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ICEM Serbian affiliate Sindikat Nezavisnost, the Chemical, Non-Metal, Energy, and Mining Industries Union, will decide today if a proposal by the pharmaceutical concern Srbolek AD is good enough to end a 15-day strike by some 70 workers in Belgrade. On Friday, 20 August, a Serbian state mediation agency moderated an exchange of proposals between the union and company regarding this most recent strike over wage arrears. 
 
The strike began on 9 August, and workers and Nezavisnost leaders have been subjected to physical and psychological abuse by managing director Jovica Stefanovic Nini and his hired security team. Workers of the privatized pharmaceutical producer and distributor have not been paid in six months, with social contributions, taxes, statutory severance packages, and retirement earnings also withheld. 
 
A four-day strike in May 2010 resulted in retaliatory action being taken by the managing director against strike leaders. He unilaterally reduced the pay of union leaders by 60% then. Another strike over wage arrears occurred in August 2009. 
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The ICEM intervened on 11 August in the most recent strike, calling into question the extreme anti-social behavior of management, including overt discrimination against women workers who are pregnant or who have given birth since August 2009. 
 
Following the first day of strike activity on 9 August, the company made a proposal through a state mediator that it would pay one month&rsquo;s salary if workers halted the strike. Nezavisnost declined to consider the offer. The very next day, another trade union at a plant of Srbolek affiliated with the Sindikat Samostalni Federation of Serbia (SSSS) joined the strike, thus ratcheting up pressure on Stefanovic Nini. 
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But again security of Serbia&rsquo;s third largest pharmaceutical company undertook brute tactics by prohibiting union leaders from entering the state mediation agency&rsquo;s offices. 
 
Finally, following near constant negotiations last week, state mediators crafted a set of proposals that appears to satisfy the strikers. Srbolek, for the first time since the outset of the strike, also submitted a proposal on 20 August that could end the strike. It is that proposal which union leaders and strikers will examine today. 
 
The ICEM will continue to monitor the dispute and even if proposals are accepted to end the current strike, the Geneva-based Global Union Federation will follow future labour-management developments between Srbolek and trade unions.

Wage Arrears Again Fuel Bitter Serbian Pharmaceutical Strike

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Ukrainian trade unions are furious with the International Monetary Fund&rsquo;s (IMF) unlawful interference into domestic policy, following agreement of a US$15 billion crisis loan. The conditions of the loan see workers hit hard, through a raft of social cuts. 
 
Opposition has been lead by the main Ukrainian national labour centre, the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU), an ITUC affiliate. A demonstration staged by trade unionists outside the IMF regional office in Kiev, on 17 August, condemned a wage freeze for 4 million public sector workers, increased gas prices, fines for delayed payments for utilities, and a 5-year increase to the retirement age for women from 55 to 60, which will slash opportunities for young professionals seeking first-time employment. Gas price rises will double the average household&rsquo;s monthly bill. IMF loan conditions also oblige Ukraine to increase the minimum period of employment that qualifies for a state pension from 5 to 15. 
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While the IMF conditionalities demand penalties for overdue payment of utilities bills, they do not address the common problem of overdue payment of wages. 
 
Trade unions demand that the IMF hold joint consultations with the Ukrainian cabinet and trade union representatives, leading to a lifting of the social restrictions, especially the raise in retirement age. 
 
Ukraine&rsquo;s heavily industrialized economy was hit hard by the global financial crisis. The US$15 billion IMF loan will be paid back over 2.5 years. Ukrainian trade union leaders requested international solidarity and support, stating that the IMF&rsquo;s intrusion into domestic policy will increase poverty levels in the country and create a permanent dependence on IMF credit.

Ukrainian Trade Unions Protest IMF Interference in Domestic Policy

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Members of ICEM UK affiliates GMB and Unite, at pharmaceutical giant Astra Zeneca have voted for strike action over cuts to pension benefits of 2,500 staff, based mainly in Macclesfield, Cheshire, North West England. 
 
Public-sector trade union GMB recorded 70 percent support for strike action in a recent ballot of their members at Astra Zeneca. The multinational refused to back down during three months of talks earlier 2010, maintaining its proposal to end its final-salary pension scheme for workers. Some workers&rsquo; pensions would be frozen forever if they accepted the changes proposed by management. 
 
GMB National officer, and ICEM Materials Section Vice-Chair, Allan Black described the result of the ballot as a &ldquo;clear mandate for a strike in the midst of the current economic circumstances (which) ought to be a wake-up call to Astra Zeneca to resume negotiations&rdquo;. 
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Unions agreed in 2000 to close the company&rsquo;s defined benefit pension scheme to new recruits. Now, new joiners have been offered membership to a defined contribution pension scheme instead. Since that date, workers have contributed &pound;645 million. Now the multinational is attempting to push members of the defined benefit scheme to choose between continuing making their contributions, but with their pensionable salary frozen at current levels, or moving to the defined contribution scheme. 
Astra Zeneca employees in the UK have tolerated huge job losses and radical changes of working practices over the last three or four years, to increase to the company's profits. &nbsp; 
 
Strike action will take place next month, although the unions are hoping for a return to the bargaining table by management. 
 
These plans for cost cutting come at a time when Anglo-Swedish Astra Zeneca is making record profits. In 2009, operating profits rose by 24%, and by a further 11% in the first quarter of 2010.&nbsp;
In a letter to CEO David Brennan, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda described management&rsquo;s demands as &ldquo;unacceptable and warrants a critical re-evaluation by corporate management of AstraZeneca&rdquo;. &ldquo;Please know that if the dispute escalates, and GMB members do vote to take industrial actions, the ICEM will not hesitate to communicate this dispute to other AstraZeneca workplaces in the world, as well as to all our chemical and pharmaceutical trade unions across the globe,&rdquo; Warda added. 
 
ICEM Swedish affiliate IF-Metall also wrote to corporate management, urging a change to the draconian measure. 
 
The Macclesfield plant is the company&rsquo;s second largest facility worldwide. Workers there produce the drug Zoladex, used to treat cancer of the prostate and breast cancer.

AstraZenica Workers in UK to Strike against Pension Cuts

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The ICEM affiliate, Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (EL-SEN), conducted its General Assembly on 10 July 2010. The assembly was convened under the banner of anti-privatisation in the capital city Nicosia in central Cyprus. 
 
President Tuluy Kalyoncu was re-elected to continue as head of the trade union, with 171 votes, while a second candidate received 24 votes. 
 
The only candidate for General Secretary of EL-SEN, Huseyin Sonmezoglu, was re-elected to that position. The newly elected Executive Board will consist of Turgut Evlat, Ozan Alciner, Subhi Ozpasa, Ercan Koseoglu, Orhan Gurgoze, Ozgur Uzuner, Caglayan Cesurer, Toprak Altay, and Kamil Ozinal. 
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Bulent Erzeybek was elected as Assistant Secretary General, while Suphi Ozpasa was elected Financial Secretary, Ercan Koseoglu Education Secretary, Saffet Asiksoy Foreign Relations Secretary, Huseyin Korkmaz Organizing Secretary, Ozgur Uzuner Social Affairs Secretary, and Serhan Kayar was elected as Secretary of Propaganda. 
 
The General Assembly adopted four resolutions. Delegates resolved to struggle for peace and a solution to the Cyprus problem. Also prioritised was the need to continue education programmes for members. 
 
Delegates adopted a strong resolution against the government&rsquo;s moves toward privatisation of the Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus (KIB-TEK). Congress accused the government of misleading the public on the financial condition of the company. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda wrote to congratulate EL-SEN on its successful Congress.

Turkish-Cypriot Electricity Workers’ Take Stand Against Privatisation

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The ICEM-affiliated Mongolian union, the Federation of Energy, Geology and Mining Workers' Trade Unions (MEGM), hosted ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Asia-Pacific Regional Contact Person Phee Jung-sun recently. 
 
Warda commended accelerated development in Mongolia over recent years, noting significantly improved infrastructure in the country. It is positive for the country that foreign investment has increased rapidly, and resource-rich Mongolia can benefit from such investment through exploration and development of gold mines and construction of power plants. Major investors are from Canada, China, and the US. 
 
MEGM President Gambold indicated that union members are facing new challenges through this period of foreign investment. Government and employers are attempting to change current labour laws toward creating a more &ldquo;flexible&rdquo; labour market in order to &ldquo;adapt to the global economy.&rdquo; 
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This means fewer restrictions on temporary work agencies, increasing the numbers of precarious jobs in the country. This is being countered by trade unions of Mongolia, which have created a new working group that will submit a counter proposal to the proposed legislation. 
 
The government is introducing a programme of privatisation of state-owned enterprises in the telecommunication and energy sectors. A number of major investment contracts with foreign companies are due to be signed during the second half of 2010. 
 
The ICEM, working with the local ILO office, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and other Global Union Federations, will be supplying technical assistance for these critical issues to be addressed, so as to build a firm foundation for sustainable development in Mongolia, in line with ILO international labour standards. 
 
The experiences in many Asian countries, notably Korea and Vietnam, on business contracts with foreign companies are that these foreign companies often demand long-term contracts that are unacceptable with respect to labour protections and profit sharing. 
 
&ldquo;It is my sincere hope and firm belief that Mongolian government should listen to opinions of social partners. Through social dialogue and consensus, the government can build the confidence and mutual faith,&rdquo; stated Warda.

ICEM Shores Up Support to Mongolian Affiliate to Combat Privatisation, Contract Labour

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Thailand&rsquo;s Tripartite Industrial Relations Committee (IRC) ruled that French-based Michelin has violated provisions of the Industrial Relations Act 1975, and ordered that management at the Laem Chabang tyre factory reinstate 12 activists &ndash; members of ICEM-affiliated Petroleum and Chemical Workers&rsquo; Federation (PCFT) &ndash; to their rightful jobs. 
 
The ruling was given on 24 June, but notification and official documentation of the unfair labour practices complaint did not come to the PCFT until 20 July. The12 had been unfairly discriminated against by Michelin since leading a two-month dispute and company lockout at the plant in March and April 2009. 
 
The 12 had been kept on Michelin&rsquo;s payroll, but were assigned to a government-run skills centre in efforts to keep them away from the 1,800-member workforce. They refused the assignments, citing violations of their rights. 
<img alt="" src="" width="200" height="181" />
Standing, center, Michelin plant-level PCFT President Thanakorn Somsin (fist raised) and Secretary Sommoi Prawai (on his left), together with founders of the PCFT branch union 
The IRC ruling orders Michelin to provide work inside the factory to the 12 in positions not lower than their previous postings, and to do so within ten days. 
 
The dispute started when Michelin, in March 2009, attempted to institute 35% wage cut to everyone at the Chonburi Province plant. A petition surfaced protesting the unilateral cuts and managers then punished workers who refused to remove their names from the petition by locking them out of the factory. After unionists blockaded the plant, some were jailed, while Michelin supervisors filed criminal complaints against the union organisers. 
 
Even though tri-partite negotiations produced a partial resolve on 28 April, including recognition of the newly-formed plant union as part of PCFT, Michelin continued to discriminate against union leaders. The recent IRC ruling means that all union activists should be legally reinstated. 
 
Some 700 workers at Laem Chabang have taken up PCFT membership. Michelin has a 90% stake in three Thai tyre plants, the PCFT-represented Phra Padaeng factory in Samut Prakarn, the non-unionised Nong Khae plant in Sarburi, and Laem Chabang. The Siam Cement Group owns the minority shares in the three tyre plants.

Thai Labour Court Orders 12 Michelin Union Activists Back to Work

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US public criticism against a CEO and against his company in the wake of the deadly West Virginia coal mine explosion on 5 April has triggered measures for better and tighter overall workplace safety standards in the US Congress. The proposals stand as the first significant overhaul to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in its 40-year history. 
 
A panel of the US House of Representatives&rsquo; Education and Labor Committee gave approval, with a 30-17 vote on 21 July, to HR 5663, the Miner Safety and Health Act. The proposed legislation would finally put teeth into America&rsquo;s federal safety and health statute, and comes at a time when the US public is angry over the arrogance and power exhibited by companies following job-place deaths and ecological disasters, like BP&rsquo;s Deepwater Horizon explosion and deaths in the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
The lightning rod for the tougher safety standards in the US continues to be Massey Energy and its CEO, Don Blankenship. It was at Massey&rsquo;s Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, West Virginia, on 5 April, that a methane gas blast killed 29 non-union miners in a colliery where workers were ignored when they spoke up against poor air quality. Blankenship has used the deaths, contemptibly, to argue for less oversight by the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and more reliance on business instincts in order to improve safety. 
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The proposed legislation is sweeping, and would lift the US statute to the level of some of the best safety laws in the world. OSHA violators could be charged with felony crimes, carrying heavy jail sentences and fines. It would grant expedited hearing, review, and protection in all-important whistle-blower cases, and it would give the US Labor Department&rsquo;s safety agency heightened power to shut unsafe workplaces. 
 
An existing but non-functioning &ldquo;pattern of violation&rdquo; status in the existing law would be given tougher enforcement mechanisms with strong penalties attached, and families and relatives of victims would receive more rights in the proposed legislation. 
 
Also in mining, workers would be given the undeniable right to refuse unsafe work and MSHA would have the power to shut down a mine without waiting for a company&rsquo;s appeals to exhaust, a common tactic used by Massey to continue production after safety violations are issued. At Upper Big Branch, Massey had been repeatedly cited for dust and ventilation problems, but the company&rsquo;s appeals caused penalties to be reduced and safety deficiencies to continue. 
 
Business and industry interests at the committee hearings in Washington, DC, opposed an updated OSHA, saying the proposed revisions are too much, too fast. 
 
That caused United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts to say, &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re asking ourselves, &lsquo;Are we moving too fast?&rsquo; maybe we should ask ourselves if we&rsquo;re moving too slow, because miners keep dyin&rsquo; in our nation&rsquo;s coal mines.&rdquo; 
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UMWA President Cecil Roberts
The increase in US mining deaths to date in 2010 is markedly up, and on a pace not seen since the 1980s when US mining employment was half what it is now. So far in 2010, 40 miners have been killed, nearing the most recent record of 47 in 2006. 
 
Thirty-one of the 40 deaths have occurred at Massey collieries. On 1 July, an electrician was crushed to death by a coal-laden shuttle car inside Massey&rsquo;s non-union White Buck Coal Co. mine in West Virginia. And on 10 May, another miner was crushed between machinery and a longwall at Massey&rsquo;s non-union Ruby Energy mine, also in West Virginia. He died a week later in a hospital. 
 
Besides the BP disaster that occurred in American waters in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 April, killing 11 workers, the updated safety legislation is spurred by the 3 April explosion at Tesoro&rsquo;s oil refinery in the state of Washington that killed seven &ndash; all members of the United Steelworkers (USW) &ndash; and another explosion at a power station of Kleen Energy Systems in the state of Connecticut in February, killing six. These accidents raise among Americans a late-to-arrive consciousness that perhaps the cost of profits over people in a free society has come at too steep a price. 
 
The full US House of Representatives must now take up the safety bill, while the US Senate is standing back awaiting House action before it takes up the legislation.

Massey Arrogance Fuels Tougher Workplace Safety Standards for US

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Thanks to dogged persistence by ICEM affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, the fate of the 133,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery Shell refinery in Montr&eacute;al is still open and subject to sale. Last week, following a second court injunction prohibiting dismantling of the refinery until 10 September, Shell announced it again would negotiate with the Delek Group of Israel over purchase of the refinery. 
 
At stake are the jobs of 500 workers represented by the CEP. In January 2010, Shell announced plans to radically restructure its global downstream operations, including closure of the Montr&eacute;al East refinery by 1 June. 
 
The Anglo-Dutch multinational said it would continue operating part of the site as a terminal and distribution centre for scores of Shell retail outlets scattered across Qu&eacute;bec and Canada&rsquo;s Maritime Provinces. Such continuance, however, would require only 30 workers. 
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The CEP and its Montr&eacute;al branch union, Local 121, has battled relentlessly to find a buyer, as well as to press provincial and federal authorities to keep the refinery operating. Shell rejected bids by potential operators last spring and union members believe Shell wants the refinery shut, with imported petroleum products distributed through the terminal. 
 
On 8 July, a Qu&eacute;bec Superior Court granted the union a ten-day injunction preventing any cannibalizing of the refinery. &ldquo;We believe that maintaining the equipment in good condition until we get satisfactory answers to our questions about offers to but the facility&rdquo; is in everybody&rsquo;s best interests, said Local 121 President Jean-Claude Rocheleau. 
 
On 16 July, that injunction was extended into September. Meanwhile, last week on 20 July, Shell stated at a federal parliamentary hearing of the House of Commons that it re-open talks with Delek, a holding company in which its wholly-owned subsidiary, US Holdings Inc., operates a crude pipeline, refinery, and hundreds of gasoline retail outlets in the southern US. 
 
Delek had been an earlier bidder for the refinery, but Shell rejected the bid as too low. The ICEM remains hopeful that CEP will succeed in achieving sale of the refinery, preserving jobs for the union&rsquo;s energy workers. Shell operates two smaller Canadian refineries, in Sarnia, Ontario, and in Edmonton, Alberta.

CEP Fights to Keep Shell’s Montréal Oil Refinery Operating

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In the rush to get copper production from the Cananea mine back on world markets, is Grupo M&eacute;xico disregarding the safety and health of contract workers? So it seems by an apparent undocumented rash of on-the-job accidents and injuries in the short six weeks since federal police opened the mine in Sonora State for the company. 
 
Following a 16 July accident in which a sub-contract worker was hospitalised after a five-metre fall, military police secured the perimeter of the hospital, not allowing anybody to enter. When leaders of Section 65 of the Mexican National Miners&rsquo; and Metalworkers&rsquo; Union (SNTMMSRM) tried to lend assistance to the injured worker, they were turned away by &ldquo;a violent and arrogant grenadier,&rdquo; according to a report. 
 
Workers of Los Mineros at Cananea claim there have been 20 such accidents with injuries since mine rehabilitation began following the military takeover on 6 June. But this cannot be confirmed because safety reporting, if it exists, is never verified. This non-transparency at a major copper recovery project is a pox on Grupo M&eacute;xico and a pox on federal Labour and Interior Ministries, and on the State of Sonora, the latter governmental agencies that have all taken up reconciliation roles. 
<img alt="" src="" width="220" height="148" />
Federal police violently take control at Cananea, 6 June 
Photo - IMF
The pitiful irony is that Grupo M&eacute;xico and federal police used brute force to reopen the Cananea mine on 6 June, crushing a strike that began over health and safety in 2007. Now they are at breakneck pace, using disposable contract workers, to re-start Cananea at a time &ndash; during first quarter 2010 &ndash; that world copper supply fell short of refined usage. 
 
In a media interview in late June, Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s Isaac Lopez Arzola, the director-general of Southern Copper&rsquo;s Mexicana de Cobre S.A., which functions as the company&rsquo;s copper operating and servicing subsidiary, said 700 workers are now employed at the mine, all non-direct to Grupo M&eacute;xico and Southern Copper, and the responsibility of individual contractors. That number is expected to climb to 1,700. 
 
Compared to a global investment strategy totaling US$2.8 billion, Grupo M&eacute;xico is spending only US$114 million to bring Cananea into production, rushing to get it done by first quarter 2011 to meet continued high copper prices. In turn, Southern Copper will double its global copper output over the next few years, making it the world&rsquo;s third largest copper producer. 
 
With copper prices doubling in early 2010 over copper pricing in early 2009, and considering that every 1% jump in the copper price equates to an estimated 1.3% rise in Grupo M&eacute;xico&rsquo;s equity value, should the company concern itself with safety, or the injuries of non-direct workers? 
 
Apparently not, except to surround them with militia so their stories cannot be heard.

Grupo México’s Infamous Safety Legacy Lives on at Cananea

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Trade unionists of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) ratified a three-year labour agreement with a subsidiary of Votorantim Cimentos of Brazil on 29 July, ending a 20-week strike at a cement plant in Bowmanville, Ontario. The ratification vote, by 58%, reflected dissatisfaction by the plant&rsquo;s 87 workers for getting stuck with an inferior pension plan in two years time. 
 
And the outcome of the strike itself depicts the uneven playing field in collective negotiations when an employer can dictate terms with no law in place to prevent the use of scab labour during a dispute. 
 
The chief issue was the Brazilian company&rsquo;s subsidiary, St. Mary&rsquo;s Cement, demand that a change was necessary from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution plan. Nowhere in negotiations could the company prove that the current pension plan needed the financial relief that a weaker defined contribution plan would deliver. St. Mary&rsquo;s was also seeking wage and work-rules cuts. 
 
Negotiations, which resumed only in mid-July, did see the company move on some points, but the new agreement will see the defined contribution plan take effect in September 2012. Cement workers will get a C$1,000 lump sum pay-out both in 2010 and 2011, and will get a 2% wage increase in 2012. 
<img alt="" src="" width="159" height="230" />
CAW President Ken Lewenza
CAW Local 222 members in southern Ontario did prevent the company from outsourcing quarry operations and control room positions. Under the back-to-work protocol, staff began reporting to jobs on 4 August, with the last of the workers to be back on 16 August. 
 
&ldquo;The situation we experienced at St. Mary&rsquo;s Cement over the last number of months is just one example of how foreign-owned corporations, in this case Votorantim Cimentos, have been allowed to buy Canadian resource companies and wreak havoc on the workforce with few, if any, obligations to the country,&rdquo; stated CAW President Ken Lewenza. 
 
&ldquo;Congratulations to these workers for having the courage to stand up for their hard earned gains, including their pension, where our government has failed to do so.&rdquo; 
 
Votorantim is a privately-held S&atilde;o Paulo-based industrial conglomerate that controls one-third of the Brazilian cement market. It purchased Lafarge&rsquo;s Blue Circle cement operations in the US and Canada in 2001 and revived the original name of the company, St. Mary&rsquo;s Cement.

Canadian Auto Workers, Brazilian Cement Company Reach Terms

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