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Contract talks between a branch of Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) of Canada and Stora Enso were extended until 11 January in efforts to avert a lockout at a 660-worker pulp and paper mill in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. 
The Swedish-Finnish paper company last week extended a nine-day holiday shutdown of the mill that began on 24 December 2005. On 30 December, Stora Enso&rsquo;s North American management issued a 48-hour lockout notice under provisions of the provincial labour code. Early in December, workers passed a strike vote by 98%. Last ditch bargaining efforts to find a resolve began on 3 January, ran through the week including Saturday, and will resume 11 January. 
The key issue in talks now is said to center on contracting out issues. Members of CEP Local 972 have been without a current contract at the magazine papers and newsprint mill since June 2004.

CEP, Stora Enso Still Engaged in Canadian Paper Talks

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The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has also promised industrial actions and strikes in order to gain early renewal collective agreements in the country&rsquo;s manufacturing sector. Some 700 enterprise agreements expire in March and April, and the union has set as a goal 5.5% wage increases, along with measures to improve productivity and training. 
AMWU has also promised industrial actions if Howard government reforms occur to existing labour law. Bargaining in the manufacturing sector is expected to be the first major test if reforms on enterprise bargaining are passed by Australia&rsquo;s Parliament early this year.

Australian Manufacturing Union Moves Toward Enterprise Agreement Renewals

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Contract maintenance workers at BP&rsquo;s Kwinana refinery, who are members of ICEM affiliate Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), won a five-week strike in mid-December 2005. The 86 workers, employed by United Group, won their full pay demands of nearly A$10 per hour over three years, which will give them parity with BP&rsquo;s maintenance workers. 
The strikers along with other United Group contract workers at both the Alcoa refinery in Wagerup and the Ravensthorp nickel project were targeted by the Howard government&rsquo;s watchdog Building and Construction Commission for conducting unprotected strike actions under the government&rsquo;s new and regressive Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act.

Maintenance Contractors End BP Australian Strike

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US oil supermajor ConocoPhillips has defied both Australian and East Timorese oil and maritime workers by employing a flag of convenience ship to transport liquid natural gas from Australia to Japan. The company, which owns 64% of the Bayu-Undan gas field in the Timor Sea, was set to send it first shipment of LNG to Japanese utility customers last week from Darwin, in northern Australia. 
The company has hired no Timorese or Australian crew members to work on the vessel, said the Maritime Workers Union of East Timor. ConocoPhillips had earlier ignored East Timor government initiatives to build a gas processing facility on East Timor soil for the new field, choosing instead to build a 500-kilometre pipeline to Darwin. 
The Bayu-Undan field is in disputed East Timorese waters off the country&rsquo;s southern coast. The Maritime Union of Australia has pledged to get East Timorese workers involved in Bayu-Undan&rsquo;s new production, and both unions promise an international campaign against ConocoPhillips. This will become a topic of the newly-organised Joint ICEM-ITF Oil and Gas Trade Union Alliance.

ConocoPhillips Snubs Union Labour in Shipping

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French ICEM affiliate FCE-CFDT has called an eight-hour strike for tomorrow, 4 April, at all Total worksites across France in protest to the government&rsquo;s contrat premi&eacute;re embauche (CPE), the &ldquo;first job contract&rdquo; labour reform being imposed on young workers. 
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The union is asking all Total workers to join tomorrow&rsquo;s inter-sectoral day of action, and has asked all trade union delegates to organise general staff assemblies in preparation. 
French labour federations are united in efforts to push the government and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin off CPE, which passed Parliament by decree without dialogue with social partners. The reform would allow employers to sack workers under age 26 in their first two years of employment without needing justification. 
French President Chirac announced last week the scaling back of the two-year period to one year. FCE-CFDT, who together with other unions rejected the Chirac compromise, has called the strike tomorrow at Total without saying exactly when the eight-hour work stoppage would begin.

FCE-CFDT Calls Total Workers Out on Strike

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An agreement in principle has been won by three German unions with Vattenfall Europe for some 20,000 utility workers in Germany to be covered by one collective agreement. 
The unions, ICEM affiliate IGBCE, IG Metall and Ver.di, have been negotiating with the Swedish-based company for two years in efforts to get all workers under a single agreement in order to achieve pay equity and uniform work terms. 
That pledge for agreement came recently when the supervisory board of Germany&rsquo;s third largest utility changed its position and agreed to a common agreement. Management also agreed to allow workers who are in enterprises that get sold off by the company to remain in the agreement until a new collective agreement is negotiated with that business. 
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The three unions had joined together in a number of protests against the company&rsquo;s indifference to a common contract, including a demonstration numbering 5,000 at Vattenfall Europe&rsquo;s 1 March AGM in Berlin. 
In March, Swedish trade union SEKO began a campaign at home to assist the German unions with achieving a common contract. In Germany, Vattenfall Europe consists of several former utility companies that the Swedish firm has purchased over the past six years, including Bewag, HEW, Laubag and Veag.

German Unions, Vattenfall Come to Terms

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A last-minute compromise in Norway late in the evening on 31 March averted a strike by 38,000 industry workers. A government-appointed mediator reconciled pay and other issues between ICEM affiliate Fellesforbundet and Norsk Industri, representing some 1,000 industrial firms. 
The union was seeking adequate salary increases for 2006, preservation of an early retirement programme, called avtalefesten pensjon (AFP), and a halt to the practice of paying foreign workers lower pay rates. Government mediation, however, failed to stop a construction strike that began yesterday, 2 April, between 19,000 trade unionists of Fellesforbundet and the National Association for the Building Industry.

Norwegian Industrial Disputes Settled on Eve of Strikes

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The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) announced it will conduct a week-long general strike in South Korea, beginning 6 April, over the non-regular workers&rsquo; legislation that again is before the National Assembly. The legislative body opened an extraordinary session today and the controversial bill, designed to allow employers more flexibility in hiring contract workers, will be the focal point of its agenda. 
KCTU organised a mass rally today in front of the National Assembly to draw attention to the start of Thursday&rsquo;s strike. The legislation, a cluster of three bills adversely affecting the rights and working condition of temporary workers, would grant employers the right to employ hundreds of thousands more contract workers for up to two years before laying them off.

Korean Labour Group to Strike over Non-Regular Workers’ Legislation

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The ICEM&rsquo;s 2006 World Conference for the Rubber Sector will be held later this week, 6-7 April, in Istanbul, Turkey. Co-hosted by Turkish trade union Lastik-Iş, the conference will draw some 106 trade union leaders from 15 countries. 
The quadrennial conference will discuss current developments and challenges facing workers in the global rubber sector, as well as crucial collective bargaining negotiations that will occur in some countries in 2006. Rubber sector trade union leaders from Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, the UK and USA will be in attendance at this week&rsquo;s conference. The ICEM&rsquo;s last Rubber Sector Conference was held in 2002 in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, while the 1998 conference was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

ICEM’s Rubber Sector Conference in Turkey This Week

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Contents
1. Afghanistan - Violence against Women Goes&nbsp;Unpunished 
2. Australia - Women Shrink the Pay Gap 
3. Belgium - Equal Pay Day 
4. Brazil - Women Demonstrate Against Aracruz Celulose&nbsp; 
5.&nbsp;**Carol Fraser on Canada** 
6. Iran - Women Take to the Streets on 8 March 
7. Iraq - Women are Victims of Anarchy 
8. Japan &ndash; RENGO Marches on 8 March 
9. Netherlands &ndash; Booklet on Pregnancy and Maternity 
10. Pakistan &ndash; Working Women Organisation Demonstrates on 8 March 
11. United Kingdom - Women Are More Likely to Join Unions 
12.&nbsp;USA -&nbsp;The Retirement Gap 
13. Inter-Parliamentary Union - More Women Elected to Office 
14. Resources 
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1. Afghanistan - Violence against Women Goes Unpunished 
 
Women in Afghanistan continued to suffer from official neglect and social restrictions in 2005, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) reported. The commission said it has documented 154 cases of self-immolation (setting oneself on fire) by women in the western zone over the course of the year, while as many as 144 forced marriages and 25 money-for-opium marriages were reported in the South. 
 
The Afghanistan government&rsquo;s attempts to curb the cultivation of opium have had unexpected fallout on women. Desperate farmers, with their poppy fields razed by the government, were forced to turn to a traditional practice, in which a family pays off&nbsp;debts by handing over a daughter to a relative of the creditor. Usually, there is a marriage ceremony for the sake of propriety, but the woman is treated as property. 
 
Also, investigations by the authorities into complaints of violent attacks on women are neither routine nor systematic, and few result in prosecutions, stated Amnesty International in its 2005 report. 
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2. Australia - Women Shrink the Pay Gap 
 
In a comparison of gender-pay ratios among developed nations, Australia ranks second. Women make 91 cents to the man&rsquo;s dollar in Australia. The reason lies partly with the high number of Australians whose wages are determined by collective bargaining, or are set by the government. However, major changes to labour laws go into effect soon, which could endanger some of the strides made by working women over recent decades, say rights activists and labour leaders. 
 
Under the current system, government panels set industry-specific wages and benefits for many workers. This baseline pay is generally high in comparison to minimum wages in other developed nations. Some workers then strike still better deals through union negotiations with their employers. 
 
Labour experts contend that the pay gap between men and women has narrowed under this system for a couple of reasons. One is that it has kept many women from having to negotiate their own salaries (research shows women tend not to bargain as hard as men). Another reason is that feminists have been able to mount legal challenges against the traditional undervaluing of predominantly female professions like nursing and teaching. 
 
It needs to be pointed out, though, that the 91-cent figure only applies to non-managerial, full-time workers, excluding overtime pay. Once all earnings and part-time labour is included, the ratio falls to 66 cents to the dollar. 
 
The problem is that the state board will be scrapped under the new system, and that its federal counterpart will have many of its powers placed into a new entity, called the Fair Pay Commission (FPC). The FPC is expected to be more focused on Australia&rsquo;s international competitiveness and on expanding employment &ndash; suggesting it will hold a tougher line on wage increases. The legislation also encourages more individual bargaining for wages. 
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3. Belgium - Equal Pay Day 
 
31 March was Equal Pay Day in Belgium, organised jointly by the Belgian trade union federation FGTB and the country&rsquo;s Socialist Party. 
 
The date of 31 March is significant: women, on average, have to work one year and three months (until 31 March) to earn the same wages as a man in one year. 
 
More information is available on <a href="http://www.equalpayday.be/">www.equalpayday.be</a>.&nbsp;
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4. Brazil - Women Demonstrate Against Aracruz Celulose 
 
Via Campesina, which represents peasant organisations in 56 countries, staged a demonstration on 8 March in Brazil. About 2000 women invaded the Barba Negra eucalyptus-growing estate, owned by Aracruz Celulose, in Barra do Ribeiro, in the Rio Grande do Sul state. Aracruz Celulose was targeted because it is one of the largest paper and cellulose firms in Latin America with huge eucalyptus and pine plantations. 
 
The campaign points were as follows: 
<ul>
 <li>
 <div align="left">Protest against the invasion of the native forest with single-crop plantations; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">Draw attention to the fact that pollution by cellulose firms is not confined to the headline-grabbing case of Uruguay&rsquo;s projects on its border with Argentina; </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">And highlight the fact that large enterprises, such as these, boosted by public financing, generate only one job per 185 hectares planted, whereas smaller properties generate one per hectare. </div>
 </li>
</ul>
The demonstration was also a solidarity action with the indigenous people in the state of Espiritu Santo, another state where Aracruz Celulosa invaded lands. This January, indigenous families were expelled by the Federal Police there, with police using the company&rsquo;s own vehicles to displace them. 
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5. Carol Fraser, CEP Canada, writes: 
 
Canada: The Battle over National Child Care 
Thank goodness for Canada's women. They won 16 medals in Turin&hellip; 
Now we're counting on women to save our national bacon in the political arena, too. 
In particular, Canadian women -- individually and collectively -- will be the key players in the first major legislative contest facing Stephen Harper's minority government: the battle over national child care. 
<a href="http://www.buildchildcare.ca/">http://www.buildchildcare.ca</a> 
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6. Iran - Women Take to the Streets on 8 March 
 
The total number of arrests, which followed a gathering of hundreds of women&rsquo;s rights defenders in Tehran, remains uncertain, as is the fate of those arrested by the security forces, which reportedly used harsh tactics to disperse the peaceful demonstration. According to Human Rights Watch, police dumped cans of garbage on the heads of women that were sitting down, before charging into the group and beating them with batons to compel them to leave. 
 
Mehri Amiri of the Society for Defence of Women&rsquo;s Rights in Iran reported that three women from her organisation had been released, but that four others remained in the Evin Prison in Tehran. She said that many others are still being held, but that her group cannot get in contact with any of them since the phone lines are being controlled by the government. 
 
On the eve of International Women&rsquo;s Day, the Women Rights Association of Iran had prepared a resolution calling for an end to gender discrimination, demanding social and legal rights for all Iranian women. Many of the women who handed out the resolution were arrested. 
 
Since 1981, over 120,000 political opponents have been executed in Iran. A report compiled by Iranian human rights activists in commemoration of International Women&rsquo;s Day says that four women were executed this year, all under the age of 30. Another 1,372 women have been arrested since the start of 2006, the group says. And, according to Human Rights Watch, security forces have repeatedly resorted to violence to suppress peaceful gatherings. 
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7. Iraq - Women are Victims of Anarchy 
 
The situation in Iraq is going from bad to worse, say NGOs and women&rsquo;s organisations such as MADRE, an international women&rsquo;s rights group, and Women&rsquo;s Will. Most women feel that they will only be better off once the occupation is over. 
 
As the crisis in Iraq intensifies, the group says women and their families need security urgently, as well as a functional government and the provision of basic services within a human rights framework. Rape, abduction and abuse in prisons by prison guards and the killing of women is widespread, say the women. MADRE is calling for the deployment of a UN-led peacekeeping force and an immediate end to the occupation. 
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8. Japan &ndash; RENGO Marches on 8 March 
<img height="200" alt="" src="" width="300" /> 
On 8 March, Japanese trade union women distributed leaflets on the streets in major Japanese cities and called for &ldquo;Solidarity for Women.&rdquo; In Tokyo, the action was the start of the Women&rsquo;s Conference, attended by 800 union women. The conference was organised to demand the inclusion of provisions to eliminate indirect discrimination into the law of equal employment for men and women. The participants pledged their commitments to pursue the campaign at their workplaces. 
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9. Netherlands &ndash; Booklet on Pregnancy and Maternity 
 
Jeannette Van Dongen of FNV Bondgenoten has sent us a booklet on pregnancy and maternity called &ldquo;Work and Pregnancy: From Month to Month&rdquo;. The brochure explains what pregnancy and maternity means for working women and working new mothers, providing practical advice. To receive a copy of the booklet, please ask <a href="mailto:carol.bruce@icem.org">carol.bruce@icem.org</a>.&nbsp;Thanks to Jeannette and Bondgenoten, Netherlands. 
 
The brochure is also available on the ICEM web-site here: 
<a href="/index.php?id=71&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=1719">http://www.icem.org/index.php?id=71&amp;la=EN&amp;doc=1719</a>&nbsp;
<img height="25" alt="" src="" width="20" />
10. Pakistan &ndash; Working Women Organisation Demonstrates on 8 March 
 
Pakistan&rsquo;s Working Women Organization demonstrated in Lahore, on the occasion of 8 March, with the demand to narrow the gender gap, improve women&rsquo;s status and improve the economy. Women can play an effective role in income generation activities as well as in the sustainable development of countries and societies. However, this will only happen when women are perceived as subjects, not objects of development. 
 
Large numbers of children and trade union activists also participated with great enthusiasm. Women and children were chanting slogans, such as &ldquo;we want peace,&rdquo; &ldquo;stop violence against women and harassment at workplace,&rdquo; &ldquo;no gender discrimination,&rdquo; &ldquo;women want equal rights,&rdquo; and &ldquo;long live international women solidarity.&rdquo; 
<img height="25" alt="" src="" width="20" />
11. United Kingdom - Women Are More Likely to Join Unions 
 
Government figures show that women workers in the UK in 2005 were more likely to belong to a trade union than men. The data show that 29.9 precent&nbsp;of women workers were union members last year, versus 28.2 percent for men. 
 
Members&rsquo; average pay was 11.98 pounds an hour &ndash; 17.6 percent higher than for their non-union colleagues, who averaged 10.19 pounds. 
 
Low paid women are the main winners from the 30 pence minimum wage increase announced by the government. Low paid women benefit from minimum wages more than any other group in the economy, with part-time workers benefiting most of all. 
<img height="25" alt="" src="" width="20" />
12. United States of America: The Retirement Gap 
A lifetime of hard work should bring economic security -- income sufficient to raise a family, and resources to enjoy a retirement earned over many working years. It is troubling that as far off as this goal seems to millions of American men, it is even further off for America's working women, especially in the area of retirement security. 
For more: <a href="http://www.steelworkers-usw.org/usw/program/content/2592.php">http://www.steelworkers-usw.org/usw/program/content/2592.php</a>
<img height="25" alt="" src="" width="20" />
13. Inter-Parliamentary Union - More Women Elected to Office 
 
As reported by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the ratio of women elected to public office increased in 28 of the 39 countries that held parliamentary elections in 2005. By the end of 2005, 16.3 percent of upper and lower house members were women, sustaining the progress made since 1995, when the proportion of women in parliaments was only 11.3 percent. Several African nations now have a third of their parliaments comprised of women &ndash; Rwanda, Mozambique, South Africa, Burundi and Tanzania. 
<img height="25" alt="" src="" width="20" />
14. Resources 

<ul>
 <li>
 <div align="left">For the conclusions of the recent 50th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, see: <a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/50sess.htm">http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/ 
 50sess.htm</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">WICEJ has produced a guide to UN summits and how to use their outcomes. See <a href="http://www.wicej.addr.com/tools.html">http://www.wicej.addr.com/tools.html</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">The Women&rsquo;s Global Network for Reproductive Rights focuses on HIV/AIDS among other things: <a href="http://www.wgnrr.org/">http://www.wgnrr.org</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">The Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women&rsquo;s Rights - <a href="http://www.cladem.org/">http://www.cladem.org</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">EU Commission Report on Equality between Women and Men &ndash; 2006: 
 <a href="http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/publications/2006/keaj06001_en.pdf">http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/ 
 publications/2006/keaj06001_en.pdf</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">The International Women&rsquo;s Health Coalition works to promote and protect the health and rights of women and girls worldwide: <a href="http://www.iwhc.org/">http://www.iwhc.org</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">The elimination of gender stereotypes at work has been the object of a European project involving UGT Spain, FGTB, Belgium and the UIL, Italy. A booklet on this is available from UGT Spain. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">The Chilean Health and Gender Equity Observatory is an instrument to provide follow-up and evaluation in the framework of cooperation with the Pan American Health Organisation. See <a href="http://www.observatoriogenerosalud.cl/">http://www.observatoriogenerosalud.cl</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">The Clean Clothes Campaign has published a book on improving working conditions in the global garment industry as well as on the movement for women workers&rsquo; rights. To order it, see <a href="http://www.cleanclothes.org/pub.htm">http://www.cleanclothes.org/pub.htm</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">FORWARD is an international NGO dedicated to improving the health and well-being of African women and girls See: 
 <a href="http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/welcome.htm">http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/welcome.htm</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">Two new websites provide gender-sensitive news reporting: <a href="http://www.cimacnoticias.com/index.html">http://www.cimacnoticias.com/index.html</a> and <a href="http://www.artemisanoticias.com.ar/site/default.asp">http://www.artemisanoticias.com.ar/site/ 
 default.asp</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">For a report on the ILO/PSI/Global Unions Discussion Forum on Pay Equity held at the ILO on 16 February 2006, please contact <a href="mailto:carol.bruce@icem.org">carol.bruce@icem.org</a>. 
 </div>
 </li>
 <li>
 <div align="left">The International Labour Organisation has published a new International Labour Review which highlights women&rsquo;s labour force participation. It is the 2005/4 edition and is available from the ILO.</div>
 </li>
</ul>

ICEM WOMEN’S BULLETIN N° 10

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