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ICEM affiliate Sintraelecol reported last week that the union has signed a collective agreement with ISA Transelca for a period from 2009 to 2012. 
 
The triumph for the union brings significant pay rises to the 110 workers, with more than 80% of those workers receiving increases amounting to 10% above inflation. 
 
And perhaps even more significantly, the new agreement brings Contract and Agency Labour staff used by the company into full, direct employment, complete with all the legal protection that full-time employees receive.
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The ICEM commends this achievement by Sintraelecol, which is significant not only because of the improved work conditions achieved for workers in Colombia in the electric sector, but also because Grupo ISA Transelca operates in many neighbouring countries, such as Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, and Ecuador. The hope is that this agreement will serve as an example and precedent for management and unions in those countries to reach similar agreements, and bring contract and agency staff onto the company&rsquo;s books. 
 
The rate of collective bargaining in Colombia is the lowest in the entire Andean region. Trade unionists face anti-union repression from the national government, as well as fear of killed or assaulted while deploying legitimate trade union activity. These facts make the agreement with ISA Transelca all the more commendable. 
 
Also in Colombia, ICEM affiliate Sintravidricol last week reported a victory in forcing Havells Sylvania, a maker of lighting fixtures, to reinstate workers who had been illegally dismissed. Reintegration into the workforce will take place on 17 November. 
 
Sintravidricol issued a statement praising all union members, as well as ICEM Colombia Project Coordinator Carlos Bustos, for their help and solidarity. However, focus and work remains on the company in Bogota, as not all workers who lost their jobs have been reinstated. The ICEM is demanding that those workers are back on their jobs immediately. Send messages of solidarity and support for these employees to the Havells Sylvania management at <a href="mailto:info.co@havells-sylvania.com">info.co@havells-sylvania.com</a>.

Rights Achieved for Contract Workers by Sintraelecol in Colombia

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ICEM&rsquo;s last newsletter, 14 days ago, reported on the end of a strike and the pending payment of a long-awaited pay increase for Peruvian mineworkers at the Marcona mine of Shougang Hierro Per&uacute;. That salary increase had been agreed to in July 2009, through mediation by Peru&rsquo;s Labour Ministry, but never paid, so miners again went on strike for 15 days in October. 
 
However, on 4 November, after resuming work and again being promised July&rsquo;s salary increase, Shougang miners again went on indefinite strike action following the company, yet again, failing to make payments. 
 
This time, the company transported non-striking workers around the mine in illegal and unsafe vehicles, as transport drivers joined miners on strike. Such practices are against both national and regional law in the Ica District of southern Peru, and coupled with failure to pay the negotiated and agreed-to salaries, depicts a multinational metals company, albeit state-owned, exhibiting contempt for Peruvian law and its workers.
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The ICEM affiliate in Peru, the National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (FNTMMSP), last week called upon Labour Minister Manuela Garc&iacute;a Cochagne to act and deal harshly with the latest illegalities of Shougang Hierro. The Chinese company has been mining iron ore near the town of San Juan de Marcona since its 1993 purchase from the state. Since then, the union says that Shougang has only poverty levels in the area, and has blocked local residents from owning land. 
 
Elsewhere in Peru&rsquo;s mining industry, the Ministry of Labour is attempting to avoid a strike at the Los Quenuales zinc mine, owned by the Swiss transnational Glencore. The dispute there runs consistent with many stories from around the world; Glencore is using the current global economic crisis to renege on a prior salary agreement for some 1,800 workers. The weekly raise that the Swiss holding company refuses to pay is 2 Peruvian Soles per week, the equivalent to US$0.68.
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FNTMMSP Gen. Sec. Luis Castillo Carlos&nbsp;
The branch union at Los Quenales represents workers also from contract companies operating at Los Quenuales. The union has been attempting to negotiate with management since 15 October, with no positive results. FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo Carlos has been negotiating on behalf of the workers. 
 
A collective of multinationals face another Peruvian dispute at the Antamina copper and zinc mine. Antamina is controlled by BHP Billiton and Xstrata (33.75% each), with Teck Cominco of Canada and Mitsubishi of Japan holding smaller stakes. Management of one of South America&rsquo;s largest copper/zinc mines is offering no pay increase, while FNTMMSP is seeking a raise of living wage each day. Negotiations will continue on 17 November, and if they fail, a strike mandate could be in order.

Chinese Mine Firm Shougang Hierro Perú Again Reneges on Salary Hike

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State-owned Solid Energy of New Zealand once again has to pay the price for actions of coal-mining sub-contractors. Following a short &ldquo;go-slow&rdquo; job action at Solid Energy&rsquo;s Rotowaro colliery on the North Island in protest over eight months of stalled bargaining, contractor RWE Mining locked 160 workers &ndash; members of Engineering, Printing, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) &ndash; off their jobs on 27 October. 
 
That caused 120 other EPMU members at the nearby Huntly East coal mine, also without a current agreement, to strike in sympathy. On 2 November, at Solid Energy&rsquo;s Stockton mine complex on the South Island, 500 EPMU members went on strike, partly in sympathy and partly over their own grievances over a new shift roster imposed by contractor Downer EDI Mining of Australia, originally a New Zealand company. 
 
The next day, 120 miners at the Spring Creek mine, also on the South Island, struck, meaning 900 miners in New Zealand have downed tools, shutting the nation&rsquo;s coal industry. The miners had been bargaining through EPMU with Solid Energy and its contractors under a Multi-Employer Collective Agreement, which expired on 31 March 2009. The different mines also have individual agreements related to work rules, however.
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At Rotowaro, where coal deposits will start to be exhausted by late next year, workers became frustrated with RWE Mining stalling on adequate redundancy provisions, as well as remuneration for going to a 24-hour, seven-day operation that sparked the &ldquo;go-slow&rdquo; action. The dispute was inflamed there when Solid and HWE consulted on pay and working conditions without involving the EPMU&rsquo;s bargaining unit. 
 
On the South Island, shift rosters and remuneration also are serious issues. 
 
RWE Mining is part of Leighton Contractors of Australia, while Downer EDI is a major engineering, infrastructure, and mining contractor based in Sydney. In 2007, again after a contract expiration, HWE Mining locked out EPMU miners at Huntly Rotowaro, causing a wave of sympathy strikes at Solid Energy&rsquo;s other collieries. 
 
The current dispute was intensified last week when Solid Energy began running advertisements calling the EPMU irresponsible and encouraging miners to return to work. The state company said it would not return to bargaining until the strikes ended, and also threatened job cuts if the strikes continue. 
 
&ldquo;Solid Energy is out of touch with its workers,&rdquo; stated EPMU Assistant National Secretary Ged O&rsquo;Connell. &ldquo;The company needs to realize that this strike action is a result of their behaviour towards their workers and all of their workers will stand up together to fight it.&rdquo; 
 
EPMU mine leaders from all the sites will meet today to determine their next steps in the dispute.

Contractors at State-Run Coal Mines Bring National Strikes to New Zealand

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As a priority, the ICEM has been building union networks within major multinational companies and sectors at global, regional, and national levels. These networks engage in exchange of information and experiences, organizing strategies, occupational health/safety, as well as building cross-border trade union solidarity through joint actions and campaigns. 
 
Some networks have provided valuable social dialogue lessons, with participation by various managements of companies. This is particularly the case in Latin America, where ICEM-affiliated unions have established a number of workers&rsquo; networks, with several of them operating quite well. 
 
With this, the ICEM held a 9-10 November conference called &ldquo;Latin American Regional Company Networks in the Chemical Industry&rdquo; in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil with the support of the German Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES). The main objective was to make an evaluation on activities, and to harmonise and coordinate the activities of these networks.
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FES Workshop in&nbsp;S&atilde;o Paulo last week
In communication with the Latin American affiliates, ten multinational companies were included, namely Bayer, BASF, Akzo Nobel, Novartis, Sanofi Aventis, Lanxess, Solvay, Dupont, Dow Chemicals, and Bunge. 
 
Chaired by ICEM Latin America/Caribbean Regional Vice President S&eacute;rgio Novais, some 70 trade union representatives attended the two-day meetings from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. The conference also welcomed Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Chemicals and Rubber Industries Officer; Michael Wolters, International Secretary of Germany&rsquo;s IGBCE; Isidor Boix, International Secretary of Spain&rsquo;s FITEQA-CC.OO; Kent Holsing, a local union president of the United Steelworkers (USW) in the US; Brian Finnegan of the US Solidarity Centre; and Fons Welters, Chairman of the Works Council of Akzo Nobel, representing FNV Bondgenoten of the Netherlands. 
 
Participants received solidarity messages from Belgian Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale, French FCE-CFDT, and Switzerland&rsquo;s UNIA. 
 
&quot;Our confederation supports and encourages conferences like this, because this is fundamental to strengthening our activities around multinationals,&rdquo; said Silvan Antonio Oliveira, president of CNTQ, the National Confederation of Chemical Workers of Brazil. &ldquo;Through these kinds of events, we know these companies better and we have a full explanation of the problems that affect workers in the industry.&rdquo; 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s &Ouml;zkan made two presentations, &ldquo;The Global Chemical Industry&rsquo;s Main Developments and Global Challenges, &ldquo; and &ldquo;Global Dimension of Labour Relations Through International Mechanisms &ndash; Social Dialogue, Global Agreements, and Workers&rsquo; Networks.&rdquo; 
 
Later, BASF and Repsol were examined as successful examples of regional network and social dialogue, while Bayer, Akzo Nobel, and Solvay were presented as successful examples of national networks. 
 
On 11-12 November, six different networks, including BASF, Bayer, Lanxess, Akzo Nobel, Solvay, and Dow Chemicals met individually and discussed how to move forward successfully. The ICEM was also represented in these individual meetings through &Ouml;zkan. 
 
Related to US-based Dow Chemicals, both For&ccedil;a Sindical and CUT unions of Brazil, the Argentine unions, and the USW shared their learning experiences from the ICEM seminar, and agreed to compile the contributions into a DOW network bulletin within the next 30 days. The Solidarity Centre agreed to support another meeting of the present members of the network in the first quarter of 2010. 
 
On Belgium-based Solvay, this meeting thanked the ICEM for making possible the conference which did much to improve communication and exchange of information necessary for the expansion of the network in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. 
 
The follow-up 11-12 November sessions served to evaluate recent activities, as well as to analyze the challenges that will be faced in 2010 regarding expanding the network and pursuing social dialogue with managements. 
 
For BASF, the final meeting discussed deeply the actions needed to promote decent work for contract employees. This network is completing a survey on Contract and Agency Labour in Latin America that will enable participating organisations to identify problems and promote decent work. The parties have major differences on how to use new technologies, such as the internet during work hours, and BASF has been neglecting to involve workers&rsquo; representatives in this process. The network will invite management of BASF to accompany workers on a visit to BASF Colombia, scheduled for March 2010, and also report on how BASF workers in Peru are creating a union there.

Social Dialogue, Networks In Latin American Chemicals Focus of FES Workshops

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With the Canadian winter already set in and four long months already on picket lines, 3,000 striking members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500 in Sudbury, Ontario, remain upbeat. Their fight to retain living standards and working conditions opposite an interloping landlord, Vale of Brazil, has turned into a test of wills between a profitable multinational and working-class Canadians. 
 
This match-up pits Vale, intent on taking much more than just rich nickel reserves from Canadian soil, against miners and metalworkers, who together with their families see now experience unique fusion through their union in protecting their livelihoods. 
 
Strikers here, as well as 500 other striking steelworkers at Port Colborne, Ontario, and Goose Bay and Voiseys Bay, Labrador, know now their walkouts will last through the long Canadian winter. They know by Vale&rsquo;s reticence to return to bargaining, by the firm&rsquo;s secretive and intimidating posture to resume production, and by the fact that global nickel prices have not risen &ndash; following the collapse &ndash; to levels that will further maximize Vale&rsquo;s profits.
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&nbsp;USW Local 6500 President John Fera 
 

So they&rsquo;ve prepared for a long winter without pay checks. While teams of strikers fan out across the world to spread a message of corporate greed, Local 6500 President John Fera remains in Sudbury and tends to what is necessary &ndash; nurturing unity and fraternity, and waging the fight against Vale on the local front, a relentless task considering company assaults on picket lines and in courtrooms. 
 
&ldquo;Everyone here knows what this fight is about,&rdquo; Fera told the ICEM. &ldquo;Every worker on strike is fully engaged and every family member knows what is at stake for this community. And that is a credit to the Steelworkers union.&rdquo; 
 
He then ticks off an ever-expanding list of local actions, activities, and self-help programmes that USW Local 6500 is engaged in through its newly-built union hall. Strikers receive C$200-a-week in strike benefits from the international union. That is supplemented by a big food bank, a special-needs fund, as well as social service professionals on duty &ndash; all operated out of a union hall that was rebuilt from a costly fire 14 months ago. 
 
Local 6500 continues to launch activities on a weekly basis, including a &ldquo;coats-for-kids&rdquo; drive, in which donations from unions, organizations, and individuals will fund new winter wear. A recent &ldquo;Family Day&rdquo; on picket lines underscores what Fera speaks of. The union also will sponsor several Christmas events to forge even greater cohesion.
<img alt="" src="" width="260" height="103" />
Union Meetings Produce Huge Turnouts
As testament to this unity is that not one striker has crossed picket lines to return to work since the strike began on 13 July. 
 
While dozens of striking steelworkers have taken the strike to Vale worksites and Vale showcase events on four continents, hundreds other Sudbury activists have been just as active at home. They have protested at Vale offices in Toronto, at provincial offices, and against a national Tory government that has turned a deaf ear to the Investment Canada Act, a law that is meant to protect Canadian jobs and resources when non-Canadian enterprises take over. 
 
Sudbury strikers have also taken the fight to Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement, a Conservative who at the outset of the strike said the Sudbury region would be a &ldquo;valley of death&rdquo; had it not been for Vale buying Canadian-based Inco in 2006. 
 
Now, as a fading day&rsquo;s light turns rapidly to another winter night, the only semblance of death is on picket lines with Vale&rsquo;s black-suited security guards trying to prod strikers into violent acts for the sake of cameras and the courtroom. Since early October, the company has feigned start-up of production. But there has been no real output, only Vale&rsquo;s false tricks to psychologically intimidate workers. 
 
The company has manipulated unionised administrative and technical workers, who remain on the job with a working labour agreement, to begin training for production. Fera says maybe 50 out of 450 such workers might be doing Local 6500 work, adding that three of the six mines might have limited activity. Workers and non-union personnel are also active in a nickel refinery, but there is no activity inside the huge, 100,000-metric-tonne-per-year smelter. 
 
&ldquo;The company wants us to believe that one shipment has gone out from the Clarabelle refinery, but our sources in transportation say this is not true,&rdquo; Fera said.
<img alt="" src="" width="190" height="142" />
From left: USW Local 6500's Nick Larochelle; Andi Karman, President of FSP-KEP Soroako; and Local 6500's Tim Kiley in Indonesia&nbsp;
Meanwhile, trade union activity across the world continues. Last month, the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) joined the campaign to press Vale for a fair collective agreement in Canada. Today, in Seoul, Korea, the ICEM and IMF facilitated two Canadian strikers in a public &ldquo;head-shaving&rdquo; protest in front of Vale offices in Seoul. 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F34Af4nT7mw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F34Af4nT7mw</a> 
<img alt="" src="" width="280" height="179" />
Canadian USW members at head-shaving today in Seoul: Doug Olthuis, Nick Larouche, and Tim Kiley&nbsp;
The protest today was also brought before Korea Zinc, a company whose subsidiary &ndash; Korea Nickel Corp. &ndash; is 25% owned by Vale. In a letter to CEO and Chairman Chang Keun Choi, USW President Leo Gerard, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, and IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina, said: We request &ldquo;that you contact Vale and demand that they treat workers fairly around the globe, including by returning to the bargaining table in Canada and ceasing to use replacement workers.&rdquo; 
 
The letter requested that Korea Zinc &ldquo;refrain from the purchase, receipt, or processing of nickel and nickel products produced in Canadian facilities where members of the USW are on strike.&rdquo;
<img alt="" src="" width="280" height="139" />
Manifestation in Seoul, Korea, today, 16 November
Thirty Korean activists turned out today for the manifestation outside of the office tower housing Vale, including all three&nbsp;ICEM Korean&nbsp;trade union affiliates, and eight of their officers.&nbsp; 
 
The same team of Canadian strikers now in Korea &ndash; Nick Larochelle, Tim Kiley, along with the USW&rsquo;s Doug Olthuis, and Brazilian CNM-CUT Metalworkers&rsquo; General Secretary Sergio Guerra &ndash; accompanied the ICEM and Indonesia Chemicals, Energy, Gas, and Mining affiliate, FSP-KEP, and its President D. Patombong Sjaiful, to Vale&rsquo;s remote PT Indonesia Nickel Corp. at Soarako, Sulawesi. The delegation attempted to meet with miners there, themselves victimized by Vale&rsquo;s corporate policies. 
 
The unions produced a joint statement. It can be seen <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/3495-Joint-Statement-of-Vale-Unions-from-Soroako">here</a>. 
 
In Brazil, a team of strikers from Canada, including those from both Ontario and Newfoundland/Labrador, were inside during a Vale investors meeting in Rio de Janeiro, raising questions related to the company&rsquo;s social responsibilities. They also are meeting with politicians, civil society groups, and will address worker delegate assemblies of trade unions representing Vale miners and metalworkers, who are themselves considering ratification of tentative collective agreements with Vale in Brazil. 
 
A week ago in the UK, a team of USW members joined top leaders of Unite the Union in a protest in front of Deutsche Bank in the City of London, while Vale was inside giving a report on its performance in global metals market. 
 
In addition, LabourStart, the trade union activists&rsquo; portal to the global union movement, began an on-line protest against Vale two weeks ago. To lodge a protest with Vale in Brazil on its maltreatment of Canadian workers and there families, click <a href="http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=595">here</a>. 
 
And back in Sudbury, all the latest strike activity by Local 6500, and Local 6200 in Port Colborne and Local 9508 in the Canadian maritime province, can be accessed by visiting the union&rsquo;s excellent website, <a href="http://www.fairdealnow.ca/">here</a>.

Miners Dig In: Steelworkers Ready Nickel Strike for Long Canadian Winter

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While the campaign for retention of coal-mining jobs and a fair contract by the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) with Xstrata in Australia continues, another union is resisting proposed mining and metallurgical job cuts by the Anglo-Swiss mining house. 
 
In North America, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) launched a campaign in northern Ontario in mid-December to preserve 676 copper and nickel smelting and refining jobs at Xstrata&rsquo;s Kidd Creek metallurgical plants in Timmons, Ontario. The company announced on 8 December that it was permanently shuttering a smelter and refinery, effective 1 May 2010, thus heaping further economic havoc on a region already beset by job losses and a strike. 

<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="74" />
The proposed job losses come on top of 725 mineworker layoffs by Xstrata in February 2009, when it temporarily shut three mines in the region. CAW Local 598 of Sudbury, Ontario, which is currently engaged in negotiations with Xstrata Nickel toward a 1 February contract expiration, has made recall of those jobs its number one bargaining table priority. 
 
In Timmons, CAW Local 599 has started a public campaign aimed at drawing business and government pressure on Xstrata Copper Canada to reverse the Kidd Creek closure. A major part of the campaign is aimed at the federal government, which, the union contends, must protect Canadian jobs as part of the C$19 billion sale of these former Falconbridge assets to Xstrata in 2006. 
 
That issue is similar to one included in the campaign by the United Steelworkers (USW) in its strike against Brazilian Vale. The CAW has supported USW Local 6500 on picket lines and with financial support in its current six-month strike against Vale, and it has also joined USW in calling on the Canadian Parliament to enact legislation that would give transparency to deals made under the Investment Canada Act. 
 
In the corporate takeovers of both Vale buying Inco and Xstrata paying a premium to get Canadian-based Falconbridge, many details between the federal government and the foreign mining houses were kept secret, and the job-slashing now &ndash; the unions feel &ndash; could have been prevented had more disclosure come in 2006. 
 
CAW Local 599 is pursuing an aggressive petition campaign calling for both retention of the Kidd Creek facility and for government action on the proposed job cuts. Visit the union&rsquo;s website <a href="http://www.caw599.ca">here</a> to learn more and to join the petition. 

<img alt="" src="" width="183" height="150" />
In Australia, CFMEU&rsquo;s campaign against Xstrata in New South Wales on redundancies and lack of a current enterprise agreement continues. Last summer, Xstrata announced it was cutting 180 coal-mining jobs at two collieries, Tahmoor and Ulan. 
 
The union has been engaged in lawful industrial actions at Tahmoor over the past several months (see past ICEM coverage <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/">here</a> and <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/">here</a>), with miners conducting a march through Tahmoor on 21 December to coincide with a 24-hour work stoppage. Other industrial actions included the refusal to load coal on to trains for shipment to Port Kembla. 
 
Early in the new year, the industrial actions were halted so coal could be loaded on to trains and eventually shipped to German steelmaker ZKS. That request came from metalworkers in Germany due to low inventories and in order to keep operations at ZKS in production. 
See the CFMEU's campaign website <a href="http://www.xstratafacts.com/">here</a>.

Mine Unions in Australia, Canada Reject Xstrata’s Job Cuts

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At a press conference on 8 January in Mexico City, during an ICEM North American Regional Coordinating Committee meeting there, Canadian and US ICEM leaders denounced the Mexican government of Felipe Calder&oacute;n Hinojosa&rsquo;s anti-union conduct in dissolving the Mexican Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union (SME) and its continuing persecution of the National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM, or Los Mineros) and its General Secretary Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia. 
 
The regional forum, led by ICEM North American Vice Presidents Ken Neumann of the United Steelworkers (USW) and Dave Coles of the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, stressed that the repressive tactics heaped upon trade unions by the Calder&oacute;n government is an affront to human rights and that these actions will receive world-wide attention. 

<img alt="" src="" width="261" height="196" />
ICEM North American leaders at press conference 
The North American ICEM leaders also said the anti-union policies subject millions of Mexican workers to poverty. They also called attention to Mexican trade union leaders like Los Mineros&rsquo;s Juan Linares Mont&uacute;far who have been jailed for their legitimate union activities. The press conference was attended by members of Los Mineros, by several ICEM North American delegates, and by ICEM&rsquo;s Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs Joe Drexler. 
 
Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez himself has escaped jail in Mexico by fleeing to Canada, with the Mexican government now seeking his extradition. 

<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="145" />
Neumann, the USW&rsquo;s National Director for Canada, said that there is evidence that the charges against Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez are unfounded and purely an invention by the Mexican government in sync with the mining company, Grupo M&eacute;xico. &ldquo;Mexico is a NAFTA partner with Canada and the United States and we will not sit back and allow these repressions to occur,&rdquo; said Neumann. 
 
On 10 October 2009, the Calder&oacute;n government swept in with federal agents and armed police to shut down the country&rsquo;s second largest utility, the Mexico City regional Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC), or Central Light and Power. Calder&oacute;n used an executive decree to merge the electric power distributor with the Federal Electricity Commission and to disband the 95-year-old and 60,000-member SME. 
 
The North American ICEM representatives condemned the government for not proceeding through legal channels if it suspected there were misdeeds inside the utility.

ICEM North Americans Use Mexican City Press to Condemn Calderón’s Labour Policies

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On 14 December 2009, the Supreme Court of Namibia struck down a two-year-old government law that banned labour hire agencies. In a unanimous, five-judge decision, the court said that government must first try to regulate irregular work imposed by labour hire firms before imposing a ban on them. 
 
The court&rsquo;s decision also cited the law as unconstitutional because it fails to protect the right to practice &ldquo;occupation, trade or business.&rdquo; In 20-year-old Namibia, images of an entrenched contract labour system through apartheid are recent, and this labour issue has both the emotions and the memories to make it a leading story in all of Africa. 
 
The Supreme Court itself called it &ldquo;an emotive and politically charged&rdquo; issue, and both opponents and proponents of agency labour expressed sharp differences on the court&rsquo;s ruling. 
 
The decision was the second time within a year that the High Court in Namibia has taken up the case. It had earlier upheld the ban on labour hire agencies, contained inside Section 128 of the 2007 Labour Act. But Namibia&rsquo;s largest temporary employment agency, Africa Personnel Services (APS), appealed the constitutionality of this section of the labour code on the eve of it taking effect. The 14 December ruling overturns the High Court&rsquo;s earlier decision, and now places responsibility on the government and civil society to implement stringent regulatory measures on the operations of labour agencies. 
The head of the Namibia Employers&rsquo; Federation, Tim Parkhouse, heralded the court&rsquo;s decision, calling it an investment attraction. 

<img src="" width="133" height="133" alt="" />
But the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) reacted angrily to the court&rsquo;s decision, while Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Immanuel Ngatjizeko, said that although the government must abide by the decision, he pledged the government of President Hifikepunye Pohamba will not allow the labour-hire system to continue in its current form. 
 
Ngatjiseko, in a Windhoek newspaper, said: &ldquo;It is ironic that a provision of the Namibia Constitution that was intended to eradicate apartheid practices that subjected black workers to the injustice and humiliation of job reservation, influx control and the like has now been interpreted to turn a blind eye to commercial arrangements for the rental of human labour in order to avoid the protections afforded to workers by the labour laws.&rdquo; 
 
Ngatjiseko said the current system in Namibia, where labour hire firms are allowed to employ people who then provide these people to clients, is exploitative and reminiscent of the apartheid contract labour system because workers in Namibia with few or no other options for gainful employment fall into the clutches of labour agencies. 
 
The NUNW, linked in history with the ruling South West African People&rsquo;s Organisation (SWAPO) 
political party and a union itself banned in the pre-Namibia days of the 1970s and 1980s because it dared to challenge the apartheid labour system, was more blunt in its assessment of the court&rsquo;s decision. &ldquo;We firmly believe that one cannot regulate slavery and thereby give it a human face,&rdquo; said the federation. 

<img src="" width="146" height="66" alt="" />
The court&rsquo;s decision last month provoked wide opinions, proving again the intensity of the labour hire issue inside Namibia and in all of Africa. 
 
The New Era, a Windhoek publication, predicted, &ldquo;There is no denying that labour hire is a niece of the contract labour system that we have supposedly got rid, but when weak regulations are approved, the Supreme Court would be left with no choice but to stick to what is lawful on paper.&rdquo; 
 
An editorial in The Namibian, another Windhoek newspaper, stated, &ldquo;The principal of labour hire may be an important one, especially in a country with a very high unemployment rate, but it cannot be allowed to perpetuate exploitation of workers to the benefit of middlemen; to provide ways around employer adherence to the Labour Code; and to shut out unions.&rdquo; 
 
On 5 July 2007, the country&rsquo;s National Assembly passed an amendment to the labour code stating that &ldquo;no person may, for reward, employ any person with a view to making that person available to a third party to perform work for the third party.&rdquo; The law was to take effect on 1 March 2009. But on 27 February, the High Court suspended implementation of the law to hear APS&rsquo;s appeal.

Namibian Supreme Court Strikes Down Labour Hire Bill

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The struggle continues for trade union rights for contract workers at Colombia&rsquo;s vast mining complex, Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n. ICEM mining affiliate Sintracarb&oacute;n has been fighting to organize the contract workers at the mine. 
 
Following the successful organization of mechanics and machinists of the company Chaneme at Cerrej&oacute;n in November (see InBrief No. 144 <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/">here</a>), the new union Sintrachaneme was formed and recognized by Chaneme. Since, the company has refused to discuss even the slightest improvements to salaries and working conditions with either Sintrachaneme or Sintracarb&oacute;n. 

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A second union of contract workers under Sintracarb&oacute;n&rsquo;s guidance, Sintrans, representing transport workers of the Sotrans company, has seen that employer refuse to recognise the union or to consider any of the bus drivers&rsquo; demands. In fact, the sacking of union activists among bus drivers has brought fear and reluctance by workers to engage in union activity. 
 
Sintracarb&oacute;n, with the full support of ICEM, is focusing efforts towards the consolidation of Sintrachaneme and pressuring the mechanical maintenance contractor to accept the demands of workers. International support is important in the push for a collective agreement between Chaneme and its 300 staff, an accord that will guarantee the existence of the union. 
 
&ldquo;The Chaneme management, Carbones de Cerrej&oacute;n management, and the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection must all commit to the process,&rdquo; said Sintracarb&oacute;n representative Jaime Deluquez. 

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Since workers of Chaneme and Sotrans at Cerrej&oacute;n took the step to organize, they have suffered a campaign of harassment and persecution from employers. Sintracarb&oacute;n, consisting of 3,500 direct employed miners at Cerrej&oacute;n, has denounced complicity by their employer of denial of work rights by contractors, saying Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n has &ldquo;turned a blind eye to the abuses.&rdquo; 
 
Harassment has included workers being visited at home, with threats of dismissal or offers of perks in return for loyalty to the contractors and a turn against the newly-formed unions. 
 
Cerrej&oacute;n management is also criticised by its mining workforce for applying double standards, claiming on the one hand that it respects human and trade union rights with rhetoric that it support the free association into unions of workers of contractors, while working covertly with the contractors and units of government to destroy the trade union organization process. 
 
These abuses of the right of association and collective bargaining contravene national law, the Colombian Constitution, and ILO Conventions 87 and 98, ratified by Colombia. 
 
An ICEM Project on Social Dialogue, organized by Colombian Coordinator Carlos Bustos and counting Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n as a participant, has achieved exemplary results. The multinational companies holding stakes in one of the world&rsquo;s largest open-cast coal mining operations &ndash; Xstrata, AngloAmerican, and BHP Billiton &ndash; must now prove that a commitment to the Social Dialogue Project and to global labour standards is genuine by stepping forward to defend the rights of outsourced workers at its mining operation in La Guajira department in northeastern Colombia.

Union, Contract Workers Continue Fight for Work Rights at Cerrejón in Colombia

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A 53-day strike by 1,500 leather workers in Iraq concluded successfully on 7 December 2009, after the state-run Enterprise of Leather Industries and Iraq&rsquo;s Ministry of Industry acceded to demands of workers on safety benefits. The leather workers, part of the Federation of Workers&rsquo; Councils and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI), won added payments totaling 25-30% of salaries for working in hazardous conditions. 
 
The workers&rsquo; committee, led by Sa&rsquo;ad Issa and Munadhil Atiya, displayed persistence and resolve throughout long negotiations with the state, and even after reaching a deal with state administrators in the early days of December, the strike continued for three days until all workers were paid the safety stipend in cash. 

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Munadhil Atiya (above) and Sa&rsquo;ad Issa (lower, centre) implore leather workers to continue the fight during 53-day strike 
The leather workers are employed in two factories in Baghdad and a third in Al Kūfah, some 160 kilometres south of the capital city. They produce shoes, bags, and clothing items such as leather coats. The strike began in mid-October and was brought on by workers having to deal with hazardous chemicals and operate dangerous equipment. 
The leather workers&rsquo; strike served as an inspiration for 4,000 textile workers. Following the early December end of the leather strike, Baghdad-area textile workers embarked on an 18-day strike of their own and won partial safety stipends from a separate state-run enterprise inside the Ministry of Industry. 
 
&ldquo;The strike organizers showed an ability to lead and maintain a determination among the ranks that lasted for more than seven weeks,&rdquo; said FWCUI President Falah Alwan. &ldquo;We learned a valuable lesson in this strike. That lesson is not to respond to hollow promises intended to slow or extinguish the movement of workers. 

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Falah Alwan
&ldquo;The victory of the workers in the leather industries is the beginning of a new drive for the workers&rsquo; movement in the public sector and in all sectors.&rdquo; 
 
The strike was marked by continual dialogue with state administrators, but talks that produced only false promises and nothing substantive. Anticipating this, strike leaders engaged fellow workers to conduct constant demonstrations, marches, and public gatherings demanding safer work conditions and safety benefits. 
 
Leather workers also participated in a peaceful 6 October Baghdad manifestation, in which protestors were met by Iraqi armed troops firing rubber bullets. (See InBrief No. 143 <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3531-Iraqi-Trade-Unionist-Murdered">here</a>.)&nbsp;In that clash, FWCUI strike leader Munadhil Atiya was beaten and then arrested for his participation. 
 
Nearly 90% of all industry in Iraq is incorporated in state hands and the country still abides by the Saddam-era Decree 150 of 1987 that prohibits independent trade unions in the public sector. Thus the need for persistent and ongoing direct action by workers is in order to gain labour rights from the al-Maliki government. The ICEM commends the leather and textile workers of the FWCUI for their heroic and historic actions in late 2009.

Safety Benefits Won by Iraqi Leather Workers after 53-Day Strike

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