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The US-based International Association of Machinists &amp; Aerospace Workers (IAM) gave full proof last week that collective bargaining is value-added, and Boeing workers no doubt in South Carolina took notice of pay, pension and job security provisions won by 28,000 aircraft manufacturing workers primarily in the state of Washington. 
 
IAM District Lodge 751 reached terms in a ten-months-early labour agreement in US states Washington, Oregon and Kansas with Boeing that not only gives machinists improved work and life stability, it deflates a political flashpoint that became the biggest threat to the independent integrity of the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the government agency&rsquo;s 76-year history. 
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The award-winning IAM contract, which will receive wide acceptance when workers vote on it on 7 December, means the IAM will withdraw a vile discrimination complaint issued by the NLRB against Boeing for public statements it made when opening a production line of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft in North Charleston, South Carolina, this year. 
 
The NLRB determined that Boeing violated US labour code by boldly stating its anti-union bias in opening a factory in union-repressive South Carolina. Boeing&rsquo;s action unleashed a political venom by Republican Party politicians both nationally and in South Carolina that turned into nothing less than a witch hunt to destroy the NLRB as the governing agency for American US labour law. 
 
The IAM agreement now closes that debate and a new discourse should begin on the benefits and values of a collective agreement, particularly for Boeing workers in South Carolina right now who do not have one and will see their numbers increase from 1,500 to 5,000 as production on the 787 Dreamliner ramps up. 
 
Pacific Northwest IAM Lodge 751 President Tom Wroblewski said the early agreement &ldquo;secure(s) thousands of jobs while raising machinists&rsquo; pay and pensions.&rdquo; The agreement preserves jobs by guaranteeing that Boeing will make the 737, 747-8, and US military aircraft tanker aircraft in IAM-represented shops in Washington and Oregon. 
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IAM Lodge 751 President Tom Wroblewski
In recommending the four-year contract extension to 28,000 skilled workers, IAM Local 751 said to membership: &ldquo;What has resulted is an unprecedented commitment by Boeing to Puget Sound and Portland for the 737 MAX and the related manufacturing that&rsquo;s currently being performed here. This will generate long-lasting security for our members. It also resulted in a Boeing commitment to the success and continuation of the other airplane programs where our members have shown time and again their expertise, productivity and quality, resulting in increased profits for the company.&rdquo; 
 
The agreement contains 2% yearly wage increases, and a US$5,000 ratification bonus, as well as continued cost-of-living escalators in the four years. It includes pension enhancements that will lift the monthly retirement benefit by US$91 through the life of the agreement. 
 
And perhaps most significantly &ndash; and especially noteworthy to newly-hired South Carolina Boeing workers &ndash; the IAM negotiated and won job and work rights&rsquo; protections at full benefit levels for all future Boeing employees. 
 
IAM and Boeing agreed to continued dialogue by creating bi-lateral committees to address opportunities and conflicts. IAM Vice President Rich Michalski predicted such an &ldquo;approach and these committees can guide the new relationship going forward.&rdquo; 
 
Boeing&rsquo;s main Puget Sound facility, in Renton, Washington, is the world&rsquo;s longest-tenured aircraft factory, and the new labour contract will ensure 737 production and associated parts work in the area for two decades to come. 
 
Boeing&rsquo;s move to South Carolina and the NLRB&rsquo;s labour law complaint saw Republican lawmakers spew unseemly rhetoric against both US trade unions and the US regulatory framework that governs labour-management relations. 
 
The Republican-dominated US House of Representatives passed in September the reactionary &ldquo;Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act&rdquo; that if enacted would de-fund the NLRB and strip the agency of remaining powers. The IAM labour agreement effectively blocks this draconian bill from getting heard in the US Senate.

Early Boeing Accord Eases US Labour Law Tensions

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Although wage negotiations will continue this week at Zambia&rsquo;s largest copper mine, a strike there on 3-4 January ended early last Thursday when the Minister of Labour, Sport, Youth and Gender directly intervened to correct glaring mineworker exploitation. 
 
Some 2,000 miners, the majority represented by ICEM affiliate Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Zambia (MUZ), took strike action against Canadian-based First Quantum Minerals Ltd. at the 231,000-tonne-per-year Kansanshi mine after negotiations slowed late in 2011. 
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Workers returned to jobs on 5 January after Labour Minister Fackson Shamenda, MUZ President Oswell Munyenyembe, management representatives, and an officer of the National Union of Miners and Allied Workers (NUMAW) brokered a deal late the night before. 
 
The deal is reported to displace short-term contracts with permanent and pensionable conditions of work, as well as a company pledge to review 12-hour work shifts. Miners are seeking an eight-hour day. The brokered settlement also saw First Quantum agree to award a 13th pay check beginning this year. 
 
Negotiations for a general increase in salaries will occur this week. Workers through their unions seek a 20% hike, while management has offered only 9%. The open-cast Kansanshi operation, begun in 2005, is First Quantum&rsquo;s flagship mine and began expanding last year to where it will produce 400,000 tonnes annually of copper concentrates and copper cathode by 2015. Construction of a new concentrator also is underway this year and is scheduled for commissioning in 2014.

Two-Day Strike at Zambian Kansanshi Mine Ends with Permanent Contracts

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Thousands of trade unionists around the world are writing to Prime Minister Lucas Papademos of Greece, calling on the government to drop charges against a dozen members of the GENOP/DEI trade union of power workers, including union president Nikos Photopoulos. The group will make their first court appearance at 9am tomorrow, 10 January, charged with protesting against the harsh austerity measures imposed on the Greek people by the International Monetary Fund and European Union technocrats. 
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Nikos Photopoulos
During extremely difficult economic times in Greece, the austerity package sets out to once again make workers pay for a crisis they did not cause. The specific austerity measure that the GENOP/DEI activists are charged with protesting against is a new arbitrary property tax which is a flat rate for all, regardless of income or ability to pay. Those who refuse to pay or are unable to pay the regressive tax have their power supply to their homes cut off. For fighting for these families to remain connected to the power supply, and conducting a peaceful occupation of a government office,&nbsp;the trade unionists now face up to five years in prison. 
 
Support the campaign for these charges to be dropped and send a message through <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1231">LabourStart</a> here.&nbsp; 
 
The GSEE trade union confederation is leading the calls inside Greece for president Photopoulos and his comrades to be free from all charges. 
 
View the <a href="http://strongerunions.org/2012/01/09/greek-trade-unionists-say-thanks-for-solidarity-messages/">message of thanks</a> from GENOP President Nikos Photopoulos for all the international support on the UK TUC &ldquo;Stronger Unions&rdquo; website here.&nbsp;

Greek Trade Union Leaders in Court Tomorrow, Facing Jail for Protesting Austerity

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Workers employed by Rio Tinto Alcan, the global mining giant&rsquo;s aluminium producer, were locked off their jobs in the Canadian province of Qu&eacute;bec on 1 January in a dispute centering on the company&rsquo;s ceaseless subcontracting. Some 780 metalworkers, represented by Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490, affiliated to the United Steelworkers (USW), were thrown off their jobs at contract expiration at one of the company&rsquo;s most modern plants, the Alma, Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region, Qu&eacute;bec smelter. 
 
The three bargaining units of the union voted to reject a new contact late in December after the company refused to limit subcontracting. The lockout at the end of a prior five-year contract comes before USW Local 9490 had even submitted demands regarding salary adjustments, vacations, or benefits. 
 
The three bargaining committees are seeking a floor of 750 unionised jobs at the Alma facility and a halt to subcontracting that reduces full-time, stable jobs to levels below that. In recent years, since Rio Tinto purchased Canada-based Alcan for US$39 billion in 2007, Alma management has used each worker retirement and other reductions in force as a means to reduce costs and manpower by contracting out more and more work. 
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USW District Five Director Daniel Roy
Last year, USW District Five Director Daniel Roy said Rio Tinto has removed some C$7.4 million in salaries and purchasing power alone from the resource-rich region. Roy and leaders of Local 9490 will hold a press conference in Alma on 13 January to highlight the negative economic impact of the lockout and Alcan&rsquo;s insistence on unlimited contracting out rights. 
 
The union states that the average C$36-an-hour unionized wage rate is reduced to about C$16 with each subcontract employee. 
 
On 3 January, Alcan succeeded in Qu&eacute;bec Superior Court in obtaining a temporary injunction limiting the number of pickets at the main plant gate to 20. Locked-out picketers must remain at least 500 feet from the entrance. A full hearing on that injunction will happen tomorrow, 10 January. 
 
Rio Tinto Alcan announced force majeure at the aluminium smelter on 3 January, stating that it would operate only 122 of 432 electrolytic production cells. Alcan said it would operate at one-third capacity with use of 200 management and other personnel. The USW has lodged a complaint with the provincial labour board that Alcan is violating Qu&eacute;bec legislation by using scab or replacement workers during a labour dispute. 
 
The Alma operation at full capacity can produce 438,000 tonnes annually and in 2010 Alma accounted for 11% of Rio Tinto&rsquo;s global aluminium production. Rio Tinto Alcan operates two smelters in the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region and has a 25% stake in a third, in B&eacute;cancour where Alcoa is the majority partner.

USW Affiliate in Québec Locked Out by Rio Tinto at Aluminium Plant

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UK mobilisation in front of a second wave of Unilever strikes to begin on 17 January occurs tomorrow when three affiliates of the ICEM and the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) protest in front of Unilever&rsquo;s London headquarters at 100 Victoria Embankment. 
 
Unite the Union, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), and GMB will conduct the rally beginning at 12 noon on 10 January over the food and consumer products company&rsquo;s insistence on scrapping the final pension scheme for 7,000 workers. Unilever&rsquo;s proposal would gut between 20-40% of pension earnings for one-third of its UK workforce. 
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Unite Battle Bus
Unite will dispatch its &ldquo;battle bus&rdquo; to Unilever&rsquo;s corporate offices tomorrow. It will leave Unite&rsquo;s Holborn Street building at 10h30. The action comes four days after a joint union delegates&rsquo; conference of Unilever worksite leaders met in Liverpool and decided to unleash a second set of strike actions to begin 17 January and to run 12 days. 
 
On 9 December, some 5,000 union members staged a 24-hour work stoppage at 11 Unilever plants in the UK, the first industrial action in UK history at the Anglo-Dutch multinational. The lawful strike saw Unilever bosses retaliate with the petty act of cancelling staff Christmas parties and withdrawing a &pound;15 holiday gift voucher to strikers. 
 
Unilever&rsquo;s gutting of the pension scheme for active workers is further insult by the company, which in 2008 eliminating the pension scheme for new hires. The company and unions negotiated late last week but there was no sign that Unilever would accept a union compromise on the pension scheme. 
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Unite's Jennie Formby
Unite National Officer Jennie Formby said, &ldquo;Our members have dedicated their time and hard work to help Unilever build leading brands. We have shown the company that there is no need to destroy the reputation of a blue chip company because there is a solution on the table if they will talk with the union.&rdquo; 
 
Unilever&rsquo;s factories where strike actions have occurred and where workers will again strike on 17 January are located in Purfleet, Warrington, Trafford Park, Port Sunlight, Wirral, Manchester, Leeds, Glocester, Burton-on-Trent, Chester, and Crumlin. 
 
Unilever produces Dove soap, Marmite, PG Tips, Pot Noodle, Hellman&rsquo;s mayonnaise, and several other consumer products at these plants.

UK Unions Hold Key Unilever Manifestation Before Second Strike Wave 17 January

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ICEM&rsquo;s two affiliated oil workers&rsquo; unions &ndash; the white-collar Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) &ndash; joined the call of Nigeria&rsquo;s two labour federations in a nationwide strike today over the government&rsquo;s sudden 1 January removal of consumer fuel subsidies. 
 
The indefinite strike by Nigerian workers in all sectors was authorized last week by the executive boards of both the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). NUPENG&rsquo;s board approved today&rsquo;s walkout at a meeting of union leaders yesterday, while PENGASSAN&rsquo;s National Executive Council (NEC) gave strike approval on 5 January. 
 
In a statement issued after the NEC meeting in Lagos, PENGASSAN President Babatunde Ogun called government&rsquo;s fuel subsidy removal &ldquo;illegal, hasty, without consultation, and lacking of transparency.&rdquo; The union challenged the government of President Goodluck Jonathan to work on behalf of Nigerian people rather than for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. 
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Both PENGASSAN and NUPENG called on the government to rescind the New Year&rsquo;s Day elimination, roll back fuel prices to 2011 levels, and then engage the unions of Nigeria in honest dialogue. 
 
The lifting of subsidies immediately shot fuel prices up as much as 225% one week ago. It also sparked a price rise in food and transport costs across Nigeria. Many human rights groups and civil liberty organizations began protests last week. Petrol filling stations in many states were blockaded and protests spilled into many roads across the country, blocking traffic. 
 
Even though Nigeria produces about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil, the government is forced to import roughly 70% of its gasoline supply because of inadequate and run down refineries. The country of 160 million people depends on only three operable refineries for retail consumption. 
 
Jonathan acted on the recommendation of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), a body notorious for irregularities and one that has paid billions of naira to so-called &ldquo;brief-case companies&rdquo; and middle men in import subsidies. 
 
Nigeria&rsquo;s National Industrial Court ruled on 6 January that Labour&rsquo;s indefinite strike would be illegal but similarly to a mass national strike in 2003 when a previous government attempted to lift remove fuel subsidies, strikes across the country went ahead today and are expected to continue throughout the week.

Nigerian Oil Workers’ Unions Strike in Fuel Subsidy Removals

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With company after company in the UK private sector seeking to shut off workers&rsquo; final pension schemes, it comes as a relief that one company heeded a union&rsquo;s concerns and cancelled such a plan for now. 

ICEM affiliate Unite the Union last week convinced German luxury auto maker BMW to back away from closing off its final pension salary scheme to new workers, and to retreat from implementing a loophole in Britain&rsquo;s new Agency Workers&rsquo; Regulation (AWR) that would allow BMW to directly employ agency workers on contracts that deny them equal pay as that received by permanent workers of the company. 

The loophole, Regulation 10 of the AWR and also known as the &ldquo;Swedish Derogation&rdquo; language, would allow an employer to take workers employed by labour hire firms onto their payrolls, but pay them up to 20% less than their own full-time workers. 

In December when BMW announced its intention to move ahead with the two regressive changes, Unite responded that it would consult workplace leaders over an industrial ballot. Such possible strike action would have occurred for 7,000 Unite members at four BMW plants, including Swindon, Cowley, Hams Hall near Birmingham, and the Rolls Royce factory in Goodwood. 

But talks between Unite, its BMW shop stewards and management last week convinced UK management to forego closing off the pension scheme to new hires and not to use the &ldquo;Swedish Derogation&rdquo; model, but rather engage Unite and its shop-floor leaders from all four plants in dialogue on a positive path forward without the harsh proposals. 

Unite National Officer Roger Madisson commented, &ldquo;As always we are prepared to have meaningful discussions with companies in the car industry. Unite is determined to protect all the terms and conditions of our members and ensure that agency workers are treated fairly, in the true spirit of the agency workers&rsquo; legislation.&rdquo; 

Unite&rsquo;s Cowley plant Convenor Chris Bond told the Oxford Mail, &ldquo;I am over the moon about it. The company has listened to our concerns. (Industrial action) has been averted for now.&rdquo; 

As for UK BMW management, it said in a statement, &ldquo;The company and Unite, the union, have jointly agreed to enter into discussions relating to the use of agency staff. We agreed to go back into discussions with the union on the pensions scheme and the AWR.&rdquo;

UK’s Unite Holds Off BMW from Closing Final Pension Scheme, Using Temp Work Exception

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The ICEM vehemently supports 90 members of the affiliated Teamsters Union (IBT) in the US, who went on strike last month in Norwood, Massachusetts, at CertainTeed, a roofing materials subsidiary of French multinational Saint-Gobain. Members of IBT Local 25 in the Boston area walked off their jobs when their contract expired on 19 December over unreasonable demands to reduce their health insurance benefits. 
 
In an <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1.ICEM.Teamsters%20Local%2025.US.pdf">ICEM letter</a> today to Local 25 President Sean O&rsquo;Brien, General Secretary Manfred Warda said the dispute would receive the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s highest priority and would be brought to the attention of French trade unions and senior executives at Saint-Gobain in Paris. 
 
CertainTeed, a wholly-owned subsidiary with multiple plants in the US that manufacture asphalt roofing shingles, gypsum wallboard, and insulated fiberglass products, proposes to reduce the amount of health insurance it pays on workers, leaving them largely unprotected financially from illness or injury. 
 
&ldquo;The company has become the epitome of greed, treating its workforce unfairly without regard for health and welfare and job security,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Brien, the principal officer of 11,000-member IBT Local 25. In order to preserve the joint union-management run health care plan, the union proposed costs savings to the company on a pension plan that would not reduce workers&rsquo; retirement benefits. But CertainTeed wasn&rsquo;t interested.
<img src="" width="154" height="160" alt="" />
At this point in the strike, CertainTeed workers would be without health insurance of any kind. But at a strike manifestation rally in front of plant gates on 5 January, O&rsquo;Brien announced that Local 25&rsquo;s Health and Welfare Fund would continue to provide health insurance at a cost to the union. The ICEM commends Local 25 for such social responsibility. 
 
The two sides are scheduled to meet today before the US Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) in the first negotiations since the strike began. Saint-Gobain increased its stake in CertainTeed from 32% to 57% in 1976, and then gained total ownership in 1988. In 1998, CertainTeed bought the Norwood plant from Bird &amp; Sons 
 
Local 25&rsquo;s so-called Taft-Hartley health care plan at Norwood pre-dates CertainTeed ownership, and the union is adamant in retaining it. The company proposes to replace it with a lesser company-controlled insurance plan that contains far few benefits.

ICEM Intervenes in Saint-Gobain Dispute in US State of Massachusetts

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By acclamation, Senzeni Zokwana was re-elected President and Manfred Warda re-elected General Secretary of the 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Union (ICEM) at the Global Union Federation&rsquo;s 5th Statutory Congress in Buenos Aires on 25 November. 
 
Some 800 delegates from over 200 national trade unions are attending the ICEM&rsquo;s Congress, which closes today with an address by Argentina Labour and Social Security Minister Dr. Carlos Tomada. Delegates also elected, by region, a 59-member governing Executive Committee that includes 20 Vice Presidents. 
 
The Congress postponed electing representations from the Middle East / North Africa Region due to political unrest in several countries, with statutory representation from the MENA region expected to come at the regional conference in March 2012. (The complete <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1111.ICEM_EXCO_PRESIDIUM_LISTS_FINAL[1][1].pdf">listing of ICEM Executive / Presidium members</a> can be found here.) 
<img alt="" src="" width="141" height="140" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="143" height="140" />
Newly re-elected ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, President Senzeni Zokwana
Day two of the Congress on 25 November also saw delegates adopt a forward-looking Action Plan that is meant to continue the trade union activism of the ICEM as it enters integration next year with two other GUFs &ndash; the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) and the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF). The ICEM Congress today will pass a definitive resolution to dissolve the ICEM in June 2012, followed by a founding Congress of a new industrial trade union organization. That will occur from 18-20 June in Copenhagen. 
 
Zokwana, the President of the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa, begins his second full term at the helm of the ICEM. First elected in a special election in October 2005, he began his trade union activism in 1980 in apartheid-era South Africa at the President Steyn gold mine in the Free State. 
 
He at first was a shift overseer on safety matters and in 1995 he joined the NUM staff as a Safety Officer, after proving himself a forceful advocate of modern mine safety techniques. In 2000, he was elected President of the 300,000-member NUM and besides his leading global role today on mine safety matters, he is an outspoken anti-poverty campaigner throughout Africa. 
 
Warda has served as General Secretary of ICEM since 1 January 2007, and began his trade union career in 1971 with Germany&rsquo;s Mineworkers' Union in his home city of Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia. After serving as assistant and then Head of the President&rsquo;s Office, he was head of the International Department of the country&rsquo;s Industrial Mining and Energy Union (IGBE) from 1991-1997. Following the merger of IGBE and IG Chemie in 1997, he was named head of the International Department of IGBCE. 
 
The Congress concludes today with debate on resolutions regarding furthering the ICEM&rsquo;s work in the MENA region, particularly with Iraqi and Palestinian unions; on an active response to the financial crisis and support for a Financial Transaction Tax; labour rights in Colombia; repressive postures of governments in Hungary and other European countries; European-based companies hampering trade union and human rights in Turkey; electric energy; the Trans-Pacific trade partnership agreement; and on support to the striking PT Freeport Indonesia Workers&rsquo; Union in Papua Province in their courageous struggle against the multination Freeport-McMoRan.

Zokwana, Warda Re-elected ICEM Leaders at Buenos Aires Congress

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The ICEM opened day two of its 5th Statutory Congress in Buenos Aires with moving observance today, 25 November, of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. ICEM Executive Committee Member Tony Maher, the General President of the Mining &amp; Energy Division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining &amp; Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia, opened the session by proclaiming ICEM awareness to the issue. 

&ldquo;Until men stop perpetrating violence against women, it will continue. It won&rsquo;t stop until men stand up and put a stop to it,&rdquo; said Maher, who explained Australia&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.whiteribbon.org.au/">White Ribbon</a> anti-violence campaign to the 800 ICEM delegates.
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Tony Maher&nbsp;
Maher added: &ldquo;Unions in male dominated industries have a special obligation to take up the campaign. We are in a unique position to make a significant difference in the workplace.&rdquo; 

Delegates to the Congress also turned their attention to a <a href="http://www.ituc-csi.org/violence-against-women-in-eastern.html">joint study</a> released today by the ICEM and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) entitled &ldquo;Violence Against Women in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: Whose Responsibility? Whose Complicity?&rdquo; 

The study inspects violence against women in the DRC, whether domestic, violence on the job, or violence from conflict, where rape is a weapon in war. The ICEM/ITUC study, in part, depicts rape in the context of war as the most striking form of inequality between men and women. 

In the DRC, men seek to conquer other men by attacking and raping women, and women are raped for punishment and for revenge. 

Today marks the 12th year that world civil society has marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, with the UN General Assembly designating the day at its 54th session. The date 25 November was designated because it was that day in 1960 that three political activists in the Dominican Republican &ndash; the Mirabal sisters &ndash; were brutally assassinated by the regime of dictator Rafael Trujillo. 

Today also marks day one of 16 Days Against Gender Violence, as designated by the Global Campaign for Women&rsquo;s Human Rights. From 25 November to 10 December, the campaign links the connection between women, violence and human rights, and encompasses 25 November, the 1 December World Aids Day, the Montreal Massacre of 6 December 1989, when 14 female engineering students were gunned down in Canada for being feminists, and 10 December, Human Rights Day.

ICEM Congress Focuses on Halt to Violence Against Women

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