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Photos of the march and rally can be found <a href="/index.php?id=21&amp;doc=2038&amp;la=EN">here</a>.
A march and mass rally against Imerys&rsquo; rash restructuring in the UK'S&nbsp;South West was held on Saturday, 18 November, in St. Austell.
Sponsored by UK trade unions Transport &amp; General Workers Union (TGWU), Amicus, and GMB, the colourful march&nbsp;featured French, American and global union representatives, who reminded Imerys workers in the Cornwall and Devon region that the company will grant nothing without a fight. The march culminated with the rally and speeches at Polkyth Carpark. 
 
The march and rally, in which 450 people participated,&nbsp;was part of a build-up to an industrial ballot that the UK unions will take in the South West Imerys, a Paris-based multinational that produces building materials. Imerys is targeting some 610 jobs to be made redundant at its kaolin mine and processing operations in the South West by the end of next year.
<img height="50" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The restructuring has gained global attention through the TGWU&rsquo;s outreach to other unions representing Imerys workers around the world. 
Speakers at Saturday&rsquo;s event included Serge Gonzales, from the French trade union F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Force Ouvri&egrave;re (FO) Mat&eacute;riaux, C&eacute;ramique et Thermique, who is Secretary of Imerys&rsquo; European Works Council; Keith Fulbright, a shop-floor leader at Imery&rsquo;s Sylacauga, Alabama, calcium carbonate mine and plant, who is President of Local Branch 3-0516 of the United Steelworkers (USW) of America; and Dick Blin, a representative of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine &amp; General Workers' (ICEM) Unions, the Brussels-based Global Union Federation, which includes Imerys&rsquo; trade unions worldwide. 
 
Also speaking were&nbsp;Jennie Formby, TGWU National Secretary, and Laura Lamprell, TGWU Regional Industrial Organiser. 
 
&ldquo;Imerys has exhibited utter contempt in regards to workers, their families and, indeed, the entire well-being of communities built by the labours of English China Clay,&rdquo; said Formby. &ldquo;That contempt has stretched from the manner in which they made the announcement last July, to the manner in which they&rsquo;ve conducted the consultation process with the workers&rsquo; representatives.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;We have told Imerys that their anti-social policies in the UK will affect their reputation globally,&rdquo; said Serge Gonzales. &ldquo;We demand of Imerys a reversal to the anti-worker conduct that it is displaying in various countries throughout Europe.&rdquo; 
<img height="60" alt="" src="" width="100" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img height="62" alt="" src="" width="113" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<img height="60" alt="" src="" width="70" />
In Sylacauga, Alabama, Imerys also has demonstrated a record of union-busting and non-adherence to its social obligations. The USW has fended off two de-unionisation efforts by the company since the turn of the decade, and it is only now, through renewed strength of the USW among the 500-member workforce, that the company has tempered its anti-worker agenda. 
 
&ldquo;The lesson that I bring about Imerys from America to workers of the South West is this: &lsquo;Stay united, stay focused,&rsquo;&rdquo; said the USW&rsquo;s Keith Fulbright. &ldquo;Our experience is that Imerys will attack when they know the union is weak. It was only after we signed nearly every worker into the union that everyone began displaying that fact on the shop floor. It was only then that Imerys backed off.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Imerys must begin making real commitments to workers and communities of the South West,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;The ICEM guarantees that unless fairness and respect are granted, we will do everything in our power to bring this dispute into all the company&rsquo;s global workplaces.&rdquo;

Anger at Imerys Expressed at Rally in UK&#039;s South West

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Another Colombian trade unionist was murdered, continuing a trend that labels the South American country as one of the worst in the world with respect to trade union rights and human rights. 
 
Jes&uacute;s Marino Mosquera, an activist in the rural workers&rsquo; agricultural union of SINTRAINAGRO, was murdered last month while returning home from the farm that he worked at in Carepa, Urab&aacute; state. He served as a union representative for SINTRAINAGRO on a joint labour-management committee for the past 12 years. 
 
Following the mid-October assassination, two members of the union&rsquo;s national executive received death threats. On 26 October, masked gunmen broke into the home of one of those members, Medardo Cuesta, who was not there, and left a death note for him.
<img height="80" alt="" src="" width="80" />
SINTRAINAGRO, an affiliate of the International Union of Food Workers&rsquo; (IUF), and of the Colombian national labour centre CUT have denounced the murder and death threats, and have called on the government to provide all necessary protective measures for SINTRAINAGRO officers and members. 
 
Far more trade unionists are murdered in Colombia each year than in any other country in the world. Last year, the count was listed at 70, although it is believed another 25 trade union leaders were victims of death squads. 
 
The IUF provides further information on this latest instance of trade union killings in Colombia, as well as a link to send a message of protest to the government on its website. To get there, click&nbsp;<a href="http://www.iufdocuments.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=default&amp;uid=default&amp;ID=3823&amp;view_records=1&amp;ww=1&amp;en=1">here</a>.

Agricultural Trade Unionist Slain in Colombia

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The second Trade Union Seminar for Repsol-YPF trade unionists took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 9-11 October. Repsol-YPF, a Spanish-Argentinean multinational, employs 16,000 workers worldwide and ranks in the top ten of oil and gas companies. 
 
ICEM affiliate Fiteqa, with the active support of CC.OO&rsquo;s Paz y Solidaridad Foundation (FPS) was again leading this initiative. Trade unionists from Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba met to debate around their common concerns and to create a union network. ICEM was represented at the event by its Latin-American Vice-President and its Energy Officer. 
<img height="81" alt="" src="" width="100" />
The seminar gave participants the ability to compare their industrial, economic, social and political realities as well as to reinforce their unity and solidarity. For Isidor Boix, International Secretary of Fetiqa, &ldquo;the level of discussions and the commitment shown by all the colleagues who participated constitutes a very sound basis for the future work of the network&rdquo; 
 
The Repsol-YPF unions have also decided during this meeting to set up a web site to extend and deepen the information resources of the workers they represent. At the end of the sessions, representatives of the union network met representatives of Repsol-YPF to introduce their future work plan. 
 
The next meeting will take place in Peru in October 2007, while the webpage should be launched over the coming months.

Repsol Union Representatives from 9 Countries Meet in Argentina

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The dispute in Argentina between ICEM affiliate Sindicato &Uacute;nico de Trabajadores del Neum&aacute;tico Argentino (SUTNA) and the F&aacute;brica Neum&aacute;ticos de Avanzada (NA), a competition tyre making company in C&oacute;rdoba, is going from bad to worse. Over the last few weeks, trade unionists have been harassed and intimidated, including many of the dismissed workers at the tyre plant, their family members, SUTNA union representatives, and the union&rsquo;s attorney. 
 
The house of Ignacio Ferrer, a lawyer working for SUTNA, was turned upside down during a break-in by unknown aggressors. A clear sign that the burglary was only meant to intimidate, is the fact that nothing was taken. 
 
Further aggravation came when the provincial police refused to take action, arguing that they could do nothing since nothing was taken. Failure by the police to do something seems to be endemic in C&oacute;rdoba as none of the other intimidation complaints have been investigated by the police either. 
<img height="112" alt="" src="" width="129" />
Union representatives, as well as union members, have been threatened on at least five different occasions, mainly through bullying by unknown individuals. Similar things happened to their family members. 
 
The Union&rsquo;s Assistant secretary, Rub&eacute;n Silva, for example, was approached by the company&rsquo;s security people while he was talking to the strikers in front of the plant. He was told by a company security guard that the man &ldquo;would break all his bones so that he could never **** again.&rdquo; Another tactic used against the same man is to drive around in cars without license plates in the area where he lives, asking neighbours where his house is. 
 
NA refuses to participate in mandatory reconciliation efforts, thereby turning down any possibility for a dialogue. As part of that, the company&rsquo;s security personnel refused entry to an officer from the Department of Justice, accompanied by, among other people, the union&rsquo;s lawyer and two police officers. They were refused entry in spite of the fact that they had a warrant issued by a court. The group later managed to get in by jumping a gate. 
 
The conflict started in early August when NA, in a clear violation of trade union rights, started to dismiss staff members for becoming SUTNA members. Things escalated when the company became openly hostile to SUTNA&rsquo;s industrial actions, which occurred in support of the 25 sacked SUTNA members. The dispute follows the signing, for the first time in 31 years, of a national agreement for the Argentinean rubber sector with the employers&rsquo; association.

SUTNA Rubber Dispute in Argentina Hardens

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
The modus operandi by US multinational Ross International on human rights reads like the script of &lsquo;how to behave badly in a globalised world.&rsquo; The company, which manufactures moulds for the glass container industry, appears to follow a handbook on how to subcontract and outsource work, while eliminating trade unions at the same time. 
<img height="66" src="" width="100" alt="" />
In a letter to the company last week, ICEM took on the company&rsquo;s anti-union techniques in Colombia. ICEM Colombian affiliate Sintravidricol is running a campaign in that country to get the company to deal responsibly with its workforce. 
 
Ross International owns one facility in Colombia where a collective bargaining agreement exists, called Moldes Medellin Ltda. Reportedly, this modern facility operates at only 50% capacity and is constantly reducing its number of workers, with a prohibition in place on hiring new ones. The company also owns four other factories in Colombia, which all are enlarging their capacity. 
 
New jobs at these facilities come with far less job security and at lower salaries, with most workers being hired through temporary work agencies. On top of that, Ross International ignores union requests in the one plant with an agreement. It also refuses to comply with earlier agreements in that plant. 
<img height="71" src="" width="130" alt="" />
In the US, where the company is headquartered in the state of Pennsylvania, ICEM North American affiliate United Steelworkers (USW) faces very similar problems. There as well, union members are the victims of Ross efforts to downsize mould shops, and outsource work that has, for years, been performed by USW members. The serious reductions in staff at Ross International&rsquo;s US operations affect three of the four company plants in the US: Penn Mould, Ross Mould, and Brockway Mould. 
 
Another sign that the company is not taking its obligations towards its workers seriously is that representatives of the USW have had seriously difficulties to even get a meeting with the management of the company to discuss the issues of downsizing, layoffs and possible solutions. 
 
As a mould manufacturer, Ross International serves both Owens-Illinois and Saint Gobain Container, Inc.

Ross International: Labour Problems in Colombia and US

&nbsp;<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Manfred Warda was appointed to fulfil the final year, 2007, of Fred Higgs' term as General Secretary of the ICEM. The decision was made by the ICEM's Presidium at its 5 October meeting in Brussels. 
 
Higgs has been diagnosed, along with other health-related issues, with pleural plaques of the lungs, a condition brought about by industrial exposure to asbestos while working, near London, at Chloride Battery, where he got his start in the trade union movement as a shop steward in the 1960s. 
<img height="182" alt="" src="" width="300" />
From left to right: Manfred Warda, ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana and Fred Higgs
Higgs, who will turn 60 in December, will remain ICEM General Secretary until the end of the year. 
 
Warda, 59, is currently Head of the International Department of the German trade union IGBCE. A 43-year member of the IGBCE and before that, Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau und Energie (IGBE), the German Mineworkers' Union, Warda began working in the industrial sector in 1963, in his home city of Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia. 
 
He began his career inside IGBE in 1971, and after serving as an assistant and then Head of the President's Office, he became Head of IGBE's International Department from 1990 to 1997. Following the 1997 merger that created IGBCE, he continued as Head of the IGBCE&rsquo;s International Department.

Manfred Warda to Replace Fred Higgs as ICEM GS in 2007

&nbsp;<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
ICEM Workshop on Peer Education 
 
Peer Education was the central topic of the 3rd Regional Workshop for national coordinators, which was held in Johannesburg from 6 to 8 September 2006. Participants from ten sub-Saharan African countries acquired the necessary skills as peer educators and, in turn, train peer educators from ICEM affiliates in their own countries. 
National coordinators identified key functions for peer educators, the core contents of a peer educators&rsquo; programme, the qualities and skills required by peer educators, the sustainability of programmes and the role of unions in peer education. 
 
The ILO draft toolkit on behaviour change communication was an important tool in the workshop. Participants received the CD-Rom of this seven-part toolkit which provides essential resources on developing programmes. 
 
National coordinators also reviewed progress on activities since the 2nd Regional Workshop, in November 2005, and agreed to forward information on workplace policies and collective agreements with HIV/AIDS clauses to the Regional Coordinator in order to compile a best practice guide. 
 
For the remainder of the year, national programmes are planned in the participating countries. The 4th and final regional workshop in the present project cycle will be held in Johannesburg from 4 to 7 December, focussing on accessing external funding sources at national level and the writing of project proposals. 
 
(Source: Report Regional Coordinator) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
Gates Foundation Supports the Global Fund &ndash; Advocates Empowerment of Women 
 
Shortly before the International AIDS Conference took place in Toronto in August, the Gates Foundation announced that it would give USD 500 million to the Global Fund over the years 2006-2010, at a rate of USD 100 million per year. This is a significant increase from the USD 150 million that the foundation gave over the four years 2002-2005. 
 
At the opening night of the Toronto Conference, Bill Gates called the Global Fund &ldquo;a fantastic vehicle for scaling up treatment and prevention&rdquo;. He went on to say that 
&ldquo;Right now, one of the most widely practiced approaches to prevention is the ABC Program, or Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms. This approach has saved many lives and we should expand it. But for many at the highest risk of infection, ABC has its limits. Abstinence is not often an option for poor women and girls who have no choice but to marry at an early age. Being faithful will not protect the woman whose partner is not faithful. Using condoms is not a decision that a woman can make by herself. It depends on a man. We need to put the power to prevent HIV in the hands of women. 
 
So we need tools that will allow women to protect themselves. This is true whether the woman is the faithful, married mother of small children or a sex worker trying to scrape out a living in a slum. No matter where she lives, who she is or what she does, a woman should never need her partner&rsquo;s permission to save her own life. To be clear, as we discover and distribute preventative tools that women can use without a man&rsquo;s cooperation, we are not excusing men from their obligations to be responsible and to protect their partners. We&rsquo;re just reducing the consequences to women if they don&rsquo;t.&rdquo; 
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation received some USD 31 billion from Warren Buffet, which brings its total assets to around USD 60 billion. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 63, 19 September &ndash; GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
TAC Day of Action &ndash; Call for Minister of Health to Resign 
 
A Day of Action on 24 August, called for by South Africa&rsquo;s Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), was marked by protests in cities throughout the country, as well as at several South African embassies, calling for the resignation of Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. 
The Global AIDS Alliance stated that &ldquo;For many years an effective response to the HIV/AIDS crisis was hampered by disastrous pseudo-scientific policies. South Africa has the knowledge, the skills and the resources to be in the forefront of the fight against the pandemic.&rdquo; 
 
With a prevalence rate of close to 20 percent, around 5.5 million people are living with HIV/AIDS; more than 800 are dying every day. This is in the first place an avoidable human tragedy. But it is also affecting the investment climate in the country, with foreign companies increasingly being concerned about the impact of HIV/AIDS. 
 
(Source: TAC Press Release, 20 August and Press Release Global AIDS Alliance, 23 August) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
Roche Transfers Know-How for Generic Production 
 
The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has granted a cost-free licence to three African generic producers &ndash; two in Kenya and one in South Africa &ndash; to produce a generic version of its AIDS drug Sequinavir. The drug is used in second-line treatment when resistance to first-line treatment has been developed. 
 
(Source Neue Z&uuml;rcher Zeitung, 23-24 September 2006)
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
Namibia Up-scales ART 
 
The Namibian government expects to treat more than 30,000 HIV-positive people with antiretroviral drugs by the beginning of 2007. This will cover about 58 per cent of those requiring treatment. Under Namibia&rsquo;s treatment programme, which started in 2003, the number of deaths from AIDS-related illnesses has dropped from 3,627 in 2004 to 3,230 in 2005. 90 per cent of the people who have been receiving ARVs since the programme started in 2003 are still alive. 
The procurement of ARVs is mainly financed by PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. According to the WHO, Namibia is among the top countries to provide ARVs. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Website reprinted with permission from the Kaiser Family Foundation and GlobalHealthReporting.org) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
Jamaica: Business Joins the Fight against HIV/AIDS 
 
19 private-sector companies committed to join the fight against HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination at the workplace, during the launch of the Jamaica Business Council on HIV/AIDS. The Council&rsquo;s mission also includes prevention and treatment strategies for the workplace. USAID and pharmaceutical company Merck provided USD 100,000 to set up the Council. No mention is made of the role of unions to fight HIV/AIDS at the workplace. 
 
About 25,000 Jamaicans are living with HIV/AIDS, equivalent to a prevalence rate of 1.5 per cent. 
 
(Source: The Jamaica Observer, 22 September) 
<img height="28" alt="" src="" width="20" />
Global Fund Considers Grant Requests 
 
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced that its Technical Review Panel has recommended 85 requests for funding, worth a total of USD 949 million over the first two years of the grant period. This represent 43 per cent of all eligible proposals received by the Global Fund for the 6th Round, for which the deadline was 3 August. 
At present, only about USD 650 million is available for Round 6 grants. Proposals worth this amount will most likely be approved by the Board Meeting at the end of October, with the remaining USD 300 million worth of proposals being approved after adequate pledges are received in 2006 or 2007. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 64, 10 October &ndash; GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org)

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 13

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont 
General Sondhi Boonyaratglin 
 
Government House 
Pitsunalok Road 
Bangkok 10300 
Thailand&nbsp;
 
Brussels, 5 October 2006 
 
Dear General, 
Dear Prime Minister, 
 
Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, today, the ICEM Presidium, the policy setting body of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, demands the immediate and full restoration of civil rights and democratic freedoms in your country. 
 
The ICEM Presidium members see it as an important priority to lift the current martial law at once. In addition, elections need to be held as soon as possible. 
 
The restoration of fundamental human rights is a necessary and urgently needed first step so that your country can be put back on its route to democracy. As part of this, we call upon you to remove, without delay, the whole range of political restrictions that are currently in place, so that the situation for Thai citizens can be normalised. 
 
The ICEM is scheduled to hold its 4th World Congress in Bangkok next year, from 22 to 24 November 2007. 
 
Thanking you for your consideration. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary. 

Cc: Embassy of Thailand in Brussels

ICEM letter to Thailand interim government

<img height="40" alt="" src="" width="100" />
Trade union representatives from Sappi paper mills in Europe, South Africa, and the US gathered in La Roche, Belgium, 22-23 September, to discuss the South African-based company&rsquo;s European restructuring measures. This restructuring has already led to numerous &ndash; and sometimes massive &ndash; redundancies at several mills. 
 
The seminar, hosted jointly by the Belgian Unions ABVV/FGTB and ACV BI/CSC BI, was attended by representatives from both ICEM and the European Mine, Chemical, and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMCEF). The two-day event primarily focused on Sappi&rsquo;s &ldquo;Project Everest,&rdquo; a restructuring programme announced in February 2006 for the company&rsquo;s European operations. Project Everest is aimed at improving the company&rsquo;s operating income by the end of 2007. 
 
Sappi workers&rsquo; representatives from Austria, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, and the UK, who currently face different stages of the restructuring, shared their experiences, while trade unionists from South Africa and the US added to the discussion by updating the participants on situations inside their mills. 
<img height="285" src="" width="380" alt="" />
Union participants in La Roche produced a joint letter from the Global Union Sappi Network to company Chairman Eugene van As, stating common concern over the company&rsquo;s cost-cutting measures. The letter says that the restructuring is potentially damaging not only to the company&rsquo;s workers, but also to the company itself. 
 
The letter requested clarification of management&rsquo;s development strategy for Sappi. The letter also asked van As to direct his reply to Pasco Dyani of ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union (CEPPWAWU) of South Africa, who serves as Chairman of ICEM&rsquo;s Global Sappi Union Network.

Sappi Trade Unionists Meet to Discuss Company’s European Restructuring

<img height="40" src="" width="100" alt="" />
An eleventh hour agreement was reached late on Saturday, 30 September, just hours before 800 Canadian members of United Steelworkers (USW) were set to strike the Highland Valley copper mine and operations near Kamloops, British Colombia. 
 
USW Local 7619 and the mine&rsquo;s owner, Teck Cominco, reached a tentative five-year labour agreement that will now be voted on by union members over the next week. The USW local issued a 72-hour strike notice on 26 September, and the Vancouver-based global mining house began shutting down operations in anticipation of a strike at the expiration of a prior agreement on 1 October. The tentative agreement came with the help of a provincial mediator. 
<img height="50" src="" width="100" alt="" />
The Highland Valley operation is Canada&rsquo;s largest copper producer and generates 1.2% of the world&rsquo;s copper supply, with roughly 80% headed to Asian manufacturers. 
 
In Eastern Canada, a strike by USW members at Inco&rsquo;s Voisey Bay nickel operations ended 23 September, after 120 workers ratified a new labour contract. The strike started on 28 July 2006. 
 
The accord gives Voisey Bay steelworkers a 15.5% raise over the three-year contract, as well as a retention bonus of C$6,000. It also allows the nickel miners to gain parity with unionised Inco miners in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.

Strike Averted at Canada’s Largest Copper Mine

Archive

Anger at Imerys Expressed at Rally in UK's South West

Agricultural Trade Unionist Slain in Colombia

Repsol Union Representatives from 9 Countries Meet in Argentina

SUTNA Rubber Dispute in Argentina Hardens

Ross International: Labour Problems in Colombia and US

Manfred Warda to Replace Fred Higgs as ICEM GS in 2007

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 13

ICEM letter to Thailand interim government

Sappi Trade Unionists Meet to Discuss Company’s European Restructuring

Strike Averted at Canada’s Largest Copper Mine

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