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The tense situation in New Zealand&rsquo;s coal pits has eased. But the end to hostilities came only after a wave of sympathy strikes shut down coal production following the lockout of 200 miners by Australian-based contractor HWE Mining on 18 July. 
 
The New Zealand mining industry&rsquo;s collective talks, between ICEM affiliate Engineering, Paper, and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and state-owned Solid Energy and its contractors, already had been tense before the three-day lockout. Talks began in April for the 800 miners at some dozen pits but when little progress was made, EPMU miners began taking industrial actions late in June.
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&nbsp; 
The situation intensified when HWE Mining locked out workers at Solid&rsquo;s Rotowaro mine near Huntly 13 days ago. EPMU members at other Solid Energy mines &ndash; particularly Huntly East, Spring Creek, Terrace, and New Vale &ndash; immediately took action and stopped production. 
 
The lockout reminded New Zealanders that Australian mining companies are only too anxious to export the agenda of Prime Minister John Howard of Australia. 
 
The sympathy strikes of other companies put enough pressure on HWE Mining to come to terms in its portion of the Mining Industry Multi-Employer Collective Agreement. Some half-dozen of the other mining contractors also settled two-year agreements. The EPMU has won yearly pay gains of 5% to 5.5% in this round of talks.
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EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little said the HWE Mining lockout was broken because of &ldquo;huge support from miners across the country.&rdquo; 
 
He added, &ldquo;Our members at Rotowaro stood strong in the face of some extreme employer militancy, and they&rsquo;ve managed to end the lockout and win the decent pay rise and improved conditions they were after. This was only achieved through the collective strength of miners.&rdquo; 
 
To date, the only contractor that has not come to terms with the EPMU is Doug Hood Mining, which operates Solid Energy&rsquo;s Stockton mine near Westport. EPMU members there took a 24-hour strike action on 27 July in protest to the contractor&rsquo;s stall tactics.

NZ Coal: Sympathy Strikes Counter Lockout, Pave Way for New Contracts

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Similar to non-union coal miners at the fateful Sago mine in the US state of West Virginia (<a href="-Safety-Workers’-Rights-Victimized-by-Bankruptcies">click here for more</a>), miners at Murrau Energy Corp., in the state of Utah, have designated ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) as their representative in discussions with the company and the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). 
 
Those discussions and subsequent investigation follow the tragic cave-in at Murray's non-union Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, which killed six trapped miners on 6 August and another three miners on 16 August during a rescue effort. The disaster took place at 600 metres underground. 
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Under US mine safety law, non-union miners can request the expertise of the UMWA in the event of a disaster, or safety occurrence. That happened at the Sago Mine in early 2006 when 12 miners perished due to an underground explosion. Then, International Coal Group and its owner, New York investor Wilbur Ross, blocked UMWA safety experts from entering the mine following the blast. The union and MSHA had to sue the non-union company to gain access in order to uphold the law. 
 
In this month's Utah tragedy, again, production and the pursuit of profit led to mining deaths. Murray Energy had been engaged in retreat mining at the south end of the 5,000-acre Crandall Canyon Mine when a bump -- or shift of earth and rock resulting from excavation -- occurred. 
 
Retreat mining is when grids supporting a shaft's ceiling are deliberately removed in order to cause a controlled cave-in. Murray, which bought the mine in 2006, had been ordered by MSHA to halt the practice of retreat mining on the north end of the mine in March 2007, but the federal agency did grant permits for retreat mining on the south side. 
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The UMWA termed the practice &quot;a recipe for disaster,&quot; since mining was happening between two sections that already had been excavated. On 16 August, another bump occurred during the rescue, killing the three rescue workers and injuring six others. 
 
Cleveland, Ohio-based Murray Energy is owned by the controversial Robert Murray, holder of 19 coal mines in five US states. His mines have been hot with 32 serious safety infractions so far this year. He also violated US labour law previously when he threatened to sack UMWA members at a mine in the state of Pennsylvania if they talked openly about a brewing labour dispute. 
 
Murray told reporters last week that he would permanently close the Crandall Canyon Mine, thus entombing the six miners. But he reversed that public stand the very next day.

US Non-Union Miners Turn to UMWA in Aftermath of Utah Coal Tragedy

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Energy trade unions from Canada, the US and Mexico met in Montreal, Canada, on 18 August 2007, to challenge efforts by leaders of the three countries, as well as by large multinational corporations, to secretly integrate national energy policies without public oversight or legislative accountability. 
 
North American ICEM affiliates Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) and United Steelworkers (USW) participated in a forum, organised by three networks of various social partners, along with other unions representing workers in the electrical, nuclear and oil sectors in Canada and Mexico. The ICEM also attended the meeting. 
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The ICEM affiliates condemned the legitimacy of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a clandestine effort by the leaders of the three countries and their corporate partners to develop and implement a neoliberal energy policy, aimed at enhancing the interests of corporations and building a growing U.S security apparatus at the expense of workers and the public. 
The forum occurred just two days before the meeting by Presidents George Bush and Felipe Calderon and Prime Minister Stephen Harper with the CEOs of 30 multinational corporations from the three countries, aimed at moving the SPP process forward at a rapid pace. 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow" target="_blank"><img height="165" alt="" src="" width="250" border="0" /></a>
Dave Coles, CEP President and ICEM Vice President, confronting and stopping provocateurs, which were later proven to be police infiltrators. On YouTube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow">here</a>. 
A statement condemning the SPP was issued following the forum, citing the lack of democratic participation and oversight, as well as the participants rejection of the security agenda. Efforts by the SPP to integrate the electricity grids and natural gas systems of the three countries, exploitation of Canada&rsquo;s massive tar sands production to serve US corporate and security interests, continued repression of trade union rights in Mexico, and the privatisation of Mexico&rsquo;s electrical, gas and oil resources were also a particular focus of the forum and the resulting statement. 
 
&ldquo;These and other elements of the SPP-corporate energy agenda are unsustainable and sacrifice the needs of workers and communities in each country to the profits of energy corporations.&rdquo; This is an agenda &ldquo;that fails to address the need for each country to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including a new round of far reaching goals after 2012. Nor does this corporate-continental model of energy development respond to the needs of national economic development or recognize the primary role of energy industries for community economic development. &ldquo; 
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CEP President and ICEM Vice President Dave Coles, along with CEP Secretary-Treasurer Gaetan Menard and USW Vice President Gary Beevers presented the statement the next day at another forum, held on 19 August 2007, at the University of Ottawa. ICEM affiliates also joined a large demonstration the same day in Ottawa at the Canadian Parliament and a march to the Mexican and US embassies. 
 
Demonstrations were also taking place on 20 August in Montebello, Canada, where the leaders of the three countries are meeting with corporate CEOs. At the demonstrations, Dave Coles stood up to &lsquo;agents provocateurs&rsquo;, who later turned out to be police infiltrators: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow</a>. 
 
A copy of the full statement can be found at <a href="http://www.cep.ca">www.cep.ca</a>.

North American Trade Unions Condemn Secret and Undemocratic Efforts to Map New Energy Future

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Pilkington glass workers in New Zealand, represented by Engineering, Paper and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) will decide tomorrow night, 14 August, whether or not to escalate industrial actions. During the first days of August, EPMU members at the Hamilton glass plant began a seven-day overtime ban because of a pay dispute. 
 
That was extended last week and union members at another Pilkington plant in Auckland met and agreed to support the Hamilton workers&rsquo; job actions. The Auckland workforce, represented by EPMU, was forced to take nine days of job actions last year in a pay dispute. In 2006, UK-based Pilkington was bought by Nippon Sheet Glass for &euro;3.2 billion, in a move to strengthen the Japanese company&rsquo;s presence in Asia, particularly China.
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&ldquo;The company&rsquo;s arguing over a quarter of a percent (in Hamilton), and frankly the members are getting sick of this kind of penny-pinching &hellip; the members are simply asking for their fair share,&rdquo; said an EPMU representative, as quoted on the union&rsquo;s website.

Pilkington Workers in Glass Dispute in New Zealand

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The position on climate change and renewable energy sources by the Mining and Energy Division of Australia&rsquo;s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has drawn positive attention. A Green Party candidate for Senate in Queensland praised the CFMEU for its stand, and an opinion piece written by Mining and Energy Division President Tony Maher drew wide appeal in the Australian press. 
 
Queensland Green Party activist Larissa Waters welcomed the division&rsquo;s stand on renewable energy and a 60% target for greenhouse gas reductions by 2050. 
 
&ldquo;We would be keen to work with unions like the CFMEU to plan ways to move to an environmentally sustainable approach to energy production,&rdquo; said Waters, &ldquo;especially since we already have strong areas of agreement with them on the WorkChoices legislation.&rdquo; 
 
The CFMEU has begun a television ad campaign in Australia, contradicting the Howard government&rsquo;s denial that climate change is occurring and promoting immediate action programmes.
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In an article kicking the ad campaign off, Maher says, &ldquo;Doing nothing on climate change is not an option for the CFMEU.&rdquo; 
 
Maher writes: &ldquo;Our rank and file debated and discussed the proposition to campaign on climate change in every single mine and power station around the nation, before voting overwhelmingly to embark on this course of action. 

&ldquo;The decision to back the campaign did not surprise me &ndash; for more than a decade the union has been an active participant in the climate change debate. After all, our members and our families' livelihoods are at the pointy end of the debate.&rdquo; 

Maher says the key to the union&rsquo;s position was engagement with members &ldquo;to create our own policy on greenhouse emissions.&rdquo; 

He adds, &ldquo;We have taken this approach because we want to live in a cleaner world and we want the security for our members, our families and for the coal communities for which we are a vital part. 

&ldquo;Now some may argue that the way to secure the future of coal communities is to stick our heads in the sand and, like John Howard, deny that climate change is occurring. 

&ldquo;But what security is there in refusing to engage in a debate that is raging at this very moment?&rdquo; Maher writes. 

&ldquo;From our perspective, security comes in certainty &ndash; the certainty of Clean Energy Targets and the certainty of commitments to greenhouse reductions. 
&ldquo;Business needs certainty too. If mining companies invest billions into new technology, they must receive a guarantee that such clean energy will have a market share.&rdquo; 

Maher cites examples: &ldquo;Clean coal technologies like carbon capture and geosequestration will reduce the impact of coal on the environment. As most mainstream thinkers agree, coal will remain a large part of the world's energy mix for the foreseeable future &ndash; the real challenge is to minimise its harmful impacts.
&ldquo;At the same time, we need to be investing in and embracing renewable energy sources. Our argument is that without a clear Clean Energy Target &ndash; backed with a carbon trading regime &ndash; we will never have the incentive to invest in these new technologies.&rdquo; 
CFMEU claims it is the first mining union in the world to take such a stand on the climate change issue.

CFMEU&#039;s Green Initiative Applauded in Australia

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If any event defined the strength and vibrancy of a great trade union, that event started on the night of 9 August 1987 when the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) began the Great Mines Strike of South Africa, or &ldquo;21 Days That Shook the Chamber,&rdquo; as it claimed to be called. Although the wage gains the NUM was seeking were not achieved, the strike by 330,000 black miners 20 years ago proved to be a decisive catalyst in the struggle to end apartheid. 
 
The NUM marked the anniversary last week in South Africa as an event that &ldquo;will be remembered for shaking the industry in a manner that was never seen before.&rdquo; It also solemnly noted the deaths of nine striking miners at the hands of apartheid police, and the 50,000 miners who were fired by mining companies for actively leading the strike.
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During 1987 wage bargaining between the employers&rsquo; Chamber of Mines and the Council of Mining Unions, representing white miners and officials, the unions accepted a 15% wage gain. But in separate bargaining with the NUM, the Chamber only offered 17% to black miners, who were paid much lower salaries than whites. NUM had lowered its demands to 24% at the time of the strike. 
 
Despite this, employers &ndash; led by the AngloAmerican Corporation, which employed the vast majority of unionised black miners &ndash; unilaterally implemented its offer. That caused the NUM to strike the first of some 60 gold and coal mines on 9 August. The Council of Mines thought the NUM too weak to sustain the early strikes, or to call out miners at more sites. 
 
But as the strike spread and more and more mines were idled, that proved to be a fallacy. 
 
A mining trade publication at the time reported: &ldquo;The union has shown itself to be much better organized, its strike call well supported from the outset. The Chamber appears to have expected the NUM action to last only a few days as in earlier years and was somewhat surprised at the duration and solidarity of the union&rsquo;s action and by its organisational capabilities, determination, and skill during the strike.&rdquo;
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NUM General Secretary Cyril Ramaphosa, the son of a Soweto policeman who was then only 35, provided strong leadership and staunch resolve. He also proved to be a visionary by calling 1987 the year that black mineworkers &ldquo;take control &hellip; to start controlling our lives in the mines, in the hostels, and the places we live. 
 
He also said, &ldquo;In the next few years, we are also going to take control of the work process, which dates back 100 years, when gold was discovered, during which the black workers have been like captive labour.&rdquo; Ramaphosa also said of the 1987 strike, &ldquo;The struggle we are involved in on the mines is a training ground for our people, for the ultimate goal which is liberation.&rdquo; 
 
The need for struggle was epitomised in May 1987, shortly after the NUM adopted the South African Freedom Charter, began a coalition with the United Democratic Front, and marched with the slogans of the banned African National Congress. On the night of 7 May 1987, with NUM&rsquo;s offices headquartered in the COSATU House in Johannesburg, special security police used explosives to blow the building up. A short three weeks later, NUM declared dispute with the mining houses over disparate wages, deficient health and safety practices for black miners, overcrowded hostels, and other grievances. 
 
Two weeks into the August mass strikes, realising that the NUM&rsquo;s resolve could not be broken, mining companies used a quirk in South African industrial law that allowed employers to dismiss workers even when they are engaged in a legal strike. Some 50,000 NUM members were fired. That and the very survival of the NUM caused regional strike committees to decide to end the strike, and on 30 August black mineworkers returned to work with their heads held high. 
 
The mining journal said the NUM &ldquo;has gained considerable stature as a result of its action,&rdquo; adding that the union&rsquo;s &ldquo;influence is now widespread throughout the mining industry and that unionisation of black miners is likely to increase.&rdquo;
<img height="95" src="" width="100" alt="" />
About half of the 50,000 mines were eventually re-hired to mining jobs over the next few years, and many proved to be key organisers and effective trade union leaders. The strike also taught the NUM something about self-reliance. As an outgrowth of it, the NUM formed non-profit organisations that mitigated job losses in mining with skill development, as well as labour cooperatives and welfare funds for dependants of miners. 
 
Today, that influence is evident. With roughly two-thirds of NUM members regularly attending union meetings and a shop-steward structure second to none, the NUM stands as a beacon of light for safe, sustainable jobs in South Africa&rsquo;s mining industry.

9 August: 20-Year Anniversary of NUM’s Great Mines Strike in South Africa

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In South Africa last week on 9 August, people celebrated National Women&rsquo;s Day in commemoration of the brave women one and two generations ago who first stood up against the racially-dividing Pass Laws of the apartheid government. 
 
Men and women gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, site of an August 1956 march by 20,000 women in protest of the Pass Laws that were enacted on 9 August 1956. In Cape Town last week, 700 women and children marched and demanded that the government immediately implement the Domestic Violence Act. The march to government buildings there was against the abuse and rape of women and children.
<img height="60" alt="" src="" width="100" />
And across South Africa, unions, civil society organisations, and other groups used the 9 August holiday to urge more governmental action on HIV/AIDS-related work and treatment centres. Women are the worst affected by the scourge of the HIV virus. 
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) issued a statement commemorating both the brave women of the anti-pass struggles, and the brave miners who stood up to white bosses in the Great Mining Strike of 1987.
<img height="56" alt="" src="" width="45" />
&ldquo;We salute the heroes and heroines of these struggles and call on employers to improve the welfare of women and workers in general as a tribute,&rdquo; stated NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni. &ldquo;The good wage agreements we enter into this year are a tribute to the fallen heroes and heroines of these struggles. 
 
The anti-pass protests and deaths from those protests had a galvanizing effect against the control-minded apartheid government of the late 1950s and 1960s. The Pass Laws prevented the free movement of black people. The laws defined the very essence of oppression and racism then in South African apartheid life. White citizens, although required to have identity documents, were not required to carry them. Black South Africans had to carry passes. 
 
The Afrikaners called it bewysboek (Book of Proof). Blacks called it dompas (stupid pass). The laws gave the police the opportunity to detain any black African who was unemployed. And since statutes said that &ldquo;pass bearers&rdquo; could not be officially classified as employees, blacks saw further discrimination in terms of workplace conditions and trade union rights. 
 
On 21 March 1960, an anti-pass protest was met by the ruthlessness of police in the township of Sharpville, south of Johannesburg. Police fired on demonstrators, killing 69 of them &ndash; many shot in the back as they were retreating &ndash; and wounded 178 others. Many of the organisers were arrested.
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
Considered the leader of South Africa&rsquo;s anti-pass movement was Margaret Gazo, the woman with the idea for the 20,000-person march in August 1956. She died in 1974, but spent five years in prison due to her activism. The Pass Laws were repealed in 1987, with some aspects of the statutes repealed earlier. 
 
The ICEM salutes South African working men and women of today for honouring the groundbreaking achievements of women of the anti-pass movement, and echoes NUM&rsquo;s Baleni in paying tribute to these pioneers of the early anti-apartheid era.

9 August: National Women’s Day in South Africa Celebrates ‘Anti-Pass’ Struggles of Apartheid

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A string of three-day lockouts by management of Bridgestone Australia at a tyre plant near Salisbury has only toughened the resolve of members of three unions to gain fair wage increases. Managers locked out workers for three-day periods over the weekends of 23-25 March and again on 30 March to 1 April, and also from 27-29 March. 
 
The 500 workers and their unions have been locked in a pay dispute for nearly a year with the Japanese-based rubber company. Production workers, numbering about 450, are represented by ICEM affiliate Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), while maintenance workers at the auto and truck tyre plant are represented by the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU) and the Communications, Electrical, and Plumbing Union (CEPU), both also ICEM affiliates.
<img height="142" src="" width="280" alt="" />
&nbsp;Bridgestone is offering a mere 2% wage increase for each year of a proposed three-year contract, while workers and their unions are seeking 4% per year. The cost-of-living in Australia is 3.3%. 
 
A LHMU spokesman said rubber workers have struggled over the past several years to win pay increases that keep pace with inflation. Prior to 2006, annual raises totalled just 3% and now Bridgestone seeks to pay even less.
<img height="60" src="" width="120" alt="" />
&nbsp;The lockouts have been described by union representatives as aggressive and irresponsible, and come as Bridgestone Australia is asking staff to make improved productivity changes, while earning less money. 
 
Beginning in early March, workers began job actions, which included four-hour strikes and overtime bans. The company has admitted that the job actions have significantly disrupted production during the month of March, but it remains unwilling to reopen talks with the union. Instead, Bridgestone re-issued its insufficient salary adjustments in letters to individual workers that included the lockout notices.

Lockouts Strengthen Resolve of Bridgestone Rubber Workers in Australia

<img height="48" alt="" src="" width="120" />
Labour relations in Trinidad and Tobago tilt pointedly toward turbulent unrest, as witnessed by mounted riot police and barricades that met 200 labour protestors on 29 March at Whitehall, the prime minister&rsquo;s offices in Port-of-Spain. The 200 peaceful marchers were forced by the barricades and mounted patrols away from the site of their strategic protest, and into an adjacent park.
<img height="92" alt="" src="" width="200" />
 
Workers employed at national and global companies &ndash; firms that have either stalled collective negotiations, or refused to engage in them &ndash; marched on Whitehall during a cabinet meeting with PM Patrick Manning in protest of high food prices and nagging inflation. This economic hit on workers comes at a time when bosses are delaying salary increases. 
 
ICEM affiliate Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU) organised the demonstration, together with its national ally, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and Non-Government Organisations (FITUN). 
 
The 29 March demonstration comes amidst a wave of job actions on the Caribbean island nation, including a strike two weeks ago by OWTU members at state-owned oil company Petrotrin. Job actions also included a dockworkers&rsquo; strike last week. 
 
At the Whitehall standoff, workers from Petrotrin, Trinmar, PowerGen, Hilton Hotels, Telecommunications Service (TSTT), and University of West Indies (UWI) marched to the beat of a rhythm section right up to the barricades. TSTT and UWI workers demand that their employers negotiate with their chosen trade unions, while Hilton protested their management&rsquo;s refusal to negotiate a pension plan.
<img height="204" src="" width="200" alt="" />
Errol McLeod, OWTU President
Errol McLeod of OWTU said workers&rsquo; patience is grows thin due to the slow pace of wage negotiations at several private and public companies. Dockworkers, in fact, represented by Seamen and Waterfront Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (SWWTU), struck port facilities in Port-of-Spain because wage talks continue now for two years. 
 
McLeod said government officials and companies must realize that by settling wage demands will result in the desired effect of economic growth. The absence of that, he added, either by government, or on the part of management in the public or private sector, will bring only further unrest. 
 
&ldquo;If employers were to meet the just demands of unions, then there would be no need to protest,&rdquo; FITUN President David Abdullah said in a news report. FITUN has been heavily engaged with the Communications Workers&rsquo; Union (CWU) is its fight to get TSTT managers into meaningful collective bargaining. 
 
From 26-30 March, some 400 OWTU took job actions at oil-well facilities of Petrotrin, and protested in front of the company&rsquo;s Santa Flora production headquarters. The OWTU is protesting improper safety practices, brought on mainly through under-staffing. OWTU members also protested Petrotrin&rsquo;s failure to upgrade temporary workers &ndash; some who have worked for as long as 25 years &ndash; to permanent and full-time jobs.

Workers in Trinidad/Tobago Fight High Food Costs, Delays to Wage Increases

The ICEM has condemned the killing of General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) Union Leader Najim Abd-Jasem in a communiqu&eacute; to Iraq&rsquo;s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. 
 
The 20-million-member Global Union Federation (GUF) called this &ldquo;appalling murder another sign of a clearly systematic campaign underway in Iraq to eliminate the leadership of the newly formed independent and democratic unions that strongly oppose sectarianism.&rdquo;
Abd-Jasem, a husband and father of four children, was abducted in Baghdad on 27 March, and his body was found three days later, 30 March, with clear signs that he was tortured before his death. A staunch trade unionist, even as a member of the underground workers&rsquo; democratic movement during Saddam Hussein&rsquo;s ban on independent trade unions, Abd-Jasem was the elected General Secretary of the Mechanic Workers&rsquo; Union of the GFIW. 
<img height="115" alt="" src="" width="250" />
In the message to Nouri al-Maliki, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda cited recent attacks on the head office of the GFIW, as well as previous murders and abduction of trade union leaders. &ldquo;Workers and trade unionists must be able to carry out their normal activities in your country without fearing for their lives,&rdquo; said Warda. &ldquo;We call on you to ensure full respect for the fundamental human and trade union rights of workers.&rdquo; 
Abd-Jasem was leader of the Mechanics Workers&rsquo; Union since 2003. He was also a founder of the Iraq Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and a trade union leader as the IFTU and two other labour federations merged to create the GFIW. During the Saddam regime, he worked as a mechanic in the Health Ministry, but was dismissed from that job for opposing Saddam&rsquo;s official union. 
 
The ICEM, a GUF representing 389 trade unions in 124 countries, expresses deep sorrow to the family of Najim Abd Jasem, as well as to the leadership of GFIW, which has lost a true martyr in the struggle for free and democratic trade unions in Iraq.

ICEM Condemns Killing of Iraqi Trade Union Leader

Archive

NZ Coal: Sympathy Strikes Counter Lockout, Pave Way for New Contracts

US Non-Union Miners Turn to UMWA in Aftermath of Utah Coal Tragedy

North American Trade Unions Condemn Secret and Undemocratic Efforts to Map New Energy Future

Pilkington Workers in Glass Dispute in New Zealand

CFMEU's Green Initiative Applauded in Australia

9 August: 20-Year Anniversary of NUM’s Great Mines Strike in South Africa

9 August: National Women’s Day in South Africa Celebrates ‘Anti-Pass’ Struggles of Apartheid

Lockouts Strengthen Resolve of Bridgestone Rubber Workers in Australia

Workers in Trinidad/Tobago Fight High Food Costs, Delays to Wage Increases

ICEM Condemns Killing of Iraqi Trade Union Leader

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