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Whether or not the South African National Assembly passes legislation to ban labour brokers is a question likely to be answered early in 2010. But there is little doubt that the matter has fast become the hot-button employment issue in the country, judging from the current intensity of the debate. 
 
Following two days of raucous public hearings in Cape Town by the Assembly&rsquo;s Portfolio Committee on Labour in late August that firmly pitted political parties against one another, the debate whether to pass a ban or to impose tighter regulations on labour broking moved to four provinces in early October where parliamentary regional hearings were held. 

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And in between, the Congress of South African Unions (COSATU) weighed in strongly in favour of a ban at its Tenth National Congress and immediately launched a national campaign to ban the 25-billion-rand business in coordination with global labour&rsquo;s World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) on 7 October. 
 
In COSATU&rsquo;s congress declaration, the federation states, &ldquo;&hellip; as part of the struggle for decent employment, we call for the elimination of the practice of labour broking.&rdquo; At a press conference following the 21-24 September congress, General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said labour brokers often take up to 20% of a worker&rsquo;s wages in fees. 
 
Three weeks earlier, at the Assembly&rsquo;s Portfolio Committee hearings, Vavi called the system a &ldquo;social ill,&rdquo; likening it to &ldquo;HIV and AIDS or crime and corruption. It&rsquo;s an arrangement made to take advantage of the weak and most vulnerable in a society.&rdquo; 

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One of COSATU&rsquo;s WDDW activities occurred on 6 October where 400 members of the affiliated Communication Workers&rsquo; Union (CWU) rallied in front of a postal centre in Ormonde. There, some 80% of the total workers are supplied by labour brokers. A CWU representative said eight labour brokers are used and what&rsquo;s worse, he added, is that some of the postal managers are part-owners of the labour-broking agencies. 
 
One such worker abused by the system and involved in the protest said he earns a monthly salary one-quarter of that of a permanent employee in the postal centre, while another said working in precarious employment is no better than being unemployed. &ldquo;They use us like condoms. One mistake, you are out and they get another one in your place anyway.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM affiliate, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), called on parliamentarians of the African National Congress (ANC) to use its majority to pass a law banning labour brokers. NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim said under the latter-day apartheid employment system, the focus of employers is on labour agencies, not workers. &ldquo;In a society with high levels of inequalities, it is a crisis to allow this system to flourish,&rdquo; he said. 

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The political lines have been drawn in the debate. While most ANC legislators favour a ban, the business-friendly Democratic Alliance (DA) is on the defensive and merely calling for regulating labour broking. The fledging Congress of the People (COPE), with little political power following spin-off from the ANC, has been relatively silent on the issue, but is believed to favour tighter regulation rather than an outright ban. 
 
The business lobby says 500,000 people in South African are employed through labour brokers, but it is believed the real number could be triple that. The lobby does admit that of 6,000 labour brokers in the country, only 3,000 of them are properly registered. 
 
In neighbouring Namibia, labour brokers were banned in 2008. But the industry and business lobby has now challenged that law on constitutional grounds, something South African business interests would likely do as well if a ban is passed. 
 
On 27 August, the Building and Wood Workers&rsquo; International (BWI), together with its South African affiliate, the Building and Construction Allied Workers&rsquo; Union, held a forum in Johannesburg entitled &ldquo;Multi-Sectoral Conference on Decent Work Towards and Beyond 2010,&rdquo; aimed primarily at work issues in preparation for South Africa hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 

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National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Construction Coordinator Isaac Ntshangase pointed out that 32% of the country&rsquo;s building and construction industry is carried out using informal workers. The conference passed a resolution calling for a ban on labour brokers and condemned the sub-standard wages and work conditions common in subcontracting arrangements. 
 
Whether or not section 198 of South Africa&rsquo;s Labour Relations Act of 1995 gets amended to ban labour brokers totally, or if a compromise is struck placing tighter regulations on the practice, is an open question right now. But there is little question that some form of legislative action will result, which will be good news to the global union forces that are now marshalling efforts to rollback non-sustaining work through labour-hire agencies and indirect employment.

Issue to Ban ‘Labour Brokers’ in South Africa Coming to a Head

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The day following the ICEM&rsquo;s 9 October Presidium meeting in Hannover, Germany, ICEM Vice Presidents and several others, including representatives from host German union IGBCE, piled on a bus for a four-hour trip to the North Sea port of Brunsb&uuml;ttel. 
 
Their mission: to meet the Hong Kong-flagged MV Fedagawa, a vessel laden with 35,000 tonnes of copper concentrates that originated in Voiseys Bay, province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada, where union members of the United Steelworkers (USW) have been on strike against Vale-Inco since 1 August. 

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The purpose of the trip was to alert the ship&rsquo;s captain and crew of the Canadian strike, who hopefully in turn would relay that message to Vale and the end-users of the copper. The mission proved successful, in large part, because of the intervention of the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) and its Hamburg and area ports Inspector Ulf Christiansen. 
The mission was planned meticulously by the IGBCE&rsquo;s International Department, together with the USW and the supporting Global Union Federations. At about 19h00 on 10 October, a team of six representatives from the international trade union contingent entered the locked-down Brunsb&uuml;ttel port authority and met with the ship&rsquo;s captain and a representative of the ship&rsquo;s owner. 

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Senzeni Zokwan&nbsp;and Manfred Warda
That delegation consisted of ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana, General Secretary Manfred Warda, USW Canadian National Director and ICEM Vice President Ken Neumann, USW Local 9508 striker Curtis Saunders from Voiseys Bay, USW Local 6500 striker Aaron Beaudry from Sudbury, Ontario, and IGBCE International Department Officer Michael Wolters. 
Neumann reported that both the captain and the ship owner&rsquo;s representative were supportive and promised to raise the issue directly with Vale-Inco and with the metal companies that were purchasing the Brazilian company&rsquo;s resources. Following the visit, the USW rank-and-file strikers left for R&ocirc;nnsk&auml;r, Sweden, where the MV Fedagawa was delivering part of the copper cargo to a nearby Boliden smelter. The copper concentrates had been stockpiled in eastern Canada since before the strike. 

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Federal Nakagawa's captain and the ship owner&rsquo;s representative
The 9 October ICEM Presidium meeting opened with a review of the three-month Vale-Inco strike at three Canadian locations, and a unanimous resolution by the body to give support to striking USW members in every way possible. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had labour disputes with Inco before,&rdquo; Neumann told the Presidium, &ldquo;but since Vale bought out Inco in 2006, this is the first time they have tried to use scabs to begin production. This struggle will not be won by just walking picket lines, but with linking arms with global trade unions everywhere.&rdquo; 
 
The strike by 3,500 miners and metalworkers began on 13 July in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, following Vale-Inco&rsquo;s demand for steep pension concessions, relaxed language on the company&rsquo;s right to contract out bargaining unit work, an elimination of a production bonus. The strike spread to Voiseys Bay after 500 of the miners, working under a separate labour agreement, faced the same rash concessions. 

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Ulf Christiansen
&ldquo;We owe tremendous gratitude to the ITF and especially Ulf Christiansen for arranging this intervention,&rdquo; said the ICEM&rsquo;s Warda. &ldquo;This is just more evidence that the ICEM, together with its trade union partners, will broaden the strike to ensure that Vale knows, and its customers know, that mineral resources from Vale-Inco in Canada will be challenged in the global marketplace.&rdquo;

ICEM, ITF, IGBCE in German Port Protest Against Vale-Inco Mine Shipment

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From start to finish of IGBCE&rsquo;s Congress in Hannover last week, the focus was on youth. From leaders now taking leave who, for over a decade, have honed union policies with a keen eye to jobsite apprenticeships and training, to election on 13 October of the youngest president now inside the DGB national labour centre, IGBCE&rsquo;s Fourth Statutory Congress declared that a German future &ndash; despite recent elections &ndash; will continue to have human needs prioritised above an unbridled market economy. 
 
Convening under the banner &ldquo;Think Ahead, Act Responsibly,&rdquo; the Congress deftly paid homage to 14 years of a modern, amalgamated trade union that has been at the vanguard of German social thinking, while simultaneously posing a blunt challenge to a new centre-right governing coalition that a longstanding social compact will stay in place. 

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Newly-elected President Michael Vassiliadis, centre
With outgoing President Hubertus Schmoldt saying that Germany&rsquo;s social model has withstood the financial crisis better than any profit-only market economy, newly-elected President Michael Vassiliadis defined the modern industrial society as one in which the twin pillars of co-determination by works councils and flexible, innovative collective bargaining will continue to provide workers with life-long security, and give the German youth new career opportunities. 
 
Schmoldt, who has headed the 690,000-member IGBCE since 1997, was heralded by Social Democratic (SPD) Chairman Franz M&uuml;ntefering as &ldquo;a man who does not just push the task of work toward the politicians, but someone who gets in there and does the work himself.&rdquo; Schmoldt himself called IGBCE a trade union of stability built on public identity and internal solidarity that has preserved and succeeded against years of neo-liberalism. 
 
Vassiliadis, 45, said the biggest challenge in Germany is to shore up an education structure. &ldquo;Our education system is in contradiction to social justice. We cannot let the wallet or your country of origin determine your educational opportunities,&rdquo; he said. He also called it an opportunity for the future that half of all new IGBCE members are young workers, and that in 2010 many shop stewards will be retiring. Already, he added, some 5,500 apprentices have been elected shop stewards, accounting for 4% of the total. 

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ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda
A second-generation Greek immigrant who began his union work in IGBCE in 1986, Vassiliadis has been on the union&rsquo;s six-member Governing Board since 2004, covering areas of works councils, shop steward development, trade union education, and youth activities. Originally from a Bayer plant near his home in Essen, he sits now on the supervisory boards of chemical companies BASF and Henkel, as well as serving as deputy chairman of the potash producer Kali and Salz and Evonik Steag. 
 
With this Congress reducing the Governing Board from six to five, those re-elected include Vice President Ulrich Freese, and General Board members Edeltraud Gl&auml;nzer and Egbert Biermann. Like Schmoldt, another Governing Board member who is retiring is Werner Bischoff. Peter Hausmann has been elected in his seat. 

<img alt="" src="" width="307" height="201" />
Outgoing President Hubertus Schmoldt with ICEM's Warda, &Ouml;zkan, Zokwana
Responsible for collective bargaining and several other IGBCE functions, Bischoff has been the architect of the union&rsquo;s unique approach to bargaining, one that has delivered results such as life-long work security, shortened work time for senior workers in coordination with creating youth opportunities, and training and apprenticeship slots in scores of companies, thus guaranteeing young workers a secure future in an industrial Germany. This success is most distinct in the country&rsquo;s chemicals sector. 
 
Schmoldt said two out of every three trainees over the past few years have joined the IGBCE, which, he added, is a testament to Bischoff and the union&rsquo;s viable, functioning collective bargaining system. 
 
The IGBCE Congress from 11-16 October covered several resolutions dealing with the financial crisis, and chartered a recruitment course, based on demographic targeting, to provide services and assistance to workers on the edges of the economy, including migrant workers.

‘Generational Change’ Comes to IGBCE; Social Path of Past Will Shape Germany’s Future

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A steep three-month wage, bonus, and vacation scheme cut to 35,000 miners and metalworkers in Kazakhstan was lifted, effective 1 October. JSC ArcelorMittal Temirtau, owner of a network of coal mines and a massive steel mill in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, negotiated the cuts with Steel and Coal Divisions Trade Unions within the company last spring in hard bargaining. 
 
ArcelorMittal Temirtau cited the global economic crisis for proposing the cuts, saying the Kazakhstan unit had taken a US$100 million operating loss in first quarter 2009. 

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After a series of difficult negotiations through a bi-lateral Conciliation Commission, representatives of the unions and management agreed on a compromise that saw coal mining wages cut by 14% and metal-working remuneration cut by 9%. In addition, vacation schedules contained in collective agreements were reduced and production bonus schemes halted. The company had initially sought 30% salary cuts 
 
Extension of the so-called &ldquo;anti-crisis agreement&rdquo; beyond 30 September remained an option, but on that day management said it would not extend it and the prior wage base and benefit levels would be restored, according to the chair of a miners&rsquo; trade union at a processing plant. 
 
In 2008, ArcelorMittal Temirtau announced it would construct a new four-million-tonne steel mill in the region, but in August plans for that new steel mill were shelved. 
 
ArcelorMittal is the world&rsquo;s largest steelmaker, with some 67 steel mills in 27 countries. About 8% of its steel-making capacity comes from its Temirtau operations. It operates eight coal mines in the Karaganda region, employing about 24,000 miners.

Wages Restored to Miners, Metalworkers at ArcelorMittal Temirtau in Kazakhstan

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The Third General Assembly of the South-East European Regional Energy Trade Unions Network took 
place in Belgrade, Serbia, on 19 September 19, under the chairmanship of Milan Kovacevic of EPS Trade Union, the host union. 
 
The gathering brought together delegations from both electric power and oil and gas trade unions from throughout the former Yugoslavia. Also present were the unions from Greece, Albania, Turkey, Cyprus, and Romania. 
 
Jim Catterson represented ICEM and EMCEF, with Public Services International (PSI) and the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) being represented by Josef Krejbych, PSI&rsquo;s Secretary for Central Europe. 

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The meeting gained considerable press attention with the opening covered by Serbian TV. 
 
Held under a banner proclaiming that &ldquo;Energy is a Public Good in All Countries of the World,&rdquo; the conference focused on building a countervailing force to the neo-liberal politics that had created an &ldquo;economy of chaos&rdquo; in the region. Delegates all gave a report on their situation and developments in the energy sectors of their respective countries. 
 
Many interventions called for closer cooperation between their international and European organisations, with the unions being a mixture of affiliates to ICEM and PSI, together with a number of unions unaffiliated internationally. The network is formally independent of the international union structures although ICEM traditionally has always participated, when invited, to the South-East European Energy Trade Union Network. 

<img alt="" src="" width="170" height="101" />
Delegates agreed to a number of statutory changes and increased the size of the Executive Committee to include the Presidents of each member union. A discussion also focused on expanding membership, with hopes expressed that the grouping would be able to bring in presently uninvolved unions from all the Vizegrad countries, as well as more unions from Bosnia, Cyprus, and Greece 
 
The conference closed with the unanimous endorsement of a series of resolutions, including a political declaration from the network, a strategy document towards the Social Forum and Energy Community&rsquo;s Ministerial Council for South East Europe, and a warning to the Serbian Government against privatization. 
 
An appeal was made to all South-East European trade unions to join the network and a further appeal was made to the international and European organisations to increase joint work and create unity. The network finally decided to hold its next General Assembly in Romania.

South-East Europe’s Energy Unions Meet in Serbia in September

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The ICEM has strengthened its connections with mining unions in Albania after attending the 5th National Congress of the Union of Independent Trade Unions of Albania (BSPSH). Two ICEM affiliates, the Independent Trade Union of Mines and the Trade Union Federation of Chemical and Metal Workers are key members of the BSPSH. 
 
The BSPSH and the Confederation of Trade Unions of Albania (KSSH), a second trade union confederation, have been under attack by the government of Albania after they were forcibly and illegally removed from their offices and had computers and records destroyed or confiscated. The ICEM pledged to support efforts to have the property of the trade unions returned. 

<img src="" width="244" height="189" alt="" />
BSPSH Congress
Joe Drexler, ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs, represented the ICEM at the Congress and saluted the work of the BSPSH in developing democratic trade unions. He particularly noted the historical contributions of miners and their president, Kezim Kalaja, who in 1991 led a general strike that ushered in an era of political change and democracy that allowed trade unions to develop. Kalaja also became president of the BSPSH and was re-elected at the 5th Congress by acclamation in recognition of his decades of leadership. 
 
Also attending the Congress were national federations from Italy, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Serbia, and Poland. 

<img src="" width="226" height="222" alt="" />
Joe Drexler &amp; Kezim Kalaja, centre
Drexler visited an underground copper mine and enrichment plant, owned and operated by a Turkish-based company, in the Northeast of the Albania. President Kalaja and Gjon Zeka, the trade union&rsquo;s regional secretary, joined the tour. 
 
Albania is only one of only 23 countries which have ratified International Labor Organization Convention 176 on Health and Safety in Mines.

ICEM Strengthens Connection with Trade Unions in Albania

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The Solidarity Support Organisation of the Central Labour Organisation of Finland (SASK) is an important partner of many Global Union Federations (GUFs) in joint work in Africa, Latin America and the Asia Pacific Regions. But until now, it has not undertaken support work with a GUF in the Middle East. 
 
This may be about to change. In a first such effort, SASK organised a three-day set of workshops in Amman, Jordan. The sessions ran from 29 September to 1 October, and were aimed at sharing information and experiences with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the GUFs. 
 
The ICEM&rsquo;s Jim Catterson represented the Geneva-based GUF during the discussions, which brought together representatives from SASK, the ITUC, and six GUFs. SASK has seen the main reason for its absence in the region as a lack of good project proposals being tabled before them. 

<img alt="" src="" width="362" height="194" />
Conference participants, outside the office of the General Union of Textile and Garment Workers in Jordan. 
After a brief formal opening session, ITUC representatives gave an up-to-date report on the trade union movement throughout the Arab World. This was followed by an overview from SASK on its global activities, methods of work and priorities regarding both work and information sharing with other Solidarity Support Organisations and the global union movement. 
 
Each GUF was then given time to describe its own activities in the region, developments in respective sectors, and GUF priorities for future work in the region. Here, Catterson emphasized that ICEM is still in a building stage in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) Region, and a major overall priority is to integrate the union work. As well, a main priority is to integrate MENA affiliates into the global work and activities of the ICEM. 
 
Clearly, privatisation of industrial enterprises, as well as gaining greater access to MNC investment has led to new challenges for the trade unions throughout the region, Catterson said. Unions also need assistance to organise workers in the new enterprises. Trade unions delegates attending from the region expressed their wish to have more information, as well as advice on how to benefit from the range of &quot;international instruments,&quot; including ILO Conventions, OECD Guidelines, the Global Compact, and Global Framework Agreements. 

<img alt="" src="" width="369" height="146" />
Delegates receive a briefing in the local ITLGWU-affiliated union office inside a QIZ 
Catterson described in detail the joint work the ICEM is doing with the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) in bringing together oil and gas workers&rsquo; unions with port and transport unions that are involved in energy transportation in Iraq. 
 
Further sessions included a detailed focus on the issue of Migrant Labour in the region and in Jordan in particular, which saw extensive presentations from International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) and the ILO Better Work programme. This latter project focuses on the garment industry and after an initial program in Cambodia, has expanded to a number of other countries including Jordan. 
 
Jordan has a significant garment manufacturing industry with production geared on exports almost totally to the US. The industry is principally located in special export processing zones known as Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs). Here, working and living conditions are truly appalling, with the overwhelmingly the number of workers foreign migrant workers. The ITGLWF Jordanian affiliate described the difficulties they face in organising workers in such conditions. Often, such workers distrust trade unions from experiences in their own countries and few speak Arabic. As well, access to either workplaces or living accommodations is tightly controlled by employers who often prevented union organisers from gaining access. However, ITGLWF had, in many instances, overcome such obstacles and continue to organise migrant workers in the industry. 
<img alt="" src="" width="100" height="100" /><img alt="" src="" width="100" height="95" /><img alt="" src="" width="95" height="95" />
Participants were able to see an example of these successes with a visit to a factory making jeans for the US market. The factory was in one such QIZ in an area north of Amman. The union has an office, staffed by multi-lingual organisers, with the office displaying the flags of nations in which migrant workers hail from. The organizers speak such diverse languages as Chinese, Urdu, Tamal, and Arabic. 
 
Workshop participants received an initial briefing by union officials and organizers in the union office, as well as a tour of a small but well-equipped medical clinic that serves workers and their families. The clinic provides free medical treatment, dental care, and diagnostics. 
 
It was established with support of the Asia and Pacific Regional Organisation (TWARO) of ITGLWF, along with the GUF&rsquo;s Japanese affiliates. It stands as a facility that any union would be proud to have. 
 
Management at one of the textile factories, employing around 1,500 workers, mainly from the Indian sub-continent, then joined the discussions for a question and answer session. Most of the workforce was organised by the union and a reasonable relationship had been built between union and management. 
 
ICEM will be in discussions with SASK in the future with a view toward developing joint programmes and providing solidarity and assistance to affiliated unions throughout the MENA Region.

ICEM Joins SASK of Finland, Others in Union-Building Workshops in Middle East

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A strike in South Africa&rsquo;s gold fields intensified last week as 4,000 miners and their family members, backed by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), marched on 29 September to DRDGold Ltd&rsquo;s offices in Carletonville. The strike at two company mines, Blyvoor and Consolidated Crown Gold Recoveries, started on 16 and 17 September. 
 
At the same time that last week&rsquo;s manifestation was occurring, the NUM filed a petition with the Department of Minerals to revoke the mining license of DRDGold. The union labels the company with a socially irresponsible record in South Africa, one marked by the closing of mines and payment of paltry salaries. 

<img src="" width="160" height="96" alt="" />
That anti-social attitude was evidenced at the outset of the strike. DRDGold sought a labour court order declaring the strike illegal, and when the agency did not rule on behalf of the company, DRDGold issued an ultimatum that job cuts would occur if the strike was not called off. 
 
The NUM is seeking a living wage increase of 13% in high-inflation South Africa, while the company is offering a sub-inflation raise of only 7% for lower classified workers and 6.5% for higher category workers. Gold has been one commodity that has retained and exceeded its pricing expectations during the economic crisis, having risen over the past year from US$750 per once to US$1,000. 
 
DRDGold argues that since gold markets worldwide are fixed to the US dollar and because the dollar has lost ground to the rand, the company deserves pay awards that fall below South Africa&rsquo;s inflation rate. 
 
&ldquo;We cannot afford to have a company that pleads poverty all the time,&rdquo; said NUM Carletonvile Regional Chair Deon Boqwana. &ldquo;This is the same company that was once crowned worst employer of the year by COSATU some years back.&rdquo;

Mining Strike at DRDGold in South Africa Heats Up

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ICEM Italian affiliate FEMCA-CISL has drawn a line in the stand against any break-up of Eni, the oil and gas major that is 30% owned by the Italian government. As investors study a restructuring of the energy company, the union sounded a warning last week that splitting Eni into separate companies would bring more harm than good. 
 
FEMCA-CISL General Secretary Sergio Gigli said both workers and consumers would be negatively affected, and that skills, knowledge, and strategic synergies &ndash; long vital in the running of the company &ndash; would be destroyed. 

<img alt="" src="" width="130" height="173" />
Sergio Gigli
The union&rsquo;s comments came at the same time that a financial conference was being held in Milan to address restructuring the company. At that conference, American asset management company and minority shareholder, Knight Vinke, known for provoking shareholder activism to break apart enterprises, recommended that Eni&rsquo;s oil and gas units be split apart in separate upstream and downstream businesses. 
 
FEMCA-CISL called such a possible separation a loss of integration that would jeopardize the company as a national model, and as an entity that plays a valuable social role inside Italy. The union also said that any weakening of Eni would erode the company&rsquo;s ability to provide guaranteed strategic energy source supplies to Italy. 
 
Meanwhile, three Italian unions &ndash; FILCEM-CGIL, UILCEM-UIL, and FEMCA-CISL &ndash; welcomed the news last week that talks have fallen through between Eni and a UK private equity group, the Klesch Group, over sale of a refinery in Livorno, Tuscany. The discussions caused a nine-day strike by unions at the 1,000-worker refinery in early September. Eni had insisted in preliminary talks with Klesch that job guarantees be given to all workers.

Italian Union, FEMCA-CISL, Opposes Splitting of Energy Company Eni

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Belgian workers, members of two ICEM affiliates &ndash; FGTB and CSV, are bracing for more job redundancies in the glass sector, as Japanese-based Asahi Glass announced job cuts at two worksites in southern Belgium by year end. 
 
AGC Automotive, Asahi&rsquo;s auto-glass manufacturer, announced late in September that it intends to chop 203 jobs at a factory in Fleurus, Belgium, and at an administrative centre in Seneffe, Belgium. The company also said it was cutting another 68 jobs at an auto-mirror factory in Cuneo, Italy. 
 
Belgian workers in Wallonia immediately began a 24-hour strike upon hearing the announcement. The Renault procedure was invoked and the unions and management are in talks to hopefully restrict the number of job cuts. 

<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="107" />
This week, on 9 October, FGTB and CSC will hold a manifestation in Charleroi against Asahi&rsquo;s cuts, entitled &ldquo;We Will Not Pay Twice for the Crisis!&rdquo; 
 
Asahi&rsquo;s proposed redundancies would further deepen a manufacturing crisis that has gripped the Walloon region of Belgium. The 163 jobs targeted for redundancy at Fleurus would more than half the present workforce of 295. A short eight years ago, the Japanese company employed 1,150 workers at the auto-glass plant. In Seneffe, 40 out of 165 jobs at the company&rsquo;s European administration headquarters are proposed to be cut, with that facility closing and the remaining workers transferred to Fleurus. 
 
In Italy, the initial proposal for the Cuneo plant is to lop 68 of 209 jobs. Asahi also announced it was closing an auto-glass factory in Kitakyushi, Japan, by January 2010.

Belgian Glass Workers to Manifest as Asahi Plans More Jobs Cuts

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