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The European Mine, Chemicals, Energy Federation (EMCEF), the European Chemical Employers&rsquo; Group (ECEG), and the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) signed on 6 September a declaration to jointly encourage policymakers to implement the recommendations by the High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the European Chemical Industry. 
 
The agreement was signed at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels with Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner L&aacute;szl&oacute; Andor participating. 
 
The three-pillared blueprint, entitled &ldquo;Framework conditions for a sustainable chemical industry in Europe,&rdquo; centers on positive environmental, economic, and social principles. Under the environmental principal, the three social partners share the view that the voluntary Responsible Care programme offers the best possibilities to make continual improvements in safety, health and the environment. 
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Bottom, Cefic President Giorgio Squinzi and Commissioner L&aacute;szl&oacute; Andor; top, ECEG&rsquo;s Jean Pelin, EMCEF&rsquo;s Michael Wolters and representative from German chemical employers&rsquo; grouping, BAVC
The social component specifies good working conditions, life-long learning, and improving employability through skill development, retention and re-employment. The social partners also emphasize opportunities here for young people, and they say this social framework serves so far as the main contribution to the Agenda for New Skills and Jobs under the Euro 2020 strategy. 
 
The economic pillar is built around competitiveness and innovation, and striving to maintain Europe&rsquo;s strong position in global chemicals. The declaration states that the High Level Group&rsquo;s recommendations do &ldquo;form a strategic agenda for areas such as innovation, intellectual property, regulation, energy and climate change, logistics and trade policy.&rdquo; 
 
EMCEF General Secretary Michael Wolters said the declaration &ldquo;highlights the urgent need to see sustainability as a way to safeguard and expand high-skilled, high value-added jobs in Europe through a comprehensive EU industrial policy.&rdquo;

Europe’s Chemical Social Partners Sign Sustainability Pact

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On 14 September 14, the ICEM held an education and awareness-raising event on ILO Convention 176, the Health and Safety in Mines Convention, at XIX World Congress on Safety and Health at Work (WCSHW), an important global occupational health and safety gathering. It took place at the Hali&ccedil; Congress Center in Istanbul. 
 
The ICEM forum had the presence of two of the leaders of ICEM-affiliated mining unions, which indicated the commitment from them to get Turkey to ratify and implement the standards contained in Convention 176. Nurettin Ak&ccedil;ul, President of T&uuml;rkiye Maden-İş, the Mine Workers&rsquo; Union of Turkey, and President Ey&uuml;p Alabaş of Genel Maden-İş, the General Mine Workers&rsquo; Union of Turkey, participated and expressed the necessity of improved mine safety through adoption of global standards. 
 
ICEM Industry and Corporate Affairs Director Kemal &Ouml;zkan introduced the panellists. He noted that the ICEM has made mine safety a top priority, and will vigilantly work to get more countries to ratify ILO Convention 176. 
 
The first panellist was Dr. Fikret Sazak, Director of Education Department for Maden-İş. He reviewed the deplorable occupational health and safety conditions in Turkey's mining sector, as well as generally. 
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From left to right: Brian Kohler, Glen Mpufane, Ey&uuml;p Alabaş, Kemal &Ouml;zkan, Nurettin Ak&ccedil;ul, Fikret Sazak, Turhan Oral
Neo-liberal policies of deregulation, privatization, and globalization are devastating the sector, he said. There is a large informal sector within the Turkish economy. Even within the formal sector, there is high unemployment, low union density, and therefore a big problem with contract labour, flexible labour arrangements, and other forms of precarious work. 
 
Turkish mines are poorly regulated, and there are not enough government inspectors to adequately enforce even those regulations that do exist. 
 
Sazak concluded that the solution lies in enacting effective and enforceable occupational health and safety laws, much more education and training, and worker participation through joint Health and Safety Committees. ILO Convention 176 sets out a minimum standard for all of these things, therefore it should be a high priority for the government of Turkey to ratify it. This will not happen without strong unions. 
 
ICEM Mining Officer Glen Mpufane entitled his presentation &ldquo;First Aid Needed for Safety and Health in the Mining Industry.&rdquo; He focused on various incentive systems used to compensate miners &ndash; both workers and managers. This creates a race to the bottom where all standards are sacrificed to the altar of profit. 
 
Surveying recent mining disasters, in Pakistan, New Zealand, the US, China, Russia, Mexico and other countries, Mpufane concluded that the role of trade unions was crucial. The ICEM predecessor, the Miners&rsquo; International Federation (MIF), played a major role in drafting and adopting ILO Convention 176 in 1995, and now the ICEM is the major organization campaigning for country to country ratification. 
 
Brian Kohler, ICEM Officer for Health, Safety and Sustainability, reviewed some of the provisions contained in ILO Convention 176, and the associated Recommendation 183. 
 
The main features include recommendations for a strong national legislative and regulatory framework, including inspection, required accident investigation, and reporting and record-keeping; employers' responsibilities to provide adequate training and supervision; hazard control following the principle of eliminating or controlling the hazard as close to the source of the hazard as possible and relying on personal protective equipment only as a last resort, and a recognition of workers rights to participate in health and safety policy-making at the workplace level and to remove themselves from danger. 
 
Other important provisions include topics such as risk assessment and control, health surveillance, and risk communication. Good engineering design is a starting point for a safe mine, stated Kohler. Effective emergency response procedures and equipment are also necessary. 
 
Kohler concluded by saying when it comes to occupational health and safety, governments and employers have responsibilities &ndash; workers have rights.

ICEM Holds Forum on ILO C. 176 at Safety Congress in Turkey

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Movement finally occurred in the ten-and-a-half-month lockout by U.S. Steel Corp. of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1005 members in Hamilton, Canada, but too little of it by the concession-seeking company by all accounts. The American steelmaker tabled an offer one week ago, but little in it has changed from US Steel&rsquo;s original demands. 
 
The lockout of 900 steelworkers in the province of Ontario began on 7 November 2010 when USW Local 1005 refused to put a concession-laden proposal before proud union members. US Steel is demanding closure of the defined benefit plan to new hires, an end to pension indexing for 9,000 retirees, cuts to cost-of-living adjustments, and elimination of two weeks vacation time. 
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Negotiations commenced on 13 September for the first time since the lockout began and Hamilton Works managers tabled the offer. The union took it to an information meeting on 21 September, but Local 1005&rsquo;s Executive Committee reviewed it days earlier, and passed a resolution declaring it &ldquo;substantially the same as the offer presented prior to locking the workers out on November 7, 2010, as concerns the demands to give up indexing of pensions and permitting new hires to go into a defined contribution plan instead of being part of the defined benefit plan.&rdquo; 
 
Local 1005&rsquo;s committee also said parts of the new offer actually &ldquo;make it worse,&rdquo; proving &ldquo;that (U.S. Steel) continues to refuse to bargain in good faith.&rdquo; 
 
A major sticking point reportedly is the offer contains call-back language in which the company will only re-start certain operations with a very limited number of workers. The new offer also contains a modest ratification bonus. 
 
USW Local 1005 and U.S. Steel are expected to continue talks under the guidance of provincial mediator Simon Clark.

Talks Begin but Relations Still Frozen in Canadian Steel Lockout of USW Members

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United Steelworkers (USW) Local 6166 in Thompson, Manitoba, ratified a three-year labour agreement with the mining company Vale on 15 September, the same day that a prior three-year pact expired. Following a strike authorisation vote by the 1,100-strong unionised workforce a week earlier that passed by 95.3%, the USW bargaining team negotiated excellent gains in wage, pension, cost-of-living, and other payment schemes. 
 
But most importantly the union diminished the harsh effects to workers in expected 2015 closures of a nickel refinery and smelter at Vale&rsquo;s Manitoba Operations. 
 
The new contract contains annual 2.5% wage increases, plus a C$.35-per-hour cost-of-living increase that will lift earnings C$2.72-an-hour over the life of the agreement. USW Local 6166&rsquo;s defined-benefit pension plan also will increase, to C$3,450 monthly for full work service effective this year and to C$3,550 in September 2013. 
 
The union won &ldquo;preferential hiring&rdquo; language for workers that will lose their jobs in 2015 when Vale pares the Thompson workforce by 45% with the refinery and smelter closures. Vale&rsquo;s Thompson operations exceed new federal Canadian sulphur dioxide standards that will come in 2015. The Brazilian company is building a new C$2.8 billion refining complex in Long Harbour, Labrador/Newfoundland, near Vale&rsquo;s Voiseys Bay and Goose Bay mine operations in eastern Canada. 
 
The new contract language will mean workers likely to be furloughed will have preference in employment opportunities at Vale&rsquo;s Canadian operations in Ontario and Labrador/Newfoundland. The company will continue mine and milling processing in Manitoba and also will continue development of new nickel deposits in the western Canadian province. 
 
Other gains in the 2011 to 2014 collective agreement include a transition and retention payment to be paid over the three years. That will total C$10,000 and include a C$4,000 pay-out on 15 October 2011, and C$2,000 pay-outs in each of the next three years. The new agreement also contains an incentive scheme. 
 
&ldquo;Obviously, the gains we have made are bittersweet, given Vale&rsquo;s plans to close our smelter and refinery in 2015, eliminating 500 jobs,&rdquo; said USW Local 6166 President Murray Nychyporuk. The company and union came to terms on 12 September. A senior Vale manager called the negotiations &ldquo;respectful throughout.&rdquo; The agreement stands as the second labour accord between USW Local 6166 and Vale, the first coming in 2008 two years after Vale bought Inco Ltd. operations in Canada and elsewhere.

Canadian Steelworkers, Vale Agree to Terms at Manitoba Nickel Mine

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In Namibia recently, a collective agreement signed between ICEM affiliate Mine Workers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN) and Namdeb Diamond Corp., the DeBeers, Namibian state joint mining venture, had the rubber stamp of a High Court order. That unusual attribute came because a month-long strike/lockout of 1,600 miners developed into a highly charged and fractious split between labour and management that had Namibia&rsquo;s top political leaders nervous. 
 
The agreement ending the strike, which began 16 August, and the lockout, beginning 20 August, came 11 days ago and was overseen by the country&rsquo;s Minister of Presidential Affairs. The next day, High Court Judge Dave Smuts made the agreement a court order. 
 
The agreement calls for the two sides to &ldquo;dedicate themselves in good faith to rebuild relationships.&rdquo; It calls for empowering a tripartite commission to investigate and resolve the many issues that surfaced in the hostile dispute, and the accord signed at government house in Windhoek also positively resolves the central issue behind the dispute: housing pay when a mine&rsquo;s resources are spent and workers are transferred. 
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The dispute started when Namdeb mothballed the remote Bogenfels mine and denied workers their housing and utility allowances in transferring them to new sites. That occurred earlier this year for a small number of the 1,600 union miners, about 125, and the dispute festered with both sides hardening until industrial action started in August. 
 
When MUN decided to conduct a strike vote, Namdeb yelled foul, saying the vote should not be open to all 1,600. That angered MUN which saw it as an overt intervention into the union&rsquo;s affairs. Then during talks to resolve the strike/lockout, the company angered miners with a counter-offer granting the housing and utility allowances, but then demanded that miners pay rent in their new locales 
 
The recent peace agreement restores to the 125 transferred workers their housing and utility entitlements, and they will not have to pay rent at their new worksites. The accord guarantees no regressions to a 2009 Work Conditions Agreement. The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, which worked staunchly over the past six weeks to resolve the dispute, will coordinate the reconciliation commission. 
 
MUN called attention during to the strike the inequity in opportunities between Namibian citizens and expatriates. The union also singled out a top boss for unfairly denying Namibians jobs because he insists on using polygraph tests on applicants. And MUN has accused this same boss of safety neglect in implementing cost curtailments. Namdeb&rsquo;s largest operation at Oranjemund has seen two years this year. 
 
Diamond output by Namdeb fell off by 30,000 carats of gems during the dispute. Diamond production accounts for almost 10% of Namibia&rsquo;s GDP and 40% of foreign exchange funds. 
 
Meanwhile, a MUN branch took strike action 23 September against R&ouml;ssing Uranium Ltd., 69% owned by Rio Tinto. The 950 uranium miners of the Arandis branch passed a strike authorisation vote 19 September and this is the second strike in three months against R&ouml;ssing over inequitable bonus pay-outs between managers and workers. With Rio Tinto the lead company, the remainder of R&ouml;ssing is owned by the Namibian government and South Africa&rsquo;s Development Corp.

Namibia’s Mineworkers’ Union, Namdeb Reach for Olive Branch

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The second phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry&rsquo;s investigation into the deadly Pike River mine disaster in New Zealand in November 2010 concluded in Greymouth on Friday, 23 September. It produced important revelations regarding inept police supervision after the tragedy, lax emergency response and planning by Pike River Coal, and misguided decisions that still have prevented the recovery of bodies of 29 dead miners. 
 
The Pike River Coal Ltd. explosion of 19 November &ndash; and five subsequent blasts in the days following &ndash; is New Zealand&rsquo;s worst mining disaster in 100 years and Royal Commission hearings are succeeding in illuminating serious malpractices that have no place in modern mining. This second set of three-week hearings that began on 5 September will be followed by a third phase in November. 
 
The three-member commission heard testimony on time and information lapses in rescue and recovery between local and national police supervision. And they heard the frustration of an Australian Construction, Forestry, Mine and Energy Union (CFMEU) expert from the Queensland Mines Rescue team, whose team arrived at Pike River in the immediate days after the blast, only to be sidelined and kept out of the monitoring loop. 
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Timothy Whyte, a chief safety inspector of the CFMEU, told how he witnessed, on 30 November, contractors ignore a warning and place flammable polyurethane around a GAG machine used to extract deadly gases from the mine. The material did catch fire. It took only an hour to extinguish, White said, because the fire retardant apparatus was nearby, but it cost the recovery team valuable time in sealing the mine. 
 
In other testimony, the panel heard from the New Zealand Mines Rescue general manager who said that off-site control by national police in Wellington resulted in &ldquo;operational paralysis.&rdquo; One of the commission members, Stewart Bell, a state Mine Safety commissioner from Australia, asked a senior police commissioner, &ldquo;How much time was wasted, training police officers, in mining matters when you could have had someone there from the word go that understood the word terminology from the word go?&rdquo; 
 
NZ Mines Rescue also was sidelined in the aftermath. The general manager said he advised the police and Labour Department on 21 November to immediately seal the mine to prevent intake of air. They rejected the idea and within days five more explosions occurred. Sealing would have made it possible to recover the bodies sooner. 
 
Whyte testified earlier that he was flabbergasted to witness a large ventilation fan positioned at a portal pumping fresh air into the shaft in the early stages of rescue and recovery. 
 
Eleven of the 29 dead were members of ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). The union&rsquo;s attorney questioned witnesses on safety practices of Pike River Coal Ltd. He heard testimony that the company failed to provide enough drift-runners to mechanically evacuate miners in event of an emergency. A control room operator, who lost his brother in the disaster and was manning internal and external telephone lines at the time of the blast, testified that telephones into the mine sometimes worked and sometimes didn&rsquo;t. 
 
A safety and training manager of Pike River Coal Ltd., who lost a son in the blast, admitted that he was always concerned that a long ventilation shaft served as the mine&rsquo;s prerequisite second escape route. It was revealed climbing the laddered shaft could take up to 45 minutes and Pike River provided self-rescuers with only 30 minutes of fresh oxygen. 
 
In the final week of the Inquiry, last week, panel members heard from seven family members of the deceased who spoke on ineffective communication and outreach by authorities. November&rsquo;s third stage of the Royal Commission of Inquiry will deal with the cause of the disaster.

Pike River’s Royal Inquiry Sees Troubling Safety Issues Inside NZ Mine Disaster

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Some 300 members of Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mine and Energy Union (CFMEU) are locked in a fierce battle with the American door and window-maker Jeld-Wen. Woodworkers of the CFMEU&rsquo;s Forestry, Furnishing and Timber Building Products Division have been on strike &ndash; and locked out five days &ndash; at factories in four Australian states. 
 
The central issue is pay. CFMEU has been negotiating with Jeld-Wen subsidiaries Corinthian, William Russell Doors, and Stegbar since June over a new enterprise agreement, but the meagre wage increases offered over a three-year proposal would mean actual pay cuts for workers. In recent talks, the company reshuffled its pay offer but it still fell far short of Australia&rsquo;s 4.5% cost-of-living rise. 
 
Workers at six factories &ndash; including St. Mary&rsquo;s near Sydney, New South Wales; Dandenong, Cambellfield and Scoresby in Victoria; Regency Park near Adelaide, South Australia; and Canningvale, Perth, Western Australia &ndash; took 48-hour strike actions on 6 September. They then were hit by the five-day lockout on 8 September. Workers immediately undertook further and varying strike actions over the last two weeks at the six worksites. 
<img src="" width="242" height="161" alt="" />
Photo: The Western Weekender
Global labour leaders attending the CFMEU&rsquo;s National Construction Conference in Canberra recently visited the St Mary&rsquo;s picket line on 16 September, and the Building and Wood Workers&rsquo; International (BWI) has picked up the cause and is actively supporting CFMEU members. BWI has launched a protest campaign through its website. Please join that protest <a href="http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?Index=3685&amp;Language=EN">here</a>.&nbsp; 
 
CFMEU National lead Negotiator Phil Davies said the revised pay offer given after the company&rsquo;s lockout ended on 13 September is worse than Jeld-Wen&rsquo;s original &ldquo;non-negotiable&rdquo; pay proposal. If accepted, one-third of all job classifications would actually see a further decline in real wages compared to inflation. &ldquo;All our members want is fair and reasonable pay and conditions,&rdquo; he said. 
 
The company is seeking to abolish an attendance-based bonus scheme as well. Meanwhile, the employer has sent letters to workers warning of future lockouts. 
 
Family-run and closely-held Jeld-Wen, started in 1960 by Richard Wendt, purchased the Corinthian factories in Australia and Asia on the cheap during the Asian financial crisis in the mid-1990s, and in 1999 bought Stegbar from a UK-based company. In North America, Oregon-based Jeld-Wen overextended itself in recent years with diversification into ski resorts and holiday properties at the exact time housing and real estate markets crashed. 
 
Next month, Canadian private equity company Onex is expected to close on a US$860 million infusion into Jeld-Wen, giving it 58% ownership of a company that operates 60 manufacturing and distribution sites in 22 countries. The deceased Wendt&rsquo;s son, Roderick, will cease heading one of the world&rsquo;s biggest door- and window-makers in exchange for an Onex selectee.

US Firm Slams Door on CFMEU Members Trying to Catch Inflation

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Three European industrial trade union federations are on track now for delivering greater strength and power to workers in greater Europe. The European Mine, Chemicals, Energy Federation (EMCEF), the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF), and the European Trade Union Federation &ndash; Textiles, Clothing and Leather (ETUF-TCL) have adopted a strict timeline in order to conduct dissolution congresses and a founding congress on 15-16 May 2012 in Brussels. 
 
A joint working group is expected to finalise statutes at a meeting on 8 November and that will be followed by discussion and ratification by the federations&rsquo; respective governing bodies in late November and early December. An initial joint executive committee meeting of EMCEF, EMF, and ETUF-TCL will then be held in Brussels on 30-31 January 2012. 
Also in the weeks and months prior to the May 2012 creation of a single European industrial federation, four joint political committees will begin charting the future structure of the organisation. Those political areas are Industrial Policy, Corporate or Company Policy, Social Dialogue, and Collective Bargaining. Future work in the yet-to-be-named federation will happen under those headings. 
 
Like integration on the global level between Global Union Federations, the European creation strives to reach workers&rsquo; hands across supply chains to make sustainable jobs the bulwark of future economies. The general secretaries of the three federations that are driving this are Michael Wolters (EMCEF), Ulrich Eckelmann (EMF), and Luc Triangle (ETUF-TCL).

EMCEF, EMF, ETUF-TCL Integration to Occur in May 2012 in Brussels

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The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) held its first mass mobilisation since a new team took over the 82-member confederation last spring. The 17 September march and manifestation in Wroclaw, Poland, against austerity platforms delivered the obvious: jobs and wages are not the enemy of the economy, but the engine. 
 
Some 40,000 trade unionists, representing national labour centres across Europe, manifested in the southwestern Polish city to meet head on the two-day meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN). They demanded that austerity measures not be part of any revamped European financial integration. 
 
While Member State economic and finance ministers were in Poland to craft greater monetary discipline in crisis-time Europe, unionists and their leaders said better economic governance must come in improved employment opportunities and higher social standards. 
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The ETUC condemned the European Central Bank, the Commission, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for pressuring Member States &ldquo;to adopt an overambitious pace of fiscal consolidation, to deregulate job and social protection systems, to weaken and decentralise wage formation and collective bargaining systems.&rdquo; 
 
ETUC General Secretary Bernadette S&eacute;gol said, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re here to tell our politicians that they shouldn&rsquo;t be sawing through the branch they are sitting on.&rdquo; She said salary cuts and social benefit reductions do not lead to growth and do not reduce debt. 
 
&ldquo;We believe there are other options,&rdquo; said S&eacute;gol, &ldquo;such as European (finance) obligations, taxing financial transactions, ending tax havens and tax evasion&rdquo; and implementing a fair system of taxation. (See the <a href="http://www.etuc.org/a/9013 ">ETUC statement to ECOFIN</a> here.) 
<img alt="" src="" width="243" height="160" />
The Wroclaw manifestation was held jointly with ETUC&rsquo;s two Polish national labour centres, Solidarność and the All Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ). The colourful march started at Olympic Stadium and passed in front of Centennial Hall conference centre &ndash; venue for ECOFIN &ndash; before ending up in Wroclaw&rsquo;s old city. Throughout, the chants of jobs, workers&rsquo; rights, social rights, and solidarity were heard. 
 
ETUC President Ignacio Fern&aacute;ndez Toxo, the President of CC.OO of Spain, said neoliberal financial ideology has proven to be a failure and warned that current austerity agendas will not solve the crisis but only deepen it. ETUC Deputy General Secretary Jozef Niemiec, a former engineer from Krakow, Poland, and stalwart of NSZZ Solidarność, reiterated those comments, stating austerity measures &ldquo;will only worsen the current economic and social situation.&rdquo; 
 
The ETUC rally was attended by trade unionists from Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovenia, with the largest delegation hailing from Poland, which currently holds the presidency of Europe.&nbsp;

Economic Growth Through Jobs, ETUC Tells Euro Finance Ministers

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On 18-20 June 2012, a new Global Union Federation (GUF) will see daylight at a founding congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. 
 
But what shall the new International be called? Now you have the chance to make a proposal. 
 
The organization will unite 50 million workers in more than 140 countries in mining, energy, metal, electronics, chemicals, paper, rubber, materials, garments, shoe, leather textile industries. 
 
It aims to connect workers, fight for labour rights and build global solidarity across entire supply chains. It will be a strong counterweight to multinational companies and promote social justice, democracy and a sustainable future for the whole world. 
 
Such a powerful organization needs a fresh and identifiable name. Your contribution is welcome. Please send your proposal by e-mail to <a href="mailto:imf.icem.itglwf@gmail.com">imf.icem.itglwf@gmail.com</a> at the latest by 31 October 2011. 
 
A joint Executive Committee meeting of the IMF, ICEM, and ITGLWF will decide upon a name at the end of February 2012.

What Name for New GUF? Suggest It!

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