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ICEM Japanese affiliate UI Zensen&rsquo;s Central Committee has announced it will launch a Spring Offensive this year aimed at achieving basic wage increases. Japanese workers have faced double trouble in terms of battered family finances after years of wage neglect, and heavier tax and social security burdens placed on working class citizens. UI Zensen&rsquo;s courageous leadership is calling for a unified wage hike of &yen;1,000 or 2.5% as the goal for the offensive.

Japanese Affiliate UI Zensen Aims at Wage Increase

UPM Kymmene in Canada has heightened the discord in a five-week strike at a kraft pulp mill and coated papers mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick. The Finnish company sought and won a court order in a New Brunswick court to limit the number of picketers at the mill&rsquo;s five gates. The 700 members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Local 689 are holding strong in this threat to their livelihoods with strike pay from the national CEP, plus a supplement derived from contributions from other paper-sector members of the CEP. The strike was caused when UPM Kymmene refused to table the paper industry&rsquo;s pattern agreement for eastern Canada. No bargaining has been held since the 16 December strike began.

UPM Kymmene Intensifying Paper Strike in Canada

The Transport and General Workers&rsquo; Union of UK is polling 1,200 members at two Michelin plants for industrial action. Michelin&rsquo;s wage offer in December of either 3% or GBP 650 is inadequate, and separate polling of the two workforces will begin this week. The two sites are Stoke in the Midlands with 400 T&amp;G members and Ballymena in Northern Ireland employing 800.

Transport and General in UK Ready for Industrial Action at Michelin

German affiliate IGBCE proved instrumental in getting a tyre factory in Mexico reopened. The Continental AG plant in the western Mexican state of Jalisco was closed in 2001, idling 1,400. Working with several NGOs and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), IGBCE convinced Continental to sell the plant to a group of Mexican investors and workers as a cooperative. The tyre plant, now called Western Tire Corp./El Salto Tire Factory, will employ between 600 and 700 workers.

Continental Tyre Plant in Mexico gets New Life Thanks to IGBCE

A mining accident at the shuttered Shinkolobwe uranium mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 30 when a roof collapsed. The mine had been closed for decades, but that hasn&rsquo;t prevented small-scale, illegal mining for colombo tantalite&mdash;or coltan, the valuable mineral used in mobile phones and computer chips&mdash;from continuing. ICEM Congolese affiliate FENAMICO has condemned the practice and has called for a full-scale investigation of the 9 July tragedy.

Illegal Uranium Mine in Congo Collapses, Kills 30

The Philippine Cement Workers Council (PCWC) has joined with the country&rsquo;s Department of Trade and Industry in efforts to overturn a Supreme Court decision nullifying safeguard tariffs on imported cement. The High Tribunal ruled 12 July against the legal measure put into effect late last year, which guarantees mechanisms protecting industries from cheap imports. Institution of such mechanisms is sanctioned under the WTO. PCWC Gen. Sec. Samuel Eslava said the safeguard measures saved jobs and &ldquo;paved the way for industrial peace&rdquo; in the Philippines.

Philippine Cement Workers Council Seeks to Preserve Tariffs

Local unions of the CEP in Canada ratified a five-year labour accord last week with Abitibi-Consolidated, thus giving the union a pattern for 25,000 other paperworkers in eastern Canada. The 2,500 union members at Abitibi&rsquo;s 13 mills won better pension formulas effective upon ratification and again in 2005 and 2009. In addition, the pact provides for an unreduced pension at age 57 and continues an indexing formula for retirees. Wage gains amount to 11% over the term, and job security provisions protecting CEP members from losing employment due to outsourcing work were achieved.

Paper Pattern Established in Canada by Affiliate CEP

The Executive Board of the Woodworkers Union has approved merger terms with ICEM affiliate USWA. Local branches of the 55,000-member Industrial Wood &amp; Allied Workers of Canada (IWA-Canada) will now vote between 12 July and 27 August on the merger.

Canadian Woodworkers Set to Merge into USWA

Also in New Zealand, a chlorine spill 11 June at Carter Holt Harvey&rsquo;s Kinleith paper operations created a huge cloud of gas and caused some evacuations and major traffic tie-ups in the town of Tokoroa. No injuries were reported. CHH, majority owned by US International Paper Co., had just days earlier escaped prosecution over a dam collapse last December resulting in the spill of 5,000 cubic metres of sludge and sediment containing PCPs into nearby waterways. A local regulatory committee rejected court action.

Chlorine Spill at Paper Mill Causes Evacuation in New Zealand

Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union National Secretary Andrew Little said New Zealand&rsquo;s current high growth, healthy company profits, and a tight skilled-labour jobs market make &ldquo;the perfect conditions for wage growth.&rdquo; In calling for more and better levels of collective bargaining, Little said with economic growth nearing 4%, &ldquo;working people should be getting pay raises of at least that much. Instead, they&rsquo;re getting 2.5%.&rdquo;

EPMU Charts Wage Growth Course in New Zealand

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