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The bitter labour dispute at America's Crown Central Petroleum company is over. 
 
Members of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) in Pasadena, Texas, have ratified a new agreement with Crown, the union announced today. 
 
The vote yesterday by members of the union's Local 4-227 ends a dispute marked by a five-year lockout at the Crown refinery in Pasadena and by a sophisticated union campaign against the company. 
 
&quot;We are pleased that our members are returning to work under a union contract that provides essential guarantees and protections,&quot; said PACE President Boyd Young. &quot;It is time to put rancour aside and work with Crown to improve the operation of the refinery and its environmental compliance, while ensuring long-term job security and fundamental rights for our members.&quot; 
 
&quot;The return of PACE members to the refinery is a great victory, and we are grateful that peace has been declared by both sides,&quot; said PACE Executive Vice-President Robert Wages, who directed the settlement talks. &quot;We look forward to an improved relationship with the company.&quot; 
 
Wages paid particular tribute to the Norwegian oil workers' union NOPEF and to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) for their role in the campaign. Former NOPEF President Lars Myhre, who chairs the ICEM energy section, lobbied oil multinational Statoil to put pressure on Crown over the dispute. 
 
&quot;We express our profound appreciation to Lars Myhre and NOPEF along with the ICEM for informing Statoil about Crown's labour record,&quot; Wages said. &quot;In October 2000, this led Statoil to cancel its contract for the processing of Statoil's crude oil at Crown's Pasadena refinery.&quot; 
 
Crown was undoubtedly keen to recover the valuable Statoil contract, which used 35 percent of the Pasadena refinery capacity and 20 percent of Crown's overall capacity. 
 
The ICEM has a global agreement with Statoil on trade union rights and other issues. Both PACE and NOPEF are ICEM affiliates. 
 
&quot;Lars Myhre's visit with our locked-out workers in Pasadena, Texas and his acts of international solidarity will long be remembered,&quot; Wages said. 
 
Joe Campbell, Financial Secretary of Local 4-227, said: &quot;Our locked-out members stood tall for five years, and we express our deep thanks to our International union for its financial support and successful campaign, and to our PACE members and locals who contributed generously to our hardship fund.&quot; 
 
Mack Hickerson, Local 4-227 President, gave special recognition to &quot;the thousands of labour, civil rights, religious and environmental activists who rallied around our cause and gave life to our campaign.&quot; 
 
The new agreement provides wage increases of approximately 11.5 percent in the first thirteen months, with additional wage increases based on forthcoming national oil bargaining. Importantly, it protects seniority rights; preserves jobs and the union contract if the refinery is sold; keeps Crown's Pasadena refinery as part of national oil bargaining; and encompasses a collective bargaining agreement that keeps standards consistent within the industry. 
 
The lockout of 252 PACE members from Crown's main refinery in Pasadena, Texas began on 5 February 1996. 
 
PACE represents 320,000 workers in the paper, chemical, energy, atomic and automotive supply industries.

Five-Year US Oil Lock-Out Ends

Disturbing new evidence of a link between breast cancer and night work is to be published soon by a Danish researcher. 
 
The findings were previewed at a conference held jointly last Thursday by the Danish Cancer Society (Kraeftens Bekaempelse), the Danish Women Workers' Union (KAD) and the Danish General Workers' Union (SiD). 
 
They show a 50 percent higher risk of primary breast cancer among 30- to 54-year-old women who work night shifts in selected trades for at least half a year. 
 
The risk tends to increase somewhat in women who work nights long-term, researcher Johnni Hansen told the conference. Among women with over six years of employment in trades with predominantly night work, the risk of breast cancer is 70 percent higher than among women daytime workers in the same age range. However, the group of women night workers in this category is small. 
 
Hansen is a specialist at Copenhagen's Institute of Cancer Epidemiology. He has just completed a study of breast cancer among women who work at night. Although a number of descriptive studies in the past have shown significantly higher breast cancer rates among night workers, this is thought to be the first survey that uses reliable nationwide statistics. 
 
His findings will be published in EPIDEMIOLOGY, January 2001, Vol 12, No. 1, pp 74-77. 
 
The increased risks revealed by the new survey are probably not statistical flukes - especially as the study was conducted on a very large sample and was based on Denmark's detailed registry of employment records, health records and population. 
 
The study looked at all 7,035 Danish women who fulfilled all of the following conditions: they had confirmed primary breast cancer, they were born in the period 1935-59, they were aged 30-54 at the time of diagnosis and they had been in employment. 
 
Each case was then matched against a &quot;control&quot;, who was a woman drawn at random from the files of the central population registry but whose year of birth was the same as the corresponding case. &quot;Controls&quot; were women who were alive, without cancer, and who had been in employment before the date of diagnosis of the corresponding case. 
 
Women were considered to work predominantly at night if they had been employed for at least half a year in one or more of the trades in which at least 60 percent of the female respondents had night-time schedules. 
 
Appropriate adjustments were made for other factors known to affect rates of breast cancer, such as socio-economic status, the number of children to which the women had given birth and the women's age at the time of the births. The study also looked at alcohol consumption, which is a known risk factor for breast cancer. In Denmark, as in many countries, alcohol consumption is higher among night workers than in the population as a whole - but the gap would probably not explain all of the difference in the breast cancer rates. 
 
So the explanation must be sought elsewhere, and by far the most likely candidate is a lack of melatonin. 
 
Melatonin is produced naturally in the human body, where it helps to regulate body rhythms, sleep and, possibly, tumour growth. In women, it may also help to prevent overproduction of oestrogen. Concentrations of melatonin have been shown to inhibit the growth of human breast cancer cells. 
 
The body's production of melatonin is regulated, via the retina of the eye, by the daily cycle of light and darkness. It is produced mainly at night. Thus, a person who regularly stays awake all night under artificial lighting will produce less melatonin. 
 
For complex reasons linked to the light/dark cycle, this melatonin deficit is unlikely to be made up by sleeping during daylight hours. Totally blind women are known to have an approximately 50 percent lower relative risk of breast cancer than sighted women. 
 
But whatever the causes of the higher breast cancer rates among night workers, the socio-economic effects could be very serious. Trade unions have long fought for full equality of opportunity at work, and women's status in the workplace has improved significantly in most parts of the world as a result. 
 
In recent years, these equality drives have included the opening of night work to women in a growing number of sectors, and the lifting of regulations that previously limited their access to these higher-paying jobs. For many women workers around the world, night work is both an economic necessity and a step up the promotion ladder. 
 
Breast cancer is by no means the only physical and psychological health risk faced by night workers - whether women or men. And accident rates are significantly higher on the night shift than during the day. Also, it may be wondered if a melatonin deficit may not produce other ill-effects in men and women alike. 
 
So tackling the problem of breast cancer among night workers will, in part, depend on negotiation and on attitude - particularly the attitude of the employers. Trade unions have always insisted that jobs should be designed for people, rather than people for jobs. It may also be even more necessary in future for collective agreements to state that biological factors must not impede equality of pay and opportunity. 
 
Lillian Knudsen is the President of the Danish Women Workers' Union (KAD). She is also on the executive of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which both the KAD and the SiD are affiliated at the global level. 
 
&quot;Internationally, I have always insisted that women should work on an equal footing with men - at whatever time of day or night,&quot; Knudsen says. &quot;But this new report has made me nervous, because it would seem that, if we women can sleep in darkness, we produce a hormone that helps to protect us against breast cancer. But we're not stupid. We know full well that some sectors - hospitals and care homes for instance - will always have to work right around the clock. And we must avoid creating a panic. Clearly though, more research is needed into this mechanism, so that we can find out how to design jobs better and minimise the risk of breast cancer.&quot;

Night Work Linked To Breast Cancer

More than 700,000 coal workers in India have won major improvements in pay and allowances. 
 
Agreement came after their unions had served notice of a six-day nationwide strike, which had been scheduled to start this Monday. 
 
The deal is between the Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF), three other unions and the management of the coal industry, led by the public sector Coal India Limited (CIL). At the global level, the INMF is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Following the strike threat, India's Coal Ministry and the coal industry management invited the INMF and its allies for discussion. The Office of the chief Labour Commissioner of the Ministry of Labour also intervened and called both the parties for conciliation. 
 
Negotiations led to a new Memorandum of Understanding, replacing a previous one whose interpretation and implementation had been disputed. 
 
The new understanding provides for pay rises of between 15 and 33 percent. A wide range of allowances will also be increased. And all workers are guaranteed to receive four promotions during the standard 30-year period of service. Provident funds and life insurance have been improved, as have the ex-gratia payments by employers if a worker dies in a mine accident. 
 
The memorandum has been ratified by the conciliation officer and the labour commissioner. On 23 December, it will be converted into a National Coal Wage Agreement when the Joint Bipartite Committee for the Coal Industry meets. 
 
Coal workers all over India hailed the agreement and supported the decision of the INMF and its allies to withdraw the strike call.

Big Pay Rises For Indian Coal Workers After Strike Threat

For the first time ever, employers and unions are close to reaching a worldwide agreement covering a whole industrial sector. 
 
Workplace health and safety and environmental protection are the theme of a working document drawn up in Tokyo at the end of last month by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). 
 
The paper focuses on union participation in the chemical industry's voluntary initiative, Responsible Care. The Responsible Care programme aims to ensure uniformly high occupational health and safety and environmental standards wherever the industry operates. 
 
Two years of negotiations have gone into the Tokyo document, which recognises that workers and their unions have a vital role to play in ensuring the highest standards. 
 
The ICCA is a council of leading trade associations representing chemical manufacturers worldwide. It deals with issues of international significance to the chemical manufacturing industry. 
 
The ICEM is a global federation of industrial trade unions representing more than 20 million workers on all continents. 
 
&quot;A joint working document was agreed in Tokyo and will be recommended to the industry,&quot; explained ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;It includes six policy objectives which are essential if Responsible Care is to gain the credibility it needs in order to secure our full support. We hope the document can be signed as a formal agreement between the ICCA and the ICEM before the end of next April.&quot; 
 
This would be a world first, Higgs said. &quot;It would be a historic development in international industrial relations - the first-ever world agreement between the representative body of employers in a whole sector and a global federation of workers.&quot;

Chemicals: Worldwide Union-Employer Agreement?

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

Indian Miners To Strike

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

Asia-Pacific Energy Unions Urge Burma Pull-Out

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

Fiji Unions Welcome Democracy Ruling

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

Ukraine: Anti-Union Laws Ruled Unconstitutional

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

Venezuelan Oil Strikers Win Agreement

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

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

Archive

Five-Year US Oil Lock-Out Ends

Night Work Linked To Breast Cancer

Big Pay Rises For Indian Coal Workers After Strike Threat

Chemicals: Worldwide Union-Employer Agreement?

Indian Miners To Strike

Asia-Pacific Energy Unions Urge Burma Pull-Out

Fiji Unions Welcome Democracy Ruling

Ukraine: Anti-Union Laws Ruled Unconstitutional

Venezuelan Oil Strikers Win Agreement

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