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Unit chapel leaders at some 50 corrugated paper operations in the UK, representing some 2,500 Unite the Union members, recently recommended acceptance of a 2010 pay package. Paperworkers represented by both Unite and GMB will now vote in the coming weeks on a pay accord that was agreed to with Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) in mid-December. 
 
The CPI, representing major corrugated boxboard and packaging employers at plants mostly owned by DS Smith, SmurfitKappa, and SAICA, agreed to raise their wage offer from 2.1% to 2.5% last month in response to the unions moving forward on a ballot for industrial action. 
 
The offer, when accepted by members of the two unions, will be retroactive to 1 September 2010, the date a prior one-year accord expired. 
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Unite National Officer Peter Ellis
Unite and GMB were set to file for an industrial ballot on 10 January. Unite represents the majority of workers in the UK&rsquo;s corrugated paper sector, while GMB represents some 800 workers in the sector. 
 
The 14-member joint union/CPI bargaining body began 2010 negotiations in July, but talks became bogged down in October when CPI offered a pay hike of less than half of the retail price index. Unite National Officer Peter Ellis says now that the tentative settlement falls into the upper level of median pay awards in all industries in the UK this year. 
 
Meanwhile, Unite and Kimberly Clark reached an early accord for 2011 that was agreed to by workers in December. The agreement covers 500 workers at two towel and tissue mills, the Northfleet mill in Kent and the Barrow-in-Furness mill in Cumbria. The 2011 pay award, effective 1 February, will be 1.5%, with Unite also winning a lump sum bonus of &pound;1,450. That lump sum will also be calculated into the pension contribution, thus raising the benefit level.

Corrugated Paper Agreement to be Voted on By Unite, GMB Members

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The ICEM-affiliated National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM) of Mexico, or Los Mineros, conducted its National Assembly 10-11 January in Mexico City. Delegates representing over 60 sections and fractions of the union, from 22 states, pledged unfaltering support for their General Secretary in exile, Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia, and for the national executive. 
 
The meeting confirmed the priority challenges facing Los Mineros at present during four ongoing strikes, at Cananea, Zacatecas, Taxco, and El Cubo. The National Assembly also reiterated the union&rsquo;s demand for the immediate release of union officials Juan Linares Mont&uacute;far and Mart&iacute;n Salazar, and for an immediate end to the illegal freezing of union bank accounts by the Calder&oacute;n government. 
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Delegates resolved to continue the fight to bring Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez back to Mexico, currently made impossible by sham legal charges from the government. Los Mineros also want their democratically elected leader to be officially recognized by the authorities, which has not yet happened. 
 
Delegates pledged full support to the Global Days of Action for trade union rights in Mexico, 14-19 February, which will mark the fifth anniversary of the deadly mine disaster at Pasta de Conchos. The Days of Action will provide a strong, cross-sector trade union alliance carrying out actions across the globe, intended to pass common demands to the Mexican government through its embassies and consulates around the world. 
 
To get involved in trade union action during the week 14-19 February, email <a href="mailto:tom.grinter@icem.org">tom.grinter@icem.org</a>. See the campaign material&nbsp;<a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP">here</a>.&nbsp;

National Assembly of Los Mineros of Mexico Reiterates Trade Union Demands

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A new 10,000-member was born early in the new year when the ICEM affiliate Forestry, Logging, and Industrial Workers&rsquo; Union (FLIWUL) and the National Mine Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia merged, creating the United Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia (UWUL). 
 
The merger, after two years of discussion, was formalised by delegates of both unions at a convention in Monrovia on 5 January. The new union has 2,600 members in mining, 1,250 in forestry, as well as 6,000 members employed at the Firestone Rubber Plantation. It also has 550 members working for the National Transit Authority, the public bus system. 
 
The union has five collective agreements and that will increase to eight in the near future. 
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FLIWUL brings ArcelorMittal mine and railroad workers into the merger, workers employed at the state&rsquo;s Forestry Development Authority, as well as the Firestone workers. The National Mine Workers&rsquo; Union represents miners in the country&rsquo;s western cluster of mining activity. The union is closing in on organising iron ore miners of a Chinese company. 
 
The 5 January merger convention elected four leaders from each trade union to guide UWUL, including FLIWUL David Sackoh as Secretary-General. &ldquo;The mission of this merger is to unite Liberian workers to build bargaining power for decent work, mutual respect, and sustainable development at the workplace and in communities through collective action and social dialogue,&rdquo; said Sackoh. 
 
The other union officers include: Aloysius S. Kie, President, who served in that capacity with the Mine Workers and as President of the Liberia Federation of Labour Unions; Oretha Tarnue, Vice President, who led FLIWUL Union No. 1, or the Forestry Development Authority Union; Dave Seneh, Deputy Secretary General for Administration; James D. Sorboh, Deputy Secretary General for Operations; Sakou Sirleaf, Treasurer; Tenneh Y. Nagbe, Chair of the Women&rsquo;s Committee; and Mohammed Guss, Advisor. 
 
Sackoh&rsquo;s tenure as leader of FLIWUL dates back 2003 and before that with the union&rsquo;s predecessor, FLAWUL, where he organised a logging company in the West African nation. Prior to that, he headed the United Seamen&rsquo;s and Port Workers&rsquo; Union of Liberia, where he landed after a career as a marine engineer. 
 
In a statement read at the early January merger convention, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda congratulated the two unions, calling the marriage &ldquo;a great accomplishment and one in which the adage &lsquo;In Unity There is Strength&rsquo; we know will prove true in Liberia.&rdquo;

FLIWUL, Miners’ Union in Liberia Merge to Create United Workers’ Union

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An indefinite strike by a branch of the Peruvian National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP) was averted just hours before a strike deadline on 14 January when managers at the country&rsquo;s third largest copper mine finally addressed and corrected a set of seven grievances. 
 
Some 1,200 miners of the ICEM-affiliated FNTMMSP&rsquo;s Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde union had downed tools twice in late December &ndash; once for 24 hours on 24 December, the other time on 31 December to 1 January for 48 hours &ndash; over violations in a three-year collective agreement that will expire on 30 August 2011. 
 
Branch union Chairman Leoncio Amudio Pe&ntilde;a said miners were preparing for a strike contingency planning meeting on the evening of 13 January when the company called union leaders in and pledged correction of contract breaches. The two sides had been meeting with officials from the Peruvian Labour Ministry throughout last week to resolve the issues. 
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Cerro Verde is 53.56% owned by US-based Freeport-McMoRan, 21% by SMM Cerro Verde Netherlands, a subsidiary of Sumitoma Metal Mining Co. Ltd. of Japan, and 19% by Compa&ntilde;&iacute;a de Minas Buenaventura of Peru. The operation, in the southeastern region of Arequipa, sells 50% of its annual copper concentrate production to Sumitoma Metal in a contract that runs until 2016. 
 
Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde produced 283,750 tonnes of copper in 2010, and it also produces molybdenum concentrates as a by-product. 
 
The grievances centered on shortcomings to family members in private medical coverage, inadequate transportation to and from the open-pit mine, and food rations while at work. The union was also in dispute with the copper producer because many workers were forced to work extra hours without added pay. The normal work-week at Cerro Verde is 45.5 hours. 
 
The FNTMMSP has a number of labour agreements coming due this year in Peru&rsquo;s mining and metals sector. One lapsed contract, with Barrick&rsquo;s Gold of Canada, was resolved two weeks ago, covering workers of Minera Barrick Misquichilca at the Lagunas Norte gold mine in northern Peru and the Pierina mine in the Amcash region. 
 
The three-year contract gives workers a 7% increase retroactive to 1 June 2010; 6.5% effective 19 June 2011; and 6.5% on 19 June 2012. A signing bonus was also agreed to, giving miners with ten or more years of service 27,000 soles (US$9,620); those with five to ten years, 26,000 soles; two to five years, 23,500 soles; and those with one to two years, 21,500 soles. A quarterly productivity bonus also was won. 
 
On the metals side, FNTMMSP met on 14 January with management of Metallurgical Peruana SA (Mepsa), a manufacturer of steel grinding balls and smelted metals used in the mining and agricultural sectors, to resolve a 2010-2011 dispute. Some 400 metalworkers staged a ten-day strike in early December and besides 2010 pay awards, Peru&rsquo;s Labour Ministry is now mediating FNTMMSP&rsquo;s demand to reinstate 14 workers who were sacked in last month&rsquo;s strike.

Grievances Settled, FNTMMSP Calls Off Peruvian Copper Strike at Cerro Verde

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The attack by U.S. Steel against 900 members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 and even more retirees &ndash; 9,000 in total &ndash; will receive a boost 29 January when thousands of Canadian trade unionists converge on Hamilton, Ontario, for a Day of Action. A lockout was derisively imposed by the American steelmaker there on 7 November after Local 1005 refused to vote on steep cuts proposed in a renewal contract. (See prior ICEM report <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4101-Flawed-Investment-Canada-Act-Again-Seen-in-Steel-Lockout ">here</a>) 
 
The manifestation, organising by the Ontario Federation of Labour (CLC), will begin with speakers at 13h00 on Saturday, 29 January, at Hamilton City Hall, 71 Main Street West, and then a march will wind through the streets of the city centre. 
 
The lockout ten weeks ago became the latest affront by a multinational to the Investment Canada Act. When U.S. Steel received Canadian government approval to buy Ontario-based steelmaker Stelco three years ago, it pledged to maintain job and production levels. But within a year, it had levied layoffs on USW members at both of Stelco&rsquo;s mills, in Hamilton and Nanticoke, Ontario, and began supplying Canadian customers with products made in its US mills. 
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The Canadian Attorney General in 2009 brought a lawsuit against the company for failing to comply with the Investment Canada Act. U.S. Steel&rsquo;s obstruction and delay in addressing the suit was set back late last month when a federal appellate court judge upheld the right of the union and other parties to intervene in the breach of the Act. 
 
In bargaining last autumn, U.S. Steel pressured Local 1005&rsquo;s bargaining committee to accept a two-tier pension scheme in which new hires would be closed off from a longstanding defined benefit plan. The company also proposed de-indexing the pension benefits for retirees, a losing proposition for 9,000 retirees against inflation. U.S. Steel sought as well cuts to active workers&rsquo; cost-of-living adjustments, and proposed cutting two weeks of vacation time. 
 
When the steel producer demanded the bargaining committee put the concessions to a vote of active members and union leadership refused, the lockout began. U.S. Steel immediately cut off all health and disability benefits. Under Ontario provincial labour law, a company has the right to mandate a one-time only vote on a final contract offer. But U.S. Steel has not exercised that option, knowing full well that Local 1005&rsquo;s 2010 contract mobilisation campaign would produce a decisive &ldquo;no&rdquo; vote. 
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In fact, at a union meeting on 8 December, when a motion was put forward to put the company&rsquo;s proposals to a vote, a full 90% of Local 1005&rsquo;s members defeated it. 
 
The union already has received overwhelming support from Canadian unions, including the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Union. At a Hamilton picket line on 5 January, CUPE National President Paul Moist presented the locked-out local with C$10,000, and said, &ldquo;Defending Steelworker pensions is a fight CUPE and the entire labour movement must be part of. If private sector pensions are eroded, the public sector will be next. 
 
CAW also has contributed to USW Local 1005 and President Rolf Gerstenberger addressed the CAW National Council of Delegates in early December. Gerstenberger called for a nation-wide campaign to resist the growing strength of international corporations in Canada and a political overhaul in order to revamp the loopholes in the Investment Canada Act. 
 
(See the mobilisation call for the 29 January Hamilton Day of Action <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/20110129USSteel.pdf">here</a>.)

Rally Slated 29 January in Canada to Support Locked-out Steelworkers

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Trade unions in Tunisia played a central role in the social uprising that last week toppled the autocratic and corrupt rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after 24 years in power. The General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), an affiliate of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), conducted a two-hour general strike on Friday, 14 January, in protest of the government&rsquo;s violent suppression of the uprising. 
 
Tunisian citizens refused continuance of a 24% rate of unemployment, corruption, growing inequality, and limited access to the political process. 
 
With over 60 protesters killed in two weeks of clashes with the police, unions are demanding justice for the killers of the protestors. Throughout the clashes, the UGTT headquarters were repeatedly blockaded by police, who then stormed and ransacked the union&rsquo;s offices on 12 January. 
 
Reacting to the events, the National Commission of the UGTT held an extraordinary session on 11 January and called for public investment, improvement in the basic needs of the people, and a rebalancing of regional inequalities. A further important demand was for the establishment of an unemployment fund, which would provide a badly-needed social safety net for workers who lose their job. 
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Further, trade unions articulated the demand for democracy and freedom of the press. Privatisation of public services over recent years had increased the above stated unemployment level, which is now double for the country&rsquo;s youth. 
 
The violence used to suppress the Tunisians right to peaceful protest attracted condemnation from trade unions around the world, as well as from governments. The Sarkozy administration of France, however, attempted to help President Ben Ali retain power in the former colony, by providing additional military equipment. 
 
Speaker of the Parliament, Foued Mebazaa, was sworn in as interim president on Saturday, 15 January. He must now work together with social partners to find solutions to the inequality, unemployment, and corruption in Tunisia, ensuring that trade unions can operate freely and safely. 
 
Similar social problems are being protested in Algeria, bordering Tunisia to the West, where riots in seven cities have lead to five deaths, and over 1,000 arrests. European countries have increasingly closed their borders to North Africans looking for work, exacerbating the problems.

Tunisian ‘Jasmine Revolution’ Ousts Autocrat; Unions Call for Social Justice

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In early January, the ICEM learned of a major workers&rsquo; protest in al-Ferdous Square in Baghdad by Iraqi public employees and civil servants. More details are now available on that 4 January manifestation, thanks to the Federation of Workers&rsquo; Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI). This legitimate protest was held to uphold work rights for Politically Dismissed Workers. 
 
An inquiry commission is about to wrongly verify documentation acknowledging the sackings of hundreds of workers from ministries and agencies within Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, Irrigation, and other departments of government over political allegiances.
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Public Workers Carry a Symbolic Coffin in Baghdad
The demonstration was vocal and visual, by all accounts. 
 
The manifestation&rsquo;s first demand called for the cancellation of all decisions by the inquiry commission. Secondly, the 4 January rally and march demanded that sacked workers&rsquo; dismissal periods count as actual employment and thirdly, the 500 protesters demanded a stop to proceedings of verification against the politically dismissed workers. 
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FWCUI President Falah Alwan
After trade union activists spoke at al-Ferdous Square, demonstrators carried a coffin as a death symbol to government officials destroying any semblance of global labour standards in this particular case. The march wound its way in central Baghdad to Square Wiz and then back again to al-Ferdous Square. 
 
The protest was widely covered by Baghdad television, radio, and print media outlets. 
 
The ICEM gives global support to Iraqi workers who exercise their legitimate rights under international labour standards.

Public Sector Workers Demand Justice for Sacked Workers in Iraq

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A colliery in northern Notre de Santander state, Colombia, again became a death trap for miners. The La Preciosa coal mine in Sandinata municipality, where 38 miners have already perished over the past three years, was rocked by a methane gas explosion at the morning shift change on 26 January that saw 21 miners die. 
 
The locally-owned mine by La Preciosa Ltda. employs 110 staff and was ordered closed by the National Institute of Geology and Mines (Ingeominas) following the explosion. Twenty miners were killed inside a 600-metre horizontal shaft, while one worker died in an ambulance on the way to medical care. Six miners were rescued and are hospitalised in the city of C&uacute;cuta. 
 
The bodies of 16 miners were retrieved on the day of the disaster, while four were received on 27 January. 
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La Preciosa Miners Worry About Future
In unexpected candor, the Colombian government admitted that its mine safety laws and resources for stricter mine safety regulations are inadequate. Mining Minister Carlos Rodado arrived in Sandinata on 27 January and said the government lacks funds and staff &ndash; Ingeominas exploys only 17 mine inspectors &ndash; to monitor 6,000 legal mines. 
 
La Preciosa, which produces 3,000 tonnes of coal per month, is a legally-operated mine. But in October 2010, six miners died due to gas asphyxiation. In 2007, 32 miners died in a similar gas explosion to the one that occurred last Wednesday. In 2007, the mine stayed close for five months. 
 
A representative from an ICEM-affiliated miners&rsquo; union at another mine in Colombia said the government is too quick to award operating licenses to small- and medium-size companies which do not have the necessary mechanisms in place to monitor safe mining practices. Colombia has not ratified ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
At a funeral service in the mountain town of San Roque on 28 January where ten of the 21 miners were remembered, thousand of residents turned out to mourn, with most residents of the mountainous town affixing Colombian flag to their homes. The mayor of Sandinata, Yamile Ragel, called the tragedy &ldquo;a crime&rdquo; that will &ldquo;not go unpunished.&rdquo; The ten were buried in a local cemetery following a Roman Catholic service. 
 
Ingeominas said that in 2010, Colombia recorded 84 mine accidents in which 173 workers died.

Methane Blast in Colombian Coal Mine Kills 21

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An ICEM and Public Services International (PSI) affiliated trade union, Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), has raised issue with the insolent social conduct of US managers of a subsidiary of GDF SUEZ. The conduct is pointedly contrary to standards GDF SUEZ only in November agreed to in a Global Framework Agreement (GFA) with three Global Union Federations (GUFs). 
 
The matter involves a US subsidiary of French-based GDF SUEZ, United Water Services Inc., a private utility that employs about 400 UWUA members in the US. UWUA called on the ICEM and PSI to rebuke United Water over an environment indictment levied in December by the US Justice Department, as well as troubling public comments made by United Water executives to minimize the seriousness of the alleged crimes. 
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After consulting with the third GUF that is signatory to the 16 November 2010 GFA, Building and Woodworkers International (BWI), the ICEM and PSI on 19 January issued the first complaint of this particular agreement, calling United Water&rsquo;s overall conduct a breach of GDF SUEZ corporate social responsibility. (That complaint can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/2.GDFSUEZunitedwatLet.pdf ">here</a>.) 
On 8 December, the US government issued a set of 26 indictments against United Water for conspiracy and felony violations of the US Clean Water Act. The GDF SUEZ subsidiary and two of its executives are charged with tampering and manipulating water quality measurements at a Gary, Indiana, wastewater treatment plant that it had operated on behalf of the municipality&rsquo;s Sanitation Board. 
 
Specifically, over a five-year period, the US Justice Department charged United Water with a scheme that increased chlorine input levels immediately before US government E.Coli monitoring samples were taken, and then lowering the input levels afterward as cost-savings measures. United Water is accused of doing this 68 times. 
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The practice, the US government claims, poses a serious health risk to the public. 
 
The UWUA, ICEM, and PSI also took serious issue following the US Justice Department indictment with public comments made by United Water&rsquo;s president and senior vice president for Corporate Communications downplaying the charges. They stated that the indictments are mere technical disagreements, with the president of United Water, Robert Iacullo, calling the government&rsquo;s environmental charges &ldquo;an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.&rdquo; 
 
In the addendum to the GFA, GDF Suez states that it has &ldquo;responsibilities to society&rdquo; and that &ldquo;it will respect national law and regulations.&rdquo; The agreement also states: &ldquo;Among it activities, GDF Suez distributes energy and water, essential to the health and well-being of society.&rdquo; The ICEM/PSI intervention notes, &ldquo;If the US government&rsquo;s charges prove true, the discharge of untreated, or sub-standard wastewater into waterways poses a serious public health threat.&rdquo; 
 
The GUFs are currently awaiting reply from GDF SUEZ over the complaint.

US Affiliate, UWUA, Challenges GDF SUEZ Inside Global Agreement

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