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A year&rsquo;s worth of steady pressure by the ICEM and the Flint/Glass Industry Workers&rsquo; section of the United Steelworkers (USW) of America produced an important initial result. The US-based company that manufactures metal moulding for the Colombian glass industry agreed to joint social dialogue at three plants with ICEM affiliate Sintravidricol. 
 
Talks did begin on 24 October at Ross-owned companies Moldes Medellin Ltda., Andes International Tooling, and Andes Cast Foundry Metals. The plants, in total, employ 220 workers. Workers hope a common collective agreement can be achieved at a single bargaining table.
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The company&rsquo;s acquiescence and decision to hold joint social dialogue with workers of the three plants is an important milestone in Colombian labour relations, the ICEM said. 
 
Ross has already agreed that, effective 21 November 2007, workers at Andes Tooling and Andes Cast Metals will receive the same extra-legal conditions that exist at Moldes Medellin, a plant in Sabaneta where currently the only collective agreement exists. 
 
Sintravidricol organised this Ross International plant in 2004, but the company attempted to avert the unionisation and bargaining with the union by opening new plants staffed by short-term contract workers. By combining the union&rsquo;s organizing outreach at the new plants with relentless intervention by ICEM and USW&rsquo;s Flint/Glass section, the company agreed to begin the joint talks. 
 
&ldquo;This is an important step, but negotiations are just beginning,&rdquo; stated ICEM Colombian Coordinator Carlos Bustos. &ldquo;We must remain alert, continue to reinforce the unity that has developed between workers here and workers at Ross plants in the US, and keep the willingness to fight until bargaining goals are met.&rdquo; 
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Bustos singled out ICEM staff in Brussels, as well as the USW&rsquo;s Flint/Glass Chairman Tim Tuttle for their steady efforts over a two-year period. He also singled out workers at Ross&rsquo;s US plants in Washington, state of Pennsylvania, and Brockport, Pennsylvania, for their &ldquo;constant support and solidarity.&rdquo; USW has taken the struggle in Colombia inside the Ross plants in the US, as well as to local branch unions of glass-maker Owens-Illinois in the US, Ross&rsquo;s largest customer in Colombia at the company&rsquo;s Peldar subsidiary. 
 
Sintravidricol already has successfully negotiated conversion of 40 jobs from contract status to full-time and permanent status at the three plants, and further progress on that is a central goal in ongoing bargaining. 
 
The union, the ICEM, and its US partner, the USW, will continue to press for unionisation and inclusion in talks for 115 mostly contract workers at two other Ross start-up companies in Colombia. Those businesses are Ross Sand Casting Industries and Ross International Design and Machining.

Three-Plant Talks Achieved with US-based Ross International by Sintravidricol in Colombia

Re: Stora Enso&rsquo;s Latest Announced Restructuring 
To:&nbsp;Jouko Ahonen, President, Paperiliitto and&nbsp;Chairman, ICEM Pulp and Paper Sector 
Jan-Henrik Sandberg, President, Svenska Pappers 
Aila Sepp&auml;l&auml;, Secretary to the President, Paperiliitto 
Kari Miettinen, Paperiliitto Chief Shop Steward, Imatra, and EWC Member&nbsp; 
Allan Yrj&ouml;nen, Paperiliitto Local 18 President, Summa&nbsp; 
Erkki Sivosuo, Paperiliitto Local 84 President, Kemij&auml;rvi 
Harri Helminen, Paperiliitto Local 15 President,Inkeroinen 
Jukka Rimo, Paperiliitto Local 17 President, Kotka
 
The ICEM, which counts Paperiliitto and Svenska Pappers as important and dedicated affiliates, is extremely disappointed by the manner in which Stora Enso announced its recent retrenchments. The company&rsquo;s staff, through your trade unions, has done much, mill by mill, to find ways to cut costs relevant to producing pulp and paper for world consumption, and for Stora Enso to reward this with a further and unilateral restructuring plan is insulting. 
 
We think it shameful that this company suddenly announces that job futures for 1,700 people and families are gone, and then predicts that another 650 jobs (at Kotka) may be next. We understand the mills targeted are profit-making enterprises, so we do not understand the company&rsquo;s logic. 
 
Please know that the 20-million-member strong ICEM will ensure that Stora&rsquo;s disdain for honest dialogue is shared with all our affiliated trade unions, and the upcoming sequence of events will be made known inside pulp and paper mills worldwide. 
 
The strike actions in Finland recently sent a strong message. We must and we will unite to make this company justify what it is doing. The ICEM family of unions fully supports you in making Stora Enso honour its social obligations in meaningful dialogue. We will do whatever is necessary. 
 
Please pass this message to all Stora Enso employees in your affected mills, and remember: you have great strength in your respected trade unions, and the ICEM will ensure that this strength becomes a chain of strength between yourselves and all paperworkers in the world. 
 
Fraternally, 
 
Manfred Warda 
General Secretary

ICEM Gives Strong Backing to Stora Enso Workers 

ICEM support letter Re: Stora Enso’s Latest Announced Restructuring

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A general strike across South Africa&rsquo;s mining industry is still very likely to occur in November, according to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). The 300,000-member union issued a rejection of a mediated offer put forward by the Chamber of Mines to conduct only shift strikes. 
 
The NUM formally applied to South Africa&rsquo;s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) for the right to strike in mid-October. They await a certificate granting them 48-hour strike notice. The strike is to call attention to serious safety deficiencies brought on by high production.
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The NUM is engaged at the CCMA with the Chamber of Mines at the bargaining table, and they are in full mobilisation with 250,000 miners to bring a 24-hour general strike against all mining houses in South Africa. The last general strike in mining occurred 20 years ago. 
 
The NUM is now conducting mass meetings of miners, and will ratchet that up with national and region actions, before launching the general strike. The union&rsquo;s National Executive Committee met late last week in special session to discussion the safety issue. &ldquo;Our members would like to go on strike to protest safety today,&rdquo; read a NUM statement, &ldquo;but the legal system is a disappointment to them since it stipulates processes and processes.&rdquo;
&nbsp; 
The NUM warned job action will occur. &ldquo;A showdown looms over safety,&rdquo; the NUM said. We are &ldquo;determined to have a solution to the escalating fatalities&rdquo; in the mining sector. 
<img height="60" src="" width="100" alt="" />
Meanwhile, the fatalities in South Africa&rsquo;s mines keep occurring. On 31 October, two miners died when explosives ignited inside Goldfield&rsquo;s Kloof Mine near Westenaria. The NUM blamed end of month spikes in production to achieve bonus levels as the cause. This is the same mine in which three miners died on 10 October when a rope hoisting a skip loaded with rocks snapped, and crashed down a shaft. 
 
In another mine blast, this time at a platinum operation, two miners were killed on 23 October. The company involved was Marula Platinum and the mine is located in Burgersfort, Limpopo. 
 
On October 17, South Africa&rsquo;s Inspector of Mines, Thabo Gazi, presented his annual report to the Parliament&rsquo;s Committee on Minerals and Energy. The report included 2006 deaths compared to those in 2005. Deaths in the coal and gold sectors rose in 2006 by 16% and 10%, respectively, in those two sectors, while deaths in the platinum industry fell by 15%. 
 
In 2003, the Chamber of Mines made a commitment to achieve a rate of zero workplace deaths by 2013. In June of this year, 2007 at an employers&rsquo; summit, the chamber admitted that drastic action was needed now to curb 2007&rsquo;s death rate.

NUM Rejects Chamber&#039;s Strike Compromise in South Africa

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Pakistani workers of the Water and Development Authority (WAPDA), behind ICEM affiliate Pakistan WAPDA Labour Union (PWLU), marched and rallied 29 October in Peshawar. 
 
They were protesting government neglect in investigating the kidnapping of a driver employed by Peshawar Electricity Supply Co. Mukhtiar Khan was abducted on company property in October, and is being held for ransom.
The protest came five days before General Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan&rsquo;s constitution and declared a state of emergency. Musharraf&rsquo;s illegal decree is aimed at a judiciary trying to install democratic principles in law-making, and the decree could bring police force against any future protests by PWLU.
The kidnapping and subsequent march and rally on 29 October reinforced PWLU&rsquo;s commitment to hold the government responsible for the physical security of Pakistan&rsquo;s public workers. Terrorism, lawlessness, and unemployment have all shown their ugly traits in the country, and Musharraf&rsquo;s decree will not alleviate that. The consequences are magnified inside the 130,000-worker WAPDA, a public utility now on the privatisation chopping block in a plan put forward by the World Bank. 
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PWLU General Secretary Imtiaz Syed Pirzada Said made a point of that a week ago. He said global funding agencies are &ldquo;pressuring the government to privatise profit-earning units at throw-away prices to multinational corporations.&rdquo; At present, a World Bank plan to split off the Pakistan Electric Power Co. (PEPCO) from WAPDA has entered its final phase.
PWLU rightly claims that privatisation will mean burdens on consumers that &ldquo;translates into increased energy charges.&rdquo; Unionised workers at WAPDA are keen that any restructuring at the public utility start with an overhaul of the political patronage system, a system in which appointments and transfers at administrative levels have hampered efficiency of the company. Workers also claim this system is a major factor in the government&rsquo;s non-delivery of basic services, such as education and health.
At the 29 October protest, hundreds of WAPDA workers marched from a staging point to the Peshawar Press Club, where they blocked traffic on a major road through the city. Workers chanted slogans demanding full security on the job, or, if not, government officials must quit their posts. PWLU provincial leader Shahnaz Akhtar told the rally that Peshawar&rsquo;s provincial government has not taken the steps necessary to recover Mukhtiar Khan. 
 
The rally follows a WAPDA demonstration a week earlier, in which hydro-electric workers protested a company take-away of a bonus scheme as part of a privatisation plan at another enterprise. At that rally on 23 October, WAPDA union leaders publicly highlighted another major lapse in government security by honouring the working journalists who were killed covering Benazir Bhutto&rsquo;s homecoming on 18 October. A total of 141 people were killed in a bomb explosion in Karachi then.

Security Concerns High in Pakistan with Utility Worker’s Abduction

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The ICEM calls attention to the brutal political killing of Hassan Hamza, a secular trade unionist in Iraq who was murdered in October. He was the president of the Hotel and Tourism Employees Union, part of the Federation of Workers&rsquo; Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI), the union that won a highly successful wage arrears strike at the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad in March 2007.
He had been receiving death threats from Islamic Sunni extremists in the Baghdad suburb of Hor Rajab due to the secular and progressive work he had been doing in his community. A report said that he went to Syria in early October to evacuate his family, but he returned to Iraq to live in a different neighbourhood. 

<img height="121" src="" width="120" alt="" />
&nbsp;Hassan Hamza 

The FWCUI received confirmation of his death on 25 October. The union had been trying to reach him for the previous three weeks. 
 
In March, Hassan Hamza attended an International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) seminar in Amman, Jordan, that had participation from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He was a long-time and dedicated trade unionist even before the Baathist regime of Saddam. 
 
FWCUI commended his courageousness and competency, recounting that the difficult circumstances of extremist terrorism groups in his neighbourhood did not deter him from fighting for his beliefs. 
 
&ldquo;During these sad times, and while we are mourning the loss of a capable trade union leader,&rdquo; read a FWCUI statement from Falah Alwan. &ldquo;We hereby announce to all trade unionists in Iraq and the world that one of the most prominent leaders in Iraq has joined the long row of trade unionists who have sacrificed themselves in the battle against terrorism.

ICEM Calls Attention to Killing of Iraqi Trade Unionist, Hassan Hamza

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The ICEM has joined its Nordic affiliates trade unions to insist that pulp and paper giant Stora Enso take more time to consider its recently announced restructuring plan. The 20-million-member ICEM joins Finnish and Swedish affiliates, Paperiliitto and Svenska Pappers, in calling on the company to engage in serious and meaningful talks to reduce the social impact of the proposed restructuring. 
 
Stora Enso abruptly announced, on 25 October, that 1,400 family-sustaining jobs would be cut in Finland and Sweden, with another 300 white-collar jobs to be eliminated in both countries, the UK and Germany. Stora will shut its Summa, Finland, newsprint and book papers mill, and one machine at its Anjala fine papers mill. It will also close a pulp mill in Kemij&auml;rvi, Finland. In Sweden, the company intends to close its Norrsundet pulp mill, idling 350 Swedish workers.
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In a letter to the affected local branch unions in the two counties, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda said, &ldquo;The strike action in Finland recently sent a strong message. We must and we will unite to make this company justify what it is doing. The ICEM family of unions fully supports you in making Stora Enso honour its social obligations in meaningful dialogue. We will do whatever is necessary.&rdquo; (<a href="/en/?id=19&amp;doc=2446&amp;la=EN">The ICEM letter can be found here</a>.) 
 
In the two Nordic countries, Paperiliitto Presidents Jouko Ahonen and Pappers President Jan-Henrik Sandberg have already met since the 25 October news to shape a common strategy. The company now must enter mandatory discussions with workers. More strikes are likely, particularly considering the short period that the discussion window is open to discuss effects of the restructuring.
Stora Enso&rsquo;s announcement caught Nordic paperworkers and their workplace representatives by surprise. Union leaders were in a state of disbelief, mostly because mills already had undergone &ndash; some jointly and relatively painlessly &ndash; cost-cutting programmes, and now they face more further insecurity on the part of workers. The company also said that closure of its Kotka, Finland, paper mill is possible in line with shedding its laminated paper and coated magazine papers businesses. 
<img height="200" alt="" src="" width="140" />
&nbsp;Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen 

Finnish staff immediately took 24-hour strike action on 26-27 October. Two-thirds of the company&rsquo;s 12,000 workers in Finland stayed home. Paperiliitto members began systematically shutting down paper operations on 25 October, the day of the company announcement. In Finland, a short six-week period for negotiations now starts. 
 
And the way in which those talks play out, said Paperiliitto President and ICEM Pulp/Paper Sector Chair Ahonen, &ldquo;will show whether these are just empty words, or whether caring for employees really is a core value for the company. 
 
&ldquo;This will now influence the spirit and motivation of the company&rsquo;s entire personnel,&rdquo; said Ahonen. The ICEM has assured Nordic paperworkers that Ahonen&rsquo;s message, and a full account of the coming negotiations, will find its way into all global pulp and paper mills. 
 
In Stora Enso&rsquo;s view, the 1,700 job losses loom because of a possible 80% hike in tariffs on Russian wood exports. The company also says the &ldquo;outlook&rdquo; for the paper industry remains dim. In demanding more time for consultations, Ahonen stated, &ldquo;This reorganisation plan at present is an effort to make Finnish workers pay for the mistakes &ldquo;made by the industry and even partly by society.&rdquo; 
<img height="164" alt="" src="" width="160" />
The factors considered by Stora Enso, adds Ahonen, are ill-advised and not the reality. Rampant paper industry consolidation over the past several years, many feel, will have a steadying effect on the industry, with demand returning and higher paper prices sticking to help corporate financial ledgers. 
 
Ahonen also said reports indicate that the Russian raw wood issue in Finland can be avoided through negotiations, something that surely will &ldquo;ease the situations at (Finnish) paper and pulp mills, and reduce domestic price pressures.&rdquo; The proposed added duties of Russian wood exports are not expected to occur until January 2009. 
 
Paperiliitto in Finland has begun organising and establishing a social needs networks in the mill towns that possibly will be affected. The union has demanded that the Government of Finland, a minority shareholder in Stora Enso, begin immediate activities to create new jobs to replace Stora Enso jobs. 
 
The government did that, on the union&rsquo;s call, by authorising an initial amount for job start-up programmes on the same day that the company made the announcement. Paperiliitto is also prepared to use a paper industry jobless fund the union maintains to assist families and laid-off workers victimised by Stora Enso&rsquo;s layoffs.

ICEM Demands Re-think of Stora Enso’s Announced Redundancies

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10:00 
Opening and Welcome 
Introduction and the background of the meeting 
Jouko Ahonen, Chair ICEM Pulp and Paper Industry Section 
10:15 
Global Pulp and Paper Sector, Major Trends, and the ICEM Response to the Sector Challenges 
 
Global industry overview: statistics for 2005-2006, restructuring, mergers and closures, GFA reviews, company networks 
Dick Blin, Information and Publications Officer, ICEM 
 
Country Reports 
 
Main points to cover: 
&middot; Pulp and paper MNCs in the country 
&middot; Bargaining and organising challenges and breakthroughs 
&middot; Use of Contract and Agency Labour 
&middot; Health and Safety in the sector 
&middot; Country-specific sector issues 
 
Jouko Ahonen, Chair ICEM Pulp and Paper Industry Section 
Dick Blin, Information and Publications Officer, ICEM 
11:30 Coffee Break 
12:00 Continuation of the Country Reports, Discussion, and Conclusions 
 
Jouko Ahonen, Chair ICEM Pulp and Paper Industry Section 
Dick Blin, Information and Publications Officer, ICEM 
13:00(30) Lunch 
14:30 Discussion of the ICEM and Affiliates&rsquo; Activities before the next ICEM World P&amp;P Conference 
 
Points for discussion: 
<ul>
 <li>The next ICEM World P&amp;P Conference </li>
 <li>Latin American Regional ICEM P&amp;P Conference </li>
 <li>Health and Safety </li>
 <li>ICEM P&amp;P Industry Newsletter </li>
 <li>identifying 2-3 MNCs for focused networking activities&nbsp; 
 * informational support for MNC union networks:&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- contribution from affiliates&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- contribution from the ICEM&nbsp; 
 * educational and training support for MNC networks:&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; - contribution from affiliates&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;- contribution from the ICEM&nbsp; 
 * EWCs as hubs for wider networking for Europe-based MNCs </li>
 <li>Research support required 
 </li>
</ul>
Adoption of the ICEM P&amp;P Section Meeting document 
Jouko Ahonen, Chair ICEM Pulp and Paper Industry Section 
Dick Blin, Information and Publications Officer, ICEM 
 
16:00 Closure of the Meeting

4th ICEM World Congress - Draft Agenda ICEM Pulp and Paper Section Meeting

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Joining many others in the internet community, the ICEM is now also offering RSS news feeds on its website. Through this system of automatic (news headlines) links, ICEM news can be brought to you automatically via your RSS reader, or even via your website. 
 
RSS is a tool used in different ways for information distribution on the internet. It&rsquo;s most widespread usage is distributing news headlines. 
RSS (news) reader programmes allow you to easily check updates from your favourite (news) sites, or blogs. Headlines are brought to one centralised place (the RSS reader), and the user doesn&rsquo;t have to go to different websites directly. All that is necessary is to &ldquo;subscribe&rdquo; to the feed. A major advantage is getting the information you want, without spam, since the user doesn&rsquo;t need to provide his/her e-mail. 
<img height="128" alt="" src="" width="128" />
For those unfamiliar with RSS feeds, an easy way to find out more about the basics of RSS is this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU">short three-minute video on YouTube</a>. Another, shorter introduction can be found through <a href="http://www.google.com/reader/view/#directory-welcome-page">Google Reader</a>, one of the most used &ldquo;RSS feed readers&rdquo;. A short explanation on RSS feeds can also be found <a href="http://www.akimedia.eu/web-agency/news/fils-rss.html">here</a> in French on the web-site of Belgian Akimedia. The various language sites of Wikipedia can also be a source to find out more about RSS feeds in your own language. 
 
RSS feeds can also be inserted into e-mail applications such as Microsoft Outlook 2007 (for more, click <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA101595391033.aspx">here</a> - this page also includes general information on RSS feeds). 
 
There is one ICEM RSS feed per language used on the ICEM site, allowing you to only get the updates in the language that you are interested in. The ICEM web pages to go to in order to subscribe to the ICEM RSS news feed are as follows: 
English: <a href="/feed_en.rss">/feed_en.rss</a> 
French: <a href="/feed_fr.rss">/feed_fr.rss</a> 
German: <a href="/feed_de.rss">/feed_de.rss</a> 
Japanese: <a href="/feed_ja.rss">/feed_ja.rss</a> 
Russian: <a href="/feed_ru.rss">/feed_ru.rss</a> 
Spanish: <a href="/feed_es.rss">/feed_es.rss</a> 
Swedish: <a href="/feed_sv.rss">/feed_sv.rss</a> 
Turkish: <a href="/feed_tr.rss">/feed_tr.rss</a>
You can also click on&nbsp;<img height="14" alt="" src="" width="14" /> in&nbsp;the address line of your internet browser next to the ICEM address. (This may not be visible in certain older browsers). 
 
Through RSS feeds, there also is a possibility for your website to automatically publish ICEM news on one or more of your own web pages. You can easily have a part of your organisation&rsquo;s homepage, or of your international pages, to automatically carry ICEM news headlines. Once the system is set up, these pages will, through automatically renewed links, show the latest news headlines from the ICEM's homepage, in your prefered language, making the full ICEM articles available through a click of a button.

ICEM Introduces RSS News Feeds from its Website

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ICEM French affiliate Chemical and Energy Workers Union, FCE-CFDT, hosted a group of 15 Japanese trade union leaders and five managers from Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) in France last week. The two-day visit, organised by the ICEM, followed a day-long orientation at the ICEM offices on 5 February in Brussels. 
 
The French portion of the trip tightened the bonds of unity between French trade union leaders in the energy sector and their Japanese counterparts. The 20-member Japanese delegation visited two worksites of Groupe V&eacute;olia, a global waste management concern, and received extensive briefings on a number of labour and French social issues in the offices of FCE-CFDT.
<img height="187" alt="" src="" width="280" />
Japanese, French trade unionists at FCE-CFDT offices&nbsp;
Besides presentations on French social legislation and collective bargaining relations, participants discussed European energy concerns for the future and the corresponding social aspects that are at stake. The Japanese delegation posed queries on workers&rsquo; rights inside energy companies, as well as on the union rights of FCE-CFDT members at these companies. 
 
The Japanese delegation also asked questions regarding women&rsquo;s rights at work, as well as their work-life balance in French society. 
 
Following the discussions, the delegation toured, with FCE-CFDT delegates from Groupe V&eacute;olia, two plants in the greater Paris area. Workers at these plants tear apart and recycle electric appliance components.
<img height="210" alt="" src="" width="280" />
Tour of Applicance Recycling Plant
The sites are located in Saint Ouen l&rsquo;Aum&ocirc;ne and Gonesse. &ldquo;With respect for the environment and sustainable development, the recycling of appliances is seen as a value to the communities,&rdquo; said FCE-CFDT Representative Jacques Caltot. 
 
Groupe V&eacute;olia is a world leader in water, waste, and energy transformation, with some 270,000 employees in 64 countries. Osaka-based KEPCO is Japan&rsquo;s second largest utility, and employs 30,000 workers. The company operates over 150 hydro, fossil fuel, and nuclear energy plants in Japan.

FCE-CFDT Hosts Japanese Kansai Electric Power Leaders in France

<img height="39" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of the US is seeking a rare 10(j) court injunction, under the country&rsquo;s labour code, to compel Massey Energy Co. to re-hire 85 members of ICEM affiliate United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at a mine in the state of West Virginia. The 85 were fired for their union affiliation in 2004 when Massey purchased the Cannelton Mine from Horizon Natural Resources after Horizon went into bankruptcy. 
 
The NLRB filed for the injunction on 31 January in a federal district court in Charleston, West Virginia. If the injunction is granted, not only must anti-union Massey rehire the 85, but it would require the Richmond, Virginia-based company to recognise the UMWA as lawful representative for all miners at its Spartan Mining subsidiary. It would also have to adhere to terms of the 2002 national bituminous coal agreement, and begin renewal negotiations with the UMWA.
<img height="100" alt="" src="" width="100" />
&nbsp;UMWA President Cecil Roberts welcomed the labour board&rsquo;s effort to take immediate remedial action. &ldquo;As workers know too well, the appeals process in labour cases can take years, while workers who have been harmed by a company&rsquo;s action get no relief,&rdquo; he said. 
 
&ldquo;But this time, things are different. We belief the NLRB&rsquo;s case for injunctive relief is a strong one, and we believe a judge will quickly see that and grant the injunction,&rdquo; said Roberts. 
 
In late November 2007, an administrative law judge of the NLRB ruled that Massey must re-hire the miners, pay backpay, and recognise the UMWA. Massey immediately said it would appeal that decision to the top five-member panel of the NLRB in Washington, DC, which could take years, and even further to the US Circuit Court of Appeals if the labour board panel rules against the company.
<img height="88" src="" width="200" alt="" />
In September 2004 when Massey took over Horizon&rsquo;s mine, it fired all 160 miners at the unionised operation, stating that it would seek better qualified workers. A bankruptcy judge also nullified the collective agreement, but the UMWA filed unfair labour practice charges before the NLRB. 
 
On two occasions, Massey was hit with unfair labour practice citations by the labour board, and the 21 November 2007 decision of Administrative Law Judge Paul Bogas verified the company&rsquo;s intent to discriminate against UMWA members &ldquo;on the basis of their membership in the predecessor&rsquo;s bargaining unit and their pro-union sentiments. 
 
Massey is the US&rsquo;s fourth biggest coal producer who&rsquo;s Chairman, CEO, and President, Donald Blankenship, is the most anti-union coal executive in America. Massey has renamed the Cannelton Mine and now calls it Mammoth Mine.

US Labour Board Wants Court Order to Force Massey to Re-hire Unionised Mineworkers

Archive

Three-Plant Talks Achieved with US-based Ross International by Sintravidricol in Colombia

ICEM support letter Re: Stora Enso’s Latest Announced Restructuring

NUM Rejects Chamber's Strike Compromise in South Africa

Security Concerns High in Pakistan with Utility Worker’s Abduction

ICEM Calls Attention to Killing of Iraqi Trade Unionist, Hassan Hamza

ICEM Demands Re-think of Stora Enso’s Announced Redundancies

4th ICEM World Congress - Draft Agenda ICEM Pulp and Paper Section Meeting

ICEM Introduces RSS News Feeds from its Website

FCE-CFDT Hosts Japanese Kansai Electric Power Leaders in France

US Labour Board Wants Court Order to Force Massey to Re-hire Unionised Mineworkers

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