents, on a global level, 467 trade union affiliates in 132 countries, including some 125 national unions in the mining sector.

ICEM Expresses Concern over Latest Ukrainian Coal Mine Blast

In this issue the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin gives information on the procedure leading to the ILO Recommendation on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work. It also takes up the International AIDS Conference, to be held in Mexico City in August.
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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 hiv.aids@icem.org. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome.
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ILO Recommendation on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work 
 
In March 2007, the Governing Body of the ILO decided to place on the agenda of the International Labour Conferences for 2009 and 2010 an item intended for &ldquo;the development of an autonomous Recommendation on HIV and AIDS in the world of work.&rdquo; 
 
The ILO has begun work towards the adoption of a Recommendation in 2010. Under the Constitution and Standing Orders, five reports have to be prepared within specific time limits, with each report to contain specific information. The first report, called a &ldquo;Law and Practice Report,&rdquo; provides an overview of national and international measures taken with respect to HIV/AIDS. This report was published and sent to governments in January 2008. 
 
The Law and Practice Report, which is available at <a href="http://www.ilo.org/aids">www.ilo.org/aids</a>, also contains a questionnaire to which governments, in consultation with employers&rsquo; and workers&rsquo; organisations, are to provide replies to the ILO by the end of July 2008. Consultation usually occurs through national trade union centres. 
The ICEM calls on its affiliates to get fully involved in this process and make sure that substantive replies, with comments which reflect the views of workers, are provided in time. It is only in this way that the second report, which will be prepared by the ILO on the basis of the replies received, reflects the views of workers and their unions. It is worth noting that workers&rsquo; organisations may also provide their comments directly to the ILO. 
(The item above appeared already in the May issue of the e-bulletin. Because of the importance of the campaign, it is repeated here) 

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17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, 3 &ndash; 8 August 
 
The International AIDS Conference (IAC), organised by the Geneva-based International AIDS Society, takes place every two years. The last one was organised in Toronto in August 2006. The Conference is the largest meeting on HIV/AIDS worldwide. Some 25,000 scientists, politicians and activists are expected to participate in the event. This year&rsquo;s IAC is first ever held in Latin America. 
 
Conference organisers are developing a wide variety of plenary sessions around the theme, &ldquo;Universal Action Now.&rdquo; In addition to these sessions there are satellite meetings, exhibitions, and the Global Village. 
 
It is important that union HIV/AIDS activists participate in this event so that labour&rsquo;s voice is heard. In Toronto, the labour movement was well represented, highlighting the impact of HIV and AIDS on the workplace and emphasising the role of workers&rsquo; organisations in fighting the pandemic. 
 
As in Toronto, the Conference in Mexico will be preceded by a Labour AIDS Forum organised by the Global Union AIDS Programme. The Labour Forum will prepare union representatives for their role in the IAC and will deal with topics such as the challenges at the workplace and raising resources at national level. 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Botswana Mine Company Launches HIV Survey 
 
The ICEM-affiliated Botswana Mine Workers' Union (BMWU) is involved in an HIV prevalence survey launched by BLC mine to determine whether current prevention efforts are effective. 
 
The exercise will enable the company to have data on the size and distribution of the epidemic among its workforce, and also to help management assess the dynamic and growth of the epidemic since the last survey in 2003. It will also enable BCL to re-plan its interventions, including resource mobilisation for the programmes if the outcome indicates that the current prevention efforts have been ineffective. 
 
The survey of all employees is an anonymous exercise and is not a substitute to voluntary counselling and testing. 
 
(Source: Africa News, 29 May from The Reporter, Botswana) 
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South African Military AIDS Policy Faces Court Challenge 
 
The South African military's blanket exclusions of HIV positive members is not medically justified and ignores government policy. A lawyer for the South African Security Forces Union, which is attempting to force the military to review its HIV/AIDS policy, said the army had failed to implement its own and the government's policies. 
 
&quot;The HIV policy adopted by the cabinet in relation to the military and the Department of Defence is not consistent with the policy implemented by the SANDF (South African National Defence Forces),&quot; lawyer Gilbert Marcus told a hearing at the high court in Pretoria. &quot;The cabinet has adopted a policy that HIV status should not exclude candidates from appointments to the SANDF, although it may preclude their appointment to positions that require extreme physical fitness.&quot; 
 
President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang are respondents, alongside the military. 
 
According to Marcus, the SANDF has admitted that some 23 percent of its members are HIV positive. &quot;It is simply impossible at this stage to have an HIV-free defence force. The question is how we accommodate this.&quot; 
 
(Source: Pretoria News, 15 May) 
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PEPFAR Re-authorisation 
 
Treatment clients from free clinics run by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in South Africa, Botswana, and Rwanda lobbied US legislators to ensure that access to lifesaving antiretroviral treatment remains a key component of PEPFAR. 
 
The PEPFAR legislation, which is up for re-authorisation by the US Congress, currently requires that a minimum of 55% of funds be spent on treatment, a provision that has been completely removed from the re-authorisation bill. The group also calls for a significant increase in PEPFAR's treatment goals &ndash; up only 50% in the re-authorisation despite a 330% increase in overall PEPFAR funding. 
 
PEPFAR was the result of the 2003 State of the Union pledge to bring two million HIV positive Africans and others into treatment and prevent seven million new HIV infections via a five-year, $15 billion US-funded program. It currently operates in 15 focus countries and claims to support antiretroviral treatment for 1.4 million people worldwide. 
 
(Source: Africa News, 10 May) 
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The World Bank&rsquo;s Commitment to Fight HIV/AIDS 
 
A World Bank report says African countries must continue to champion HIV prevention efforts to slow and reverse the rate of new infections. According to the report &ldquo;The World Bank&rsquo;s Commitment to HIV/AIDS in Africa: Our Agenda for Action, 2007-2011,&rdquo; for every infected person starting antiretroviral treatment, another four to six become newly infected, even as regional figures show falling prevalence in some countries. 
 
&ldquo;With AIDS the largest single cause of premature death in Africa, we can&rsquo;t talk about better, lasting development there without also committing to stay the course in the long-term fight against the disease,&rdquo; said Elizabeth Lule, Manager of the Bank&rsquo;s AIDS Team for Africa (ACTafrica). 
 
With this new Agenda for Action, the Bank is moving away from its initial &ldquo;emergency response.&rdquo; It would commit at least US$250 million a year over the five-year period for HIV/AIDS initiatives built on strategic objectives. It will also establish a grant incentive fund of US$5 million annually to promote capacity building, analysis, and HIV/AIDS project components in key sectors. 
 
(Source: World Bank Press Release, 14 May) 
 
Comment by the editor of the e-bulletin: 
While this long-term commitment is laudable, it is surprising that after the Global Union/World Bank consultations on HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in Washington in December 2007, workers&rsquo; organisations or trade unions are not even mentioned among the organisations which were consulted in devising this new strategy. It is also surprising that the World Bank stresses the importance of providing people with integrated health services when its policies over years have helped to dismantle public health systems. 
 
Following the consultations last December, the ICEM is pursuing a selective approach, in the sectors it represents, to get its affiliates involved in projects financed by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. The objective is to devise effective workplace activities and capacity building for unions. 
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ILO Says Caribbean Making Progress on AIDS in Workplace 
 
The &quot;Saving Lives, Protecting jobs&quot; report (see e-bulletin no. 32, May 2008) indicates that 70 enterprises in Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago have implemented policies and HIV/AIDS education programmes to promote responsible sexual behaviour, and reduce the level of discrimination faced by people living with the disease. 
 
The report shows a 34% increase in awareness about HIV/AIDS services on the job among workers in the tourism, manufacturing, banking, and finance sectors, as well as taxi drivers. Guyana's largest employer, the Guyana Sugar Company, has been lauded for sustaining the initiatives it implemented five years ago.
It has adopted an HIV/AIDS workplace policy and offers HIV services to workers and managers. An official of the Guyana Trade Union Congress said that 78% of partnering enterprises in Guyana have allocated official working hours to HIV/AIDS education during the last six months. 
 
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were also praised for their efforts to target members of the informal economy. The governments of both countries have adopted national policies on HIV/AIDS and recently Trinidad and Tobago took it a step further by launching a National Workplace Policy on HIV/AIDS. 
 
The ILO report, however, pointed out that despite the progress being made in some countries, the region continues to grapple with rising levels of infection, even as treatment reaches more people. The Caribbean has the second highest rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world, after Sub-Saharan Africa. 
 
(Source: Caribbean Media Corporation website, Bridgetown, 21 May) 
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Commentary: Dropping the Ball 
(The following is an abbreviated version of an article which appeared in the Global Fund Observer No. 87, 17 April 2008. It was written by Wycliffe Muga, a Kenyan journalist who is the BBC World Service&rsquo;s &ldquo;Letter from Africa&rdquo; correspondent) 
 
If you stopped an ordinary man in the street here in Kenya and told him that there is a Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria which gives money to help Kenya fight the three diseases, he would probably be pleasantly surprised. For not many people here have any idea that such a fund exists. 
 
And if you then told him that at present, Kenya is only receiving about half of the money it could receive from this fund &ndash; not because the money is being diverted to private bank accounts, but because the people charged with preparing proposals and submitting them to the Fund have been unable to come up with proposals which are acceptable &ndash; the likely response would be one of outrage. 
 
In a country where far too many people die of the diseases which this money is intended to fight, anything less than a perfect proposal prepared well in advance would seem like criminal negligence. 
 
For each of Rounds 1 through 6, the Global Fund's announcing of its &ldquo;Call for Proposals&rdquo; led to a flurry of activity in most developing countries: CCMs met, task teams were put together and consultants were sought. As the deadline for proposal submission got closer, people got more and more frantic. 
It was largely because of this &ldquo;controlled chaos&rdquo; that the Fund agreed two years ago that the Call for Proposals will always be on March 1. Thus, people know months beforehand when the Call will be issued. The idea is to enable CCMs to spend those extra months planning what their forthcoming proposals will focus on and seeking technical support. 
 
So it came as a real surprise when one month AFTER this year's Call for Proposals, rather than two months BEFORE it, UNAIDS headquarters sent out an email to UNAIDS offices around the world, instructing them to take action supporting CCMs as they prepare their proposals and seek technical support. 
 
This was not some unexpected deadline which was arbitrarily imposed on the CCMs. It is a deadline that comes around every year, on a date that is known well in advance. How can it possibly be justified that this great effort is being made this late in the day? 
 
Everybody dropped the ball here &ndash; the civil society groups that pressured UNAIDS to take action, but didn't do so until well after the Call for Proposals; UNAIDS itself, for not getting moving on this until it was pushed by the civil society groups; and those many CCMs that delayed strategizing regarding their Global Fund applications until months later than they should. 
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News from the Global Union Programme and Global Unions 
 
The Global Union AIDS Programme is organising an HIV/AIDS African Regional Consultative and Planning Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 12-13 June. The ICEM will be represented by Project Management Assistant Paula Ndessomin. 
 
In its most recent HIV/AIDS Update (No. 42 of 1 May 2008), the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) (<a href="http://www.itfglobal.org">www.itfglobal.org</a>) gives a detailed analysis on travel restrictions against people living with HIV. The creation of an International Task Team is a critical opportunity to move towards the elimination of all travel restrictions against HIV-positive people.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin

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Twenty delegates from ten nations attended meetings in early May in Lom&eacute;, Togo, intended to lay the groundwork for dissolution of the former World Federation of Industry Workers&rsquo; (WFIW&rsquo;s) Pan African Federation of Industry Workers into the ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Saharan African Region. 
 
Resolutions were passed to that effect, and full integration of the two regional structures will occur at next week&rsquo;s ICEM regional meeting in Accra, Ghana. The meeting was attended by Italo Rodomonti, former WFIW General Secretary and ICEM Vice President, and Rayford Mbulu, ICEM&rsquo;s Sub-Saharan African Region Chairman, who also is President of the Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia.
<img height="110" src="" width="240" alt="" />
Togo&nbsp;
Among some of the resolutions passed includes a recommendation to establish networks within the ICEM region to counter the power of multinationals, and one asking the ICEM region to encourage synergy within countries between former WFIW trade unions and ICEM affiliates. Also, a recommendation was passed requesting observer status for the former WFIW regional unions on the ICEM&rsquo;s Presidium, Executive Committee, and Sub-Saharan African Regional Women&rsquo;s Committee. 
 
Former WFIW delegates attending the meetings came from Togo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leon, Morocco, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Rodomonti from Belgium and Jan Voets from ACV Hout en Bouw, also 
of Belgium.

Structure of Former WFIW Absorbed Into ICEM’s Sub-Saharan Africa Region

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Zonguldak is the capital of Turkey&rsquo;s hard coal region, an area in the West Black Sea region of the country. First production of coal was in 1848, after the mineral was first discovered by a soldier named Uzun Memet in 1845. 
And it was there, on 26-28 May, in which ICEM affiliate Genel Maden-İş co-hosted the 16th National Coal Congress of Turkey, called by union President Ramazan Denizer of the Zonguldak Mine Workers&rsquo; Union (Genel Maden-İş). ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda delivered the opening address. 
 
The Congress was also hosted by the Zonguldak Branch of the Mining Engineers Chamber, a 10,000-member organisation of mine technicians and engineers. The Zonguldak Branch numbers 1,200 engineers.
<img height="200" src="" width="300" alt="" />
Manfred Warda Speaking at the Turkey's Hard Coal Conference
Warda gave a detailed presentation on recent developments in the global coal industry, and presented conclusions from the late 2007 International Coal Mining Conference in Calcutta, India. The underlying fact, he said, is that while energy prices continue to increase, the demand for hard coal escalates. 
 
&ldquo;Subsidies for coal mines must be a joint decision by governments and by tax-payers as insurance against a future downturn,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;Without secure domestic coal production, we cannot secure our future energy supplies, and the security of our jobs and the industry.&rdquo; 
 
Warda then announced that the ICEM is in full support of 5,000-member Genel Maden-İş&rsquo;s position for more jobs in the growing production pits of Zonguldak. In the 1960s, 65,000 miners worked in the area. Today, that employment figure is 10,000. 
 
Turkey&rsquo;s hard coal production is 20 million tonnes per year, with 5.5 million tonnes used in domestic steel production.
<img height="173" src="" width="260" alt="" />
At grave of Semsi Denizer (At right, Maden-Is President Ramazan Denizer, younger brother of Comrade Semsi Denizer)
The ICEM General Secretary&rsquo;s visit drew large press attention, with Warda doing a live television broadcast. The visit also was personal for him, because he was present in Zonguldak in 1991 during a mass strike and protest march conducted by Genel Maden-İş. The ICEM leader visited the grave of strike leader Semsi Denizer, as well as to a memorial erected on behalf of the 4,500 miners who have perished in the region&rsquo;s mine pits.

ICEM Forefront at Turkey&#039;s Hard Coal Conference

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ICEM Forefront at Turkey's Hard Coal Conference

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