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Union members of Sindicato No. 1 de Trabajadores de Minera Escondida, a branch of Chile&rsquo;s Federation of Miners (FMC), returned to work Friday night, 5 August, at the world&rsquo;s largest copper mine, majority owned by BHP Billiton. Some 2,375 miners at the Escondida mine ended a 15-day strike with a 65.5% to 34.5% vote the night before after two days of negotiating with mine management. 
 
The memorandum of agreement provides a remedy to a dispute over a 2010 production bonus but just as important, addresses several grievances and breaches by Escondida management from a 2009 labour agreement. 
 
Sindicato No. 1 said of the memorandum, &ldquo;the company promises to solve a series of labour issues such as establishing a new attendance policy, regularising a certification system based on competency for promotions, and reformulating the criteria for calculating a production bonus.&rdquo; These were just some of the issues in dispute inside a four-year labour agreement that was signed in November 2009. 
 
In 2010, Escondida &ndash; 57.5% owned by operator BHP Billiton, 30% by Rio Tinto, and 12.5% by Japanese holding companies &ndash; saw profits of US$4.3 billion, up 35% over that of 2009. Last week&rsquo;s amended bonus to each worker amounts to CHP 2.65 million (pesos), or US$5,800. Miners will receive that on 25 August.
<img alt="" src="" width="245" height="161" />
Sindicato No. 1 Files Papers in a Labour Court in late July
Escondida said the strike was illegal and indicated throughout the walkout that it would not negotiate with the union. But as the days wore on and the company was losing US$30 million per day, that changed. In a statement after signing the memorandum of agreement, the company said workers had ended their &ldquo;illegal work stoppage&rdquo; and &ldquo;this action is due to the success of talks between the parties. 
 
&ldquo;Minera Escondida reiterates that dialogue and respect are the foundation for maintaining a beneficial relationship with its workers.&rdquo; 
 
Besides the aforementioned labour issues, that respect includes a more transparent system for the production bonuses; restoration of a housing allocation that lifts restrictions on where miners may use the stipends; safer and higher quality buses for transportation to and from worksites, as well as compensation for tickets; no retaliation, redundancy, or punishment for union activity; and review of company-installed surveillance cameras. 
 
Miners will also be paid their salaries for the 15-day strike. Sindicato No. 1 de Trabajadores de Minera Escondida had filed labour court charges on several of the issues involved in the strike. 
 
For its part, the union said it hopes to maintain and deepen channels of communication with management, but also will remain vigilant that the issues agreed to in the memorandum will get resolved. 
 
Minera Escondida consists of two open-pit copper mines some 170 kilometres southeast of Antofagasta, in Chile&rsquo;s Region II. It also consists of two concentrator plants, Los Colorados and Laguna Seca, which have a combined capacity of 330,000 tonnes per day. The company operates two pipelines and a filter plant at the Port of Coloso. 
 
In 2010, Escondida&rsquo;s production totalled 1.087 million tonnes, consisting of 786,603 tonnes of copper concentrate and 300,098 tonnes of copper cathodes. It provides concentrates to smelters in Japan, China, Korea, India, and Chile, while the cathodes are sold to markets in France, the Netherlands, Italy, China, Korea, Canada, and Mexico. It provides a total of 7% of the world&rsquo;s copper supply.

Chile Copper Workers End Strike at Escondida with 65% Vote

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The ICEM was saddened to learn of the passing of Madhav Neupane, a co-founder of affiliate General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT). Comrade Neupane, 51, unexpectedly died on 29 October from tuberculosis, leaving his wife and two children behind. 
 
GEFONT released a statement on that day, saying, the &ldquo;entire trade union movement of Nepal is now under deep grief. We have lost an always active leader of the movement.&rdquo; 
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Comrade Neupane was one of many democratic activists who were arrested during the autocratic Panchayati period of King Mahendra in the 1970s and beyond. It was then, as leader of the Nepal Independent Hotel Workers&rsquo; Union, that the NIHWU and three other unions formed GEFONT. He was currently a member of GEFONT&rsquo;s Veterans&rsquo; Network. 
 
Following his funeral on 29 October, GEFONT&rsquo;s National Executive Committee met and adopted a resolution of mourning that calls for lowering of the union federation&rsquo;s flag to half-mast for three days throughout the country, as well as to organise a mass meeting to pay tribute to Madhav Neupane on the 13th day following his passing.

ICEM Mourns Co-Founder of Nepal’s GEFONT Federation

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Spain&rsquo;s ICEM-affiliated Confederaci&oacute;n Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO) announced the passing of its first General Secretary, Marcelino Camacho, last Friday, 29 October. 
 
Marcelino Camacho, 92, a symbol for trade union rights and democracy in Spain, dedicated his life to the fight for those most in need, for justice and solidarity. 
 
The son of a railwayman, Camacho was a fighter for freedom and workers&rsquo; rights since his youth. Fighting Franco&rsquo;s 1939-1975 fascist dictatorship, and spending a total of 14 years in prison and concentration camps, as well as several years of political asylum in Algeria, Marceline Camacho was a true working-class hero. 
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Marcelino Camacho
In the late 1950s, Camacho and his comrades founded the CC.OO, now Spain&rsquo;s largest trade union confederation. He was elected General Secretary at its first congress in June 1978, and was re-elected at the second and third congresses. 
 
He was a member of the Spanish Communist Party, and was elected to the Spanish Parliament during the first democratic elections in 1977 following the defeat of the Franco regime. He resigned from the Parliament in1981 to devote himself to trade unionism. 
 
On resigning from the post of General Secretary at the 4th Congress of CCOO, Camacho was elected as President, a post he held until 1996. 
 
His important role was acknowledged with numerous honours and awards, in Spain and abroad.

Labour Movement Mourns Death of Spanish CC.OO’s Marcelino Camacho

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A six-week strike by contract workers of Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) in Tamil Nadu state, India, ended on 27 October, after intervention by state Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. Some 13,000 contract workers, represented by six unaffiliated unions, began strike actions at the state-owned coal and electric generating company on 19 and 20 September after putting forward a ten-point charter of demands. 
 
Included in that charter was a demand to make workers with ten years or more of service permanent workers of the company. Other demands included wage revisions, equal pay for equal work, regularization of services, and certain work terms. 
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The settlement came after the six unions requested mediation by both state officials and the Coal Ministry in New Delhi. Also crucial in settling the walkout was a threat by the 750 permanent workers of NLC that they would strike if an accord was not reached. On 22 October, permanent staff also did a day of fasting in support of the striking contract workers. 
 
The agreement, reached late in the evening of 27 October, gave contract workers an additional monthly pay of 1,560 rupees (&euro;26), plus 1,000 rupees (&euro;16) on top of a minimum bonus. There was also an assurance that the contract workers would not be victimized by taking part in the strike. 
 
The strike was marked by road blockades to power plants, and mass arrests. Two weeks into the strike, contract workers affiliated to two other unions &ndash; an affiliate of the Labour Progressive Front, connected to the Tamil Nadu ruling party Davida Munnetra Kazhagam, and the Union of Dalit Panthers &ndash; broke with the other unions and signed a five-year contract with NLC.

State Indian Coal Company Settles Strike with Contract Workers

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The ICEM Asia Social Dialogue Project, funded by FNV Mondiaal of The Netherlands and Sweden&rsquo;s LO-TCO, with the support of Swedish affiliates IF Metall and Pappers, organizes some 50 seminars per year for trade unionists in the region. ICEM Project Officer Fons Vannieuwenhuyse participated in two recent seminars, on 13-15 October in Indonesia, and 20-21 October in India. 
 
Two new project coordinators have joined the work, Indah Saptorini in Indonesia and Ashutosh Bhattacharya in India, both now country coordinators. Both Indah and Ashutosh are already valuable members of the team. 
 
Workers in both countries reported that participation in ICEM project work was valued highly, with, in addition to the ICEM Asia Social Dialogue Project, also two other projects being very active: the ICEM HIV &amp; AIDS project and its Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) programme. The CAL Project in India, for example, has led to a number of successful organising drives, and it also has uncovered some horrid working conditions. 
<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="140" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" width="130" height="133" /> 
 
New ICEM Project Coordinators, Ashutosh Bhattacharya, Indah Saptorini
At both seminars, contact details were exchanged and mini-networks set up, to be coordinated by the country coordinators. 
 
Both seminars had a number of women participating, and a significant proportion of participants were young workers. 
 
In both Indonesia and India, the problems of outsourcing and contracting were identified by all as a key issue. In Indonesia, virtually no CAL worker is unionised, while the organising rate of directly employed permanent workers inside companies represented was reasonably high. The situation is a little better in India, although it changes drastically from sector to sector. In the public sector, which includes mining, organising CAL workers is possible and is being done. In the private sector, it is much more difficult. Trade unions in both India and Indonesia also face major difficulties in bargaining with employers, as they receive little to no information from the company on anything. 
<img alt="" src="" width="220" height="113" />
ICEM General Project coordinator Yoon Hyowon, right
Korean Projects Coordinator Yoon Hyowon leads most of the seminars of the project, which runs in 6 different South-East and South-Asian Countries. In Indonesia, participants indicated that direct permanent workers get a &ldquo;decent wage&rdquo; (defined as &ldquo;enough for a family to survive on&rdquo;) in 16 out of the 23 companies present. On average, the direct permanent workers earn around 2.5 million Indonesian rupees (about &euro;200). In contrast, a &ldquo;decent wage&rdquo; was paid to CAL workers in only one out of 23 companies. 
 
These CAL workers, working for the same multinational companies, but through a subcontractor, get on average only 1.25 million Indonesian rupees (about &euro;100), or about half for doing the same job. Judging from the figures quoted at the seminar in Indonesia, typically around 20-50% of the workforce is outsourced, depending on the company. Sometimes it is even more. 
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In India, unions indicated that the number of industrial disputes is low, but that, as in Indonesia, more and more core workers find their jobs outsourced. Once a job is outsourced, the same work is typically being done at much lower wages and much lower benefits. In the mining sector in India, CAL workers earn, on average, about 45% of what direct permanent workers earn. 
 
Without exception, all average salaries quoted by outsourced workers in India, from Lafarge, BASF, Rhodia, Holcim, FAG, Goodyear, and others, were lower than the decent wage. Around 25-60% of all workers in the ICEM sectors are said to be outsourced. For these outsourced workers, an average wage is 4,000 to 6,000 Indian rupees (or &euro;65-100), while the suggested needed living (&ldquo;survival&rdquo;) wage was said to be 15,000 Indian rupees (&euro;250). A typical wage for a directly employed permanent worker in India in the ICEM sectors, doing the same job as the outsourced worker, is around 15,000 to 20,000 Indian rupees (&euro;250-350). 
 
The Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF) is organising CAL workers, bringing in over 30,000 CAL workers in the last two years. And the union is close to achieving an additional clause on contract workers in its national mining agreement for the first time. That provides a bonus for contract workers. The situation is worse in the cement, diamond, and chemical sectors, where virtually all CAL workers are dismissed as soon as they try to set up or join a union.

ICEM Asian Project Work Uncovers Shocking Conditions for Contract Workers

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Scores of electrical workers descended on the headquarters of the National Power Authority (NPA) in Freeport, Sierra Leone, on 25 October, protesting the failed implementation of promised wage increases. Their target was Energy, Power, and Water Minister Ogunlade Davidson, who workers claim does not even know the number of staff employed at NPA. 
 
The manifestation was not a strike, but a strike is threatened if the government does not follow through on a negotiated 60% wage increase plus other social provisions that are due. In Sierra Leone, a country that is still struggling to come out of an 11-year civil war, the standard of living for workers is among the world&rsquo;s lowest. 
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At the 25 October protest, electricity workers chanted slogans saying they were tired of waiting for long-awaited salary increases, and growing weary of supporting the government&rsquo;s Agenda for Change. One demand calls for workers in the meter reading and disconnection service of NPA, some of whom have been working for NPA as casual staff for up to eight years, to finally be put on the official payroll. 
 
Several government leaders were allowed to address the demonstrators but when Davidson himself attempted to speak, he was shouted down. 
 
The leader of the Senior Staff Association for Energy and Water Resources, Emmanuel Wilson Taylor, said 20% of the negotiated increase had been awarded, but the remaining 40%, which was suppose to take effect in early October, was not granted. At a follow-up meeting on 21 October, government officials told union representatives that the remaining salary increase would only be made if workers agreed to forego the many social improvements they were offered. 
 
The ICEM supports the electricity workers of Sierra Leone in their justified efforts to improve their working lives and their livelihoods.

Public Sector Electrical Workers Protest in Sierra Leone

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The garment workers of Delta Style in the city of Soligorsk, Southern Belarus, have been attempting to organize a local union within the structure of ICEM-affiliated Belarusian Independent Trade Union (BNP) for some time. The 101 women at the factory have seen their efforts blocked by the local administration repeatedly, according to BNP Chairman Vasili Korabau. 
 
Efforts by the women to achieve trade union recognition began on 29 May 2009, when they conducted three constituent assemblies, each time submitting registration documents to the Soligorsk District Executive. 
 
Local officials, however, rejected the submission on administrative grounds, saying that certain documents were submitted late, or not signed by the correct people. Reacting to the submission for trade union recognition, the local authorities requested details of the trade union meeting, and of those workers present. When this information was given to the local authorities, company management immediately began intimidating those workers named. Workers were brought into the director&rsquo;s office and interrogated and also present for these meetings were others, presumed to be employees of the local authority. 
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="153" />
This blatant breach of labour rights by the company, teamed with the local government, is appalling and the ICEM condemns such nefarious actions. 
 
The intimidation caused 30 workers to leave the trade union. The Regional Chair of BNP, Natalia Mihnjukevich, attempted to meet with those workers in recent months and was promptly arrested for attempting to organize meetings with the workers. She was then found guilty in a regional court on 27 August, and fined. 
 
This treatment of Mihnjukevich moved those 30 workers who had left the union, to return and re-submit the documents for trade union recognition once again. The submission was again refused, on the grounds that all workers involved in making the request were no longer employed at the factory at the time of consideration. If these grounds for refusal are permitted to stand, the company has the power to relocate one worker during the consideration period, which lasts at least one month. The other main reason for the rejection of trade union recognition was, according to the authorities, that the local had not yet applied to become part of the BNP regional organization. Although the BNP rules require local recognition prior to becoming part of the regional and national union. 
 
The ICEM is requesting that affiliates support BNP and its oppressed workers by taking action. Write a note of protest to the Soligorsk Regional Executive Committee and the JSC Delta Style management <a href="mailto:solret@tut.by">here</a> and <a href="mailto:deltastyl@tut.by">here</a>.&nbsp;

Belarus: Local Government Blocks Women Garment Workers in Organising

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Oppression of the 30,000 technical and professional employees of PEMEX, Mexico&rsquo;s state-owned petroleum company, continued on 22 October when the General Secretary of Local 1 of the National Union of Technical and Professional Petroleum Workers (UNTyPP) was given &ldquo;forced retirement.&rdquo; 
 
The sacking of Mois&eacute;s Flores Salmer&oacute;n of Coatacoalcos, Veracruz State, is a clear attempt to intimidate workers and to block effective organising. He was informed of his &ldquo;retirement&rdquo; by the manager of labour relations of PEMEX, Francisco Javier Ramirez Rodriguez. There was no disciplinary procedure of any kind, and ironically came nine days after the PEMEX CEO appeared before the Mexican House of Deputies on 13 October, and expressed recognition and respect for UNTyPP. 
 
PEMEX white-collar staff of UNTyPP achieved official trade union recognition on 19 December 2009, following several years of struggle. After this successful legal battle, culminating in certification from the Secretary of Labour and Social Welfare office for the Registration of Associations (STPS), members of the new union were informed by company management that in order to retain their jobs, they would be required to sign two documents, one calling for the cancellation of the registration, the other a resignation from the union. 
<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="109" />
Those who refused, along with organisers of the UNTyPP, were fired and violently removed from their workstations by paramilitaries, including the entire National Executive Committee of the union. 
 
A global campaign putting pressure on the Mexican House of Deputies from March 2010 did lead to some reinstatements of those sacked, and to some limited progress in negotiations, although the PEMEX management chooses to conduct dialogue mostly with the corrupt union STPRM, with whom &ldquo;protection contracts&rdquo; have been agreed. 
 
This is the second time that Mois&eacute;s Flores Salmer&oacute;n has been sacked by PEMEX for trade union activity. The first sacking came seven years ago. He was reinstated last year. 
 
Also in Mexico, the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) held a strategy meeting on union building in Mexico City on 13-14 October, seeking ways to jointly build democratic union power in Mexico. The meeting, which included participation by the ICEM, was a follow-up to the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3882-Mexican-Teach-in-Charts-North-American-Union-Solidarity">Mexico Teach-In</a> conference in Toronto, 20 June. The ICEM proposed to carry out action days at Mexican embassies and a tour for Mexican trade unionists in the US and Canada.

Leader of White-Collar PEMEX Union in Mexico Sacked

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Immediately following a 99.9% contract rejection and intent-to-strike vote on 27 October, the union representing copper miners at Chile&rsquo;s Do&ntilde;a Ines de Collahuasi and management called for a five-day government mediation period. If unsuccessful, a strike by 1,550 permanent workers at Collahuasi in northern Chile&rsquo;s Region I could begin late this week. 
 
The 535,000-tonne copper mine, the world&rsquo;s third largest, is 44% owned by Xstrata and 44% by AngloAmerican, with the remaining 12% held by a consortium of Japanese companies led by Mitsui &amp; Co. Collahuasi miners ended a three-year contract just days ago, a contract that came into place after a four-day strike in 2007. 
 
Miners are seeking a 10% wage increase, and a bonus comparable to the one awarded by BHP Billiton (57.5%) and Rio Tinto (30%) at its joint venture Escondida mine in Region II last year. That bonus was US$28,000. Collahuasi management is offering a wage increase of two-to-three percent less than the union&rsquo;s demand, and a bonus of US$19,000. 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="115" />
An industry representative involved in the 2007 talks told Reuters there is no question that the company can pay what miners are demanding. A strike could prove costly for mining giants Xstrata and AngloAmerican with the price of copper at record levels. The mine posted net earnings of US$1.56 billion last year. 
 
The strength of a strike by workers represented by Chile&rsquo;s national private-sector miners&rsquo; union federation will largely depend on whether or not contract workers at Collahuasi honour strike lines. They are quite likely to do so, after staging their own week-long blockade of roads in May 2010 that caused the company to declare force majeure. There are some 4,000 contract workers employed by scores of sub-contractors at Collahuasi, which is just finishing the first phase of a US$750 million expansion project. 
 
A strike could also set the template for other unions representing copper miners in Chile, most notably at state-run Codelco&rsquo;s Radomiro Tomic mine in Region II. It is part of the company&rsquo;s largest and most profitable operation &ndash; Codelco Norte &ndash; and the 760 miners at Radomiro Tomic already rejected an inferior offer in September. The collective agreement expires at the end of November. 
 
Radomiro Tomic contributed 23% of Codelco Norte&rsquo;s first-half 2010 net earnings of US$1.28 billion. The Codelco Norte division also includes the Churquicamata and Mina Sur mines, and the three mines produced 440,000 tonnes of copper in the first half of 2010, up from 391,000 tonnes in the same period of 2009.

Xstrata, AngloAmerican Chilean Copper Mine on Verge of Strike

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Austerity cuts in the UK will hit the poorest families many times harder than the richest, as the Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition government makes the poor pay for the financial downturn. 
 
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne&rsquo;s emergency budget of June was found to cut the country&rsquo;s poorest families&rsquo; average income by 21.7%, six times more than the richest. 
 
The Institute of Fiscal Studies&rsquo; analysis of the Cameron government&rsquo;s regressive cuts in social spending conclude clearly that the tax and benefit changes increase the gap between rich and poor in the UK. 
The Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) last week criticized the OECD for backing the public spending cuts, and found that backing to be inconsistent with the Organisation&rsquo;s stated objective of prioritizing job growth coming out of the crisis. 
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="158" />
TUAC points to estimates that the cuts will create one million job losses over the next five years, half in the public sector, and a further half-million jobs in the private sector through knock-on effects. 
 
Massive cuts to public spending can only create high unemployment, increase pressure on the poor, damage the economy, and risk a &ldquo;double-dip&rdquo; recession. 
 
Trade unions around the world are outraged by this trend, especially in Europe, of austerity cuts which make the poor pay for the economic crisis. The cuts are completely against the position of the Pittsburgh G20 a year ago, where world leaders pledged to develop action for economic recovery with placed &ldquo;quality employment at the heart of the recovery.&rdquo; 
 
At the same time as working people in the UK are being hit hard by Prime Minister David Cameron&rsquo;s austerity cuts, figures were released last week indicating that the average boardroom executive has seen their salary rise 55% over the last year. The top chief executives in Britain earned &pound;4.9million last year, 200 times the average wage. The third highest-paid CEO of a UK company was Mick Davis of mining giant Xstrata, earning &pound;26.9million last year. Total earnings of the top 100 UK companies fell by 1.5% during the first half of the crisis. 
 
&ldquo;These mega-pay rises blow away any claim that we are all in this together,&rdquo; stated TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber.

Tory Cuts in UK to Hit Poor the Hardest

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