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Successful bargaining between the ICEM affiliated Argentine Trade Union of Tyre Workers (SUTNA), Argentina&rsquo;s Chamber of Commerce, and the Ministry of Labour culminated in agreement on 23 August, in Buenos Aires. A new collective agreement for the sector, covering the period July 2010 to June 2011, provides a salary increase of 27.5 percent, plus improved conditions and a lump sum for members. 
 
The agreement lays out a reclassification of jobs in the sector which improves social benefits by an average of 12 percent. All workers will also receive a lump sum of 1,000 pesos (US$250) and a further payment of 500 pesos in January. 
<img alt="" src="" width="149" height="164" />
SUTNA General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko
Of the 27.5 percent pay rise, 22.2 percent will be retroactive to 1 July 2010, with the remaining 5.3 percent increase coming on 1 January 2011. SUTNA General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko commended the corporate commitment to negotiate in good faith, with talks to reopen in the first half of 2011, &ldquo;there will be further improvements to these gains&rdquo; stated Wasiejko. 
 
The collective agreement was accepted by 75.5 percent of workers balloted, with a turnout of over 80 percent. 
 
The ICEM salutes SUTNA and its General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko for achieving such significant advances for its members. 
 
Argentina was hard hit by the global economic crisis.

Argentina’s Rubber Workers Achieve Significant Wage Gains

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Meeting under the banner Med Dig, F&ouml;r Dig, N&auml;ra Dig (With You, For You, Close to You), Pappers, Sweden&rsquo;s Paperworkers Union, held its 23rd Congress from 3-5 September in Norrk&ouml;pping. The weekend Congress came two weeks before national elections in Sweden, elections that quite likely will determine whether or not the modern Swedish social model will survive. 
 
That point was driven home by Pappers President Jan-Henrik Sandberg, Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) President Wanja Lundby-Wedin, and Mona Sahlin, the leader of the Social Democrats and the desired Prime Minister-to-be in the 19 September elections. 
<img alt="" src="" width="205" height="154" />
Pappers President Jan-Henrik Sandberg
Sandberg told delegates in his opening remarks that the socialistic and democratic ideals of the party of Olof Palme had traditionally prioritized and delivered policies good for all people, not just a few people. He also reminded delegates that after four years of a conservative governing alliance masquerading as a party of the people, all that has occurred is a shredded social safety net, a spike in unemployment, and fewer opportunities for the young people of Sweden. 
 
Sandberg also endorsed the platform of the red-green alliance that was put forward on 31 August. The alliance of the Social Democrats with the Left Party and the Green Party stands as the best chance, he said, for return to fair taxation and security of income. Improvement to the platform could occur, Sandberg added, if it were to include an energy policy that prioritized replacement of outdated nuclear reactors. 
 
Lundby-Wedin said that four years of a right-wing government has not destroyed Sweden&rsquo;s social model, but cautioned regional and section leaders of the 18,000-member union that four more years of conservative rule will indeed destroy the model. 
<img alt="" src="" width="168" height="146" />
The leader of Sweden&rsquo;s Social Democrats, Mona Sahlin 
Sahlin, speaking on day two of the Congress, said she was &ldquo;provoked and angry&rdquo; that the right-wing alliance of four parties has defined itself as the new workers&rsquo; party. She said a true workers&rsquo; party does not eliminate welfare schemes for those sick and disabled; it does not disqualify 500,000 from an unemployment fund; and it does not allow one in four young people to go without jobs. 
 
She also outlined six policy initiatives in which the red-green alliance will prioritise job creation, including keeping the energy provider Vattenfall a state-owned company, an entity the &ldquo;arrogance alliance&rdquo; seeks to fully privatize over the next four years if it remains in power. 
<img alt="" src="" width="193" height="124" />
The Congress featured a series of break-outs, as well as an interesting pair of workshops involving managing directors from three Swedish forest products companies (Holmen, SCA, and S&ouml;dra) speaking frankly on future sustainability initiatives inside the paper industry. The other workshop produced frank discussion on whether or not a small union can survive in the new industrial age, or if a merger might become a matter of necessity. That issue likely will be revisited by Pappers after its new four-year Congress period. 
 
Sandberg was re-elected President, while Bengt Sj&ouml;holm was re-elected Secretary and Henry Heini&ouml; was re-elected Treasurer. The six other members of Pappers&rsquo; nine-member governing board also won re-election. They include Lars-Olof Pettersson, Carina Magnusson-Fernlund, Lars-G&ouml;ran Johansson, Pelle Eriksson, Mikael Lilja, and Nils-Erik Andersson. 
 
A total of 149 delegates from the union&rsquo;s 60 sections attended the Congress.

Pappers Conducts Congress at Crucial Political Juncture in Sweden

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A lockout of 230 steelworkers by the American-based electronics firm Honeywell continues into month four at the company&rsquo;s uranium hexaflouride (UF6) plant in the state of Illinois. Honeywell locked out members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7-669 on 28 June over workers&rsquo; refusal to accept steep out-of-pocket increases to their health care plan, as well as complete elimination of retiree health care coverage. 
 
The company&rsquo;s demands are a slap in the face to workers who must toil inside an industry rife with hazards and long-term health risks. The plant in Metropolis, Illinois, on the Ohio River, is America&rsquo;s only facility that mills &ldquo;yellow cake&rdquo; uranium into frozen fluid UF6 for enrichment use in nuclear reactors. 
 
The health risks to the community have become even more pronounced because Honeywell seeks to regain lost production by using temporary replacement workers, a draconian American management practice used in employer-imposed lockouts. Although the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not as yet authorized untrained scab workers to operate the Metropolis facility, Honeywell has retained a nuclear contracting firm called the Shaw Group to supply replacement workers. 
<img alt="" src="" width="128" height="192" />
The mayor of Metropolis, Billy McDaniel, expressed concern over community safety in a report in the St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch newspaper last month. With trained union workers represented by the former Oil, Chemical, Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) operating the facility dating back 46 years before that union&rsquo;s 2005 merger with the USW, McDaniel said, &ldquo;I never went to bed at night worried about the men being trained and capable of doing their jobs. I want to do that every night.&rdquo; 
 
Added Chief Sheriff&rsquo;s Department Deputy Ted Holder of Massac County, the governmental unit responsible for evacuation and emergency response in the event of a disaster, the use of non-regular employees to restart the facility is &ldquo;a little concerning.&rdquo; 
 
USW Local 7-669 offered to continue working under a prior three-year labour agreement that expired on 21 June 2010. The union is seeking no salary adjustments, but seeks to retain current health coverage. When the USW did not concede to granting management a 24-hour strike notice prior to any potential strike, Honeywell locked workers off their jobs. 
 
Under Honeywell&rsquo;s proposal, out-of-pocket health coverage will increase to US$8,500 per worker each year. And besides eliminating company-paid health coverage for current retirees, Honeywell&rsquo;s regressive proposals include establishing a two-tier pension scheme with future hires relegated to an inferior plan. 
<img alt="" src="" width="123" height="148" />
On 7 August, 3,000 union supporters traveled from across the American Midwest to Metropolis to lend support to Local 7-669. Earlier, and directly in front of the uranium enrichment facility, the Steelworker local branch erected 42 Christian crosses in memory of former workers who have died over the years from cancer. They erected another 27 smaller crosses as symbols of workers currently diagnosed with cancer. 
 
&ldquo;What we do is a very, very dangerous job,&rdquo; stated Local 7-669 President Darrell Lillie. &ldquo;We deal with the worse acids known to man.&rdquo;

Lockout of USW-represented Uranium Processing Plant in US Continues

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Day eight of the strike by 6,000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) against four global tyre producers begins today with negotiations continuing. NUMSA and the New Tyre Manufacturing Employers&rsquo; Industry Association (NTMEIA) have been locked in a dispute since mid-August over pay, term of agreement, labour brokers and short-term contract workers, and other conditions of work. 
 
The four tyre companies affected include Bridgestone/Firestone, Continental, Goodyear, and Apollo-Dunlop. Bridgestone/Firestone and Continental had served notices of lockout to NUMSA prior to the strike. 
 
The employers&rsquo; association is seeking a three-year agreement, while NUMSA prefers a one-year deal. The two sides remain far apart on wages. NUMSA is seeking an 11% initial year increase while bosses have offered 8.5%, with the exception of Bridgestone which is offering 7%. Employers are offering a second-and third-year increase pegged at the consumer price index (CPI) plus 1%, or 5%, whichever is higher. 
 
If it is to agree on a three-year pact, NUMSA is insistent on year two containing either a 12% increase or CPI plus 2%, whichever is greater, and a third year increase of 14% or CPI plus 3%, whichever is higher. 
 
The union seeks consultation over all short-term or temporary employment contracts, as well as abolishment of all labour brokers in the South African tyre industry. It also wants direct temporary workers to be made permanent, full-time staff at six months of service. Other contentious issues include a 70% local content requirement regarding sourcing, premium pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, and an adequate training pool and training to occur during work-time hours. 
<img alt="" src="" width="189" height="128" />
(Photo: International Metalworkers' Federation)
NUMSA and the NTMEIA have been negotiating since April 2010 on a renewal agreement to a three-year pact that expired on 30 June. 
 
On 1 September, NUMSA also launched a strike against both the Retail Industry Motor Association and the Fuel Retailers&rsquo; Association. Carrying out those strikes are 70,000 NUMSA members at garages, auto component shops, petrol stations, and various workshops and retail outlets that make auto components. 
 
Besides a 40-hour work-week, the union is seeking 15% across-the-board increases for notoriously low-paid workers in these areas, while the associations are offering only 6.6%. Already, one auto assembly plant, Volkswagen in Utinhage, has had to shut operations and send workers home due to a shortage of auto components. 
 
On 2 September, the ICEM sent affiliated NUMSA and its General Secretary, Irvin Jim (photo on site), a message of solidarity, stating, &ldquo;We have learned that your 6,000 members in the tyre industry, overwhelmingly at the multinational companies namely Bridgestone, Continental, Apollo-Dunlop, and Goodyear, as well as 50,000 members in the auto-supplier industries, are now striking following the failure of collective negotiations due to your rightful demands not being accepted by employers. 
 
&ldquo;On behalf of the whole ICEM family, I cordially salute the heroic strikes engaged by NUMSA and its members in both industries. I am also proud to announce our heartfelt solidarity and support to you. We have already alarmed our affiliated unions in those sectors throughout the world who are shoulder-to-shoulder with you.&rdquo; 
 
The strikes in all three South African auto-related industries come just two weeks after 31,000 NUMSA auto workers struck seven car makers affiliated to the Automobile Manufacturers Employers&rsquo; Association. That strike lasted eight days, until 19 August.

South Africa Tyre Strike Continues into Week Two

ترجمة آخر أخبار غزة علي موقع الاتحاد الدولي للكيماويات والطاقة ال . بدأ وصول مساعدات الإغاثة من خلال جهود الاتحاد الدولي للنقل. والاتحاد الدولي للنقابات 
 
يناير 12-2009 مختصر لأخبار الاتحاد الدولي 
 
مصر- الأردن- فلسطين 
 
هبطت أول طائرة بشحنة للمساعدات الأسنانية بالكامل لأهل غزا الأسبوع الماضي 8يناير بمدينة العريش مصر كلفته ذوق من الاتحاد الدولي لعمال النقل كل من الاتحاد الدولي للنقابات منخرطين بشكل نشط في عمليات الأغاثه لإيصال الغذاء والماء والمساعدات الطبية لغزة عقب ما يقرب من ثلاثة أسابيع علي قصف غزا من جانب إسرائيل 
 
الموارد التي تم جمعها من نقابات النقل والنقابات الأخرى في الشرق الأوسط تم تسليمها للهلال الأحمر في غزة وقد أشرف علي وصول الشحنة ممثل الاتحاد الدولي في العالم العربي بلال مالكوي وهو أيضاً قيادي بالنقابة العامة لعمال النقل الجوي بالأردن والسياحة بالأردن وقد اشتملت الشحنة علي مواد ضرورية طبية تم شرائها بمعرفة الاتحاد الدولي للنقل وكان بلال مالكوي علي متن الطائرة التي هبطت في مصر الأسبوع الماضي وقد جهزت النقابة العضو في الاتحاد الدولي للنقل المواد الأساسية التي تم نقلها علي الخطوط الجوية الملكية الأردنية كتبرع من الخطوط الجوية الأردنية وسيتم تتابع رحلات جوية للإغاثة نأمل أن تكون تلك أولي الرحلات الإغاثة العديدة التي تحمل مواد الإغاثة الإنسانية قال ذلك الأمين العام للاتحاد الدولي للنقل . دافيد كوكروفت علي الرغم من أن تلك الأدوية حيوية إلا إنها لن تقلل بأي حال الحاجة الماسة إلي وقف فوري لإطلاق النار في غزا 

<img alt="" src="" width="130" height="141" />
ناشد الاتحاد الدولي للكيماويات والطاقة إل و بالتوصل لوقف فوري لإطلاق النار في بيان أصدره يوم 31 ديسمبر ومنه أن فقدان الأرواح البريئة من الفلسطينيين أمر يبعث علي الأسى مما يستوجب التوصل فوراً لإطلاق النار من جانب كلاً من إسرائيل وحماس وذلك هو السبيل الوحيد لحل المشكلة 
 
وقد أدانت جموع العمال علي المستوي العالمي خاصة في الشرق الأوسط الهجمات الإسرائيلية الغير متناسبة علي غزة 

<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="90" />
في آخر الأسبوع الماضي أصدرت نقابة المرافق المصرية للاتحاد الدولي بيان دعت وناشدة فيه المجتمع الدولي ممارسة الضغط علي إسرائيل لإنهاء معاناة الفلسطينيين وإيقاف العدوان المتوحش علي شعب غزة الأعزل 
 
ينسق الاتحاد الدولي للنقابات بالتعاون مع الاتحادات العملية في فلسطين والأردن لتوصيل المساعدات لمواطني غزة وقد فتح الاتحاد الدولي حساب بنكي باسم المساعدة النقابية لغزا ويمكن الحصول علي معلومات التبرع بالتحويلات المصرفية 322224211 لمزيد من المعلومات يمكن للنقابات التي تود أن تسهم في جهود نقابة عمال النقل الجوي الأردني الاتصال ببلال علي هذا الموقع 
 
<a href="mailto:mailto:Malkaw_bilal@itf.org.uk">mailto:mailto:Malkaw_bilal@itf.org.uk</a>&nbsp; 
 
بيان الاتحاد الدولي متوفر علي موقع

بدأ وصول مساعدات الإغاثة من خلال جهود الاتحاد الدولي للنقل. والاتحاد الدولي للنقابات

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To highlight how the issue of Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) is being used by companies around the world, and to demonstrate the innovative way trade unions are dealing with these issues, the ICEM CAL Project is producing a series of country reports. The first of these reports focuses on the situation in Thailand. 
 
The use of CAL is widespread in Thailand and became even more so during the economic crisis, which hit Thailand&rsquo;s export markets hard. In 2008, the Thai labour code was amended to include improved rights for agency workers, with companies being required to pay equal wages to agency workers doing the same jobs as permanent workers. 
 
This promising piece of legislation, however, has been severely undermined by the fact that many companies simply switched to employing workers directly on short-term contracts and paying them only the legal minimum wage. 
 
Thai unions are responding to the proliferation of CAL in various ways. Many are working to ensure that CAL workers can join the same union as permanent, directly-employed workers. TIGLU, the union representing workers at Thai Industrial Gases (TIG), Thailand&rsquo;s largest provider of industrial gases and a subsidiary of German-based Linde Group, launched a campaign to secure their right to recruit CAL workers.
<img alt="" src="" width="93" height="132" />
CAL Thai Project Manual
In early 2008, with support from the ICEM CAL Project and from ICEM affiliated unions in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, TIGLU signed a milestone agreement with the company solidifying the union&rsquo;s right to organise contract and agency workers. The ICEM is working to ensure that freedom of association is respected for all workers at TIG/Linde. 
 
Although it is often extremely challenging to recruit CAL members, a number of Thai unions have been successful in their attempts to do so. A branch union affiliated to the ICEM affiliate, the Paper and Printing Workers Federation (PPFT), successfully recruited 80 of 120 contract workers employed by Cellox, a tissue paper company in Thailand. The ICEM Asia CAL Project is working with the union and PPFT to organise union education for the new members. 
 
Many Thai unions have made CAL a priority in their collective bargaining and organising efforts. Since 2006, the Local Union of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, called EGAT-LU, has been bargaining collectively to improve the working conditions of CAL workers at EGAT, the public-sector electric power company that employs 7,000 agency workers. 
 
In April 2007, the ICEM-affiliated union amended its statutes to make it possible for contract workers to join. Since then, the union has negotiated a new company policy with EGAT, which not only aims to improve working conditions for CAL workers but also ensures that all workers receive the entitlements outlined in Thai labour legislation. In 2009, the union launched an organising drive and succeeded in recruiting 650 of EGAT&rsquo;s 760 contract workers. The ICEM is working with EGAT-LU and the Danish Union of Electricians (Dansk El-Forbund) to organise union education for the newly recruited members.

Country Report Thailand: Exemplary Actions by ICEM Unions on CAL

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
In Mexico on 25 August, an appellate court overturned the government&rsquo;s freeze on bank accounts of the National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros. But a week later, on 2 September, Mexico&rsquo;s Attorney General reissued an order freezing those accounts. 
 
The appeals court ruled that the government&rsquo;s asset freeze on union accounts could only be imposed on specific evidence, not on a general suspicion of money laundering. The court thus ruled against a decree from late last year that continued a freeze on the union&rsquo;s funds, now tied up for nearly three years. 
 
The Attorney General&rsquo;s office again used Article 181 of Mexico&rsquo;s penal code to freeze the union&rsquo;s assets.
<img src="" width="180" height="214" alt="" />
 
Los Mineros will continue to appeal this order, despite not having the necessary information from the government in order to wage its legal fight. 
 
Meanwhile, a special working group of the Mexican Senate has agreed to accept videotape testimony from the union&rsquo;s leader in exile, Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez Urrutia, over the Cananea mine strike. Napole&oacute;n G&oacute;mez, who is in exile in Canada, will be allowed to testify on Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s complicity in alleged human rights abuses at the mine where SNTMMSRM members have now been on strike for 25 months. 
 
The Mexican Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union was approved for ICEM affiliation during the 23-24 June Executive Committee meetings.

Los Mineros Bank Assets Unfrozen, Then Frozen Again

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
United Steelworker (USW) members at Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Co. in the US will begin voting later this week on a four-year labour agreement, covering over 10,000 workers at seven American factories. A tentative agreement between the USW and Goodyear, America&rsquo;s biggest tyre manufacturer, was reached late in the evening on 29 August, just hours before a second contract extension was due to expire. 
 
Collective agreements between North America&rsquo;s largest industrial union and the US&rsquo;s three major tyre-makers &ndash; Goodyear, Bridgestone Americas LLC, and Michelin&rsquo;s BF Goodrich subsidiary &ndash; expired on 18 July, but the USW and Goodyear and Michelin North America twice extended negotiation deadlines. 
 
On 15 August, the union and Michelin reached accord on a three-year contract covering 2,500 workers. Workers at two of the company&rsquo;s plants, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, ratified the agreement some eight days later by an 83% affirmative vote. A third Michelin plant, in Opelika, Alabama, that employs 1,000 is set to close on 31 October, and the union and North American management of Michelin negotiated a satisfactory plant-closing pact several months ago.
<img src="" width="300" height="132" alt="" />
&nbsp; 
 
Talks with Bridgestone, covering 4,500 workers at seven of nine of the Japanese company&rsquo;s US plants, are still ongoing. Workers covered under that master agreement are employed now under day-by-day extensions, with each side required to give a five-day notice before contract termination. 
 
The USW&rsquo;s chief goals in US tyre talks this summer have been job security, investment in facilities, and improvements in worker and retiree benefits, specifically related to company-sponsored health care coverage. 
 
At the Goodyear manufacturing plants, USW members are now involved in informational sessions spelling out the terms of the proposed accord, with site-by-site voting to follow. The Goodyear plant sites include: Union City, Tennessee, where auto and light truck tyres are made; Topeka, Kansas, a plant manufacturing commercial truck, bus, and off-road equipment tyres; Gadsden, Alabama, auto and light truck; Fayetteville, North Carolina, auto and light truck; Danville, Virginia, commercial truck and bus tyres, and aircraft tyres; and Akron, Ohio, race-car tyres. 
 
Meanwhile, the USW is bracing for a 17 September deadline in which President Barack Obama must decide on a US International Trade Commission (ITC) recommendation to impose higher tariffs on low-end Chinese tyres entering the American marketplace. The USW petitioned the ITC for relief because of a 215% increase between 2004 and 2008 in Chinese tyre exports to the US. The case is seen as a litmus test for Obama on whether or not he keeps a campaign pledge to protect US-based jobs.

US Tyre Talks Near Complete

<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="39" />
The Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia has launched a campaign against global mining giant Xstrata to preserve coal mining jobs in New South Wales (NSW). The Swiss-based company, on 31 July, announced it was cutting 122 of 550 jobs at its Ulan Mine in western NSW, and 158 more jobs at its Tahmoor colliery in southern NSW. 
 
The CFMEU disputes Xstrata&rsquo;s claim that the scheduled redundancies are intended to improve efficiencies by &ldquo;realigning employee numbers with the current operating environment.&rdquo; To Xstrata, that means reduced pricing on thermal coal brought by the global financial crisis.
<img alt="" src="" width="240" height="76" />
 
The union claims Xstrata&rsquo;s real intent is to hire more contractors at Ulan, specifically as the company prepares development of major new coal deposits at Ulan West. 
 
CFMEU National President Tony Maher called the cuts callous and offensive. &ldquo;We highlight this as corporate greed, as this is a very profitable mine,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There are times when retrenchments are unavoidable. This is not one of those times.&rdquo;
<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="135" />
&nbsp;CFMEU&rsquo;s Tony Maher 
 

The Ulan mine is forecast to post an A$140 million profit this year, down from A$330 million in 2008, but still extremely healthy profits considering the global recession. The CFMEU has brought forced dismissal cases before the Australian Industrial Relations Commissions, but a 24 August hearing to block the Ulan redundancies failed. 
 
Some 500 people marched last week in Mudgee, NSW, near Ulan as the first wave of layoffs was to begin. The mayor of Mudgee, a community of 7,000 some 260 kilometres west of Sydney, said the cuts will have a serious knock-on effect to other jobs in the town. The CFMEU says for every high-paid mining job that is lost, another four service or retail jobs will be affected. 
 
The union has started a website on Xstrata&rsquo;s job cuts at Ulan. It can be found <a href="http://www.xstratafacts.com">here</a>. 
 
Xstrata bought majority control of Ulan in 2001 and controls a 90% stake in the mine. Mitsubishi Development owns the other 10%. At Tahmoor, a mine producing coking coal that Xstrata bought from Centennial Coal in 2007, the company used the same excuse for issuing redundancy notices: market prices are not strong enough to support the current level of 493 jobs. 
 
Xstrata&rsquo;s job curtailments at the two collieries are not the only sites in Australia where the company is forcing redundancies. In June, the tightly held mining concern said it was terminating thermal coal mining at its United Colliery in the Hunter Valley region of NSW. That colliery is to cease operating by March 2010. And in January 2009, Xstrata announced job cutbacks at the Oaky Creek No. 1 mine in central Queensland. 

&nbsp;

CFMEU Seeks to Protect Xstrata Coal Mining Jobs in Australia

<img src="" width="100" height="39" alt="" />
Leaders from ICEM trade union affiliates in India met in Kolkata on 3-4 September and officially formed an Indian ICEM Affiliates&rsquo; Council, with BK Das of the Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF) selected as coordinator. At last week&rsquo;s meetings, the 21 delegates also formed a strategy around ICEM&rsquo;s Contract and Agency Labour Campaign, aimed at recruiting such workers into their unions. 
 
Union leaders from the Mining, Chemicals, Cement, and Diamond Polishing sectors took part in the two-day meeting, sponsored in part by the FES India office. The forum was organised as part of a strategic planning workshop on the impact of the economic crisis over employment conditions and challenges faced by unions.
<img src="" width="340" height="255" alt="" />
ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda Indian trade union leaders&nbsp; 

It was attended by ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Phee Jungsun, ICEM Materials Officer and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person. 
 
Warda assured the Indian affiliates that they will receive sufficient resources to recruit contract and agency workers, as well as for the fight against HIV/AIDS. The ICEM is readying to staff a full-time project coordinator in India. 
 
India&rsquo;s ICEM affiliates agreed to select two delegates each to the Affiliates&rsquo; Council, with meetings held twice annually. A key emphasis will be improving the weak financial structures of most national level unions, with each affiliate promising to produce a report on its existing financial structure by December 2009. 
 
Delegates also committed to organize a level of 10% of contract or agency workers into their unions, as well as to construct a new joint project proposal on union-building with a priority on contract and agency workers. 
 
The Council also committed to explore ICEM affiliation with Indian petroleum unions, trade unions in the electric power sector, as well as those in the country&rsquo;s burgeoning pharmaceutical sector. 
 
While in India, Warda also attended a master training programme on HIV/AIDS awareness and education, sponsored by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer. He said this particular project in India has dedicated and committed trade unionists, people &ldquo;who are focused on bringing attention and then eradicating the HIV/AIDS pandemic on the Indian sub-continent.&rdquo; 

&nbsp;
&nbsp;

ICEM Affiliates in India Form Council, Ready to Organise Contract and Agency Workers’

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