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Two ICEM Belgian affiliates and members of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (CSC/ACV) consummated a merger Congress in the city of Gent on 5 June. CSC/ACV Energy and Chemicals Union and CSC/ACV Construction Union merged to create a stronger union structure representing 284,000 Belgian workers.
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The union will be known in French as CSC B&acirc;timent-industrie &amp; &Eacute;nergie (CSC-BIE), while its Flemish name is ACV Bouw-industrie &amp; Energie (ACV-BIE). The merged union will cover workers in many sectors, including construction, chemicals, gas, electric, and oil, graphical and paper, pharmaceutical, wood products, leather, and even hairdressing and beauty fitness.
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Vice President Alfons De Potter and President Luc Van Dessel&nbsp; 

The prior president of the Construction Union, Luc Van Dessel, was elected President and Alfons De Potter, previously the President of the Energy and Chemicals Union, was elected Vice President. De Potter will continue in his role as a member of the ICEM Presidium, and two of the newly-elected National Secretaries of the merged union, Justin Daerden and Franćois Laurent, will also remain active in ICEM structures.
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Newly elected leadership of ACV-BIE/CSC-BIE
The merger Congress was a celebratory event, with song and dance throughout. It also contained an overview of the union&rsquo;s new statutes. CSC/ACV Confederation President Luc Cortebeeck delivered a video speech from Geneva, where he was attending the 99th Session of ILO&rsquo;s International Labour Conference. ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda also attended the congress.
The new union will have 15,000 elected shop-floor delegates.

CSC Chemicals and Energy, Construction Unions Merge in Belgium

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The Taiwan Electric Power Labour Union (TPLU) has been protesting in Taipei for clarification of their pension status. Some 6,000 members of the ICEM affiliate, working at several water and electric enterprises, turned out 2 June at the Legislative Yuan to manifest and then to march. 
 
Under current law, workers at the enterprises are considered neither workers nor civil servants, meaning their pension pay-outs are miniscule, not paid out in monthly installments, their retirement earnings are not covered by a state-legislated pension insurance programme, and they are without the preferred interest rate on pension savings accounts.
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TPLU Members Marching on 2 June&nbsp; 
 

Under three classifications of work in Taiwan, employees are classified as civil servants, workers, or civil servants and workers. Public sector engineers and administrators, for example, have the latter classification, which grants them more in terms of pension benefits and better regulated retirement schemes. 
 
But workers at Taipei Power Company (Taipower) and water and other enterprises are considered neither workers nor civil servants, meaning they have the advantages of nether and bear the disadvantages of both. 
 
We are orphans under a system that does not recognise our rights and does not provide any safeguards, said a TPLU spokesperson close to President Guo-Kang Hu. TPLU wants lawmakers and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to amend the provisions of the &ldquo;State-Run Enterprise Administrative Act&rdquo; that better reflects a high court ruling in 1990 that sets forth details on retirement and retirement benefits. 
 
Taipower management supports the workers demands and has laid out three schemes that would correct the legal status. The ICEM also has endorsed TPLU&rsquo;s campaign to achieve fairness and a sense of balance into Taiwanese pension schemes.

Taiwanese Power Workers Protest Over Slight in Pension Laws

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The former ICEM Projects Coordinator in Thailand, Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, was released last night, 13 June, from a prison at a Thai army base. He had been imprisoned since 24 May, together with academic Suthachai Yimprasert from Chulalongkom University, after the two presented themselves to police after they heard arrest warrants had been issued for them. 
 
Yimprasert was released 5 June from a prison at the Adisorn military base in Saraburi, 115 kilometres north of Bangkok. Both were arrested under the government&rsquo;s Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES), a hastily put together decree stemming from May&rsquo;s political turbulence in Thailand.
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Somyot&nbsp;Pruksakasemsuk
The release of Brother Somyot follows a criminal court&rsquo;s decision rejecting the CRES arrest order. Even after that decision, the government held him for another seven days. 
 
The CRES charges against him were for inflaming public sentiment against the government for holding a news conference on 21 May in which he called for the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. He also edited a newspaper that supported the viewpoints of the Red Shirts in recent political strife. 
 
The ICEM called the charges a serious breach of universal free speech rights. 
 
International human rights groups throughout the world, as well as several Global Union Federations, sent protests to the Thai government over the unfair arrests of Somyot and Suthachai. An online appeal by the Dutch-based Clean Clothes Campaign also generated pressure on the government.

Thai Labour Activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk Finally Released

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The ICEM is demanding that PT Kayan Putera Utama Coal (KPUC), an Indonesian company, stop its attacks on the SPE-SBSI Mining Union in eastern Borneo in Indonesia. Recently, the Samarinda-based company dismissed seven trade union leaders at the Desa Separi mine near Tenggarong in the Kalimantan Timur coal fields and enlisted another organisation to attack the union. 
 
In a letter to KPUC managing director Arifin Harun in Samarinda, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;If you do not cease and desist from your actions, we will take further steps to bring the weight of the ICEM and its affiliates comprising some 20 million members to bear on this situation.&rdquo; A copy of the letter was also sent to Andrew Vickers, Chairman of ICEM&rsquo;s Mining Sector and General Secretary of the Mining Division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia.
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The ICEM cited clear violations of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom association and collective bargaining in the letter. The letter can be seen <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/1006%20Indonesia%20KPUC.pdf">here</a>. 
 
The ICEM intends to conduct a full investigation of the situation if it is not resolved. It will work closely with its affiliate, the Indonesia Prosperity Trade Union Central Board, the largest trade union representing miners in Indonesia. Indonesia is a major supplier of coal to China, and is now the largest exporter of thermal coal in the world. In the wake of the surge in coal mining in Indonesia, employers have become increasingly hostile to trade unions. 
 
PT Kayan Putera Utama Coal is listed as Indonesia&rsquo;s 42nd largest coal producer, with the latest figures citing it produced 322,826 tonnes of coal in 2008. 

&nbsp;

Indonesian-based Coal Mining Company Sacks 7 Union Leaders

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Scores of letters were sent to Mexico President Felipe Calder&oacute;n from ICEM affiliates last week, responding to an ICEM call for dialogue not brute force to resolve the three-year long strike by 1,200 workers of Section 65 of the Mexican National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM) at the Cananea copper mine in northern Sonora State. On 6 June, Mexican federal police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse strikers at the mine and inside Section 65&rsquo;s union hall. (See ICEM report <a href="/en/5-Mining-DGOJP/3838-ICEM-Calls-on-Mexico-to-Halt-its-Violence-at-Cananea">here</a>.) 
 
By the end of last week, following a 10 June skirmish between miners and police that injured eight, a truce was declared by leaders of Section 65, as they held meetings on 10 and 11 June with Sonora Governor Guillermo Padr&eacute;s El&iacute;as in Hermosillo and the Mexican Interior Secretary, Fernando G&oacute;mez-Mont. 
 
In the latter meeting on 11 June, G&oacute;mez-Mont said he would work to arrange a meeting between the union and the Southern Copper Corp. of Grupo M&eacute;xico, owners of the mine, this week. Following the meetings, Section 65 Secretary-General Sergio Tolano Lizarr&aacute;go said the government now appears committed to bringing the two sides together for dialogue. 
 
For the union&rsquo;s part, the Strike Committee is adamant that Southern Copper halt all &ldquo;illegal hirings&rdquo; of contractors in order to re-start the 230,000-ton copper mine. The 10 June confrontation started in the early morning hours when strikers rolled huge rocks on to an access road of the Cananea mine to block contractors from entering. Federal police responded by taking control of the entrance, and then fired tear gas and pepper spray at some 150 miners, who had retreated into nearby hills.
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According to reports, in four days of altercations, 16 people have been injured, including four miners, 2 police, and the remainder civilians, mostly family members of strikers and others overcome with gas poisoning. 
 
Responding to the ICEM for intervention, South African affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it would organise protests at the opening World Cup match on 11 June between South Africa and Mexico. The action involved members of NUM, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the Chemical, Energy, Pulp, Paper, Wood, and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (CEPPAWU), and the South African Transport and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (SATAWU). 
 
In coordination with the taking of Cananea, federal forces also forcibly took control of Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s coal mine at Pasta de Conchos in Coahuila state. There, they overcame the widows and family members of 65 dead miners still entombed in shafts following a methane gas explosion in February 2006. The women and family members had been on a long vigil, with demands that the state and company recover the bodies of their cherished ones. 
 
The Mexican government and Grupo M&eacute;xico refused that plea, and stopped others in search by cutting off electricity. Halting the search, many felt, served to hide evidence of management responsibility for the accident. The mine was sealed permanently following police actions on 6 June. Widespread criticism has been made of the company's continued failure to properly compensate families of the dead. 
 
The legal strike at Cananea began on 30 July 2007 when Section 65 of SNTMMSRM, or Los Mineros, refused to work in dangerous conditions, similar to those causing the Pasta de Conchos explosion. During the attack of 6 June, police arrested five Los Mineros members, Rodolfo Valdez Serrano, Everardo Ochoa Ballesteros, Luis Alonso Borb&oacute;n P&eacute;rez, Luis Alonso Torres, and Marcelo Lara L&oacute;pez.
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Sergio Tolano and Juan Guti&eacute;rrez Ballesteros, a Los Mineros National Executive Member from Section 65, also faced arrest warrants on 6 June, but both won court injunctions preventing their incarcerations. 
 
At an economic forum Friday, 11 June, in Peru, where Southern Copper also holds mining assets, President and CEO Oscar Gonzalez Rocha said the police takeover of Cananea enables the US-based subsidiary to begin an investment plan and re-start copper production early next year. He said Southern Copper will invest US$50 million in Cananea. 
 
On another level, at the ILO&rsquo;s International Labour Conference in Geneva on 10 June, the Mexican situation was brought up before the Committee on the Application of Standards. Specifically, debate arose with regard to ILO Convention 155, the Health and Safety at Work Convention. Although Mexico&rsquo;s government and employers&rsquo; representatives, together with a Grupo M&eacute;xico representative, pointed to increased numbers of inspectors at worksites, workers&rsquo; representatives from around the world criticised the disregard for working people shown by the government of President Felipe Calder&oacute;n. 
 
It was argued that work performed by employees on short-term contracts or through labour agencies accounts for 60% of the entire Mexican workforce. Those workers are given few social protections, thus leading to statistics that are askew, including occupational safety accidents. On the issue of health and safety in Mexico, it is the worker who must provide burden of proof for accidents or injuries, and since labour tribunals often take years to issue rulings, companies tend to act with impunity.

Tense Truce Takes Hold at Mexico’s Cananea Copper Mine

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	ICEM Colombia Coordinator Carlos Bustos reports that a two-day seminar of young trade unionists from the three Global Union Federations (GUFs) that next month will form IndustriALL came to important conclusions last week. The participation of 20 trade unionists under the age of 30 brought young men and women together from throughout Colombia on 10-11 May.

	Participating unions included International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF)affiliates Utramicol and Fetramecol, and Martina Sanguinetti of the Uruguayan Metalworkers (UNTMRA). Also participating were representatives of ICEM, and CUT and CTC national labour centres.

	The meeting sought to find ways to increase the active participation of youth. A key issue for participants was not for them to be consulted more, but to be centrally involved in decision-making and to be involved and represented at all levels inside unions. This includes deciding the politics and the future of the Colombian trade union movement.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" height="146" src="" width="180" />&nbsp;

	Carlos Bustos

	A commitment was reached to establish a permanent network for communication and information.

	The joint youth project of the three GUFs that also included the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) and was funded by the Finnish Solidarity Organisation, SASK. This project will connect similar processes that are ongoing in Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, and Nicaragua with that in Colombia.

	ICEM project coordinator Patricio Sambonino evaluated the two-day Colombian seminar, saluting the important contribution and participation of the young trade unionists, moving towards generational change for the movement.

Young Colombian Trade Unionists of ICEM, ITGLWF, IMF Connect

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	The ICEM-affiliated Peruvian Federation of Mine and Metal Workers, FNTMMSP, achieved a significant legislative victory on 12 May that creates a pension fund for miners, funded by corporate profits and worker contributions.

	The law had been passed by the country&rsquo;s Senate nine months ago, but the government had not approved regulations for its implementation until now, two days prior to a planned two-day national strike.

	FNTMMSP General Secretary Luis Castillo announced the victory and called off the strike. The 75,000-member FNTMMSP had led the campaign for the last four years, against strong conservative forces in government and industry. The four-year campaign has included numerous mobilisations, marches, and three national strikes.

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	Supreme Decree DS 006-2012-TR sets out that the fund will be funded with 0.5% of the corporate annual income of the mining, metal, steel industries, plus 0.5% workers&rsquo; monthly gross salaries. The benefits cannot be used for any other benefit than miners&rsquo; pensions.

	FNTMMSP reports that the primary beneficiaries of the new law will be mine and metal workers from both primary employers and outsourced contractors.

	The mineworkers&rsquo; struggle now continues in other areas, including modification of the legislation on utilities.

	Peru is the world&rsquo;s second largest producer of copper and silver, and is a major producer of gold, zinc, and tin. A massive 60% of the country&rsquo;s export revenue comes from mining.

Peru’s Mineworkers Achieve Legislative Victory on Pensions, Avoid Strike

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	By the slimmest of vote margins, 2,000 UK petrol-tanker drivers represented by Unite the Union voted to accept a conciliation service&rsquo;s proposal, ending a months-long dispute between drivers and seven contract carriers involving work terms and conditions, including safety and subcontracting.

	The dispute, dating back to February, drove motorists into fuel-hoarding and panic-buying hysteria, mostly triggered by the over-reaction of Prime Minister David Cameron&rsquo;s government. The hysteria included a declaration that 1,400 British military personnel were being trained to deliver fuel oil to retail outlets as a strike precaution.

	An accumulated consultative ballot that was counted on 11 May found that 51% of the 69% of drivers who voted accepted the mediated proposal by UK&rsquo;s Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Services (ACAS) after eight days of non-stop bargaining. The vote was a re-ballot of one taken in March following concerns that some drivers were unable to vote.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 130px;height: 130px" width="390" />

	The ACAS-brokered agreement did introduce an industry-wide accreditation system called &ldquo;Passport,&rdquo; which must promptly be implemented to cover health, safety and training. One major concern to drivers was companies using sub-contract workers to deliver fuel, so creation of minimum industry-wide standards is expected to serve as deterrent.

	Unite warned that the overall narrow &ldquo;yes&rdquo; vote left no room for employer complacency. The union said the dispute uncovered deep-seated problems in UK&rsquo;s petrol supply, exacerbated by a mantra of &ldquo;profits before stability.&rdquo;

	&ldquo;This narrow vote in favour lifts the threat of strike action,&rdquo; said Unite Assistant General Secretary Diana Holland, &ldquo;but leaves the companies with no room for complacency. We look forward to the rapid implementation of the ACAS proposals which include an industry-wide &lsquo;Passport&rsquo;.&rdquo;

	Now, Unite, the seven oil companies, UK&rsquo;s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and the Department for Energy, Environment and Climate Change &ndash; the government entity that threatened to break a strike with the military &ndash; must begin implementation of the &ldquo;Passport&rdquo; scheme by 1 June.

	The seven fuel distribution companies involved include the largest Hoyer, with 500 drivers, and Wincanton, DHL, BP, Norbert Dentressangle, JW Sucklings and Turners. Majorities of drivers at DHL, Wincanton, Hoyer, and Turners voted against the proposals, while those at BP, Norbert Dentressangle, and JW Sucklings voted in favour. The accumulated vote was 737 for, 711 against.

	The 2,000 drivers deliver 90% of UK&rsquo;s refined fuel oil products to thousands of retail petrol stations.

UK Truck Drivers Agree to Terms with Seven Fuel Distributing Companies

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	The 26th World Congress of the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF) is now being held in Geneva 15-18 May. A major focus of the Congress is a united condemnation of the appalling behaviour of Swiss-based Nestl&eacute;, the largest food company in the world.

	The IUF has a longstanding campaign for the rights of workers throughout Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s global facilities. Great victories have been won in Pakistan and Indonesia, but serious rights abuses of Nestl&eacute; workers in those countries continue, as they do other countries.

	This Congress will see affiliates, representing a combined 2.6 million trade union members, formulate a new plan of action to move Nestl&eacute; to act responsibly. The IUF Nespressure Campaign highlights the fast-growing profits of the market leader, CHF 110 billion in sales in 2011, with Nespresso one of the most profitable parts of the company. But even as profits soar for the company, management increases the pressure on its workers everywhere. Wages, conditions, and rights of Nestl&eacute; employees are constantly squeezed.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 120px" width="390">&nbsp;

	A new part of the global campaign will be launched at this week&rsquo;s Ccongress, and serves as a clear example of Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s disregard for workers&rsquo; core labour rights. The &ldquo;We are the 53!&rdquo; campaign focuses on the vindictive mass-dismissal of 53 workers at a Nescaf&eacute; factory in Panjang, Indonesia. Those workers were sacked because they organised and attempted to assert their rights.

	The 53 are members of IUF affiliate SBNIP there and the union itself have struggled for years for the right to bargain collectively. When the bargaining deadlock forced workers to strike last year, management signed an agreement with the SBNIP to end the strike and subsequently promptly sacked the 53 key union activists.

	Congress will establish a Nestl&eacute; Panjang Justice Fund to assist the workers and their families who now face hardship because of Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s disturbing actions.

	See more information, and support the online campaign at <a href="http://www.iuf.org/nespressure/en/">IUF&rsquo;s Nespressure website</a>&nbsp;here.

IUF Congress in Geneva Condemns Nestlé

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	From International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF)

	Workers making Olympic sportswear for London 2012 for top brands and high street names including adidas and Next are being paid poverty wages, forced to work excessive overtime and threatened with instant dismissal if they complain about working conditions, according to a recently released report Play Fair 2012 campaign.

	The report, <a href="http://www.itglwf.org/documents/Workers_in_Olympics_Supply_Factories_Human_Rights_25412.pdf">Fair Games? Human Rights of Workers in Olympic 2012 Supplier Factories</a>, uncovers a range of abuses, providing more evidence to increase the pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to act to improve the working conditions in Olympic supply chains in the run up to Rio 2016, says Play Fair.

	Last autumn, researchers working on behalf of Play Fair campaign, which includes the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) and the Clean Clothes Campaign, visited ten factories &ndash; eight of which were producing Olympic goods &ndash; in China, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Across the three countries they talked to 175 workers about their working conditions.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 129px;height: 186px" width="390">

	The &ldquo;Fair Games?&rdquo; report contains many examples where workers making Olympic goods have been badly treated, including:

	&bull; In China, workers at a factory in the Guangdong Province which produces sportswear for Adidas were contracted to work in two separate locations 200km apart so lived in fear of suddenly being sent miles from home for their jobs.

	&bull; Workers at the same Amerseas Enterprises Factory also complained of regularly having to do overtime in excess of the legal minimum (with working hours from 8am to 10pm not uncommon even at less busy times) and of not being able to wear the necessary safety masks to protect against dust because of unrealistic production targets.

	&bull; In the Philippines, workers complained of pay rates so low that they were forced to pawn their ATM cards to loan sharks for &lsquo;pay day loans&rsquo; to see them through the month. Workers in the factories producing for Adidas said they were also told when they started that overtime was compulsory.

	&bull; In Sri Lanka, workers also said that their pay was not enough to meet their basic needs &ndash; those questioned said they earned a maximum of LKR 25,000 a month (&pound;122), little more than half the country&rsquo;s living wage of LKR 45,000 (&pound;220).

	&bull; Workers at the Next Manufacturing factory in Sri Lanka reported how the company used an external agent to hire short-term temporary workers. The agent made the workers do double shifts each day &ndash; after completing a full shift plus overtime at Next, they were transferred to another factory where they had to work until 2.30am. The next morning they had to report for their 8am shift at Next.

	&bull; There were no unions permitted in any of the factories and in China, workers said that anyone talking to colleagues about the need to improve factory conditions would be dismissed instantly.

	Research undertaken by Play Fair camping earlier this year &ndash; which found evidence of child labour, excessive hours, poverty pay and dangerous working conditions in Chinese factories producing pin badges and London 2012 mascots &ndash; the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) agreed to get tougher with the factories in its various supply chains.

	This included making information about employment rights available in Chinese and establishing a Chinese language hotline so that workers could complain about ill treatment. The &ldquo;Fair Games?&rdquo; report shows that the abuse of workers in Olympic supply chains was also happening in other countries.

	To illustrate the extent of the problem and to convince the IOC that it needs to do more to improve the treatment of workers making goods for the next Games in Brazil, UK&rsquo;s Trades Union Congress (TUC) has submitted a number of complaints to LOCOG on behalf of the workers from China and the Philippines who are featured in the report.

	Klaus Priegnitz, General Secretary of the ITGLWF, which wrote the report, said: &ldquo;Prior to the Beijing Olympics Play Fair called on companies to take action to ensure the human rights of all workers in their supply chains were respected.

	&ldquo;Four years on we see that the denial of the right to freedom of association, the payment of poverty wages and the widespread use of precarious work is still the norm. Companies need to step up their game and work with unions to support the development of mature systems of industrial relations in their supplier factories.&rdquo;

ITGLWF Report Outlines Abuses of Workers Preparing Olympic 2012 Goods

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