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Chernobyl nuclear power station is to close before the end of this year, the Ukrainian government confirmed yesterday. 
 
Only one reactor is currently operating at Chernobyl, which was the site of the world's worst-ever nuclear accident when another reactor exploded in 1986. 
 
But now that Chernobyl really is to close, what about the workers? 
 
The station's workforce has totalled around 6,500 people in recent years. At least 5,000 other jobs depend on them - mainly in Slavutich, the town built to house the nuclear workers and their families after they were moved out of the irradiated zone around the plant. And in today's Ukraine, good jobs are very hard to find. 
 
Since 1996, the Chernobyl workers' union and its international federation have been pressing for a &quot;social plan&quot; that would help to avert job losses in the case of closure. That lobbying has now been stepped up. 
 
Yesterday, the Ukrainian Deputy Energy Minister Vitali Gajduk met Alexander Yurkin and Andre Mrost in Kiev to discuss the issue. 
 
Yurkin is the President of the Ukraine Atom Trade Union (ATU). He is also Vice-President of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the ATU is affiliated at the global level. Mrost is the ICEM's coordinator in the region. 
 
They explained the ATU/ICEM campaign to the deputy minister, who fully backed the unions' action. The Ukrainian government has now given its Fuel and Energy Ministry six months to draw up a programme of social guarantees for Chernobyl and Slavutich. 
 
But this begs the multi-million dollar question. Who will pay for the social safety net? 
 
In fact, a comprehensive draft social plan already exists. 
 
The commitment to close Chernobyl by the year 2000 dates back to the Ottawa memorandum signed in 1995 by Ukraine, the G-7 leading industrialised countries and the European Union. This agreement specifically recognised &quot;the implications of the closure of the Chernobyl plant for the workers and their families.&quot; It promised that &quot;the European Commission and the Government of the United States will assist the Government of Ukraine to develop an Action Plan for addressing the social impacts of the closure of Chernobyl.&quot; 
 
The ICEM and the ATU followed through in 1996 with a world conference of nuclear workers' unions, held in Kiev. The early closure of Chernobyl could be envisaged only if the social issues were properly tackled, the Kiev conference pointed out. In particular, it called for a full &quot;social plan&quot;, including the creation of alternative employment for workers in Chernobyl and Slavutich. 
 
A detailed draft social action programme was drawn up the following year by a joint Ukrainian-EU-US working group that included trade union experts. The draft plan provides for retraining and other adjustment measures for the workers. It also entails the promotion of new small and medium-scale industries in Slavutich, notably in the field of energy efficiency and conservation. 
 
Under the 1995 Ottawa memorandum, western commitments to fund the Chernobyl closure included 4 million US dollars for social measures. As the nuclear unions' Kiev conference pointed out in 1996, this pledge is wholly inadequate. Today, an effective social plan for Chernobyl and Slavutich would cost between 50 million and 100 million dollars. 
 
Which is why the ICEM and its affiliated unions are now pressing the G-7 governments, the EU and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to finance the social package in full. 
 
For other aspects of the Chernobyl closure, money is no object. Yesterday's confirmation of the shut-down came just days after western donors had pledged an extra 300 million dollars for the building of a new shell to seal off the Chernobyl reactors. Their total commitment to that project alone is now 700 million dollars. A further 175 million dollars' worth of western aid could go towards paying for new Ukrainian nuclear plants to replace Chernobyl - although some western governments would prefer to finance stations fired by coal, lignite or gas. 
 
All of which puts into perspective the sums needed for a decent social plan. 
 
And there are good reasons for funding a social safety net. 
 
The safe operation, shutdown and decommissioning of Chernobyl depends first and foremost on the skill and concentration of its workers. They have been under great psychological pressure recently, due both to uncertainties over their future and to a problem of unpaid wages that has only just been resolved. 
 
Then there is the world's moral debt to the Chernobyl workers. The &quot;liquidators&quot;, who went in just after the 1986 disaster to limit the spread of radiation, included workers from the plant. Some paid the price of their heroism. They contracted diseases linked to radiation, and in some cases they may have incurred hereditary damage. 
 
Not least, the lessons learned from a Chernobyl social plan could be of great value to the nuclear industry everywhere. 
 
As the unions' Kiev conference pointed out in 1996, &quot;worldwide, over two hundred other nuclear reactors are scheduled for decommissioning by 2010. Chernobyl is the first challenge - not the last.&quot;

Chernobyl To Close: What About the Workers?

Ukraine's nuclear power workers have &quot;won their long and difficult struggle in defence of their constitutional right to have their wages paid.&quot; 
 
The news was announced yesterday by Alexander Yurkin, President of the Ukraine Atom Trade Union (ATU), in a message to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Yurkin is Vice-President of the ICEM, to which the ATU is affiliated at the global level. 

<img height="204" alt="" src="" width="300" />
PAID AT LAST 
Full wages for the first time in more than two years 
The nuclear workers' wages have been paid in full this March, Yurkin reports, and the wage backlog is being cleared. The payments had been promised several times by the Ukrainian authorities since the wage crisis in the sector built up in 1998. However, the pledges were not kept in practice. 
 
Work on the repayments began in earnest after the new government headed by Viktor Yushenko took office, Yurkin notes. At a special ATU delegates' conference on the issue last December, Deputy Prime Minister Yuliy Timoshenko guaranteed that full wage payments, in line with collective agreements, would resume by this March.
Since 1998, the ATU and the ICEM have been campaigning against massive delays in payments to Ukrainian nuclear workers. At one stage, wages were six months in arrears. By February of last year, the nuclear workers had introduced go-slow measures and were threatening an indefinite strike at Chernobyl and other nuclear power stations until wages were paid in full. The workers and their many supporters set up &quot;tent cities&quot; around the power stations. 
 
Responsibly, the ATU averted any forms of action that might have compromised safety. At the same time, both the ICEM and the ATU alerted the international community to the dangers of the situation. The wage arrears were in themselves a serious risk factor, as they greatly added to the psychological pressures on key workers in the Ukrainian nuclear sector. 
 
In response, last June the government earmarked special funds for nuclear industry wage payments, and it looked as though the crisis was over. As the year wore on, however, it became obvious that the backlog was still not being cleared. 
 
This month's resolution of the problem is, Yurkin says, partly thanks to union lobbying of the International Atomic Energy Agency, of the International Labour Organisation and of the World Association of Nuclear Operators. Pressure from Ukraine's international donors also helped. 
 
But above all, he believes, the successful outcome is due to international trade union solidarity. He praises the pressure placed on the Ukrainian government by the ICEM and many of its affiliates. Also of great value were the ICEM's information campaigns via the media and the Internet, Yurkin says. 
 
&quot;Only by joint effort,&quot; he insists, &quot;can trade unions defend their members' rights and interests and exert a real influence on the authorities and employers.&quot; 
 
The non-payment of wages is still a major problem for other Ukrainian workers, notably the miners. It is also causing widespread poverty in some other countries of the region, including Russia.

Ukrainian Nuclear Workers Paid at Last

Canadian-based Inco will have to declare force majeure on some of its deliveries, the company admitted yesterday. 
 
The defaults on shipments result from Inco's lock-out against workers at a Canadian nickel mine in Thompson, Manitoba. 
 
Inco's blunder in Thompson will seriously weaken its credibility as a supplier, observers predicted. The company's sales slogan is Stronger For Our Experience. 
 
&quot;The total quantity of products that the Company is currently expected to be unable to supply as a result of the continuation of the work stoppage represents about 15 percent of the Company's average monthly primary nickel sales for the first nine months of 1999,&quot; Inco said yesterday. 
 
On its own figures, Inco supplies about 26 percent of the world's nickel demand. It is also an important producer of copper, precious metals and cobalt. 
 
1,040 workers at the Thompson mine have been locked out since 14 September. They are members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). The lock-out followed the union membership's rejection of the company's final offer. The Inco offer did not include any improvements in pensions, wages or benefits. USWA members at two other Inco Canadian operations have suspended their participation in joint labour-management design projects until the lock-out at Thompson is settled. 
 
At the global level, the USWA is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Earlier this month, USWA Canadian National Director Lawrence McBrearty asked the ICEM World Congress to back the Inco workers' campaign. Inco's behaviour is an example of a &quot; heartless corporate culture that puts profits before people,&quot; McBrearty told the Congress in Durban, South Africa. The USWA would take &quot;the struggle for justice&quot; to &quot;the four corners of the globe,&quot; he declared. 
 
&quot;We will mobilise our affiliates worldwide to communicate their solidarity with the USWA,&quot; responded ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, &quot;and we will use every means to urge Inco to reach a settlement with the union expeditiously.&quot; 
 
Inco is present in 14 countries, and has production operations in Canada, the UK, Indonesia, Japan, Guatemala, France, China, New Caledonia and the United States.

Inco Lock-Out Hits Nickel Supplies

About 3,000 South Africans suffering from asbestos-related diseases are pressing for their compensation claims to be heard by courts in Britain. The claims are against British-based asbestos multinational Cape. 
 
&quot;These claims should be heard in Britain and should be settled quickly,&quot; said Fred Higgs in Durban today. Higgs, who is General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), is himself a British citizen. He is in South Africa for the ICEM World Congress, which ended yesterday. 
 
&quot;It is a disgrace that Cape is even contesting the claims,&quot; Higgs said. &quot;It treated these people atrociously, and it should pay up immediately and in full.&quot; 
 
Many of the compensation claimants were employed in Cape's mining and milling operations in South Africa when they were children. That was during the apartheid era, and the children were forced to work in appalling conditions, with no protection against the deadly asbestos. 
 
In the latest round of the long legal battle between Cape and its victims, a British court ruled last month that the claims could not be heard in Britain. However, the claimants are now likely to take the matter to the House of Lords, Britain's highest court of appeal. &quot;We believe that the rights of the victims have been ignored in favour of commercial interests,&quot; their British lawyer said in London. 
 
The child labourers who survived Cape's ill-treatment are now adults, and many are desperately ill. This week, South African TV showed pictures of their emaciated bodies. 
 
The case took a macabre new turn on Thursday, when between 200 and 250 unmarked graves were discovered next to a mine dump in Prieska, near Kimberley. South Africa's ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is backing the claimants, believes the graves are those of asbestos workers who died during the apartheid era. 
 
&quot;Delegates to our World Congress were outraged to hear about this case and about the latest discoveries,&quot; Higgs said today. &quot;There were immediate consultations between British delegates and the NUM, and they agreed that the cases must be heard in Britain without further ado.&quot; 
 
Both British and South African ICEM delegates went on South African TV last night to call for the immediate hearing of the claims in Britain and the payment of full compensation. 
 
The asbestos victims and their supporters in the Northern Cape are planning a protest march to urge the House of Lords to allow their case to be heard in Britain.

Asbestos: South Africans&#039; Case Should Be Heard In Britain

Just as Australian unions, asbestos victims and renegade building materials firm James Hardie were getting close last week to resolving an A$2 billion shortfall in an asbestos liability fund, the company&rsquo;s CEO and CFO resigned, taking a combined A$10 million severance package. Peter Macdonald and Peter Shafron still face Australian criminal charges on misleading investors and other deceptive stock market practices by establishing and then underfunding an asbestos victims fund. Hardie had cut its own liability in constructing the fund.

James Hardie’s Executives Take Massive Severance Payouts

A Swiss mega-union was created 16 October with the merger of four unions. The new union, called Unia, includes ICEM affiliate Syndicat Industrie &amp; Batiment (SIB) and now represents over one million workers. Unia covers Swiss workers from engineering to construction industries, and also in retail and catering sectors.

Four Unions Merge in Switzerland to Inform Unia

Affiliate CEP in Canada held its 6th National Convention in Quebec City and pledged to raise C$500,000 for HIV/AIDS relief in Africa. The money will be channelled through CEP&rsquo;s Humanity Fund which union members support by payroll deductions of one cent per hour. CEP also made a firm pledge to keep open the Mirimichi, New Brunswick, kraft pulp mill currently being shut by Finnish UPM Kymenne. By acclamation, Brian Payne was re-elected president of the 150,000-member CEP and Andre Foucault as secretary-treasurer.

CEP’s Congress in Canada Moves on Providing HIV/AIDS Relief

A week-long strike by ICEM affiliate Associated Mineworkers of Zimbabwe (AMWZ) ended 13 October with agreement by the Chamber of Mines to enter arbitration over a wage dispute. Specifically, to enter into wage talks quarterly, as promised by the employers&rsquo; group early this year. AMWZ won a ruling last month that financial incentives granted mine owners by the government and reserve bank must be passed to workers. The Chamber was appealing that ruling, thus the strike by 25,000 workers in coal, platinum, chrome, gold and other minerals. The AMWZ is insistent on quarterly wage bargaining since Zimbabwe&rsquo;s inflation rate runs at near 600%.

Zimbabwe’s Miners Come to Terms’s with Chamber of Mines

The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation held a mass rally and march across several industrial areas of Lahore. The demonstration was against government policies restricting wage hikes and collective bargaining, as well as rampant retrenchments and price hikes. Similar protest meetings were held in several industrial cities across Pakistan. The protests continued with a major march in Rawalpindi on 6 October.

Pakistan Labour Marches Against Government’s Labour Stand

Dutch affiliate FNV Bondgenoten continued its lead in protesting NL government&rsquo;s planned budget cuts last week. Some 200 union protestors barricaded the offices of the Social Affairs Ministry in The Hague 20 October to remind ministers that cuts to social programmes are unacceptable. Six days earlier, transport workers staged a nationwide 24-hour strike and tomorrow metal workers will strike factories and workplaces in protest to the government&rsquo;s widely unpopular austerity measures.

Bondgenoten Blocks Entrances of NL’s Social Affairs Ministry

Archive

Chernobyl To Close: What About the Workers?

Ukrainian Nuclear Workers Paid at Last

Inco Lock-Out Hits Nickel Supplies

Asbestos: South Africans' Case Should Be Heard In Britain

James Hardie’s Executives Take Massive Severance Payouts

Four Unions Merge in Switzerland to Inform Unia

CEP’s Congress in Canada Moves on Providing HIV/AIDS Relief

Zimbabwe’s Miners Come to Terms’s with Chamber of Mines

Pakistan Labour Marches Against Government’s Labour Stand

Bondgenoten Blocks Entrances of NL’s Social Affairs Ministry

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