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The ICEM is alarmed at the number and scope of mining accidents that have occurred during the month of September. The Global Union Federation calls on mining houses to undertake more thorough precautionary measures regarding safety and health inside their enterprises. A look at September&rsquo;s most public tragedies reveals that companies have compromised safety for greater production, spurred by the current high commodity pricing of natural resources. 
 
Mining accidents in September brought death to hundreds of miners in India, Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. The death toll rose also in China&rsquo;s mining sector in September. In Australia, a contractor was killed inside a nickel mine; in New Zealand, ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) mourned the death of a coal miner on the South Island. 
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India 
The catastrophe that struck deep inside a coal mine in India&rsquo;s eastern state of Jharkhand on 6 September is characteristic of countless accidents occurring in the mineral rich Dhanbad area which usually kill small numbers of miners regularly. Only this time, at the Bhatdih mine of state-owned Bharat Coking Coal Ltd., 54 miners died. The tragic accident occurred when methane gas caused a tremendous explosion some 460 metres underground. Miners, associated to ICEM-affiliated Indian National Mineworkers&rsquo; Federation (INMF), had plumbed to that level to extricate coal from a pit known as the 17th Incline. 
 
Over 5,000 miners and family members gathered at the Bhatdih mine site, and were upset by management&rsquo;s failure to check gas levels or other safety hazards at regular intervals. INMF President Rajendra Prasad Singh, arrived at the site immediately, together with other trade union accidents. He demanded for a high-level commission to be established to investigate the causes and identify the persons responsible. 
 
Brother Singh stated that management must be held accountable. He also criticised management&rsquo;s practice of not going underground for testing and safety checks. 
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Ukraine 
In the Ukraine, a series of coal-mining accidents across mid-September claimed 17 miners&rsquo; lives in the eastern Donetsk region. The worst was at the Zasyadko mine, where 13 workers either suffocated or died instantly due to a gas explosion 1,300 metres underground. That tragedy occurred 20 September when 400 miners were deep in Zasyadko&rsquo;s mine shafts. Sixty-one other miners were seriously injured. 
Ukraine's Independent Industrial Trade Union of Miners, an ICEM affiliate, had one of its members killed and another injured in the accident. The union's President Michael Volynets is part of the investigation team. 
 
The Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU) made a decision at its presidium to provide financial assistance to the families of the deceased in the Zasyadko tragedy. FPU has also called on member organisations to do the same. 
 
On the same day, at the Dobropilka coal mine in the same area, three workers died of gas poisoning. They were found 450 metres down, after they had been granted permission to stop work and return to the surface because of high gas levels. On 21 September, a Ukrainian miner was crushed in a rock fall in Kirovska. Gas inhalation caused seriously trauma and injury to three miners inside the Fominske mine also on the same day. 
 
Energy markets are partly to blame for the deadly coal-mining accidents in Ukraine, numbering 133 to date this year. The country suffers from rapidly escalating natural gas prices, and the government has ordered coal production to increase by one-third or 80 million tonnes, by 2007. 
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Russia 
The mine tragedy in Russia&rsquo;s Chita region of Siberia on 7 September was different, but no less tragic. Twenty-five miners died inside a gold mine operated by London-based Highland Gold Mining, owner of several gold mines in Russia&rsquo;s Far East. The cause of the deaths inside the 105-year-old Darasun mine was a fire. Wooden supports are believed to have caught fire during welding. 
 
What marks this negligence was that the company had no evacuation plan in place, a ventilation system was old and decrepit, and the last notation in a safety logbook was dated May 2006, according to BBC. &ldquo;Many foreign companies, in order to increase their value &hellip; economise when it comes to observing industrial safety rules,&rdquo; stated a Russian official from the Natural Resources Inspectorate in another published report. 
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Kazakhstan 
In Kazakhstan, a 20 September methane explosion killing 41 in a colliery owned by Arcelor Mittal Steel turned into a full-fledged labour dispute over the course of last week. The blast occurred at the Lenin mine in the Karaganda region of the central Asian country, as 374 were working inside. The preliminary cause of the blast, determined by the Kazakh Minister of Emergency Situations, was the result of negligence and breach of safety rules. 
 
&ldquo;The cause is a lack of organisation and coordination in the operations of (maintenance),&rdquo; stated Minister Shalbai Kulmakhanov. It has been determined that ventilation pipes were being repaired when the explosion rocked the mine 560 metres underground. 
 
Six days after the disaster, coal miners struck for better working conditions and higher wages to compensate the dangerous work they do. By Friday, 29 September, they were joined by all 24,500 miners of the eight Kazakh collieries owned by Arcelor Mittal, the world&rsquo;s largest steelmaking concern. By week&rsquo;s end, 30 September, many steelworkers and iron ore miners of the India-based company &ndash; some 6,000 in total &ndash; joined the coal miners in a government-sanctioned rally at the headquarters of the company in the city of Termirtau. 
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New Zealand 
In New Zealand on 8 September, 47-year-old Bernard Green, an EPMU member, was crushed to death when a shaft collapsed 800 metres underground near the town of Blackball on the South Island&rsquo;s west coast. He was employed by Roa Mines, a private NZ coal company. 
 
His death prompted the EPMU to reassert a longstanding call for a return of &ldquo;check inspectors&rdquo; in the country&rsquo;s mining industry. Check inspectors are rank-and-file workers who are trained in safety procedures and who go down with miners at each and every shift. 
 
&ldquo;Check inspectors are health and safety people who are elected by the workers,&rdquo; said EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. &ldquo;They make sure the worksite is safe, the guys have the right equipment, and the right procedures are being followed.&rdquo; 
 
Little added, &ldquo;Anything that minimises the danger must be pursued, and check inspectors are a good start. This is a very important issue for our guys, and we&rsquo;re going to make sure their voices are heard at the highest levels.&rdquo; The positions were eliminated with the reform of NZ&rsquo;s Health and Safety in Employment Act. 
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Australia 
In West Australia on 22 September, a contract worker was crushed to death by falling rocks inside a nickel mine owned by Consolidated Minerals Ltd. This occurred at the Kimbalda Beta Hunt mine. The 43-year-old victim, an airleg operator, had been working there for two-and-a-half years.

September’s Global Mine Tragedies Bring Concern to All

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ICEM Argentinean affiliate Sindicato &Uacute;nico de Trabajadores del Neum&aacute;tico Argentino (SUTNA) signed a historic agreement recently with the employers&rsquo; association for the rubber sector in the country. 
 
In a SUTNA publication, General Secretary Pedro Wasiejko expressed his satisfaction as, for the first time in 31 years, the union managed to reach an agreement for the entire sector. In addition to detailed salary benchmarks, the agreement contains language on a large number of positive accomplishments, including the establishment of health and safety committees, anti-discrimination measures, a 25% retirement bonus, and, perhaps most importantly, the elimination of subcontracting in the production process. 
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Specific salary increases were agreed for several different companies, including Pirelli, Bridgestone&rsquo;s Firestone division, and FATE S.A.I.C.I., the Argentine tyre producer. The collective agreement not only states a percentage level for basic and average salary increases at different companies, but also sets minimum salaries for the entire rubber sector. The agreement is binding on any new company that might enter Argentina&rsquo;s rubber sector. 
 
Regrettably, despite achieving the excellent labour agreement, a major problem with a tyre manufacturer occurred almost immediately: F&aacute;brica Neum&aacute;ticos de Avanzada, a company in C&oacute;rdoba, Argentina, making competition tyres, began to dismiss workers for no other reason than that they had become SUTNA members. The conflict, a clear violation of the recently signed agreement, has seen 25 workers at the plant getting the sack thus far. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s Argentinean rubber affiliate cited &ldquo;union discrimination&rdquo; as the reason behind the sackings, because management had been attempting to set up a company union in the plant. SUTNA has staged a strike at the plant, and organised a 200-worker march from the worksite to the provincial Ministry of Work in C&oacute;rdoba. 
 
SUTNA succinctly stated: &ldquo;The conflict in C&oacute;rdoba continues.

SUTNA Signs Argentinean Master Rubber Contract, But Problem Company Persists

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Following mass meetings by members of UK&rsquo;s Transport &amp; General Workers&rsquo; Union (TGWU) and two other unions, Amicus and GMB, on 27 and 28 September, workers at Imerys&rsquo; English China Clay operations in South West England have given union leaders a mandate to ballot membership for industrial action in the coming months. 
The reasons cited include an extremely tight-fisted redundancy package, and the refusal by the Paris-based company to seriously address job retention and job creation opportunities in the face of Imerys&rsquo; July announcement to cut some 40% of 2,000 jobs in the UK. 
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TGWU and the company have held several statutory consultation meetings since the July announcement, during which the company&rsquo;s intransigence in producing a fair redundancy package became clear. Another consultation session is scheduled for today, 2 October. The 90-day consultation period ends on 5 October. Amicus and GMB, which represent smaller numbers of Imerys workers, have also been part of the discussions. 
At a session in mid-September, the company presented what it called its final offer. The offer of ₤13,500 for the average worker (age 46) barely exceeds the statutory requirement, which is considered exceedingly low by most standards. Imerys also insists on capping the redundancy package at 20 years of service. Many workers in the South West have upwards of 40 years of service. 
 
&ldquo;Imerys has failed to negotiate meaningfully with the unions on redundancies,&rdquo; said TGWU National Secretary Jennie Formby. &ldquo;It also has been extremely callous in its regard for the livelihoods of workers, as well as to the communities of the South West as a whole.&rdquo; 
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The ICEM is actively engaged in building a global trade union network of Imerys workers in preparation for possible industrial action. A meeting in Brussels on 25 September with union leaders from the UK and the F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Force Ouvri&egrave;re (FO) Mat&eacute;riaux, C&eacute;ramique, and Thermique, the major union in France inside Imerys, produced genuine vows of solidarity.

Imerys’ Attitude Could Bring Industrial Balloting in UK’s Cornwall Region

Sappi: pulp &amp; paper/p&acirc;te et de papier/pulp y papel 
Urgent Alert, Sappi/South Africa: Voice Opposition, Support CEPPWAWU 
 
ICEM is calling for immediate action to a union-smashing affront by Sappi at its Enstra mill in Springs, South Africa. Sappi suspended 19 shop stewards and 23 other workers due to their union affiliation with Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU), a longtime ICEM affiliate. 
Starting on 6 May, SAPPI systematically and maliciously began taking disciplinary actions against CEPPWAWU leaders inside the 650-worker Enstra sulfate pulp and printing papers mill. The allegations: inciting workers (90% of whom are CEPPWAWU members), harassment, and use of company property for union purposes. At a 28 May meeting, SAPPI said it would start disciplinary hearings on them, hearings that will be one-sided and unfair. The ICEM urges that messages get sent and that this posting gets wide attention: union bashing will not be tolerated in South Africa! 
 
ICEM finds it reprehensible that SAPPI refuses meeting participation by CEPPWAWU&rsquo;s National Coordinator for Sappi branches, and called it &ldquo;a blight on Sappi everywhere,&rdquo; in a letter to SAPPI house in South Africa. The ICEM calls it a blatant violation of basic trade union rights and this union-bashing merits immediate condemnation. Respond! 
 
Take the message below, and send to Enstra manager Dave Glazebrook at <a href="mailto:dave.glazebrook@sappi.com">dave.glazebrook@sappi.com</a> and <a href="mailto:Wikus.van.Zyl@sappi.com">Wikus.van.Zyl@sappi.com</a>, <a href="mailto:Jan.labuschagne@sappi.com">Jan.labuschagne@sappi.com</a>, and then pass it to others to do the same: 
 
Sappi: Hands Off Union at Enstra. 
 
NO!!! &hellip; Union Bashing in South Africa! 
No &hellip; no suspending Union Rights in South Africa! This is malicious, anti-democratic, and anti-people &hellip; there is no room for it in economic recovery. Sappi cannot afford disrepute now or ever in its paper businesses. Reinstate the workers&rsquo; representatives and others at Enstra Now. These trade union members have been incriminated because they represent Sappi&rsquo;s biggest trade union in South Africa. It is deplorable labour-relations and employment conduct &hellip; and a cancer inside South Africa. Trade union rights at Enstra &ndash; anywhere at Sappi &hellip; Europe, North America, or in South Africa &ndash; are guaranteed and will never be denied! 
 
 
Please send solidarity messages to CEPPWAWU: <a href="mailto:secretariat@ceppwawu.org.za">secretariat@ceppwawu.org.za</a>

SAPPI: Act Now!!

Sappi: pulp &amp; paper/pâte et de papier/pulp y papel

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Seven sit-ins at rural offices of three MPs and four Ministers &ndash; including Canada&rsquo;s Finance, Treasury, and Inter-Governmental Affairs Ministries &ndash; got Stephen Harper&rsquo;s attention and the question now is will his government listen. Tomorrow, Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union will stage another manifestation on the crisis facing the forest sector, this time a protest and march that will lead to direct face-to-face talks with the Harper team in Ottawa. 
The sit-ins were carried out early last week in an escalating strategy by the CEP to spotlight the mass job and social loss that has overtaken forest-based communities across Canada. CEP is adamant that it is Harper&rsquo;s responsibility to find the answers. And CEP is ready to work with government to ensure the correct measures are found. 
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March and Rally 
Tuesday, June 2
The sit-ins follow mid-May strategy meetings and a protest at AbitibiBowater&rsquo;s headquarters in Montr&eacute;al. That protest was directed more at the Harper government than at the bankrupt newsprint company. Last week&rsquo;s sit-ins at the rural offices of key lawmakers mean this issue will stay focused on rural Canada&rsquo;s very survival and way-of-life. 
Tomorrow, 2 June, at 11h30 in Ottawa, the CEP will rally first at the offices of Natural Resources Minister Lisa Riatt and then march to Prime Minister Stephen Harper&rsquo;s building. They then will meet with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, whose Ontario offices in Whitby-Oshawa were the only CEP-occupied offices not in a rural area. 
Six of the seven sit-ins across four of Canada&rsquo;s provinces produced immediate results. Three sit-ins occurred in rural government offices in Qu&eacute;bec, two in British Colombia, and one each in New Brunswick and Ontario. In British Colombia, an MP, Jay Hill, a lead Tory whip in Ottawa from Prince George/Peace River riding, was the only legislator refusing CEP&rsquo;s invitation to discuss the crisis. At the other occupation in British Colombia, inside the offices of John Duncan, Vancouver Island North riding, the CEP spokesman for the occupying team, promised, &ldquo;We plan to keep on making noise and do whatever we have to do&rdquo; to move this government to action. 
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The CEP is demanding financial support for the industry at the federal level. The union is also demanding iron-clad protections on pensions, something that will not be compromised. And CEP will insist tomorrow that the Harper government must enact industry tax relief for companies&rsquo; converting black-liquor from the wood-pulp process to energy. That set of tax breaks exists for pulp and paper firms in the US and the CEP insists on a level playing field. 
The CEP is also demanding a national summit on the forestry crisis in which key stakeholders will decide on strict guidelines aimed at employment stabilisation and forest regeneration measures. The sit-ins made one targeted politician jump on that idea quickly. In Qu&eacute;bec, the Minister for Inter-Governmental Affairs, said she will convene such a summit. 
ICEM affiliate CEP calculates that 55,000 jobs in the forestry sector have been lost over the past two years alone. Far more were lost in earlier years. The impact of these good-paying jobs on others in rural communities &ndash; when those jobs disappear &ndash; is immense and the ripple effects must be multiplied to get the real economic picture.

Canadian Ministry Sit-ins Awaken Stephen Harper to Jobs Crisis

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Australian trade unions have won a first round by stomping on a Rudd government plan to raise the pension age to 67 by the year 2023. This story serves as a global reminder that Australian trade unions will not let down their guard and will prevent a labour government from rolling back into the Howard era. 
 
The plan came inside a Treasury budget proposal to gradually increase the pension age beginning in 2017. Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU), and other unions, including the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), posted immediate challenges and Kevin Rudd backed down. 

<img height="93" alt="" src="" width="90" />
But the plan will likely re-surface in coming years, and trade unions now are well placed for full engagement. CFMEU, AMWU, and others correctly label the measure, &ldquo;a path to the false economy&rdquo; and point out that the proposed retirement system unfairly affects low-paid, blue-collar workers, particularly those doing physical labour in construction and industrial sectors. The government&rsquo;s plan disregards future health-care disabilities and the needed funds to maintain an effective and inclusive medical social net. 

<img height="132" alt="" src="" width="100" />
ACTU President Sharon Burrow
ACTU President Sharon Burrow aptly stated that workers&rsquo; bodies are &ldquo;broken way before&rdquo; they reach age 67. Research polling showed that 72% of Australians think the Rudd government plan is unfair to labourers, while 61% think it is unfair to trades and crafts workers. 
 
Separately and a fairer proposal,&nbsp;in a joint letter to Rudd by CFMEU National Secretary John Sutton and AMWU National Secretary Dave Oliver, they&nbsp;said&nbsp;roll-backs of&nbsp;tax concessions on superannuation accounts should be a priority&nbsp;in order to raise revenue. By raising the eligibility threshold at which tax relief is granted on superannuations, the unions maintain, Australia creates equality and fairness for all. 
 
The ICEM commends the CFMEU and AMWU, and all Australian unions, for leading a rapid vanguard over this issue and supports future efforts of trade unions to block similar regressive and anti-people policies.

Australian Unions Push Back Over Pension Age Issue

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Labour unrest by French, Spanish, Italian, and other workers at French MNC Saint-Gobain continued last week, with the heaviest coming in France. This follows a European-wide manifestation at Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s head office in Paris on 20 May, which occurred during Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s social dialogue meetings. 
 
European trade unions at Saint-Gobain, a glass and building materials manufacturer, are protesting further restructuring, which to them means job loss and social dumping. The resulting industrial actions inside Saint-Gobain factories attest to collective rejection of both. 
 
Strikes inside a factory in the Charente region of France have crimped production and interrupted orders. Workers feel cheated because &ldquo;efficiency bonuses&rdquo; have not been paid as promised, at a time when Saint-Gobain is coming for another round of restructuring. Protests have spread to Vauxrot and Ch&acirc;lon-sur-Sa&ocirc;ne in France in a show of visible frustration and worker rebellion. 

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In Spain, at Sekurit worksites in Avil&eacute;s and Arb&oacute;s, local managers are skittish following a furnace accident and blame the French corporate group for mandating further the social cuts that nobody wants. Spanish unions point to management ineptitude on the part of both local and Paris levels, and worry that research and development in Avil&eacute;s might be in jeopardy. 
 
In Italy, unions in all three federations &ndash; FILCEM-CGIL, FEMCA-CISL, and ILCEM-UIL &ndash; jointly manifested at Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s regional office in Milan, while jointly conducting timely four-hour work stoppages at Italian plants. They reject the company&rsquo;s decision to close a Sekurit plant in Savigliano, northern Italy, cut in half the number of staff at another Cuneo region plant, this time in Cervas, a glass-to-appliance factory, and workers at the Flovetro plant in Chieti, central Italy, have serious concerns over continued production. 
 
Nationally in France, similar to union convergence in Italy, the CFDT, CGT, and FO have teamed to pressure the Saint-Gobain Works Council to look first at workers&rsquo; interests. That happened again last week, on 26 May, and the bond between French unions has gotten stronger, providing the needed pressure point on both Saint-Gobain and the WC. 
 
In Liverdun, along the French Moselle, the mayor of that city recently stricken by Saint-Gobain&rsquo;s factory cuts said it strikes fear in him each time he thinks of the difficulties that the discarded workers of Saint-Gobain now must face.

European Labour Unrest Spreads to Saint-Gobain, Glass Sector

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The first collective agreement between nickel miners and smelting workers of the United Steelworkers (USW) in Ontario, Canada, and Companhia Vale do Rio Dice (Vale) of Brazil expired over the weekend, but the two sides have extended the current three-year agreement until 12 July in order to give more time to resolve issues. 
 
The USW represents some 4,500 workers at Sudbury, Ontario, site of one of the world&rsquo;s largest nickel processing operations, and another 180 at Vale&rsquo;s Port Colborne, Ontario, facility. Both USW branches are bargaining jointly on a common labour agreement. It is the first time that the USW and Vale have negotiated in Ontario&rsquo;s copper and nickel belt since the world&rsquo;s biggest iron ore miner bought Inco late in 2006. 

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At that time, USW held talks with Brazilian managers and laid forward a set of social principles that the union expects the company to follow in Canada. USW also crafted a Solidarity Statement called the &ldquo;Sudbury Accord&rdquo; in 2006 between Canadian, Brazilian, and other trade unions, calling for global bargaining power at all Vale worksites. 
 
Speaking on the extension, a company spokesman told the Sudbury Star newspaper that it shows a &ldquo;continued willingness for the two parties to keep working together to achieve an outcome, a successful outcome.&rdquo; The USW is holding membership meetings today and tomorrow, 1-2 June, to inform members on the outstanding issues, and to get direct feedback. 
 
Sudbury area and Port Colborne USW members did vote overwhelmingly for a strike mandate on 21 May. The USW had another collective agreement which was earlier extended with Vale at Voisey Bay, Newfoundland. That contract expired 1 May 2009. 
 
These are the not the first set of collective negotiations in Canada between the USW and Vale. Last September, 1,300 miners in Thompson, Manitoba, ratified a three-year contract with the Brazilian mining company.

USW’s Canadian Miners Extend Labour Agreement with Vale

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Thousands of workers took to the streets of Islamabad, Pakistan, last week, on 26 May, calling for improvements to the National Pay Scale in the next federal budget, as well as demanding that the Pakistani government shelve plans to privatize national utilities. The march last Tuesday arrived at the National Parliament where the assembled workers presented a detailed memorandum, containing their demands, addressed to the Speaker of the Parliament. 
 
Public owned industries that are at risk of being privatized include electricity, rail, postal, oil and gas, and the national steel mills. 
 
The proud ICEM affiliate, the Pakistan WAPDA Labour Union (PWLU), took a leading role in organizing the rally. Also central to the demands of the assembled workers is the issue of Contract and Agency Labour. A strong call has been issued that enterprises must treat these workers on an equal basis with regular employees. Outdated labour laws, including the Industrial Relations Act, are clearly in need of reform, according to unions. 
 
An encouraging sign of government response was the successful meeting of the Federal Minister for Water and Power, Pervez Asraf, with WAPDA on 23 May. The Minister discussed strategies to combat the national energy shortage and pledged to bring a halt to this shortage by the end of 2009. The Minister also discussed new projects scheduled, including a new power plant in Lahore, an energy deal with Turkey, and continued work on hydro projects in Neelum-Jahlum and Bhasha Dam. 
 
The meeting between the ICEM affiliate and the Energy Minister also achieved a regularization of daily wage employees of WAPDA Water and Power, and a grant of 45 percent of housing rent for WAPDA employees, as well as the building of a 50 bed hospital for Wapda employees in Larkana.

Pakistan’s Trade Union WAPDA Demonstrates for Improved Wages and Conditions

Archive

September’s Global Mine Tragedies Bring Concern to All

SUTNA Signs Argentinean Master Rubber Contract, But Problem Company Persists

Imerys’ Attitude Could Bring Industrial Balloting in UK’s Cornwall Region

SAPPI: Act Now!!

Sappi: pulp & paper/pâte et de papier/pulp y papel

Canadian Ministry Sit-ins Awaken Stephen Harper to Jobs Crisis

Australian Unions Push Back Over Pension Age Issue

European Labour Unrest Spreads to Saint-Gobain, Glass Sector

USW’s Canadian Miners Extend Labour Agreement with Vale

Pakistan’s Trade Union WAPDA Demonstrates for Improved Wages and Conditions

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