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Peruvian mineworkers at the US-owned Doe Run mine operations at Cobriza have settled a strike dispute by accepting a deal that gives all workers at the copper mine a one-time productivity bonus of 3,500 soles (US$1,232). The bonus will be paid to workers in two installments; the first 1,500 soles will be paid on 9 April, with the remainder paid on 20 August. 
 
The work stoppage was started on 23 March by the ICEM-affiliated National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP), the country&rsquo;s largest mining union federation. FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo has personally led the negotiations for the miners of Doe Run. Castillo argued that the collective agreement had not been fulfilled by management a year into the five-year agreement in 2008. 

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FNTMMSP General Secretary, Luis Castillo Carlos
It took a strike by the 890 workers at Doe Run&rsquo;s Cobriza copper mine to bring management to the bargaining table. Company officials immediately began tripartite negotiations with FNTMMSP and the Labour Ministry, following a two-day stoppage that initially started on 28 February. 
 
As repeatedly reported recently by ICEM, the Peruvian Ministry of Labour typically sides with the company and declares mineworkers&rsquo; strikes &ldquo;inadmissible,&rdquo; moving trade unions to respond with short, rolling strikes to avoid losing their jobs. 
 
Production at the Cobriza copper mine in the Huancavelica Province affects operations at Doe Run Per&uacute;&rsquo;s polymetallic smelter in La Oroya, in Jun&iacute;n Province. The Cobriza mine produces around 30% of the copper concentrates processed by the smelter, which has been operating sporadically since creditors halted their support in March 2009. Doe Run Per&uacute;, a unit of the US-based Renco Group, has been hard hit by the recession. Cobriza was Peru's sixth largest copper mine last year, producing 18,519 metric tonnes. 

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Elsewhere in Peru, 1,500 workers at the Marcona mine, owned by China's Shougang state steel company, went on strike on 29 March, seeking better wages and conditions. &quot;The strike is total and of indefinite length,&quot; said Julio Ortiz of FNTMMSP. &quot;The factory has already cut salaries and has proposed a ridiculously low offer after already having cut workers' pay by 8% across the board.&rdquo; 
 
The mine, located in the city of Marcona, 350 kilometers south of Lima, has a history of poor industrial relations. ICEM sided with Shougang workers&rsquo; and backed their strikes last July and September, also in protest to low wages and poor labour conditions. Shougang Hierro Peru SAA is Peru's only iron producer. Iron production at Shougang, reached 4.4 million tons in 2009. 
 
A national strike in Peru&rsquo;s mining sector involving 50,000 unionized workers at 18 mines is taking shape for 30 June 30. The FNTMMSP took that decision on 27 March during the union's annual meeting. 
 
The FNTMMSP is demanding that Peru's government implement two laws. A pension law, which was approved by Peru&rsquo;s Congress on 27 October 2009, has yet to be implemented, and a second law, which increases profit-sharing at mining companies, also has not gone into effect.

Peru’s Doe Run Miners Reach Agreement, Ending Strike

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On 23 March, 8,000 members of the ICEM affiliate in the UK, GMB, voted for strike action against British Gas by 82%. Upon releasing the ballot results, GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny said, &ldquo;It is now time for them to sit up and take notice. We are giving British Gas a week to give us a constructive response.&rdquo; 
 
Last week, GMB got that constructive response. The electric and gas utility that is owned by Centrica Plc. began positive discussions with the union and as a result, threatened strike action was halted. 
 
GMB and management of British Gas issued a joint statement saying a new relationship will be &ldquo;built on trust and the ability to have frank, honest debate.&rdquo; The two sides will use the month of April to engage in substantive negotiations on pay and work conditions. &ldquo;Neither party will be seeking to undermine the other in these talks,&rdquo; read the statement. 

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Paul Kenny
As a start, the company has separated a performance management process from arbitrary discipline, something that had been used indiscriminately in recent months to reprimand engineers, service and repair mechanics, and other workers. The union and company also agreed to zero tolerance on bullying, an issue brought forward through a GMB workers&rsquo; survey that revealed overwhelmingly that a &ldquo;bullying management culture&rdquo; had set in. 
 
The two sides agreed also to job times. Kenny said last week&rsquo;s &ldquo;discussions have not been easy, but we do now have a platform on which to build relations. 
 
&ldquo;It is positive that the company respects the position of GMB.&rdquo; 
 
British Gas Managing Director Phil Bentley stated, &ldquo;We remain committed to growth and as British Gas grows we want to create an environment in which our union relationships develop with us. Looking forward, we have the opportunity to work together with GMB to agree a new and exciting future for our engineers.&rdquo; 
 
GMB&rsquo;s 21 national shop stewards at British Gas will meet this week with management to formalise the process forward. A short two months ago, GMB and British Gas were completely polarised, as reflected in <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3604-GMB-to-Take-Strike-Ballot-at-British-Gas-This-Week ">this</a> ICEM dispatch then. The ICEM commends our British affiliate, and senior management of the company, in establishing the proper social protocol to resolve outstanding issues.

GMB Lifts Strike Action Against British Gas; Positive Dialogue Takes Hold

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With the support of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), trade unions in Iraq have come together to create a campaign and a website, calling for international solidarity and pressure on the government of Iraq to enact fair labour legislation. Seven years after the fall of Saddam Hussein&rsquo;s regime, workers in Iraq are still without legislative protection of their fundamental rights at work. 
 
The ICEM strongly supports the campaign, and urges all trade unions from all corners of the world to offer similar support by logging onto the website <a href="http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/cgi-bin/campaign1.cgi">here</a>&nbsp;and join the campaign. (If your organization wants to endorse the campaign, send a mail to Abdullah Muhsin of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) <a href="mailto:postmaster@iraqitradeunions.org">here</a> to give that endorsement.) 
 
Many in the Iraqi government now perceive trade unions as government tools. However, momentum is building behind the campaign for free and independent trade unions, and fair and just labour laws. Important political figures inside Iraq are now pledging their support. These include former President Jalal Talabani, 85 members of Parliament, the Oil Minister, and many community and business leaders. 

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Hashmeya Muhsin
Hashmeya Muhsin, President of the GFIW-affiliated General Union of Electricity Workers and Technicians, and a member of the ICEM Executive Committee, is a key figure in the campaign. She recently told the ITUC in an interview that international solidarity and pressure are crucial in pushing the government to enact fair labour legislation. 
 
The key parliamentary drafting committee has consulted with the campaign's coordinating group, the National Labour Campaign Committee (NLCC), and MPs are petitioning for proposed legislation to be debated in Parliament. 
 
Despite the right to organize being clearly guaranteed in the new constitution, Iraq&rsquo;s government falls back on the blatant anti-union decree of the Saddam era. The current campaign calls for the abolition of Saddam&rsquo;s Law 150 of 1987, and Order 8750 of August 2005 by the occupation forces, which effectively froze all trade union assets and financial accounts, making it impossible for unions to function. 
 
Saddam&rsquo;s Law 150 bans all public sector employees from organising or striking. Some 90% of all Iraqi enterprises are considered part of the public sector, including oil, gas, electricity, textiles, and most other manufacturing sectors. 

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While several versions of a new labour code have been drafted, with the aid of the ILO, political opposition and a gridlocked Parliament has blocked progress. When the campaign is successful in abolishing the draconian anti-union measures of Saddam and the occupation forces, only then can elections to union office be held, free and without government interference. Free trade unions in Iraq will enhance nation-building and contribute greatly to establishing democratic institutions. 
 
Current evidence of the urgent need for new labour legislation is the government interference in the Iraqi Teachers&rsquo; Union (ITU). The government committee entrusted with overseeing the leadership elections of the union is attempting to install its preferred candidates into leadership positions. 
 
The ICEM calls on all its trade union affiliates to join this campaign. Now is the time to raise the profile that Iraqi trade unions have been working towards since 2003 &ndash; labour statutes that comply with international labour standards, and strong trade unions that can enforce those statutes and protect global standards.

Campaign for Effective Iraqi Labour Laws Takes Shape

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The first round of collective negotiations in the German chemicals and pharmaceutical industries proved futile, with the employers&rsquo; BAVC Chemical Industry Association infuriating ICEM affiliate IGBCE and its 550,000 chemical workers by citing the economic crisis as the reason for not offering pay rises. 
 
Bargaining at the different state levels broke off the week of 22 March. The second round of talks will take place now at the federal level in W&uuml;rzburg, Germany, on 20-21 April. Contracts for workers at some 1,900 companies expired on 31 March in some states, and expire in other German states on 30 April. 
 
At a press conference at IGBCE headquarters in Hannover on 31 March, the union made it clear that a wage increase is in order because the country&rsquo;s chemicals industry has weathered the crisis, with a substantive upswing realized in the second half of 2009. 
 
Much of that can be attributed to sacrifices of workers in helping their companies cope with the crisis, including shortened work hours at reduced pay. Also in 2009, some 130,000 workers at 347 companies did not take scheduled pay increases because of the crisis. 
 
The union also cites job security as paramount in this round of negotiations. 

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Peter Hausmann
Peter Hausmann, IGBCE Governing Board member, who heads the union&rsquo;s Collective Bargaining Department, said employers in the opening round of talks completely missed the union&rsquo;s initiatives to continue strengthening the industry. IGBCE stressed that job and skills retention and avoiding compulsory redundancies is essential for competitiveness. The union also proposes to continue to create training opportunities for young workers. 
 
Hausmann said the employers&rsquo; response to the dedication made by German chemical workers during the economic crisis was one of ridicule, as well as ignoring the sacrifices that were made. &ldquo;It was a completely absurd assessment of the economic situation,&rdquo; said Hausmann, adding such posturing is not conducive to productive social dialogue. 

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The IGBCE maintains that recovery in Germany&rsquo;s chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors in 2009 and a bright forecast in 2010 means these industries are better positioned for immediate wage growth than other industries to resuscitate the economy. The BAVC, almost assuredly, is using February&rsquo;s early settlement in the German metals and electronics sectors as a blueprint for all industries. In that, IF Metall deferred a wage increase until spring 2011. 
 
IGBCE is calling on the BAVC to return to bargaining by meeting the union&rsquo;s call for further negotiated training positions to assure future competiveness. Through novel negotiating between the two parties, life-long opportunities for young workers to take skilled jobs in chemicals and pharmaceuticals increased by 9.4% between 2003 and 2008. But between 2008 and 2009, those opportunities decreased, largely due to the crisis. 
 
IGBCE is willing to take a 12-month contract in the upcoming W&uuml;rzburg talks. Traditionally, the union and BAVC have negotiated two-year agreements.

German Chemicals Pact Elusive in First Round of Talks

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After seven-and-a-half to eight days trapped deep inside a coal mine, Chinese rescue teams freed some 120 workers today, 5 April, from a massive state-owned colliery still under construction. The Wangjialing mine in northern Shanxi Province was flooded by 140,000 cubic metres of water on 28 March when workmen, one kilometre underground, inadvertently broke through a wall into an adjacent and abandoned shaft filled with water. 
 
There were hopes that some of the remaining 30 of 153 workers trapped might also be alive. &ldquo;It is a miracle. This has been worth all (our rescue) efforts, not to have slept for several days,&rdquo; said one medical worker today to the news agency China Nouvelle. 
 
Chinese authorities began sending divers and other rescuers into the mine on Saturday, 3 April, after drilling and laying pipes were done to pump water out. Workers were stranded for over a week in some nine different mine shafts. Some 100 rescue workers descended into the mine late last evening, 4 April, and returned in the early hours of today with the first nine survivors. 

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By mid-afternoon in Shanxi Province, or 06h00 GMT, another 111 construction workers had been pulled from pits. 
 
The State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) last week blamed lax safety and a haste to finish construction on the 180-square-kilometre mine as cause, but ineffective mapping of either waterlogged old shafts or an underground river no doubt also contributed. 
 
Workers reported persistent water leaks in the days leading up to the flood and brought that to the attention of construction supervisors. But the warnings went unheeded. Workers had also seen their eight-hour workdays increase to 16 in efforts to finish mine construction so mechanical digging could begin. Reportedly, several construction managers fled the area immediately after the flooding began, and they are now wanted by Chinese authorities. 
 
SAWS stated on its website: &ldquo;This incident once again exposes lapses in responsibility and management of safety and failure to take safety checks and measures seriously.&rdquo; 
 
The eight-day ordeal, which saw some 3,000 recovery and medical personnel present, got wide attention both inside China and worldwide. Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang appeared at the site on the third day of rescue operations (30 March) and later in the week sided with angry relatives of workers who demanded local officials release a list of those missing. 

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Huajin Coking Coal Ltd., jointly owned by the China National Coal Group and the Shanxi Coking Coal Co. Ltd., was started in 2006 as a US$287.5 million project, with an expected production of six million tonnes annually. The mine is estimated to have 2.3 billion tonnes of coal reserves, including 1.04 billion tonnes of proven reserves. 
 
Construction started on the Wangjialing project near the city of Hejin in Xiangning County in April 2007 and was originally scheduled to be completed by March 2010. 
 
But delays pushed that deadline back to October 2010, and it is now certain that the rush to finish later this year jeopardized construction safety. 
 
The Wangjialing mine tragedy will inevitably result in some deaths, but it was not the only China coal mine last week that experienced death. In nearby Henan province on 31 March, 19 miners were killed and 24 are still missing after a methane gas explosion inside an illegal Guomin Mining colliery near Luoyang City, Yichuan County. The mine had been ordered closed by provincial safety authorities on 1 May 2009, after huge gas outbursts were reported. Managers of the privately-owned company had gone missing following the explosion. 
 
And a day earlier, on 30 March, ten workers became trapped and died at the Shajihai Coal Mine in the far western autonomous region of Xinjiang Uighur when a shaft collapsed. 
 
On 1 April, nine miners perished from a fire inside the Quanzigou Coal Mine near Hancheng City, Shaanxi Province. In the northeastern province of Heilongjiang on 1 April, a flood inside shafts trapped five miners and they are presumed dead. And carbon monoxide from self-made explosives claimed four lives in the autonomous region of Guangxi Zhuang in southeastern China.

Miraculous Rescue for Majority of 153 Workers Trapped in Chinese Coal Mine

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Five members of the United Steelworkers (USW) were killed at a Tesoro Corp. oil refinery in Anacortes, US state of Washington, when an explosion occurred during a re-start of the refinery&rsquo;s naphtha unit. Killed were three men at the scene, while two women died in the hours after the fiery explosion in a Seattle hospital. 
 
Two other workers remain in critical condition. 
 
The tragedy occurred in the early morning hours of 2 April. A Washington state labour investigator speculated that a fire and subsequent explosion occurred in a bank of boilers that heats fluids under high temperature and pressure in the production of naphtha, an extremely volatile hydrocarbon composite used as a feedstock in high-octane petrol. 
 
The three process operators killed at the scene were Matthew Bowen, 31, Darrin Hoines, 43, and Daniel Aldridge, 50. The women, who died from severe burns and other injuries in the Seattle hospital, 110 kilometres from Anacortes, were operators Kathryn Powell, 29, and Donna Van Dreumel, 36. All were members of USW Local 12-591. 
 
Severely injured were USW member Matt Gumbel, 34, and Lew Janz, 41, a supervisor who had been a long-time USW member. 

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Gary Beevers
USW Vice President Gary Beevers said it was vital that the cause of this blast is fully investigated so that &ldquo;the rest of the oil industry (can) apply the lessons learned. There have been too many accidents and near-miss incidents in the oil refining industry. In honor of our brothers and sisters who were killed and seriously injured at the Tesoro refinery, we urge the industry to take steps to ensure an incident of this type never happens again.&rdquo; 
 
USW District 12 Director Robert LaVenture said, &ldquo;While we mourn now, we will seek justice.&rdquo; 
 
US oil refineries are considered the least safe in the world due to age and poor safety processes. Last Friday&rsquo;s Anacortes tragedy was the deadliest since the March 2005 explosion at BP/Amoco&rsquo;s Texas City, Texas, refinery that killed 15 and injured 170. As a result of the BP explosion, the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and state inspection agencies began safety probes at all 150 US refineries. 

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BP explosion aftermath, 2005
From that, in April 2009, Tesoro&rsquo;s Anacortes refinery was cited with 17 serious safety and health violations, defined as those with potential to cause death or serious injury. It fined the company US$85,700. Inspectors also found 150 instances of deficiencies and said Tesoro did not ensure safe work practices, and failed to update safety information when changes were made to equipment. 
 
Tesoro appealed the fine and through a settlement negotiation process, in November 2009 the number of serious violations was reduced to three and the fine reduced to US$12,250. 
 
The US Chemical Safety board, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industry, and USW&rsquo;s Emergency Response Team and Safety and Health Department are all investigating the deadly 2 April explosion. 
 
Tesoro, an independent, downstream refiner and retail marketer of petroleum products based in San Antonio, Texas, operates seven refineries in the US states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, North Dakota, and Washington. The Anacortes, Washington, refinery has a production capacity of 130,000 barrels per day, and produces gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel from crude oil brought in from Alaska.

Five Steelworkers Killed in US Oil Refinery Blast on 2 April

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ICEM North American affiliate Power Workers Union (PWU) was one of several hosts for the 50th Canadian Nuclear Association&rsquo;s (CNA) annual meeting, held 24-26 February in Canada&rsquo;s capital city, Ottawa. The PWU is a proud promoter of Canada&rsquo;s nuclear power industry, and uses the forum to generate policy discussion with industry leaders, company officials, and human resource people. 
 
PWU also hosted several international guests, including guests from the CGT of France and AWU of Australia. PWU President Don MacKinnon also hosted former PWU President Kealy Cummings, a pioneer in Canada&rsquo;s nuclear sector and a former Canadian labour attach&eacute; to the UK, who was at many of the early CAN annual gatherings. 

<img src="" width="231" height="190" alt="" />
PWU President Don MacKinnon and CGT-F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Mines Energie&rsquo;s Alain Vassaux. Seated, at left: former PWU President Kealy Cummings
The Canadian Nuclear Workers&rsquo; Council was also represented at the forum, as was the ICEM. Some 700 people participated in the conference. The nuclear sector is a C$6.6 billion industry in Canada, employing 21,000 people directly, and responsible for another 40,000 indirect jobs. 
 
&ldquo;This conference has become much more than a typical annual industry gathering,&rdquo; said new CAN President and CEO Denise Carpenter. It has evolved into &ldquo;a fully integrated and interactive trade show, career fair, and education symposium.&rdquo;

Canadian PWU Involved in Nation’s Nuclear Sector

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ICEM&rsquo;s three Italian affiliates, FILCEM&ndash;CGIL, FEMCA&ndash;CISL, UILCEM&ndash;UIL, are campaigning together against a recent decision by British multinational Glaxo Smith Kline to close its research centre in Verona, and put 550 employees out of work. 
 
A joint trade union delegation met four government ministers from the Ministries of Economic Development, and of Welfare and Health. The trade union leaders argued that the plant is profitable and also contributes to the profitability and growth of the company worldwide. Government Ministers were in agreement with the trade union arguments, and rejected the explanation of the company that the closure is part of the overall restructuring of the company. 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="102" />&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" width="95" height="116" />&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="126" height="71" />
The Italian Government Ministers Scaiola, Sacconi, Fazio, and Martini, have announced the establishing of an arbitration committee, which will seek to analyse in detail the reasons for Glaxo&rsquo;s decision to close its Verona facility, and hope to find a solution that will reverse their decision. The arbitration committee will be formed next month. 
 
The Verona employees of Glaxo who are set to lose their jobs have taken to the street in protest of the decision. See a slideshow of photos of the demonstrations <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cgilnazionale/sets/72157623383165437/show/">here</a>.&nbsp;

Italian Pharmaceutical Workers Protest Plant Closure, 550 Jobs Lost

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The methane gas explosion on 23 February that killed 13 Turkish coal miners in northwest Balikesir Province could have prevented, according to the ICEM and its affiliate, Maden-Iş. The private mine, owned by Erhan Ortakoylu and his Şentaş Mining Company, had experienced a similar gas blast on 2 June 2006 killing 17 miners, and indications this time reveal that warning safeguards used to detect methane accumulation was inadequate. 
 
As well, it is suspected that a ventilation system failed to clear the deadly methane gas. 
 
The explosion injured 33 miners. Five of the 13 victims died in a hospital after rescue due to severe burns. The tragedy occurred 250 metres deep in the Odakoy mine, some 20 kilometres from the city of Dursunbey. 

<img src="" width="130" height="130" alt="" />
Maden-Iş stated that the mine had undergone insufficient safety audits. Even though the government claimed an audit had occurred in the weeks prior to the explosion, the union said that infractions detected were not corrected. Oftentimes in Turkey, safety audits of mines by the Labour and Social Security Ministry are not done on-site, but rather through queries to mine owners from afar. Nizamettin Tiryaki, a mining engineer for Maden-Iş, said that it is also not uncommon for mine inspectors to be paid off by private mine operators. 
 
The ICEM believes that expenditures on modern and efficient safety equipment by private miners are also sacrificed in order to maximize profits. At the time of the explosion, the ICEM, together with the ILO, was leading a symposium in Ankara on the necessity for Turkey to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. 
 
In a letter of condolence to Maden-Iş Presidnt Ismail Aslan, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;The explosion illustrates the importance of our shared work in improving safety standards in Turkey&rsquo;s mines, and moving the Turkish Government towards ratification and proper implementation of ILO Convention 176.&rdquo; The complete letter can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/19.Maden-Is.Condolences.24Feb.pdf">here</a>.

Gas Blast in Turkey, Killing 13, Needs Thorough Investigation

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Swiss specialty chemical company Clariant has announced a further 400 job cuts at the Muttenz site, near Basel, as the company seeks to move production and increase profits. Clariant CEO, Hariolf Kottmann, oversaw the cutting of 137 jobs last year. Clariant turnover is around $8 billion and the company is a world leader in the supply of chemicals and colors for the textile, leather, paper, packaging, plastics, and printing. The proposed further job cuts will be made between now and 2012, as the company seeks to relocate production to Asia, where production costs are lower. 
 
The mass job cuts would be in breach of the collective agreement and of Swiss labour law. Workers are legally entitled to a period of consultation where alternative employment opportunities can be examined, before any jobs can be cut. 

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ICEM Swiss affiliate UNIA, together with the Clariant Workers Council, is pressing the company to first preserve these jobs, or at least provide acceptable redundancy packages. Demands include replacement jobs for every worker affected by the cuts, practical training and education programs, and no further cuts at the Schweizerhalle pharmaceuticals site. 
 
UNIA and the Clariant workers are organising a demonstration at Clariant headquarters on Thursday 11 March, starting at 5.15am. From there the demonstration will move to Liestal, meeting at the train station at 9am, before marching to the local government building &lsquo;Landratsgeb&auml;ude&rsquo; to call on district councilors to step in to preserve local jobs. 
 
The protesting Clariant workers have a Facebook page with more information.

Swiss Chemical Workers Protest Job Cuts

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