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Some 700,000 coalmine workers in India are to stage a six-day strike this month. 
 
The strike call was announced yesterday by Indian National Mineworkers' Federation (INMF), which is organising the action jointly with three other national unions in the sector. At the global level, the INMF is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Scheduled for 18-23 December, the strike has been sparked by the public sector coal industry's failure to implement a memorandum of understanding signed between the industry and the unions. Negotiations on the deal had taken over three years to complete. 
 
The INMF says management has &quot;distorted and misinterpreted&quot; the memorandum - particularly as regards the payment of cost-of-living adjustments. Management &quot;has also backed out from their earlier promises of accepting unions' demands which include additional increments.&quot; 
 
As well as the industrial action, the INMF is planning demonstrations and publicity campaigns on the issue.

Indian Miners To Strike

Energy workers' trade unions from fourteen countries in the Asia-Pacific region have urged Western oil and gas companies to &quot;cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues&quot;. 
 
The unions were attending a regional energy conference organised in Bangkok this week by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The Burma pull-out call was unanimously approved by oil, gas, electric power and coal mining unions from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. 
 
The delegates also sent a message of solidarity to the Korean National Electricity Workers' Union whose representatives were absent from the meeting due to an ongoing battle against the privatisation of the state electric power utility KEPCO. The union has threatened to launch a nationwide strike from 24 November if the Korean parliament presses ahead with legislation to split up and privatise the company. The parliament's Industry and Energy Committee is due to consider the draft law by 23 November. 
 
 
 
 
BURMA, SLAVERY AND THE MULTINATIONALS 
 
On Burma, the energy unions noted with alarm the military rulers' decision to cease all cooperation with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
In 1998, the ILO found that forced labour was &quot;generalised and systematic&quot; in Burma. This verdict was backed by the world's governments, employers and unions, who meet on equal terms within the ILO. 
 
Last week, the ILO Governing Body ruled that the Burmese junta has still not taken the required steps to end forced labour. The new finding follows an ILO mission to Burma this October. Burma therefore remains in serious breach of ILO Convention 29 on forced labour. Unless the regime bans forced labour by 30 November - and there seems little likelihood that it will - then the ILO will advise companies, states and international organisations to review their relations with Burma, so as to ensure that they do not in any way support or condone forced labour. The ILO will also ask the UN Economic and Social Committee to tackle the Burmese situation. The ILO itself described these moves as &quot;unprecedented&quot;. 
 
If the ILO spotlight has remained on Burma, this is largely due to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which has continuously compiled and forwarded new evidence of the abuses. More than a million Burmese are still subjected to forced labour, toiling on construction sites for roads, railways, military installations and tourist infrastructure, the ICFTU says. 
 
A voluminous new ICFTU file, sent to the ILO last week, documents still more cases of forced labour relating directly to the building of the gas pipeline linking Burma and Thailand and the construction of tourist infrastructure. One of the country's military leaders, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, is directly involved. 
 
TotalFinaElf and Unocal are in a joint pipeline venture with Burma's state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) to bring gas to Thailand from the Yadana field off the Burmese coast. Since its inception, this project has stood accused of serious human rights abuses, including the use of forced labour. MOGE has also been linked to the laundering of the proceeds from Burmese junta's international sales of illicit drugs. 
 
Quite apart from these allegations, multinational energy investors are clearly helping to prop up one of the world's most repressive regimes. Another oil company heavily involved in Burma is British-based Premier. 
 
The full horror of the Burmese system is again shown in the latest ICFTU evidence. Men, women and children are drafted in for unpaid work - notably as forced porters for the Burmese army, as the country's long-running civil war continues. Forced porters are often sent ahead into minefields. The beating, rape and murder of forced labourers are commonplace. 
 
The following is the full text of this week's resolution on Burma by the Asia-Pacific energy unions: 
 
 
Oil, gas, electric power and coal mining unions attending the ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Energy Conference on November 20-21 in Bangkok, note with alarm the decision of the military rulers in Burma to cease all cooperation with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The ILO has moved firmly and decisively to isolate Burma because of the continuing use of forced labour. 
 
We reaffirm that freedom from forced labour is a fundamental human right and condemn the Burmese military government for the denial of this basic right. 
 
We call upon all international investors, especially those in the oil and gas industries, to cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues. 
 
ICEM affiliates in ASEAN nations are called upon to press their governments to use all intergovernmental means possible to make Burma apply international minimum human rights standards in the workplace, including abolition of forced labour. 
 
 
 
&quot;The ILO has clearly ruled that forced labour is continuing and systematic in Burma, and our energy unions in the region have made their views very plain,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;The world must not tolerate slavery. The ILO is part of the UN system, and the United Nations should now urgently decide on the most appropriate international measures against the brutal Burmese regime - up to and including mandatory economic sanctions.&quot; 
 
 
 
SOCIAL ENERGY 
 
The Bangkok conference also adopted an Asia-Pacific Action Plan to put into practice ICEM's global &quot;Social Energy Programme&quot; which was launched in 1998 by the world's energy unions. The main points of the Action Plan include: 
 
 
 
Unions and the ICEM will increase pressure on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stop pushing for anti-social reforms and for foreign models that do not take local circumstances into account. Unions must be consulted and their opinions must be respected. 
 
 
Unions pledge to intensify information exchange via the Internet, to which practically all of them are connected. This exchange will especially cover experiences on privatisation, strong and efficient regulation, and dealing with multinational enterprises. 
 
 
Unions will take joint action to fight against destructive privatisation and deregulation and support each other whenever needed. 
 
 
Unions will join the ICEM's multinational company networks in the oil, gas, electric power and coal mining industries. They support the ICEM's efforts to negotiate global agreements with corporate management to guarantee union rights and high health, safety and environmental standards wherever the companies operate. 
 
 
Unions will also focus on internal development and will train officials and shop stewards for strategic campaigning. Organising is a priority, and efforts will be made to build stronger unions and to consolidate union structures. 
 
 
The Bangkok event was hosted by the Labour Union of the Thai state electricity utility EGAT. This union only recently won the legal right to collective bargaining and union action. The conference praised the impressive campaign mounted by the union to gain these rights and to preserve the unity of the EGAT company which is among the best-managed and most respected enterprises in Thailand. The union has therefore seriously questioned the World Bank-influenced plans to break up and privatise the utility. &quot;Why risk the future when EGAT is doing a good job and guaranteeing a proper public service?&quot; the union asks.

Asia-Pacific Energy Unions Urge Burma Pull-Out

Fiji's high court has upheld the 1997 constitution. It therefore recognises the elected president and parliament who were in office prior to the coup staged this May by businessman George Speight. 
 
Speight's coup was eventually thwarted, but instead of handing power back to the democratic parliament and government, the military imposed their own &quot;interim administration&quot;. 
 
The court ruling means that the &quot;interim administration&quot; must now give way. 
 
That verdict was welcomed today by Fiji's Blue, the campaign for a return to constitutional rule in Fiji. 
 
Fiji's Blue is spearheaded by the Fijian trade unions, who have received strong backing from organised labour worldwide. Particular concern had been caused by the interim administration's moves to curb trade union rights (see ICEM UPDATE 80/2000). 
 
The interim administration must now &quot;prepare to resign their offices to make way for the convening of Parliament and the appointment of a multi-party Government by the President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara,&quot; the Fiji's Blue committee insisted today. 
 
Fiji's Blue &quot;expects that the new government will seriously review the 1997 constitution and take into account the grievances of those who are dissatisfied with specific clauses that need addressing within it.&quot; 
 
In the meantime, Fiji's Blue will continue its campaign. It today called for calm and national reconciliation, and urged the military and the police to &quot;implement the restoration of the 1997 Constitution.&quot; 
 
Statement from Australian Trade Unions:
Fiji High Court Rules on Coup 
Date: 15 November 2000 
 
ACTU President Sharan Burrow has welcomed today's ruling by the Fijian High Court that the abrogation of the 1997 Fijian Constitution was not legal and that deposed President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and the democratically elected Fijian Parliament should be reinstated immediately. 
 
&quot;Supporters of Fijian democracy, including Australian unions, have always maintained that the legal and legitimate solution to Fiji's constitutional crisis is the restoration of the 1997 Constitution and the reinstatement of the democratically elected parliament,&quot; said Ms Burrow. 
 
&quot;Today's decision by the Fijian High Court vindicate that position. 
 
&quot;It is now up to the Australian Government and other Governments in the region to demand that the Fijian interim administration secede power and 
restore the legally and democratically legitimate Parliament, President and 1997 Constitution.&quot; 
 
Today's decision by Justice Anthony Gates of the Fiji High Court was in response to an application funded by the Fijian Citizen's Constitutional 
Forum and argued by Australian barrister Dr George Williams. 
 
In his decision Justice Gates ordered that: 
- the abrogation of the 1997 Constitution was wrong. 
- Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara is still President of Fiji. 
- the appointment of Laisenia Qarase's Interim Government by the military was wrong 
- the Judges who advised the military acted illegally 
- that deposed President Mara summon an immediate sitting of Parliament which should resume its normal functions. 
 
Fiji was thrown into constitutional crisis when George Speight and a gang of supporters took the Fijian Parliament hostage on May 19, 2000. 
 
Australian unions imposed cargo and communications bans against Fiji in support of the hostages who were released after 56 days.

Fiji Unions Welcome Democracy Ruling

Ukrainian judges have overturned key anti-union clauses in the country's labour legislation. 
 
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine yesterday struck down Sections 11 and 16 of the Act on Trade Unions, Their Rights and The Safeguarding of Their Activities. Both sections, which severely curtail union rights, were found to be unconstitutional. 
 
The decision is a signal victory for Ukrainian unions and for the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which had lobbied strongly for the repeal of the offending provisions. 
 
Section 16 required unions to obtain state registration, while Section 11 made unions' legal status dependent on membership numbers and a whole range of complicated administrative and geographical criteria. 
 
Together, they added up to a Catch 27 that could have destroyed many Ukrainian unions. Some local union branches had already been thrown out of their offices by employers using the new law. 
 
Passed by the Ukrainian parliament in September 1999, the law was subsequently signed by President Leonid Kuchma. 
 
Leading the fight against it was Mikhail Volynets, President both of the ICEM-affiliated Miners' Independent Trade Union and of the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine. He took the case to the constitutional court, where he testified in detail against the legislation. And with the ICEM's help, he lodged a complaint with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). The ILO committee on freedom of association found that Sections 11 and 16 violated basic international trade union rights standards ratified by Ukraine. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs recently wrote to Constitutional Court Chairman Viktor E. Skomorokha, drawing his attention to the ILO decision and calling for a &quot;just verdict&quot; by the court. 
 
That verdict came yesterday, and was immediately announced to the ICEM Presidium meeting in Prague. The ruling is &quot;an important victory for trade union rights in Ukraine,&quot; ICEM Vice-President Aleksandr Jurkin told the Presidium. He chairs Ukraine's Atom Trade Union. 
 
&quot;We congratulate the Ukrainian Constitutional Court on its independence and clear-sightedness,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Prague. &quot;It has thrown out legislation that was in breach of trade union rights, of Ukraine's international commitments and of natural justice.&quot;

Ukraine: Anti-Union Laws Ruled Unconstitutional

Venezuelan oil workers ended a four-day strike on Saturday after winning a new collective agreement. 
 
Bargaining for the deal between the oilworkers' union Fedepetrol and state-owned oil giant PDVSA had taken almost a year. The negotiations were greatly complicated by the company's attempts to extricate itself from an agreement that had long been almost ready for signature. 
 
Last March, the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly - now defunct - issued several decrees which led to complaints to the UN's International Labour Organisation over violations of its basic Conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
 
One of the decrees suspended the ongoing collective bargaining process between PDVSA and trade unions in the oil and gas sector, a case which Fedepetrol took to the Venezuelan Supreme Court. Before the suspension, about 95 percent of the clauses in the collective agreement were already agreed upon. 
 
This August, as the decree's deadline for a resumption of negotiations drew closer, the company management carried out a &quot;consultation&quot; of the PDVSA workers in an attempt to disregard the draft under negotiation and to substitute instead a new &quot;modern contract&quot;. The &quot;consultation&quot; took place without the participation of unions or the Labour Ministry, and without supervision by the National Electoral Commission which is the only body authorised to take such measures. 
 
According to results announced by the PDVSA management, 56 percent of the workers approved the proposal to develop a new contract. However, the unions suspected fraud, and Labour Minister Lino Mart&iacute;nez also questioned the legality and legitimacy of the &quot;consultation&quot;. The 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) protested to the PDVSA management about this manoeuvre and urged a return to genuine bargaining. Fedepetrol is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
Doubts about the &quot;consultation&quot; were borne out last week when about 95 percent of the PDVSA workers followed the union's strike call. If the action had continued, it would have led to fuel shortages inside Venezuela and would also soon have had an international impact. PDVSA is a big supplier of crude to the US. 
 
Oilworkers' basic pay will rise by 5,000 bolivares (about US$7.25) a day under the new agreement. The current minimum daily rate is about US$14.00. There will be a further increase of 1,000 bolivares a day from next February. In addition, the company will pay out an extra 2.5 million bolivares in bonuses, and the minimum retirement pension will go up to 250,000 bolivares a month. 
 
The union is &quot;happy but not satisfied&quot; with the agreement, Fedepetrol President Carlos Ortega said. Praising his members' courage, he pledged that the union would &quot;continue working, within the industry, to improve the quality of workers' lives.&quot; 
 
The strikers received major national and international support. Venezuelan public employees threatened to come out in solidarity, while ICEM Regional Secretary Roque da Silva urged PDVSA President Hector Ciavaldini to respect ILO standards and to sign the collective agreement, thus ending the strike. 
 
The dispute should &quot;teach the government a lesson,&quot; said Fedepetrol's Carlos Ortega. 
 
It seems to have done so. 
 
Over the weekend, Venezuela's President Hugo Ch&aacute;vez sacked Hector Ciavaldini. The new head of PDVSA is General Guaicaipuro Lameda. Just what all this means is not yet clear. Most recently, the general has been in charge of Venezuela's Budget Office, but the Caracas daily El Universal describes him as &quot;a military engineer specialised in strategic planning and national security.&quot; 
 
Be that as it may, President Ch&aacute;vez said that the workers' strike had drawn his attention to the oil industry. He promised to take a close personal look at the industry's accounts and deals - and at the very generous pension schemes enjoyed by some of its top directors.

Venezuelan Oil Strikers Win Agreement

Trade union leaders from the pulp and paper industry worldwide resolved today to join forces to better cope with the increasing globalisation trends in their industry. 
 
They were taking part in the two-day world pulp and paper sector conference held in Sainte-Ad&egrave;le, Quebec, by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The unions pledged to form global networks of workers employed by the same multinational corporations to exchange information and to take solidarity action when necessary. They also called on the major multinational employers in the pulp and paper industry to commit to global standards in their operations worldwide through agreements with the ICEM. 
 
&quot;Many of our major employers in the Canadian pulp and paper industry now have a global reach and we have to respond in kind,&quot; said Brian Payne, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, which hosted the conference. &quot;Fletcher Challenge's acquisition by Norske Skog of Norway and REPAP's purchase by UPM-Kymmene of Finland are just two of the latest examples of foreign-based multinational corporations gaining a larger share of the Canadian industry, and our union is actively working to forge alliances with unions in other countries representing employees of these same companies,&quot; he said. 
 
&quot;As unions, we are always stronger united together than we are acting separately,&quot; said Jarmo L&auml;hteenm&auml;ki, President of Paperiliitto, the Finnish paper workers' union. &quot;The unions represented here have taken a major step forward in committing to forge global union networks that can provide the sort of practical solidarity that our members need,&quot; he said. 
 
L&auml;hteenm&auml;ki, who today was elected chairman of the ICEM pulp and paper industry section, pointed to the solidarity strike waged earlier this year by the Swedish paper workers' union and other solidarity shown by other ICEM affiliates in other countries in support of a national strike by the Finnish paper workers as an example of the kind of cross-border union solidarity that can be effective. That strike resulted in a victory for the union. 
 
&quot;We have witnessed first-hand the power of international labour solidarity,&quot; said Boyd Young, President of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, based in the United States. &quot;The globalisation of the paper and pulp industry requires that we build global unions.&quot; 
 
&quot;The pulp and paper industry has a relatively high union density around the world,&quot; said Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. &quot;Nonetheless, the growing globalisation and the concentration of wealth and power and market share by fewer and fewer companies puts new pressures on our unions and their members.&quot; 
 
&quot;Global companies necessitate global unions and the ICEM is ready to play that role,&quot; said Higgs. &quot;That means we are prepared to negotiate global agreements with multinational corporations which wish to acknowledge their obligations to their employees and the communities in which they do business worldwide, and we are prepared to wage global pressure campaigns against those employers which choose, instead, to violate their employees' rights.&quot; 
 
The ICEM has already signed such global agreements with multinationals Statoil and Freudenberg. 
 
Attending the pulp and paper conference were union leaders from Albania, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.

World&#039;s Pulp And Paper Workers Confront Globalisation

Fiji really had the blues yesterday. 
 
But it was all in the best of causes - democracy. 
 
Spearheaded by the Fijian trade unions, Blue Day was a massive silent protest against the military's &quot;interim administration&quot;. Blue is the colour of Fiji's flag, and it was chosen as the rallying point for a broadly-based democracy campaign. 
 
Throughout the country, people turned out dressed in blue. 
 
Blue hats and blue posters were distributed, calling for an immediate return to democracy under Fiji's 1997 Constitution. From last Friday onwards, the country's TV screens had repeatedly turned blue, and the words &quot;Fiji's Blue - democracy and the 1997 Constitution&quot; appeared. National newspapers yesterday ran full-page blue advertisements with democracy slogans, while radio networks broadcast messages urging support for the campaign. 
 
Trade unionists nationwide backed the action - including public employees and civil servants, who had been threatened with suspension if they wore blue. The Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) is to lodge an official complaint with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) over these threats. 
 
Employers' federations and a wide range of civil organisations are also part of the Fiji's Blue coalition. 
 
The silent Blue Day protest was just the start, the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) told ICEM UPDATE today. The coalition would &quot;continue our rolling lobby for a speedy return to democracy&quot; for &quot;as long as it takes us&quot;. 
 
The crisis in Fiji began this May, when businessman George Speight and his associates staged an armed coup and took hostages in the parliament buildings. Eventually, the hostages were released and the plotters were arrested. But instead of handing power back to the country's elected government, the military imposed their own &quot;interim administration&quot;. Many Fijians now regard this as a &quot;coup within a coup&quot;. 
 
At the time, Speight presented his own putsch as a blow on behalf of ethnic Fijians, who make up just over half of the population. 44 percent of the country's people are ethnic Indians, many of whom are descendants of labourers shipped out from the subcontinent during the British colonial era. 
 
However, persistent rumours suggest that Speight's real motive was to push through his own bid for a supply contract with a multinational timber company.
&nbsp; 
UNION RIGHTS ATTACKED 
 
 
New curbs on union rights in Fiji have merely strengthened labour's resolve to back the democracy campaign, says Daniel Urai. He is President of the FTUC and General Secretary of the Fiji Electricity Authority Staff Association, which is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;If you want to hold a trade union meeting now, you have to inform the army and the police first,&quot; Urai told ICEM UPDATE. &quot;If you try to hold a meeting without their permission, then they can come in and break it up and arrest people. There have already been cases of this.&quot; 
 
More restrictions could be on the way. &quot;We expect further decrees soon that could make it virtually impossible for unions to organise new sectors,&quot; Urai says. &quot;For instance, they have threatened to ban all solidarity action or secondary action. The military are trying to make out that the unions are sabotaging the economy and the state. But in fact, the interim administration is bringing trade sanctions upon itself by refusing to heed the international community.&quot; 
The democracy campaign has received strong backing from the ICEM, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and other labour internationals. Last month, FTUC General Secretary Felix Anthony had talks with ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels about global union support for the democracy campaign. Anthony is now back in Brussels, lobbying the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the European Unions and the associated ACP (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific) countries. But, the ICFTU reports, representatives of the military regime are also thought to have arrived in the European capital ... 
 
Meanwhile, the Australian Council of Trade Unions warned on Monday that it may reimpose communications and freight bans on Fiji if the military administration brings in new anti-union measures. 
 
Like Speight, the &quot;interim administration&quot; has tried to portray itself as the ally of ethnic Fijians. 
 
But this is just a smokescreen, Daniel Urai says. &quot;About 20,000 workers are either unemployed or are working on reduced wages as a consequence of the coup. One of the main sectors affected is tourism. Most of the workers who have been hit by this are ethnic Fijians - the very people that the interim administration says it is helping. But in any case, this ethnic issue is not at the forefront of workers' minds. They have other things to worry about.&quot; 
 
 
&quot;SMART SANCTIONS&quot; CALL 
 
 
For Fiji's workers, things could get worse before they get better, Urai says. 
 
&quot;If the interim administration does not heed the calls of the international community for a return to democracy, then important trading partners like Australia, New Zealand and the US could start closing their markets to Fijian goods,&quot; he points out. &quot;In that case, up to 50 percent of the country's workers will lose their jobs.&quot; 
 
Not that he is against sanctions, which he sees as &quot;the most effective way to stop such an illegal government from continuing.&quot; 
 
But at the present stage, he advocates &quot;smart sanctions&quot; which would hit their real target - the illegal regime. In particular, the unions want other countries to &quot;stop foreign travel by all those behind the coup and interim administration&quot; and to &quot;control the business dealings of all those known to be behind the illegal administration.&quot; 
 
For, as Urai emphasises, &quot;some members of the interim government are known to have been behind George Speight and his coup.&quot; 
 
Governments everywhere should cease to have dealings with the interim administration, Urai says, and trade unions around the world can help by pressing their governments to take this line. 
 
&quot;The international community has every interest in resolving this situation,&quot; he insists. &quot;If the military in Fiji are seen to be getting away with this, it could have a knock-on effect throughout the Pacific islands.&quot; 
 
As for the Fijian unions and their allies in Fiji's Blue, their goal is quite clear: &quot;We want the interim administration to be replaced immediately by a national government consisting of all the parties elected to parliament prior to the coup. It would then be up to that national government to organise elections and to consider any amendments to the 1997 Constitution.&quot; 
 
And should there be any amendments? 
 
&quot;Not really,&quot; Urai replies. &quot;Some people would like our voting system to be changed from first-past-the-post to proportional representation, but that's a side issue at present. The 1997 Constitution covers workers' rights, women's rights, political rights and religious rights very well. So there's really no need to change it.&quot;

Blues In The News: Fiji&#039;s Nationwide Protests

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has received a further protest from the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) over laws that violate basic trade union rights. 
 
The new Belarus labour code is the subject of a current union complaint to the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). The complaint details the ways in which the Belarus laws violate ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining. 
 
&quot;At least the following provisions&quot; in the Belarus law breach these basic rights, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs told Lukashenko: &quot;compulsory registration procedures sanctioned by liquidation of union organisations, minimum membership requirements, restrictions on the right to strike, and discrimination against trade union members.&quot; In addition, Higgs wrote, there has been &quot;a worrying trend of increased interference by the authorities in union affairs.&quot; 
 
The ICEM's demand to Lukashenko is that &quot;your government take urgent measures to ensure the full observance of ILO standards and democratic trade union rights.&quot; 
 
&quot;Recent events in Yugoslavia have proved that European citizens want to live in peace and work for a better life in a democratic society,&quot; Higgs reminded Lukashenko. &quot;The Belarus trade union movement has made it very clear that their major concern is the welfare of their members, the workers of Belarus, through the economic and social progress in their country, which constitutes an integral part of Europe and deserves a rightful place in the community of nations.&quot; 
 
Higgs pledged full support by the ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide for the Belarus unions' campaign to defend their rights.

Global Union Protests Over Belarus Abuses

The ICEM's Executive Committee, the global union federation's governing body, interrupted its annual session in Brussels today to stage a demonstration at the Embassy of Thailand in Belgium. Some 120 trade union leaders from 40 countries converged on the embassy in protest against the government's continued privatisation push of the nation's electric and water services. 
<img height="228" alt="" src="" width="350" />
The noon-hour demonstration was part of an &quot;International Week of Action&quot; on behalf of ICEM affiliate EGAT-LU and Thai unions Metropolitan Electric-City Authority Union (MEA) and Provincial Electric-City Authority (PEA). The unions have succeeded to date in delaying the privatisation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), but the government of Prime Minister Thaskin Shinawatra is still intent on making EGAT a publicly traded company. 
<img height="158" alt="" src="" width="350" />
 
After pushing up to the door of the Thai embassy with letters of protest from their respective unions, Brussels police informed the ICEM's union leaders that a 50-meter distance rule exists on mass assembly in front of a nation's foreign mission. The delegates then crossed a boulevard and ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, President John Maitland and ICEM Vice President Paul Lootens from AC/CG-FGTB in Belgium entered the embassy with the letters. 
 
&quot;We were received by the first secretary of the embassy in the absence of a Thai ambassador in Belgium at this time,&quot; said Higgs, who visited the ongoing protests by the Thai unions in Bangkok in late April. &quot;We were able to convey the views of the international trade union movement on the Thai government's intent to privatise and the officer assured that responses to the letters would be forthcoming.&quot; 
 
ICEM affiliates throughout the world used 24-28 May as a week in which to register their protests with Thailand over the privatisation matter. 
 
In Thailand, the week of action produced more protests and more direct action against the government's plans.

Protest at Thai Embassy in Brussels over Privatisation

The ICEM has today strongly criticized the Colombian government for its brutal attempts to break the near month-long strike at Ecopetrol, the national oil company. Expressing support to Colombian trade union Uni&oacute;n Sindical Obrera de la Industria Del Petr&oacute;leo (USO), ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs stated in a letter to President Alvaro Uribe that Colombia's use of &quot;armed military personnel in and around Ecopetrol's petroleum facilities has escalated the conflict,&quot; making it even more difficult to resolve.&nbsp;
<img height="280" src="" width="200" alt="" />
USO march at Barrancabermeja refinery
To date, some 100 USO members and leaders have been fired for participating in the strike. There are reports of arrests death threats and other forms of harassment against USO trade unionists and supporters. In criticizing the government for creating a climate of hostility toward the union and its members, the world's predominant oil and energy trade union federation again called on President Uribe to change course and &quot;find common ground with USO in order that a fair and equitable resolution to this dispute is found.&quot; 
 
The Uribe government declared the 22 April strike illegal, citing petroleum refining as an &quot;essential service&quot; in Colombia. In a 30 April letter to President Uribe, Higgs and the ICEM asserted the government was wrong: ILO has traditionally ruled on cases in terms of oil refining not classified &quot;essential service.&quot; 
 
The USO strike against Ecopetrol is over the government's restructuring of oil reserves and production in which rewritten contracts have been awarded to several of the oil multinationals creating more favorable terms. The union contends such policies will rob Colombia of the wealth from its natural resources and is the initial move toward selling off Ecopetrol. USO is also seeking a new collective wage agreement through the strike, something the government and company claim will not be addressed. 
 
The 20-million-member ICEM agrees with USO that the current strike at Ecopetrol is a crucial and important strike in modern Colombia and is asking trade unions across the world-particularly in oil and energy sectors-to monitor the dispute and to lend support.

Colombian Oil Strike Intensifies

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Colombian Oil Strike Intensifies

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