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On April 26, 20 years will have past since the largest nuclear disaster the world has ever seen. On that day in 1986, in what now is the country of Ukraine, a deadly explosion inside Chernobyl&rsquo;s reactor No. 4 led to the release of a radioactive cloud that spread across large parts of the Soviet Union. A number of countries in Europe were also affected, but to a much lesser extent. Today, 20 years later, it is still difficult to identify the exact damage of the radioactive fallout. 
In the immediate aftermath of the accident, the Soviet Union, with the help of the international community, poured in a lot of money to build the infrastructure needed to minimise the immediate adverse effects of the catastrophe, mainly through sealing off the damaged reactor. 
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As years went by, however, it became clear that, where funding was still available for infrastructural work, there was less and less money to take care of the power station workers and others who had gone into the affected area to do the actual work. A large number of these workers, all members of ICEM affiliate Atomprofspylka, the Ukrainian Nuclear Power Workers&rsquo; Union, gave their lives fighting the disaster, or subsequently died within months or years. For those who survived, the situation is bleak today with little or no job security and a largely indifferent government. 
The anniversary of Chernobyl comes two days before the international Workers Memorial Day on 28 April, when trade unions everywhere commemorate workers who have lost their lives in workplace accidents.

Chernobyl 20 Years after

To: All ICEM affiliates in Nepal 
 
Brussels, 12 April 2006 
 
Dear friends and colleagues, 
 
Ever since the illegitimate takeover of power by King Gyanendra in February 2005, the ICEM has been closely following the courageous efforts of its affiliated trade unions and others in Nepal. We are proud to have been able to support you and other trade unions as you have staged and taken part in the many demonstrations and protests actions against the king&rsquo;s autocratic rule. 
 
As we follow the unfolding events of the present time, we look in disbelief at how the so-called government in Nepal clings on to power using a wide range of brutal measures which seem to be installed specifically to hurt its own people. 
 
The ICEM strongly protests against the many arrests in Nepal that have taken place over the last few days, including the many arrests of both ordinary trade union members as well as trade union leaders. We also condemn the increasing violence used against the people of Nepal. We forcefully support the actions of the independent trade unions in Nepal as part of the broader struggle for the restoration of democracy. 
 
In name of the 20 million members of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions from 122 countries, I would like you to congratulate you on your actions so far and let you know that we are firmly with you and the Nepalese people in your united struggle against the royal oppression during this strike and beyond. 
 
In Solidarity! 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary

ICEM letter of support for Nepalese affiliates

In the latest example of the appaling series of human and trade union rights violations in Colombia, the ICEM has learned of the murder of brother Daniel Cortez Cortez, a member of ICEM&rsquo;s Colombian affiliate Sintraelecol. 
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On Sunday April 2nd, brother Cortez was murdered in Puerto Parra, near the city of Barrancabermeja, the third largest city in Colombia, in a region known to be controlled by the paramilitaries. For the last 16 years, he has been working for the energy company Empresa Electrificadora de Santander, where he had been an active trade union member from the day he started. 
 
Daniel Cortez was assassinated at night on April 2nd. Attacked by a group of paramilitaries, he died instantly when he was shot in the face. He leaves behind a wife and four children and the ICEM offers its sincere&nbsp;condolences to his family, colleagues and friends. 
 
In a <a href="/index.php?id=26&amp;doc=1756&amp;la=EN">letter to the Colombian authorities</a>, the ICEM calls for an urgent, full and open investigation into the exact circumstances of this brutal assassination. Those responsible for the crime need to be brought to justice and convicted. 
 
The murder is, regrettably, not a stand alone case. Far more trade unionists are murdered in Colombia every year then anywhere else in the world. According to preliminary figures, over 70 murders on trade unionists were counted last year. In 2004, there were at least 99. 
 
&ldquo;This murder can not be just another addition to an already lengthy list. We need to keep realising that every time a trade unionist is killed in Colombia, a new tragedy unfolds. Each time, new families, other colleagues and different communities are faced with the loss of a family member, a colleague or a friend&rdquo; said Fred Higgs, General Secretary of the ICEM. &ldquo;It is imperative that we continue our demands on the Colombian government for effective protection for trade unionists in Colombia.&rdquo;

Member of Sintraelecol, ICEM Affiliate in Colombia, murdered

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Tuesday, 7 February, will mark a full year that US members of United Steelworkers (USW) in Cincinnati, Ohio have been on strike against Cognis, a German chemicals company. 
USW Local 14340 will observe the anniversary by placing further attention on Cognis and its joint-venture partner who are operating the plant at great environmental risk, and with known health and safety deficiencies. 
Workers struck because Cognis would not agree to union recognition through a &ldquo;successorship&rdquo; clause in the labour agreement when Cognis and Malaysian Golden Hope Plantations formed a joint venture to run the oleochemicals division of the plant. The company is now refusing to accept strikers back to work even if the strike is ended. 
In a letter to Cognis CEO Antonio Trusi Oliva, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs called this &ldquo;unacceptable&rdquo; and urged him to use his &ldquo;influence inside this new enterprise to assure that a settlement to this strike will include jobs for all USW union members who wish to return to work.&rdquo;

USW Members in Ohio Seek Justice from Chemicals Producer

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In New Zealand, 58 members of&nbsp;Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU) were suddenly locked out on 3 February by Top Energy, a community-owned electricity distributor. The linemen were seeking EPMU&rsquo;s standard 5% wage hike, but have been met by unrealistic expectations from managers such as a 45-hour work-week without overtime. 
&ldquo;We have been negotiating for nearly six months, and have agreed to look at modernising the collective agreement, but we will not accept cuts to pay and conditions in an industry that's already relatively poorly paid and facing a severe labour shortage,&rdquo; stated EPMU President Andrew Little to the New Zealand Press. 
The company supplies power to customers in New Zealand&rsquo;s North Island from Whangarei to the North Cape.

Lockout at Electrical Distributor in New Zealand

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ExxonMobil is being pressured to announce to either reopen its Mobil Oil Australia refinery at Port Stanvac, or face a costly environmental clean-up bill. Mobil Australia, wholly-owned by the US supermajor, has until July 2006 to announce plans for the refinery, which was closed in mid-2003 with the loss of 400 jobs. 
A South Australia state parliamentary inquiry recently heard from contractors of Mobil Australia who said burying asbestos waste and other toxic chemicals on both land and sea was commonplace at the refinery in the suburbs of South Adelaide from the 1970s to the 1990s. 
A former health representative at the refinery said 3,000 people had been exposed to asbestos, and added, &ldquo;I saw things which you know are not right&hellip;if you say anything, you are out of a job.&rdquo; 
Since ExxonMobil&rsquo;s decision to mothball the Port Stanvac refinery in 2003, Australia has become a net importer of refined petroleum products.

ExxonMobil Pushed for Decision on Closed Australian Refinery

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In Canada, joint union-management rescue teams succeeded in bringing 72 potash miners who were trapped one kilometre deep in Saskatchewan province to safety. The incident occurred on 29 January when a fire started inside the world&rsquo;s largest potash mine, owned by US-based Mosaic Co., which is controlled by giant foods group Cargill. 
Mine rescue teams from Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union Locals 890 and 892 began tried and tested methods of progressive procedures to rescue the 72 after being trapped for 25 hours. The miners had retreated to sealed refuge stations after the fire&mdash;caused by a cutting torch&mdash;that ignited polyethylene piping. 
Union-management rescue teams, backed by similar rescue teams from nearby unionised potash mines, extinguished the suffocating fires, reached the miners, cautiously vented toxic gas and smoke, and then brought the 72 safely to the surface. The mine has 3,000 miles of underground roads and tunnels covering a 20-mile-wide surface area. 
&ldquo;It really looks like a textbook recovery to me,&rdquo; one former US mine director observed. The trapped miners, however, were unimpressed by the food inside the wet-clay-sealed refuge stations. &ldquo;Ample water but the food sucks &hellip; dry biscuits that are like eating gravel or sand,&rdquo; complained one miner in a local newspaper.

CEP Mine Safety Teams Rescue Potash Miners

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A US District Court issued an injunction against maverick mining company International Coal Group (ICG), 26 January, to prevent the firm from blocking United Mine Workers&rsquo; (UMWA) union investigators from the Sago Mine in the state of West Virginia. Twelve miners were killed inside the mine on 2 January. 
UMWA does not represent Sago&rsquo;s 150 miners, but many workers there requested that UMWA take part in the follow-up probe, an action both lawful and binding under the US Mine Safety &amp; Health Act (MSHA). ICG prevented UMWA investigators from entering the jobsite, using security guards to deny access. ICG quickly appealed the injunction obtained by the agency that oversees MSHA, but an appellate court in Richmond, Virginia, denied reviewing it. 
The US company now must allow UMWA to investigate IGC and Sago&rsquo;s horrid and deadly safety practices. With energy demand and high coal prices driving the reopening of closed coal shafts in the US East, other coal mine fatalities have occurred in West Virginia in the wake of Sago. 
On 19 January, a conveyer belt fire at Aracoma Coal&rsquo;s Alma Mine in Melville caught fire, trapping and killing two. On 31 January, two separate deaths occurred; one when a wall collapsed, killing a miner at Long Branch Energy&rsquo;s Wharton mine, the other when an operator on a bulldozer at Massey Energy&rsquo;s Black Castle surface mine struck a gas pipeline. The total of 16 mine deaths in West Virginia since 2 January exceeds the entire 2005 death count, which was three. 
In contrast, and also on 31 January, some 1,000 miles west, 90 miners and UMWA members at Freemen United Coal Co., near Gilead, Illinois, were evacuated after high levels of carbon monoxide were detected by UMWA-operated equipment inside the mine. UMWA teams safely brought the trapped miners to the surface, and the mine will remain closed pending an investigation.

UMWA Mine Safety Teams Succeed in US

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After meeting with the government last week, ICEM oil union affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN have given a two-week deadline to improve security in the Niger Delta, or strike plans will start. 
On 30 January, four kidnapped subcontractors of Shell were released, after 19 days, but further acts of violence by youth and other heavily-armed groups in the oil-rich delta continue. Two weeks ago a group attacked the offices of Italian-based Eni&rsquo;s Agip Mgboshimini base in Port Harcourt. Two banks there also were attacked. Eleven were killed, including police officers, and several others were injured. Following the raids and killings, Eni pulled all its workers from the city. 
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On 28 January, 20 gunmen stormed Daewoo Engineering &amp; Construction Co. and got away with US$300,000 in cash. Crime-prone groups threaten all foreign-owned oil and support companies, and even target tanker-truck drivers. 
The unions have called for an end to the reckless lawlessness, and call on the government to come up with meaningful solutions to alleviate poverty in the Niger Delta. 
NUPENG President Peter Akpatason said current governmental agencies are not fulfilling their proper roles, which is to create jobs for young people. &ldquo;Any attempt at solving the crisis in the region, the level of degradation, the level of poverty without thinking how to create jobs&hellip;will not achieve anything,&rdquo; he told the publication Vanguard. &ldquo;However, we condemn in its entirety the idea of attacking oil facilities and most especially workers.&rdquo;

Oil Unions Take Niger Delta Initiatives to Halt Violence

A torch-lit parade and protest in the Belgian city of Gent against the retaliatory measures of paper company Stora Enso has the full endorsement of Brussels-based ICEM, the Global Union Federation representing pulp and paper trade unions across the world. 
 
The parade and protest, to be held beginning at 19h00 on Tuesday, 7 February, is sponsored by the Gent-Dendermonde Region of ICEM affiliate De Algemene Centrale ABVV (La Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale FGTB). The march will convene in front of ABBV&rsquo;s regional headquarters at Vrijdagmarkt (Friday Market), 9000 Gent, and after assembly, will proceed for one hour through the city streets of Gent. 

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The retaliation involves the sudden dismissal of two ABVV shop stewards at Stora Enso&rsquo;s Langerbrugge paper mill on 30 December. Mill Management executed legal papers for their dismissal and had constables deliver the termination notices to their homes. 
 
The union protested directly to Stora Enso, and alerted the Finnish-Swedish paper company that it had 30 days to reinstate the pair to their rightful jobs, or it would set the Belgian legal process in play. The company, responding through its law firm, said that if ABVV/FGTB filed legal action for compensatory damages for the two, it would sue ABVV/FGTB for business losses connected to a short, but legal strike last fall that the union and two other trade unions conducted. 
 
Such a lawsuit against a union is unprecedented and currently not possible in Belgian courts due to the legal definition of a trade union. But right-wing political parties inside Belgium are pushing for a legislative debate on holding unions responsible for financial restitution during a work stoppage, and Stora Enso has now entered that debate. 
 
Tuesday&rsquo;s event will showcase the necessity to strengthen workplace protections for on-the-job trade union leaders. And Stora Enso&rsquo;s anti-worker practices at Langerbrugge will be shown as the shameful example of anti-social behaviour in Belgium. 
 
&ldquo;This march is intended for the citizens and politicians of Belgium and to alert them that current law protecting shop stewards is inadequate,&rdquo; said Katrien Van der Heist, regional Secretary for De Algemene Centrale. &ldquo;It is clear to us that Langerbrugge management holds our two shop stewards responsible for the strike, and this is illegal.&rdquo; 
 
But under Belgian law, a trade union&rsquo;s only legal recourse is to seek a fine against the company and compensation for the individuals, but not reinstatement. &ldquo;This is something that must change,&rdquo; added Van Der Heist. &ldquo;We must make the law stricter and force companies to take back union representatives who are fired for carrying out their legitimate duties.&rdquo; 
 
The sackings came as a result of a 12-day strike by 330 workers at the Langerbrugger newsprint and publication papers mill from 28 October to 8 November, 2005. During that strike, mill management used coercive tactics by petitioning a Gent court to impose a &euro;1,000-a-day fine on the union and its representatives for each worker that did not cross picket lines. The company also publicly declared that its concessionary proposals would only get worse each day that the strike lasted. (Further information on that strike can be found at <a href="/?id=19&amp;doc=1482 &amp;la=EN">/?id=19&amp;doc=1482 &amp;la=EN</a> and <a href="/?id=19&amp;doc=1485&amp;la=EN">/?id=19&amp;doc=1485&amp;la=EN</a>.) 
 

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From left: CEP President Brian Payne, ABVV Regional Secretary Katrien Van der Helst,and FGTB/ABVV National Federal Secretary Bruno Bachely.
Stora Enso also took indirect action against two ABVV shop stewards of cleaning contractor ACS. They informed the contractor that the stewards could not work inside Langerbrugge under threat of ACS losing the cleaning contract. The two women shop stewards had stopped by picket lines during the strike to express solidarity. 
 
The torch-lit march through the streets of Gent comes 12 days after the world&rsquo;s largest pulp, paper and paperboard company locked out 600 members of ICEM affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada at a mill in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. (For information on the lockout, see <a href="/?id=77&amp;doc=1635&amp;la=EN">/?id=77&amp;doc=1635&amp;la=EN</a>.) Brian Payne, president of CEP, was in Brussels yesterday and not only pledged a presence at the parade, but also pledged a continued link of solidarity and communication between CEP Local 972 in Nova Scotia and Belgian ABVV-FGTB.

Stora Enso Retaliates Against Union Leaders in Gent, Belgium

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