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Global industrial unions today called for a new world body at ministerial level &quot;with a broad brief to cover all aspects of HIV/AIDS policy and strategy&quot;. 
 
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has made a global strategic review essential, says the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Meeting in Brussels today, its Executive called for the creation of a ministerial-level Intergovernmental Standing Committee (IGSC) on HIV/AIDS. 
 
&quot;The UN has begun to tackle the HIV/AIDS issue, particularly as regards the provision of assistance to African countries,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs said today. But &quot;this is an inadequate approach,&quot; he insisted. &quot;It would be a mistake to concentrate on just one region, as this could deny funds to others in equal need. HIV/AIDS is a global problem which must be solved through global coordination.&quot; 
 
The IGSC should have &quot;a small permanent secretariat (say 3-4 persons),&quot; the ICEM suggests, and could perhaps be based at the headquarters of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva. 
 
Priority issues would be: 
 
EQUITY in access to medicines and medical infrastructure; in the balance between patent protection and the right to produce and market generics (cut-price &quot;copy drugs&quot;); and in human rights. 
 
CAPACITY - notably in relation to the economic situation of individual HIV/AIDS sufferers and of governments, and to production capacity for HIV/AIDS medicines. 
 
COORDINATION of HIV/AIDS-related activities, ranging from the local to the international level. 
 
COMMITMENT - by governments, by the pharmaceutical industry, by trade unions representing HIV/AIDS-affected workers and their families, by the international financial community and by international agencies and organisations involved in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 
 
The IGSC would also need to &quot;engage with international experts and with key stakeholder organisations,&quot; the ICEM points out. These include the WHO, UNAIDS, the World Bank, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the pharmaceutical industry and union internationals, notably the ICEM and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). 
 
The ICEM has particular interests in the HIV/AIDS issue. It represents the world's pharmaceutical workers. Another of its sectors is mining. An especially serious HIV/AIDS problem arises from the widespread use of hostels to house male mineworkers - either unmarried or separated from their families. Today, the ICEM again called on mining companies to end the &quot;hostel mentality&quot; and provide proper accommodation, including for families.

HIV/AIDS - Unions Call For World Strategy

As Thai unions prepare for a protest march in Bangkok tomorrow, industrial unions worldwide are declaring solidarity with their main demands. 
 
Key goals of the demonstration are wage rises and the scrapping of a draft anti-labour law. 
 
Organised by the electricity workers, the march will bring together representatives of 30 Thai unions. It will start at Bangkok's Victory monument, announced Banlue Hengprasert, leader of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) Labour Union. He said the march will end with a demonstration in front of the Labour Ministry, at around 6 pm local time. 
 
LIVING WAGE CALL 
 
On pay, the protesters will call for the legal minimum wage to be raised to 180 baht per day (just under four US dollars). They want the same rate to apply nationwide. At present, Bangkok and five suburban provinces have a daily minimum rate of 165 Baht. Six other provinces are on 143 Baht a day. In the rest of Thailand, the daily rate is 133 Baht. 
 
In practice, the minimum is often the maximum. Most Thai workers are on the legal minimum, but many in small- and medium-scale enterprises are actually paid below it. The legal minimum rate is set in national negotiations between the employers, the government and the various trade union confederations. Due partly to internal divisions, the national union centres have often been at a disadvantage in these talks, and there is widespread dissatisfaction with the minimum rates. In Bangkok, a family cannot live on much less than 500 Baht a day. 
 
Where industrial or company-level unions exist, their scope for bargaining with individual employers is severely circumscribed. They can, however, negotiate on annual increments, shift allowances and various fringe benefits. In some industries, unions have been able to secure substantial improvements in total real earnings. Thus, while average industrial earnings in 1998 were 4174.82 Baht per month, the figures for the same year in the paper manufacturing, chemical and food processing industries were 7998.91 Baht, 6721.42 Baht and 5412.89 Baht respectively. 
 
Now, though, many Thai employers have taken to demanding give-backs - in other words, cuts in allowances and benefits. And so, at a time of mounting inflation, average total earnings may actually fall. 
 
ANTI-UNION LAW OPPOSED 
 
Worse still, a law now in the pipeline would further weaken collective bargaining and the right to strike. This would inevitably depress wages, so the draft law is a second focus of tomorrow's protests. 
 
The Thai government has been pushing hard to get its Labour Relations Act on to the statute book. The law would give the labour minister sweeping new powers to impose arbitration. In effect, he could end any labour dispute by decree. He could also order unions not to demand wage rises - and employers not to pay them. These powers could be invoked for reasons of &quot;national security&quot; or &quot;public order&quot; but also in the case of undefined &quot;serious economic problems&quot;. 
 
Behind these harsh provisions, local commentators see the hand of the International Monetary Fund. Complying with IMF conditions - and appeasing foreign investors - is a major plank of Thai government policy during the current economic downturn. But if the government presses ahead with the legislation, it is likely to run into opposition both from the unions and from the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). As it stands, the law would breach ILO Conventions on collective bargaining and the right to strike. 
 
The unions want the government to drop the legislation, and instead to adopt a union draft that protects worker rights. 
 
Thailand is a touchstone for living standards and labour rights in newly industrialised countries. Asian and global industrial unions have therefore swung behind the Thai marchers' demands. Meeting today, the Asia-Pacific regional committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) declared full solidarity with the Thai unions. Similar statements are likely this week from the ICEM's global Executive and its women's committee, both of which will be meeting in Brussels. 
 
The EGAT Labour Union, which is organising the Bangkok demonstration, has applied for affiliation to the ICEM - a request that will come up for approval by the ICEM Executive this week. A number of the other Thai unions involved are already ICEM affiliates. Action on the Thai wage issue, in particular, was discussed during the ICEM Asia-Pacific regional women's conference in Bangkok this March. 
 
Other demands at tomorrow's march in Bangkok will be the immediate implementation of an unemployment insurance scheme; the extension of social insurance - including hospital coverage - to all workers; the doubling of child welfare payments; and the ending of a long lock-out at a textile factory. 
 
The unions have repeatedly put all the demands to the Labour Minister and his deputy, but have not received any adequate response.

Thai Labour Demo Draws Global Support

90 percent of Turkish glass production has been halted by a strike launched on 24 May. 

<img height="157" alt="" src="" width="380" />
photo: Kristal-İş 
Called by the glass, cement, ceramic and earth workers' union Kristal-İş, the strike has hit major glass production companies within Turkey's Şişe-Cam group. Some 6,000 workers are involved. 
 
The main issues are pay and subcontracting. The union has been negotiating a new collective agreement with Şişe-Cam since last December, but bargaining broke down over the employers' refusal to consider wage increases in line with inflation. Şişe-Cam insists that real pay will have to go down. The employers say that the International Monetary Fund programme for Turkey calls for cuts in workers' purchasing power. 
<img height="182" alt="" src="" width="380" />
photo: Kristal-İş 

Subcontracting of labour is on the increase in the Turkish glass industry, and Kristal-İş is firmly opposed to this trend. Kristal-İş also wants an assurance that all Şişe-Cam workers who want to join the union will be allowed to do so. Managers in some Şişe-Cam subsidiaries have been denying workers the right to organise, Kristal-İş says. 
 
At the global level, Kristal-İş is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
Subcontracting of labour is on the increase in the Turkish glass industry, and Kristal-İş is firmly opposed to this trend. Kristal-İş also wants an assurance that all Şişe-Cam workers who want to join the union will be allowed to do so. Managers in some Şişe-Cam subsidiaries have been denying workers the right to organise, Kristal-İş says. At the global level, Kristal-İş is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Turkish Glass Strike Over Pay and Subcontracting

Norwegian electricity workers will strike this Friday over proposed legal changes that could allow large-scale outsourcing of jobs in the industry. 
 
The draft law is seen as a prelude to privatisation of the country's electricity sector, which is now mainly under state and municipal control. So far, the government has ignored calls from the power workers' union EL &amp; IT and the national labour confederation LO to withdraw the legislation. 
 
A first two-hour protest strike on 11 May will bring out 4,500 electricity workers across the country, EL &amp; IT announced yesterday. Altogether, the Norwegian power industry employs about 18,000 people. 
 
The union argues that outsourcing would compromise both security of supply and work safety. It would also pose a threat to electricity workers' jobs and employment conditions. 
 
At the global level, EL &amp; IT is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The strike was announced as the Norwegian trade union confederation LO was holding its annual congress. EL &amp; IT delegates to the congress, which is continuing, asked the Norwegian trade union movement as a whole to express support for the strike and to oppose electricity privatisation. Market-oriented restructuring in the sector had already resulted in higher prices to the consumer, EL &amp; IT's Svein Davidsen told the congress. Privatisation would mean &quot;centralisation and foreign ownership&quot;, and therefore the end of local control. 
 
The LO congress also heard a call for a tenfold increase in Norway's consumption of natural gas by the year 2010. A resolution tabled by the ICEM-affiliated oil and petrochemical workers' union NOPEF argues that greater industrial use of Norwegian gas reserves would cut pollution and boost employment. 
 
A switch to gas-fired electricity generation could cut Norway's CO2 emissions by 60 percent, NOPEF's Lars Myhre told the congress. Myhre, who chairs the ICEM energy workers' section, also said more gas should be used as a feedstock for Norwegian industry - notably the petrochemical sector, which &quot;stands ready to expand its activities if access to gas as a raw material is ensured.&quot; To that end, he called for the construction of a new gas pipeline to Norway's industrial Grenland region. Transport was another sector where greater use of gas would cut pollution, Myhre said. A transition to gas-powered ferries would create many new jobs, he pointed out. 
 
In similar vein, a motion to the LO congress from the ICEM-affiliated Norwegian chemical workers' union NKIF calls for the recuperation of energy from industrial processes. With proper public support, the union argues, Norwegian industry alone could retrieve almost 10 terawatt hours of energy per year from its own production processes. 
 
 
 
POSTSCRIPT: STRIKE SUCCEEDED WITHOUT HAPPENING 
 
Thanks to intensive union lobbying, and to the strike announcement by EL &amp; IT, a majority of Norwegian members of parliament had agreed by 10 May to vote against the draft legal changes to which the unions objected. The strike was therefore called off at the last minute, having achieved its aims just before it was held. The formal parliamentary vote will take place towards the end of this month.

Norwegian Power Strike Called Over Outsourcing Plan

Tomorrow is the fifteenth anniversary of the world's worst-ever nuclear accident. 
 
This is the moment to reflect on the future of the nuclear industry, says the energy workers' international ICEM, and particularly on ways of tackling the social problems raised by nuclear decommissioning. 
 
On 26 April 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, in Ukraine, exploded. Radiation spread far and near. Many of the workers and soldiers sent in to clean up the site died of radiation-related illnesses, and many more were permanently disabled. The long-term public health impact of the disaster is still being evaluated. Known effects include an increase in thyroid cancers among children in the worst-hit areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. 
 
A concrete &quot;sarcophagus&quot; was built over the devastated reactor, but this protective structure is known to be cracking. The international community has pledged more than 700 million US dollars towards sealing off the Chernobyl reactors. However, the full cost of closing and decommissioning the plant is likely to be higher than that. In addition, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development may soon provide a further 200 million dollars for the construction of two new nuclear reactors in Ukraine. 
 
On 15 December last year, the only reactor still operating at Chernobyl was shut down forever, and the station no longer generates power. 
 
&quot;Tomorrow is a time to remember all those who were killed and injured in the drive to contain the effects of the disaster,&quot; commented Fred Higgs in Brussels, &quot;but it is also a time to make real social provision for the Chernobyl workers of today.&quot; 
 
Higgs is General Secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The 20-million-strong ICEM represents electricity workers worldwide, including those in the nuclear industry. 
 
&quot;The world owes a great debt to those who sacrificed their lives and health in order to limit the build-up of radiation after the Chernobyl disaster,&quot; Higgs said. &quot;One thing that we can and must do now is to ensure that a proper social plan is put in place for the Chernobyl workers and their families, so that they do not suffer unduly from the effects of the shutdown. The international community has found large funds to tackle the physical radiation from Chernobyl. It must also help to limit the social fall-out.&quot; 
 
The Ukrainian nuclear workers' union ATU is an ICEM affiliate. Together, the ATU and the international have mounted a sustained campaign to ensure that both the Ukrainian government and the international community fund an adequate social plan for workers displaced by the Chernobyl closure. This is all the more urgent because the Chernobyl workers and their families are concentrated in the town of Slavutich, which was built to house them outside the most contaminated zone. The Slavutich economy is dependent on the power station.
&nbsp;Last year, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a social plan for Slavutich, and the national and local authorities have already begun to put it into effect. The reduction in the Chernobyl workforce will be gradual. Of the 10,000 or so Chernobyl workers, about 1,700 will lose their jobs this year. But decommissioning will keep some employed up to 2008, and possibly beyond. In the interim, the government has brought in measures to guarantee the incomes of dismissed Chernobyl workers. 
 
International assistance is still needed, though - notably to start up new small-scale enterprises in Slavutich, as a way of creating jobs. 
 
And, as a recent ICEM-organised conference in Kiev heard, Slavutich may have to tackle particular health issues, such as the stress-related problems caused both by working at Chernobyl and by the protracted wrangling over its closure. 
 
Held in the Ukrainian capital on 9-11 April, the ICEM conference brought together nuclear industry trade unionists from the Ukraine, but also from a number of other countries. There was, for example, strong representation from Lithuania and Bulgaria - two countries that will face similar decommissioning problems. 
Held in the Ukrainian capital on 9-11 April, the ICEM conference brought together nuclear industry trade unionists from the Ukraine, but also from a number of other countries. There was, for example, strong representation from Lithuania and Bulgaria - two countries that will face similar decommissioning problems. 
 
Conference participants said that nuclear is and will remain an important energy source, but they also recognised that the industry raises major safety issues. They called for international assistance for the decommissioning of Chernobyl, as well as for job creation and medical assistance to the Chernobyl workers. And they urged the ICEM to lobby for the safe and socially responsible decommissioning of nuclear power plants. It was suggested that interested ICEM affiliates should set up an informal contact group to develop a strategy for the social and economic protection of nuclear workers when their stations are decommissioned. 
 
At the same time, ICEM representatives at the meeting made it clear that international social action on behalf of Ukraine's workers could not be divorced from political developments within the country. Corruption and attacks on democracy would make it more difficult to mobilise international support. 
 
&quot;The longer-term future of the nuclear industry is uncertain,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs today. &quot;On the one hand, there are quite legitimate public concerns about the safety of nuclear plants and about the storage of nuclear waste. On the other hand, nuclear power generation produces virtually no emissions of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide or nitrogen oxide. So, in view of the need to tackle global warming, nuclear may continue to be part of the world's energy mix for some considerable time. 
 
&quot;What can be said with confidence,&quot; Higgs pointed out,&quot;is that nuclear power generation will be needed in many countries in the short- to medium-term. It emerged very clearly from our Kiev conference, and from our previous conferences of nuclear workers, that the industry can function only if it has the full confidence of the public. And it will have that confidence only if it is entirely frank about all the issues involved, including safety. So, on the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's nuclear workers call upon the industry to ensure full, complete and open public information about its operations, including prompt information on any incidents. Nothing less than complete transparency will do. 
 
&quot;But at the same time,&quot; Higgs added, &quot;it is clear that many nuclear power stations will have to be decommissioned in the near future. The problems are particularly pressing, and particularly daunting, in countries that have Soviet-designed reactors, but the issue will ultimately confront all the countries that use nuclear power. Of the world's 430 existing reactors, 150 were built before 1980. Thirty years is a typical age for a nuclear plant, even though many governments are extending the life of these stations.&quot; 
 
Certainly, many countries will be concerned. 
 
Nuclear generation currently provides some 17 percent of the world's electricity - about the same as hydro power. Three countries - France, Belgium and Lithuania - rely on nuclear power for more than 50 percent of their supply. In another twelve countries, including Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and Ukraine, nuclear plants produce 30 percent or more of the electricity. And a large number of developing nations, including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico and Pakistan, have operational nuclear power plants. 
 
Especially in parts of Asia, energy demand is growing rapidly and nuclear is seen as an attractive option. Japan, Korea and China are among the countries that have ambitious nuclear power programmes for the next few decades. In 1999, 38 new reactors were reported to be under construction in the world, with a total capacity of 31700 megawatts. However, in major nuclear producing countries such as the US, the UK, France and Germany, no new capacity is being planned. 
 
&quot;Socially, as well as technically and environmentally, the world has every interest in getting the Chernobyl closure right,&quot; Higgs concluded. &quot;The decommissioning of Chernobyl is just the first case among many.&quot;

Chernobyl on 15th Anniversary: Unions Tackle Social Fall-Out

Trade unions in the world's pharmaceutical industry have welcomed the decision by 39 leading drug companies to drop their lawsuit against the South African government. 
 
And the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) today launched a campaign for a new global initiative against HIV/AIDS. The ICEM represents pharmaceutical workers worldwide. 
 
The unconditional ending of the court case by the companies sets an important precedent for access to medication in developing countries. 
 
To protect their patents, the major drug corporations had been seeking to stop the implementation of a South African law aimed at providing cheaper medicines. The law, which can now go ahead, permits the country's health minister to use parallel importation of drugs, compulsory licensing and generic substitution (cut-price &quot;copy&quot; drugs) where necessary. 
 
The measure is particularly important to the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest rates of HIV infection.
A wide range of organisations had pressed the companies to drop the case. Prominent among the campaigners were the South African trade unions and the ICEM. 
 
At a brief court hearing in South Africa today, the companies unconditionally withdrew their lawsuit, and agreed to pay the South African government's costs. 
 
&quot;The companies took the right decision,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Tokyo today. 
 
&quot;Many pharmaceutical companies are already mobilising to make effective treatments available in developing countries at affordable prices,&quot; Higgs pointed out. &quot;Those efforts deserve full recognition. The world's pharmaceutical workers are doing a vital job. They want to be proud of their industry. 
 
&quot;Lawsuits against developing countries are not the way forward,&quot; Higgs said. &quot;Neither are cases brought through the World Trade Organisation. The WTO should refuse to consider any cases that aim to reduce access to affordable medication. 
&quot;As part of the ICEM's programme to combat HIV/AIDS, we believe that South Africa and other countries must have the right to buy the appropriate pharmaceuticals at prices that they can afford,&quot; Higgs emphasised. 
 
&quot;The pharmaceutical companies should build new alliances with governments worldwide in the fight against AIDS and other diseases that threaten humankind,&quot; Higgs said. &quot;The ICEM is now calling for a new intergovernmental committee at the ministerial level - perhaps under the auspices of the World Health Organisation - to produce a coherent global policy for tackling AIDS. Its remit must include getting effective drugs to developing countries at affordable prices. We want the pharmaceutical companies to play a full and active part in this initiative, and I will be contacting them to that effect immediately.&quot;

Unions Launch Anti-AIDS Drive: Firms&#039; Ending of SA Lawsuit Welcome

Colombian cement workers' leader Jaime Alberto Duque Castro has been abducted by paramilitaries, Amnesty International reports. 
 
On behalf of cement and allied workers worldwide, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) has called upon the Colombian government to ensure that he is released immediately and unharmed. 
 
Duque Castro is the President of the El Cairo Cement Workers' Union (SUTIMAC). Reports received by Amnesty say that he was abducted on 24 March. He and other trade unionists were watching a football match in Santa Barbara, Antioquia, when the paramilitaries seized him. They reportedly beat him up before taking him away. 
 
The Amnesty account links the kidnapping to the United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia (AUC), a network of paramilitaries who allegedly have connections with the Colombian armed forces. The AUC had reportedly been keeping SUTIMAC under surveillance before the abduction. 
 
The AUC have often been accused of carrying out other abductions and murders of trade unionists - including the execution-style shooting of miners' leaders Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita earlier this month. 
 
&quot;Last year alone, at least 129 Colombian trade unionists were murdered,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;Unless and until the authorities make a real effort to investigate these crimes, and bring them to an end, the suspicion must remain that the gunmen are not acting alone.&quot;

Colombian Union Leader Kidnapped

Canada's Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) has reached a settlement with Petro-Canada which sets a pattern for about 10,000 CEP members at major oil, gas and petrochemical companies across the country. 
 
The new agreement, announced yesterday, provides wage increases of 9.5 per cent over the next three years - 3.5 per cent in the first year, and three per cent in each of the following two years. 
 
The proposal was accepted by delegates representing workers from coast to coast in the oil, gas and petrochemical industry at a special conference this past weekend. 
 
&quot;We're pleased that we were able to avoid a national strike and obtain an acceptable settlement at the bargaining table,&quot; said CEP President Brian Payne. Some outstanding issues remain to be solved in local negotiations, he added. 
 
At the global level, the CEP is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

Wage hike for Canadian oil workers

Joining the European Union means working one-third more and kissing goodbye to the five-day week. 
 
That, at least, is what the Hungarian government is trying to tell the country's workers. 
 
It has tabled amendments to the Hungarian Labour Code that would seriously undermine workers' legal rights. The government argues that the anti-labour proposals are needed to bring Hungarian law into line with EU directives. Hungary aims to be one of the first Central European countries to join the EU. 
 
The draft legislation will be put to the vote before the end of this month. That is why all of Hungary's union confederations are joining together in a demonstration tomorrow (Saturday 24 March) against the proposed changes. 
 
According to the country's Federation of Chemical, Energy and General Workers' Unions (VDSz), the amendments would: 
 
- extend the working week up to 48 hours 
- eliminate the daily work break 
- oblige employees to work six days instead of five days per week 
- increase the maximum amount of overtime from 144 hours to 300 hours per year 
- reduce the weekly rest period by two hours 
- considerably expand the definition of seasonal work. 
 
And even before the parliamentary vote, the proposed changes are having an industrial impact. 
 
&quot;In several workplaces within the chemical industry, the weekly working time is 36 hours,&quot; explains VDSz President Gy&ouml;rgy Pasztern&aacute;k. &quot;The employers, encouraged by the government proposals, decided to increase weekly work times to 48 hours. So in these cases, working hours will increase by more than 30 percent. In the case of other workers, currently on a 40-hour week, it means a 20 percent increase. 
 
&quot;But wages will remain the same,&quot; Pasztern&aacute;k points out. &quot;The government and the employers say this is in line with European principles, which lay down a 48-hour working week.&quot; 
 
The government and employer claims are, of course, nonsense - as Fred Higgs points out in a letter to the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orb&aacute;n. 
 
Higgs is General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the VDSz is affiliated at the global level. 
 
&quot;Mr. Orb&aacute;n,&quot; Higgs writes, &quot;I'm afraid your government's proposal shows a complete misunderstanding of European Union legislation. The whole EU social policy and directives aim to improve labour standards in Member States, not to reduce the protection of workers. In reality, working hours have been cut during the past decade, and in most EU member states, the regular working week is now well under 40 hours. Recent reports in France show that the government's decision to cut the working week to 35 hours has produced tens of thousands of new jobs. This clearly demonstrates that shorter working hours are an efficient policy in the fight against unemployment.&quot; 
 
And Higgs has sent a copy of his letter to Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission. 
 
Because when it comes to European harmony, Viktor Orb&aacute;n is singing the wrong tune.

Hungarian unions fight longer hours

The Colombian government must act now to halt the continuing wave of assassinations directed against trade unionists. 
 
That was the call today from the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) following a new upsurge of killings in Colombia. 
 
The ICEM condemned the brutal murder this Monday of two mining union activists employed at a coal mine in northern Colombia. The mine is owned by the US-based multinational Drummond. 
 
Valmore Locarno Rodr&iacute;guez and Victor Hugo Orcasita, President and Vice-President of the mine workers' local union at Loma mine, were pulled from a company-chartered bus while on their way to work. They were shot execution-style by gunmen, some of them dressed in military uniforms. The other miners on the bus were forced to witness the killings. 
 
In a protest over the murders, the mine's 1,200 workers struck, halting all production. The miners are members of ICEM affiliate Sintracarbon, the Colombian national mine workers' union. 
 
&quot;We utterly condemn these vile murders,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs today, &quot;and we demand that the Colombian government bring the perpetrators to justice without delay. These killings are just the latest in a long series of assassinations directed against trade union activists in Colombia. Last year alone, at least 129 Colombian trade unionists were murdered. Unless and until the authorities make a real effort to investigate these crimes, and bring them to an end, the suspicion must remain that the gunmen are not acting alone.&quot; 
 
Higgs also called for a full investigation into the recent death of Dario Hoyos. 
 
Hoyos was murdered in unexplained circumstances in his home town of Fusagasug&aacute; earlier this month. No further details have emerged about the killing. Dario Hoyos used to be the Colombian coordinator for the Miners' International Federation, a forerunner of the present ICEM. &quot;This was a tragic end to a life devoted to the defence of the Colombian workers,&quot; Higgs said. 
 
Meanwhile, the murder of the Loma mine leaders has also drawn protests from miners in the USA, where the Drummond company is headquartered. Last year, Drummond decided to close most of its US coal mines and begin operating new mines in Colombia. 
 
&quot;We strongly condemn these assassinations of our trade union brothers,&quot; said American union leader Jerry Jones today. Jones is Vice-President of the ICEM-affiliated United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). He is also an ICEM Vice-President. 
 
&quot;When Drummond chose to switch many of its operations to Colombia,&quot; Jones pointed out, &quot;it did so knowing that country's hostile political climate and egregious human rights violations. The UMWA would hope that Monday's assassinations might make Drummond rethink its decision. The UMWA's prayers and condolences go out to the families, friends and co-workers of Brothers Locarno and Orcasita, and we offer our full support and solidarity to the Colombian mine workers' union

Colombian Miners&#039; Leaders Murdered

Archive

HIV/AIDS - Unions Call For World Strategy

Thai Labour Demo Draws Global Support

Turkish Glass Strike Over Pay and Subcontracting

Norwegian Power Strike Called Over Outsourcing Plan

Chernobyl on 15th Anniversary: Unions Tackle Social Fall-Out

Unions Launch Anti-AIDS Drive: Firms' Ending of SA Lawsuit Welcome

Colombian Union Leader Kidnapped

Wage hike for Canadian oil workers

Hungarian unions fight longer hours

Colombian Miners' Leaders Murdered

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