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The ICEM has expressed shock and anger at the mid-April killing of General Federation of Iraq Workers (GFIW) Vice-President Moaaid Hamid and his wife. The two were killed in the province of Nineveh during a clash between forces of the Iraqi army and terrorist elements inside the province. 
 
Hamid was a contributor to the founding of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions in 2003, before that trade union centre evolved into the GFIW. He had been a victim of Saddam&rsquo;s regime against free and independent trade unions, and after the invasion, had been abducted and tortured by terrorists before he was freed by Iraqi security forces. 
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In a letter to the GFIW, the ICEM wrote, &ldquo;This appalling violence, coming as it does so soon after the abduction, torture, and subsequent murder of Najim Abd-Jasem, the General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers&rsquo; Union of your Federation, strengthens our view that there is a systematic campaign to eliminate the leadership of the newly formed independent and democratic unions that strongly oppose sectarianism.&rdquo; 
 
The letter was sent by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda on 29 April 2007.

ICEM Mourns Killing in Iraq of GFIW Vice-President

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ICEM affiliate Argentine Federation of Private Oil and Workers Union (FASPyGP) launched a series of rolling strikes to oil and gas production on 3 May across several provinces of the South American nation. The dispute is over a continued wage impasse between the union and several companies, covering 35,000 workers. 
 
The companies have balked at paying 2007 wage increases of 20%, an amount FASPyGP claims is only 45 minutes of combined production in oil and gas fields. The strikes have occurred at gas deposits near Mendoza and Salta, and other energy extraction in the provinces of Tierra del Fuego, Chubut, and Neuqu&eacute;n y Santa Cruz. 
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The companies being targeted include Repsol YPF, Argentine-British Pan American Energy, Apache, Argentina&rsquo;s PlusPetrol, as well as units of major energy producers, such as Petrobras and ExxonMobil. The industry has offered only 15% increases. 
 
Oil and gas companies doing exploratory and extraction work in Argentina have increased gas output by 5.2% in the first quarter of 2007, while oil production has jumped 4.9%. The companies export some 65% of all production and with oil and gas prices remaining high, multinationals have prospered from the country&rsquo;s natural resources. 
 
The government of Nestor Kirchner has called on oil and gas companies to expand their investment efforts in Argentina&rsquo;s energy sector, as well as to compensate oil and gas workers fairly as a means to curbing consumer price inflation.

Argentina Oil Union, FASPyGP, Launches Oil, Gas Strike

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A gem-polishing dispute that saw intense ICEM involvement in 2001 has flared again at Almond Jewellery in Bangkok. The New York-based jewellery exporter locked out 254 workers on 9 April. 
 
Workers are in protest over the firing of two key leaders of the plant-level union, which occurred in September 2006, and management&rsquo;s refusal to enter into to obligatory social talks over renewed labour terms. Workers began picketing the factory on 17 April. On 19 April, 200 of Almond&rsquo;s workers marched to the Government House in Bangkok and presented a petition. They were joined by trade union leaders from ICEM&rsquo;s Thai-affiliated unions. 
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Almond unionists marched to Govt House on 19 April
A government representative met with leaders of the workers at Almond, and pledged to investigate the lockout within seven days. That is now in progress. 
 
Almond is continuing to operate the gem-polishing factory with a small number of regular workers and some 400-500 agency workers. 
 
The contract dispute started in late January, after the union requested the re-opening of contract talks. Managers responded by demanding benefits back from workers that had previously been obtained during negotiations. Managers then made threats of dismissal to workers if they engaged in union activity, and they have forced some workers to sign petitions indicating their withdrawal from the union. 
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The ICEM obtained bargaining rights for workers at Almond&rsquo;s factory in Bangkok in late 2001. Then, Almond had sacked over 50 workers, including the entire leadership of the plant-level committee. The ICEM pressured Almond&rsquo;s owners to reinstate the workers, begin negotiations with the union, and to drop lawsuits the company brought against leaders for legitimate trade union activity. 
 
Almond&rsquo;s New York-based leader Jonathan Mandelbaum agreed to a four-point charter, which included the above. Since 2001, gem-polishing workers made positive gains in negotiations with managers. Almond&rsquo;s managers now seek to dismantle those gains. 
But workers have been tested before, and the 19 April march and protest at the Government House signals renewed resistance. Workers are demanding the re-hiring of plant-level President Patoom Kamdeewan and Committee Member Akom Thongdeewan, and are insisting on backpay for both, as well as for all locked-out workers.
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Former ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs&nbsp;talking to 
Thai Almond workers in 2001
The united workforce is seeking a 5% wage increase, plus a bonus payment. Workers seek a monthly-wage pattern, instead of daily wages, and demand that Almond pay them a transportation allowance. 
 
They also are demanding inclusion of contract and agency workers under terms of the collective bargaining agreement. 
 
The ICEM supports these demands as fair and just.

Thai Gem-Polishing Firm Again Bringing Labour Problems to the Fore

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The ICEM teamed with the International Transport Workers&acute; Federation (ITF) in applying pressure on President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The ICEM also lodged strong protest to Kabila over the dispute by workers at the Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Mini&egrave;re de Bakwanga (MIBA), a diamond extraction company. 
 
The transport matter concerned the unfair and arbitrary arrest of trade unionist Leon Ngoy Bululu, vice-president of ITF-affiliated Solidarit&eacute; Syndicale des Travailleurs et Cadres du Congo (SOLIDARITE). 
He was arrested on 20 April 2007, following an appearance on a 14 March television programme on the Moli&egrave;re channel. In the broadcast, he reportedly spoke out against ongoing mismanagement of the national transport company, Office National des Transports (ONATRA). Mr. Bululu was arrested at his office by agents of the Brigade Criminelle du parquet de la Gombe and detained, following a complaint by the management of the transport company. 
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ONATRA employs 17,800 workers throughout DRC&rsquo;s five provinces: Kinshasa, Bas-Congo, Bandungu, Equateur and the Province Orientale. Among the issues raised by Comrade Bululu was the fact that the company keeps hiring new workers, over 1,200 recently, even though wages for current workers are delayed by four months. 
 
Bululu was first imprisoned at the &quot;Parquet de Grande Instance de la Gombe.&quot; Later, he was transferred to the notorious Makala prison, where he finds himself incarcerated without due and diligent legal processes. Efforts to find out more about his current condition have, so far, been without result. 
 
Both ICEM and ITF call for his immediate release, which they say is clear and calculated trade union repression. 
 
The diamond mining dispute at state-run Soci&eacute;t&eacute; Mini&egrave;re de Bakwanga (MIBA), a diamond extraction operation near Mbuji-Mayi, in south-central Kasai-Oriental Province, has forced a strike by workers also over non-payment of wages. The strike began 23 April. 
MIBA is some seven months behind in paying wages.
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A joint trade union delegation is furthermore demanding a return of social benefits that the government has taken away from diamond miners and others, and calls on the company to provide adequate equipment to guarantee health and safety. 
 
Participating unions in the strike are FENAMICO, SYTRAME, CTP, GST, SYGEMI, SLC, FGTK, FTF, all of which are ICEM affiliates, and FOSYCO, which is affiliated to the International Energy &amp; Mines Organisation (IEMO).

ICEM protests Congo’s Transport, Diamond Injustices

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Some three months after miners of AVVS de Moederbond trade union in Suriname staged a strike at a Canadian-based gold-mining enterprise, called IAM Gold, they know their rewards. A new collective agreement was formally signed 25 April 2007, giving 900 miners their first collective agreement. 
 
It was the second strike within a year at the two-year-old gold pits &ndash; both against Canadian mining houses. IAM Gold bought the central Suriname site from Ciambor Inc. late in 2006. AVVS de Moederbond hit already that Canadian company with a strike that lasted four days in May 2006. 
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This first labour accord serves as a strong precedent in the resource-rich South American country, since new mining development is occurring and IAM Gold is keenly interested in moving into eastern Suriname. 
 
In this initial three-year collective agreement, miners will receive a 24% increase, retroactive to 1 January 2007. They will also receive a 10% raise in 2008. In 2009, the union and management will negotiate a further raise.
In addition, the union won improved medical care and child benefits, while the vacation scheme was enhanced. In signing the agreement on 25 April, IAM Gold, a company with assets in Botswana, Ghana, Mali, Peru, and other South American countries, expressed public conviction to AVVS de Moederbond President Errol Snijders that it will build a trusting, cooperative relationship with the mining union. 
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President Errol Snijders
IAM Gold, founded in 1996, holds joint venture stakes with AngloGold Ashanti in Mali, Goldfields in Ghana, and owns the Mupane gold mine in Botswana. Mupane is a shared enterprise with the state, and the ten-year lease with civil society comes due in the year 2013. 
 
IAM Gold was a takeover target of Goldfields in the recent past, but the deal failed when shareholders of Goldfields rejected it. IAM Gold, in 2006, acquired Gallery Gold, and has several shared investments with Battle Mountain Gold. It also has mining interests in Senegal and Tanzania in Africa, and in Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador in South America. 
 
The Toronto-based company also holds mining interests in Canada and collects mining royalties on Canadian precious-metal mining.

Gold Miners in Suriname Win Two-year, 34% Wage Hikes

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A mass strike in Peru has proven successful, despite government efforts to downplay the effect the strike has had on a number of mining enterprises. The strike was called by ICEM affiliate National Federation of Mining, Metallurgy, and Steel Workers Union (FNTMMSP) on 30 April and, by all accounts, over 40 copper, nickel, zinc, iron, gold, and silver mining operations have lost high levels of production since last week. 
 
The strike can easily be said to be a success, with the government already guaranteeing higher social benefits for contract and agency workers at the outset of the strike. After the union&rsquo;s return to tri-partite bargaining on 4 May, and following cessation of the strike, FNTMMSP is now pushing for further regularisation of the contract labour status, which needs to include the right to unionisation for contract workers. 
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The strike by the 28,000-member FNTMMSP saw roughly half of Peru&rsquo;s 110,000 miners participating. This included a good number of the mining sector&rsquo;s 50,000 contract or agency workers. 
Peru&rsquo;s Labour Minister Susanna Pinilla, however, has taken to the airwaves and has been quoted in the business press playing down the success of the strike. Throughout last week&rsquo;s strike, she kept providing a regular narrative of mining operations in Peru that continued production. 
 
The mining union federation, FNTMMSP, covering some 75 individual site-level unions, has complained bitterly to the government for some time that the Labour Ministry and other monitors have failed to keep pace with the burgeoning number of agencies or contract labour providers doing business in Peru&rsquo;s booming mining industry. Many of these agencies and service providers operate in the black. 
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&ldquo;The over-exploitation of these workers has been going on for too long,&rdquo; said FNTMMSP Sec. Gen. Luis Castillo Carlos, who himself has participated in ICEM conferences on Contract and Agency Labour. &ldquo;The miners&rsquo; strike was called because the authorities lack the political will to enforce labour rights,&rdquo; he added. 
 
FNTMMSP and its affiliated mining unions are seeking strict regularisation of mining employment agencies; enhanced profit-sharing arrangements for its members and newly-established profit-sharing for contract and agency workers; shorter work days; and improved pension benefits.
The 30 April strike actually started two days earlier when miners from two sites of Grupo Mexico-connected Southern Peru Copper Co. blocked roads around Ilo, Peru. Southern Peru&rsquo;s mines in Toquepala and Cuajone suffered deep production losses during the strike. FNTMMSP held marches in several regions on 1 May, and also conducted rallies on 2 May and 4 May at the Labour Ministry in Lima. 
A sampling of mining operations in Peru affected by the strike includes: Southern Peru Copper Co.; US-operated Doe Run&rsquo;s La Oroya copper and lead smelting operations; several of Volcan Cia Minera SA&rsquo;s zinc smelters; BHP Billiton&rsquo;s Tintaya copper operations in Cusco; Chinese state-run Shougang Hierroperu&rsquo;s iron ore mines in the country&rsquo;s south; Glencore International AG&rsquo;s Los Quenuales zinc operation; Cia. De Minas Buenaventura; and zinc producers Cia. Minera Santa Luisa SA and Cia. Minera Raura SA. 
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At US-based Newmont Mining&rsquo;s Yanacocha SRL&rsquo;s gold mine and smelter, South America&rsquo;s largest gold operation, miners conducted a march and protest in support of FNTMMSP&rsquo;s strike. 
 
One already achieved result of the strike is that the government did commit to increase the number of labour inspectors in Peru from 100 to 250 by the end of the year. That should help in monitoring and in getting agency labour agencies to comply with Peruvian law. 
 
Despite Labour Minister Pinilla downplaying the effect of the strike, one cabinet minister did publicly confirm the significance of the strike. &ldquo;The demands voiced by these workers are fair,&rdquo; stated Energy and Mines Minister Juan Valdivia in a published report. 
 
Referring to the vast proliferation of service-providing entities inside Peru&rsquo;s mining sector, he added, &ldquo;There are companies that comply and others that don&rsquo;t. The ones that do not respect labour rights should be punished,&rdquo; said Valdiva.

Mining Strike in Peru Produces Gains for Contract Workers

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Unions from France and Belgium convened early this month in Montreuil, France, to discuss a complete lack of information to workers over the merger plans of Owens Corning&rsquo;s Reinforcements Business with Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s Reinforcement Composites Businesses, known as Vetrotex. 
 
Under the auspices of the F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Nationale du Verre et de la C&eacute;ramique CGT, the CGT Owens Corning l&rsquo;Ardoise and V&eacute;trotex St Gobain Chamb&eacute;ry met with representatives of the Belgian FGTB et CSC, representing Owens Corning workers in Battice, Belgium. 
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The consultations concluded with the unionists condemning the fact that neither Owens Corning, a US multinational, nor French Saint-Gobain had taken the trouble to answer the questions posed by the unions since the announcement of the merger was made last July. Workers are extremely concerned about the planned merger&rsquo;s impact, including a possible sale of one or more of the two companies&rsquo; entities. 
 
The trade unionists from the French and Belgian unions said that they have not been provided information on either a social or industrial plan, thus creating the fear of the negative consequences that workers could face if the merger becomes reality.

French, Belgian Unions Meet Over Possible Owens Corning, Saint-Gobain Merger

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A court in France last week sided with French energy trade unions, who argued that Gaz de France (GDF) needed to provide more information first to its European Works Council (EWC) before it can merge with Franco-Belgian utility group Suez. The court decision is likely to have serious repercussions on the planned &euro;80 billion merger between GDF and Suez. 
 
The unions filed the complaint after GDF failed to provide EWC members with crucial information, needed to get an informed opinion back to the company. The consultation process between the GDF and its EWC is one of the necessary steps in the merger process. The French judge last week ruled that GDF cannot take any decision on the merger before the EWC has given its opinion on the deal. 
 
Trade unions are requiring from GDF information on the &ldquo;social impact&rdquo; of the planned merger. The unions are particularly concerned over the impact on employment, and seek details on the consequences of possible job losses and/or relocations in countries like France, The Netherlands, Italy and UK. 
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Because of the court decision, it became impossible for the boards of the companies to meet and take decisions last week, making it, in turn, impossible for shareholders to vote on the merger before the end of the year. That means that a vote on the merger will be postponed to some time early next year, possible until March or even later. 
 
With French public opinion strongly in favour of state-controlled utility services, and with the French presidential elections looming early next year, unions representing GDF workers now believe it possible that the entire merger will be abandoned, particularly if the Socialist Party in France wins election. 
 
On a separate issue, French unions at GDF strongly protested the planned decision by the presidents of GDF and Suez to assign only three seats, out of a total of 24, of the Administrative Council of the merged group to union representatives. That number would be the bare legal minimum. At GDF, unions have six seats out of 18. 
 
A joint French trade union front, consisting of CGT, FNEM FO, CFE-CGC, and CFTC, has been resisting the government&rsquo;s forced privatisation of Gaz de France, through the merger with the French-Belgian water and power concern. Another energy union, FCE-CFDT, while also hostile to the privatisation of GDF, suggests a separate solution, advocating a partnership between GDF and Suez. In a press release last week, FCE-CFDT repeated that position, saying it would have solved a lot of the current problems.

Unions Win Important Legal Battle in GDF-Suez Merger Saga

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The worst Polish mining tragedy in three decades claimed 23 lives on 21 November, as a methane gas explosion struck deep inside the Halemba mine in Ruda Slaska in Poland&rsquo;s southern Silesia industrial region. The mine, which had not been operating since March 2006, is owned by the state-run Kampania Weglowa (KW), the EU&rsquo;s largest mining company. 
 
The miners were some 1,000 metres underground when the methane gas ignited. They were sent into the 50-year-old mine to retrieve equipment, valued by the company at US$23 million. The shafts in which they were working had been closed last spring, due to dangerously high concentrations of gas. 
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Poland&rsquo;s President, Lech Kaczynski, visited the area and declared a three-day national period of mourning from 23-25 November. All cultural and sports events across the country were cancelled. The government also announced a special fund totalling US$234,700 for family members of the victims. 
 
Some 60 persons, including 23 surviving children, will share the compensation award, expected to amount to about US$10,000 per person. 
 
Poland&rsquo;s Higher Authority for Mining set up a special commission to investigate the tragedy, with work beginning on 24 November. The KW supervisory board will meet on 11 December to take up the reasons and consequences of the catastrophe. Meanwhile, KW has dismissed general directors at all 17 of its collieries in Poland, and the mines will be managed by technical and administrative personnel.

23 Miners Killed inside Poland’s Halemba Coal Pit

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The ICEM has written to the leaders of Maoist political parties in Nepal, protesting against the recent attacks on trade union representatives by Maoist groups in the country. 
 
The latest of these assaults took place on Saturday, 18 November, at a mill owned by Bhrikuti Pulp and Paper Nepal Ltd., in Gaindakot in the Nawalparasi district of Western Nepal. 
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NICIWU's Tika Ram Paudel
Tika Ram Paudel, the Central Treasurer of ICEM affiliate Nepal Independent Chemical &amp; Iron Workers&rsquo; Union (NICIWU), and Shree Mahato, the NICIWU Vice President at Bhrikuti&rsquo;s mill, were brutally attacked by Maoists.
Both were beaten after Paudel, who had been receiving Maoist threats over the last few months, was summoned &ldquo;for consultation&rdquo; by Maoists, who had suddenly appeared at the plant.
Regrettably, more reports on violence against trade unionists have come out of Nepal recently. The ICEM was also informed by its affiliates of an attack on GEFONT trade unionists by Maoists in Hotel Malla. 
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These violent incidents are deplorable in view of the fact that the country is just months out of a period of brutal repression by the government. Last spring, the people of Nepal removed their autocratic King Gyanendra from power. And within the past month, a peace agreement was signed between Maoists rebels and the government, ending a ten-year period of fighting. 
 
In the ICEM letter, the Global Union Federation joined the call by NICIWU to &ldquo;strongly demand the Maoist leadership to respect the peace code of conduct,&rdquo; as well as &ldquo;to investigate the incidents immediately.&rdquo; Reportedly, the Maoist leadership has already committed itself to investigate the incident. However, earlier such promises have been broken. The ICEM will continue to monitor the fragile state of peace and security not only in the Himalayan country as a whole, but also inside the workplaces of Nepal.

Situation Remains Precarious for Nepalese Trade Unionists

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