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Global worker No1 2022

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S afety and health in the volatile industrial sectors in which workers represented by ICEM affiliates are employed continues to be major focus of the 20-million-member global union federation. The predominant trade union federation covering mining, chemicals, energy and process industries vows on 28 April 2004-Workers' Memorial Day-to continue its work in promoting a safe and healthy work culture worldwide. 
 
28 April is officially known as the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, and has seen official legislation adopting that day as such by 12 nations. The ICEM in early March issued a circular to its 400 affiliates in 125 countries encouraging them to draw attention to the day in some official manner. 
 
&quot;Workers' Memorial Day is gaining local, national and international recognition with each passing year,&quot; stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;But, important as the day is to draw attention to those who perished or have been injured at work, April 28th must become a day in which we focus on what workers and their unions can do to improve everyday workplace health and safety.&quot; 
 
Higgs added that the ICEM has committed to carrying forward-looking health and safety language into all the Global Framework Agreements it signs with multinational firms. &quot;Such agreements crucially contain a commitment to the development and promotion of the highest health and safety standards in the company concerned,&quot; said Higgs. 
 
The ICEM's Global Agreements now numbering eight provide the framework for ongoing dialogue, information exchange and joint activities with signatory companies that are vital components of a longer-term programme for health and safety improvements. 
 
The ILO estimates 2.2 million people die annually due to their work. That amounts to 6,000 deaths a day, or one every 15 seconds. In addition, workers suffer 270 million occupational accidents and 160 million occupational diseases each year. The ILO also states that twice as many men than woman die at work because they are more likely to perform dangerous tasks. 
 
On 28 April 2004, the ICEM has endorsed a twin theme for workers and affiliates to follow: a World Day for Safe and Healthy Work, and Employer Accountability. The Safe and Healthy Work theme focuses on promoting a clear position on a world asbestos ban, as well as stringent actions in safe use of pesticides, industrial compounds and byproducts such as PCB variations and dioxins. The goal is to link safe use and union activities promoting such with the principles drawn from work performed by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. 
 
Employer Accountability calls on private sector employers to adhere to the key institutional mechanisms such as ILO Conventions, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN's Global Compact and Global Reporting Initiative. This also relates to all levels of governments since they are both employers and guardians of the public interest regarding private sector enterprises.

28 April: A Day to Focus Improvement on Safe, Healthy Worksites

T he 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) is calling on mining and other major companies in energy and oil supply in sub-Saharan Africa to join with the global union federation to provide medical clinics with fully trained staff in the fight against HIV/AIDS at all major workplace locations. 
 
That and other initiatives emerged from a two-day, ICEM-sponsored forum for 34 senior African trade union leaders from ten nations here at the Elijah Barayi Training Center of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). &quot;We succeeded here today with an initiative to overcome the health care infrastructure deficit that is so common across Africa,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. 
 
The 28-30 March retreat also introduced a trade union structure to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. ICEM affiliates in each country will designate a union leader to serve as an ICEM National Coordinator on the HIV/AIDS issue. The ICEM is confident funding for workplace clinics and the badly needed anti-retroviral drug treatments and logistics to sustain the effort is within reach. 
 
The ICEM has been engaged in complex dialogue with the major pharmaceutical companies for over a year to provide drug therapies at little or no cost to persons living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world. 
 
&quot;We recognise that some global mining concerns do have formal agreements with ICEM affiliates in Africa for education and awareness programmes on this deadly pandemic, and we are determined this work be continued and expanded,&quot; stated Higgs. &quot;We now ask that mining and other employers join with us in this initiative that will take the fight to a higher level to assure a greater chance for success.&quot; 
 
The ICEM envisions fully-equipped medical clinics will provide a basic infrastructure for drug treatments, and will be open to employees, family members of employees and persons in communities around the major worksites. 
 
&quot;Trade unions across Africa realize the vital role they need to play on the HIV/AIDS pandemic,&quot; stated Senzeni Zokwana, president of the NUM and an organizer of the conference. &quot;We pledge to put forward the maximum effort-and where possible, in partnership with employers-to take on these workplace initiatives. 
 
&quot;Obviously in the fight against HIV/AIDS, we will need coordinated international cooperation, and we feel we will get that via the ICEM.&quot; 
 
The two-day retreat of African union leaders in the mining and energy sectors was the second such conference held on HIV/AIDS. In February 2001, ICEM and NUM held a similar forum here that saw African unions return home to undertake model awareness and preventative programmes at worksites, as well as training of peer educators. Higgs stressed that today's announcement is meant to consolidate that exemplary work with a structured regional and global response in order to take those programmes to the next progression. 
 
The ICEM, with 425 affiliated unions in 121 countries, is strategically positioned for such a direct role in the HIV/AIDS fight because it not only represents chemical workers in the pharmaceutical industry at the major drug-producing firms, but also workers and family members hardest hit by the virus in mining and mineral extraction sectors of the developing world. The ICEM also is seeking support for a full-time staff member at its Brussels-based headquarters to oversee HIV/AIDS programmes across the world. 
 
Trade union leaders from the ten sub-Saharan African nations represented at the retreat came from: Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

ICEM Calls for Worksite Clinics to Treat HIV/AIDS

The ICEM has condemned the brutal assault on a Ukrainian trade union leader's son, and is asking its 400 affiliated unions in 125 countries to protest in the strongest terms possible to the Ukrainian embassies in their home countries.
<img height="234" src="" width="350" alt="" />
Ukrainian police grab Miners&rsquo; Union President 
and member of Parliament Mikhail Volynets at 
demonstration in front of a mine last year.
On the afternoon of 7 March, Andriy Volynets, the 24-year-old son of Miners' Independent Trade Union President Mikhail Volynets who is a member of Ukraine's Parliament, was abducted near his home in Kiev by two black-uniformed men in a van and over a period of six hours, was bludgeoned to near death. 
 
Andriy Volynets is now in serious condition in a Kiev neurological hospital suffering from severe internal hemorrhaging and multiple concussions. The Miners' Union is an affiliate of the ICEM, and Mikhail Volynets is also president of the newly formed Confederation of Free Trade Unions (CFTU) of Ukraine. 

<img height="251" src="" width="350" alt="" /> 
 
Mikhail Volynets (right) speaks with ICFTU Gen. Sec. 
Guy Ryder at the ICEM Congress last August. 
(At center is CFTUU Intl Officer Ludmila Volynets) 
The kidnapping and beating of young Volynets appear to be an act of political intimidation aimed at dissuading Mikhail Volynets of his support inside Ukraine's Rada to a coalition opposing the re-election of President Leonid Kuchma. Ukrainian elections are scheduled for October of this year. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs has written directly to Kuchma about the incident with a copy of that letter to the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations. 
 
&quot;Democracy will never take hold in Ukraine if these kind of cowardly deeds continue,&quot; stated the ICEM's Higgs. &quot;We call on the Ukrainian government to thoroughly investigate this horrible crime, to apprehend and to prosecute fully the perpetrators who did this to Andriy Volynets. 
 
&quot;We also call on affiliates of the ICEM to respond in kind and to write the Ukrainian ambassadors in their home countries in protest of such a vicious act, and to encourage a full investigation and prosecution.&quot; 
 
Andriy Volynets is an employee of a bank in Kiev and not involved in the political opposition. Mikhail Volynets told the ICEM that he clearly sees the beating as political retaliation aimed at him. He said that after a hospital doctor instructed him to leave his son's bedside to go out and get medicine in the early hours of 8 March, the police came to the hospital room to question the barely conscious Andriy. 
 
The kidnapping and beating also came days after Volynets and the CFTU of Ukraine held a press conference laying out numerous acts of repression and violations of trade union rights by the government of Ukraine. 
 

&nbsp;

Son of Miners&#039; Union President, Ukrainian MP Brutally Assaulted

T he 20-million-member ICEM called on the Thailand government of Prime Minister Thaskin Sinawatra to hold a citizens referendum to determine if the electric utility EGAT, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, should be privatised or not. 
 
In a letter to the Prime Minister last week, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs said, &quot;Mr Prime Minister, we would ask you to respond positively to the call for a referendum on privatisation. We urge you to halt any further unilateral government action and engage in a transparent process involving social dialogue with the trade union and civic bodies as a matter of urgency.&quot; 
 
The ICEM has staunchly stood behind its Thai Union affiliate, EGAT-LU, to oppose privatizing the utility, contending that privatisation of a country's essential services such as electricity or water inevitably lead to price hikes for consumers. EGAT-LU, representing some 27,500 workers at the utility, has been the lead union in rallying farmers, citizens' groups and some 40 other labour unions affiliated with the nation's State Enterprise Unions' Federation against a hurried initial public offering of EGAT on the Thailand Stock Exchange. 
 
The ICEM welcomed the Thai government's announcement on 1 March that it would delay the IPO, originally scheduled to occur in May, and also commended Prime Minister Sinawatra for admitting 6 March in a radio address that he had pushed the electric privatisation too fast without adequate explanation to the general public. 
 
Some 16 consecutive days of street protests, including strikes by EGAT workers at the utility's headquarters in Bang Kruai, Nonthaburi, no doubt convinced Sinawatra that the rush to privatisation did not have public support. Higgs said that the Prime Minister should now meet leaders of EGAT-LU and other concerned stakeholders, and then put in effect to have a national referendum over the matter. 
 
Last week's ICEM letter was the third such letter the global trade federation has written to Prime Minister Sinawatra over the issue of privatising the electric industry. The ICEM had also issued a worldwide call to its affiliates in the energy and electric industries to express their views to the Thai government over privatisation. Some 25 unions responded by registering their protests against the IPO.

ICEM Calls for Referendum on Thai Electric Privatisation

Union members of two ICEM affiliates rallied today against the anti-union practices of global paper company Sappi Ltd. outside the firm's Annual General Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

<img height="219" src="" width="350" alt="" />
PACE members from Michigan protest at Sappi AGM in Johannesburg 

Representatives of US-based Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, Energy (PACE) Workers Union joined union brothers and sisters from South African Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) to condemn the company's aggressive attempts to weaken workers' rights in both countries. 
 
The PACE delegation and CEPPWAWU leaders then gained entry to the AGM, while CEPPWAWU members continued to rally outside the firm's headquarters in the Braamfontein financial district of Johannesburg. 
 
&quot;We have taken this action to serve notice to Sappi management that its refusal to deal fairly with workers and their unions must come to an end,&quot; declared CEPPWAWU President Pasco Dyani, himself a Sappi employee at the Adamas paper mill in Port Elizabeth. &quot;We are pleased to join with union members from America to build the international solidarity necessary to confront Sappi's attacks on working families.&quot; 
 
CEPPWAWU represents workers at Sappi's seven paper mills across South Africa. The union is in dispute with the firm over management demands to unilaterally impose so-called &quot;labour market flexibility&quot; that would severely weaken the union's ability to protect workers' rights on the shop floor. 
 
In the US, PACE Union members have been without new labour agreements for over a year at two Sappi paper mills in Somerset and Westbrook, Maine. Sappi managers at those locations have proposed to drastically cut workers' income and health care benefits. Sappi has also proposed substantial cuts in retiree health benefits. PACE members at the two mills and a third US mill in Muskegon, Michigan, have formed a bargaining alliance to reject management's demands for concessions. 
 
&quot;Sappi stakeholders should understand that management's attempts to lower the living standards of working families and diminish the rights of workers on the shop floor places the company on a collision course with labour,&quot; stated Keith Romig, Director of National and International Affairs for PACE. 
 
The labour agreement at the Muskegon mill is scheduled to expire in June. Together, the three mills account for more than 80 percent of Sappi's fine paper production in North America, and 25% of production worldwide. 
 
The ICEM assisted the two affiliates' actions in Johannesburg today. While in South Africa, PACE, CEPPWAWU and ICEM representatives will lay a foundation for more effective cooperation among unions representing Sappi workers worldwide. 
 
&quot;Every Sappi mill in South Africa, Europe and North America is organized by trade unions affiliated with the ICEM,&quot; said ICEM Paper and Chemical Sectors Officer Marc Welters. &quot;By building stronger bonds between all unions at Sappi, workers will gain the strength to deal effectively with this company's hostile approach to labour relations.&quot;

US Union, CEPPWAWU Protest at Sappi AGM

T he Turkish government ignored a recent Supreme Court ruling permitting a nationwide glass strike by once again imposing a decree outlawing a strike by ICEM Kristal-İş. 
 
Kristal-İş struck 13 of 15 glass factories on 30 January, just days after the Turkish Supreme Court overruled the government on a glass strike. The government 8 December had imposed Article 33 of the nation's Law on Collective Agreements, Strikes and Lockouts claiming such a strike was a threat to &quot;national security.&quot; Kristal-İş represents 5,000 glass workers and is the union of choice for workers at 13 of 15 factories operated by the Sisecam Group, Turkey's dominant glass producer. 
 
&quot;It's outrageous that a country like Turkey that purports to be democratic would trample its own high court to bust a union,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;The government needs to radically change its attitude toward trade unions and repeal all remaining repressive labour legislation.&quot; 
 
Kristal-İş has been fighting for its very existence against the government and the country's glass-producing industry, controlled by the Sisecam Group and its wholly-owned subsidiary Pasabahce. In court case after court case, Kristal-İş has prevailed in proving it represents an overwhelming majority of workers in the glass industry. Sisecam and the employers association has challenged the union's right of representation, despite Kristal-İş membership in the glass industry. 
 
Last year, both a labour court and a higher court, on appeal, ruled that Kristal-İş met the representation criteria. But Sisecam and Pasabahce continued its harassment of the union. After 700 workers and subcontractors took up union membership at a relatively new Pasabahce plant in the city of Eskisehir last September, the company responded by firing 350 union activists. 
 
After Kristal-İş established a &quot;tent city&quot; for the sacked workers and their families in front of the factory, security forces came in on 7 November to destroy the encampment and arrested 100 Kristal-İş leaders. They were later released. 
 
When the union later issued a legal call for strike action, the government imposed Article 33, calling a glass strike a threat to national security. Following Supreme Court nullification of that decree in late January, the government this time used different language of the labour code to forbid a glass strike, categorizing it an &quot;undefined ban.&quot; Kristal-İş had effectively shut production at 13 of the glass plants from 30 January to 14 February.

Turkey Tramples Supreme Court to Ban Glass Strike Again

Worker shareholders at energy multinational Unocal&rsquo;s annual meeting in the US yesterday challenged the company&rsquo;s support for the Burmese military dictatorship. 
 
Representatives of the US national trade union federation AFL-CIO and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) supported two shareholder resolutions addressing Unocal&rsquo;s involvement in human rights abuses in Burma. 
 
One of the largest pension funds in the world, the California Public Employees&rsquo; Retirement System (CalPERS), announced that it was voting for the two resolutions. CalPERS has assets totalling more than US$ 151 billion. 
 
Proponents of the resolutions contend that the company&rsquo;s involvement in Burma creates substantial risk. Unocal is the only US-based company with significant direct investments in the Burmese oil and gas industry, one of the country&rsquo;s most strategic sectors. 
 
&quot;Working people who invest in Unocal want to make sure that the company isn&rsquo;t propping up the military regime in Burma, which condones forced labour and other human rights abuses,&quot; said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. &quot;It&rsquo;s about time that the company starts focusing on creating long-term sustainable value, which includes becoming a good corporate citizen and minimising its risk exposure to serious human rights violations.&quot; 
 
The first resolution, sponsored by the LongView Collective Investment Fund of the Amalgamated Bank of New York, urged the Unocal board of directors to adopt, implement and enforce a code of conduct based on workplace human rights standards set by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The second resolution, sponsored by Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, the Interfaith Center of Corporate Responsibility, As You Sow Foundation, and Walden Asset Management, urged the Unocal board of directors to appoint a special committee of the board to review ways to link executive compensation with the company&rsquo;s ethical and social performance. 
 
DISINVESTMENT CALLS GROW 
 
In November 2000, the ILO approved a resolution urging its member governments, employers and unions to &quot;review their relations with Burma&quot; and &quot;ensure that such relations do not perpetuate the system of forced or compulsory labour in that country.&quot; 
 
A recent proclamation issued by the ICEM's energy union affiliates from the Asia/Pacific region, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, called on oil and gas companies to &quot;cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues.&quot; The unions represented were from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The ICEM is a global trade union federation uniting more than 20 million workers. 
 
Yesterday's shareholder resolutions were voted down at the Unocal meeting, but they contributed to the growing disquiet among Unocal shareholders about the company's involvement in Burma. 
 
Unocal may face significant liabilities because of its investments there. The company is a participant in a US$ 1.2 billion joint venture with the Burmese government in the Yadana gas pipeline, a project on which forced labour was used. 
 
A lawsuit against Unocal by Burmese plaintiffs in a US district court in California was dismissed last August but is currently under appeal. Judge Ronald Lew stated in his opinion: &quot;The evidence does suggest that Unocal knew that forced labour was being utilised and the Joint Venturers (including Unocal) benefited from the practice.&quot; In addition, a federal court has now ruled that a similar case can proceed in a state court, addressing Unocal&rsquo;s involvement in human rights violations. 
 
Since the beginning of this year, Unocal has had a new CEO, Charles R. Williamson, and a new chairman of the board, John W. Creighton, raising expectations that the company will reassess its Burmese operations.

Burma Rights Violations: Unocal Urged to Withdraw

Worker shareholders are stepping up their global campaign to end corporate support for Burma's military dictatorship. 
 
At Halliburton's annual meeting in the US today, union representatives will speak in favour of a shareholder resolution addressing the company's involvement in human rights abuses in Burma. 
 
The union speakers will be from the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the US national labour federation AFL-CIO. 
 
Halliburton, the energy giant formerly headed by American Vice-President Dick Cheney, is one of the few US-based companies with investments in Burma. The Burmese government is noted for massive human rights violations and involvement in narcotics trafficking. 
 
The shareholder resolution, sponsored by the LongView Collective Investment Fund of the Amalgamated Bank of New York, urges the Halliburton board of directors to report on the company's operations in Burma. The resolution asks what steps Halliburton has taken to ensure &quot;that neither Halliburton nor any of its subsidiaries is involved in or appears to benefit from the use of forced labour or other human rights abuses in Burma.&quot; 
 
&quot;Working people who invest in Halliburton want to know if its operations in Burma prop up a military regime which condones forced labour and other human rights abuses,&quot; said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. &quot;The LongView resolution at Halliburton is a positive measure in the best interests of its shareholders that will lead toward compliance with internationally-recognised workers' rights.&quot; 
DISINVESTMENT CALL 
 
In November 2000, the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) approved a resolution urging members to &quot;review their relations with Burma&quot; and &quot;ensure that such relations do not perpetuate the system of forced or compulsory labour in that country.&quot; 
 
&quot;The ILO has clearly ruled that forced labour is continuing and systematic in Burma, and our energy unions in that region have made their views very plain,&quot; said Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary. &quot;We call upon Halliburton to disinvest from Burma. We cannot condone any economic activity which directly or indirectly supports the regime in Burma until full democracy and human rights, including workers' rights, are restored there.&quot; 
 
A recent proclamation issued by the ICEM's energy union affiliates from the Asia/Pacific region, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, called on oil and gas companies to &quot;cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labor continues.&quot; The unions represented were from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The ICEM is a global trade union federation uniting 20 million workers in 390 affiliated unions in 107 countries. 
 
Halliburton's recent activities in Burma include its participation in the Yadana pipeline, a project that used forced labour. The Yadana pipeline is one of the largest foreign investments in Burma, projected to provide the military-controlled regime with US$150-400 million annually for decades. Unocal, another US company doing business in Burma, is being sued by victims of forced labour on the Yadana project. Halliburton's involvement in the Yadana project occurred during Vice-President Cheney's tenure as CEO of the company. 
 
In addition, Halliburton has been instrumental in efforts to oppose sanctions on Burma through its strong involvement with USA-Engage and the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), two powerful industry groups. Vice-President Cheney last autumn defended his former company's operations on the CNN talkshow Larry King Live. Cheney stated that &quot;you have to operate in some very difficult places and oftentimes in countries that are governed in a manner that's not consistent with our principles here in the United States.&quot; 
 
&quot;The struggle for human and workplace rights in Burma has been critical for our union for many years,&quot; notes Joe Drexler, Director of Special Projects of ICEM American affiliate the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE). &quot;Our members don't want their retirement savings invested by Halliburton in brutal dictatorships that use forced labour. It's just wrong.&quot; PACE represents workers in the US oil and gas industry. 
 
The situation in Burma violates the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, including the right to no forced labour. Unions around the world have recently launched a campaign to make sure workers know these rights, distributing an ILO-produced poster (see below) in workplaces and communities worldwide.

Unions Challenge Halliburton Over Burma Ties

Shareholders in mining multinational BHP should vote against a proposed merger with Billiton plc. 
 
That is the call from seven unions representing most of BHP's Australian and New Zealand workers. 
 
Launched at a press conference in Australia yesterday, the joint union lobby includes a &quot;Vote No&quot; letter to BHP shareholders and an advertising campaign in the press. 
 
It is part of a groundswell of opposition to the merger deal. Corporate Governance International, which counsels large institutional investors, is understood to have advised rejection of the plan. 
 
The proposed merger between UK-based Billiton and Australian-headquartered BHP will be put to BHP shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting in Melbourne on 18 May. If the deal went through, it would create the second-largest natural resources company in the world. 
 
The unions say they have two main interests in the affair: 
 
&quot;Firstly, BHP's workforce is a major stakeholder in the company. Tens of thousands of Australians and New Zealanders - mostly union members - have laboured in BHP over the decades. These workers built the company and are entitled to know that any merger decisions are soundly-based, in our interests and that of the nation as a whole. Good business decisions enhance our security of employment. Poor decisions are inevitably paid for by the workforce as much as by shareholders. In the last decade, BHP workers have endured cost-cutting, retrenchments and work speed-ups to make up for losses sustained elsewhere. 
 
&quot;Secondly, many union members employed by BHP are shareholders in the company directly or via their savings in superannuation schemes and other investment vehicles. We are concerned that the merger proposal represents poor value for these investments in both the short and longer term.&quot; 
 
They argue that the deal is poorly structured because: 
 
- No independent report on the proposal has been released 
 
- BHP assets have been undervalued relative to those of Billiton 
 
- The merger proposal is earnings dilutive for BHP shareholders in the short term 
 
- BHP shares may trade at a discount to Billiton shares after the merger 
 
- Bonuses for top management cannot be voted on separately 
 
- Board accountability for medium term outcomes is not adequate. 
 
 
The seven unions are the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia; the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union; the Australian Workers Union; the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union; the Construction, Forestry, Mining &amp; Energy Union; the Maritime Union of Australia; and the New Zealand Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union. 
 
At the global level, most of them are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;We fully support the campaign by our Australian and New Zealand colleagues,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;Workers are stakeholders. The BHP workers have every right to question this proposal, which could put the future of their company at risk. We wish them success in securing a 'No' vote.&quot;

Mining Mega-Merger Opposed: BHP Deal with Billiton is Flawed

Pressure to end forced labour in Burma and restore democracy has been stepped up by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
In the USA, the ICEM today urged shareholders of energy multinational Unocal to support two Burma-related resolutions on human rights and ethical conduct, to be voted on at the company's upcoming May 21 annual meeting. 
 
Meanwhile, ICEM Asia-Pacific has launched a poster, leaflet and Internet campaign to rally support for the Burmese workers. It says that unions in the region should ask companies to pull out of Burma, and should, if necessary, prepare to organise consumer boycotts of any firms that refuse to do so. 
 
&quot;The ICEM has consistently pressed multinational companies in its industries to withdraw from Burma until full democracy and human rights, including trade union rights, are restored there,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;Through the US shareholder lobby, the Asia-Pacific action and other means, we are now intensifying that campaign.&quot; 
 
Investigations by the UN's International Labour Organisation had &quot;shown beyond any shadow of a doubt that the use of forced labour in Burma is as systematic as it is brutal,&quot; Higgs said. &quot;The ILO has advised 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. 
 
&quot;We once again call upon all companies in our sectors to disinvest from Burma,&quot; he said. &quot;This applies not least to those oil and gas corporations whose continued presence there is helping to prop up one of the world's most repressive regimes. 
 
&quot;Any company that continues to do business with the Burmese junta will do itself great discredit,&quot; Higgs pointed out. &quot;So will any company that continues to do business with the Burmese state oil company MOGE, which has helped to launder the money generated by the junta's worldwide trafficking of illegal narcotics.&quot; 
 
 
In the US, the first of the ICEM-backed resolutions for the Unocal annual meeting is sponsored by the LongView Collective Investment Fund of the Amalgamated Bank of New York, which is a shareholder. It urges the Unocal board of directors to adopt, implement and enforce a code of conduct based on the ILO's trade union rights conventions. 
 
The second resolution, sponsored by shareholders Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, the Interfaith Center of Corporate Responsibility, As You Sow Foundation and Walden Asset Management, urges the Unocal board of directors to appoint a special committee of the board to review ways to link executive compensation with the company's ethical and social performance. 
 
In a letter sent today to Unocal's top 100 institutional investors, Kenneth Zinn, ICEM North American Regional Coordinator, said that &quot;by adopting exemplary standards of corporate governance and best global practices in human rights in the workplace, the company will be taking significant measures to enhance shareholder value.&quot; 
 
Zinn pointed out that over the past two years, Unocal shares have fallen more than five percent compared with a 69 percent gain for its industry peer group, and that the company's uneven exploration record has raised concerns for its financial future. 
 
Unocal has received significant criticism over its investments in Burma. It is a participant in a 1.2 billion US dollar joint venture with the Burmese government in the Yadana gas pipeline, a project on which forced labour is alleged to have been used. 
 
A law suit against Unocal by Burmese plaintiffs in a US district court in California was dismissed last August but is currently under appeal. Judge Ronald Lew stated in his opinion: &quot;The evidence does suggest that Unocal knew that forced labour was being utilised and the Joint Venturers (including Unocal) benefited from the practice.&quot; 
 
&quot;If Unocal truly implemented a workplace code of conduct that fully complied with the ILO conventions, it would have to pull out of Burma,&quot; said the ICEM's Kenneth Zinn today. &quot;The outlawed trade unions and the democratic movement in Burma have called for foreign companies to withdraw, and Unocal should follow the example of the many other companies that have pulled out of that country.&quot; 
 
ASIAN ACTION 
 
&quot;There can be no human rights without trade union rights in Burma,&quot; ICEM Asia-Pacific insists. 
 
ICEM Asia-Pacific, which has just launched a new poster, leaflet and Internet campaign on Burma, says that unions in each country must choose the best ways of taking part in the action. 
 
It recommends four basic forms of action by affiliated unions: 
 
Seek wider support: &quot;Ask the trade union movement in your country to participate fully in this campaign. Ask your government to publicly condemn the military regime of Burma and to pledge support to the trade union movement in the fight for change in Burma. Ask employer organisations and employers that your union works with to do the same.&quot; 
 
Target companies that trade with Burma: &quot;Check if any of the companies that your union has members at trades with Burma. If they do, ask that they stop doing so until real change is achieved in Burma. Be prepared to expose them publicly if they refuse and run a campaign to boycott their goods.&quot; 
 
Protest: &quot;Write letters of protest to the Burmese authorities in your country. Press the trade union movement to organise rallies and demonstrations outside their Embassy. Use the media in your campaign.&quot; 
 
Education: &quot;Make sure that union members are aware and involved in the campaign. Get their support for the restoration of union rights and the end of forced labour in Burma. Raise the issue at union meetings. Ask the membership to pass resolutions supporting the trade union campaign.&quot;

Burma Disinvestment Campaign Stepped Up

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28 April: A Day to Focus Improvement on Safe, Healthy Worksites

ICEM Calls for Worksite Clinics to Treat HIV/AIDS

Son of Miners' Union President, Ukrainian MP Brutally Assaulted

ICEM Calls for Referendum on Thai Electric Privatisation

US Union, CEPPWAWU Protest at Sappi AGM

Turkey Tramples Supreme Court to Ban Glass Strike Again

Burma Rights Violations: Unocal Urged to Withdraw

Unions Challenge Halliburton Over Burma Ties

Mining Mega-Merger Opposed: BHP Deal with Billiton is Flawed

Burma Disinvestment Campaign Stepped Up

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