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20 October will go down as a day of death in China&rsquo;s coal mines. Four disasters found 123 dead, including&mdash;at last count&mdash;77 miners of state-owned Zhengzhou Group at Xinmi, Henan province, the worst mine catastrophe in recent years. At the weekend, 71 are still missing from the 20 October gas explosion that tore through several shafts at one of Zhengzhou&rsquo;s larger coalmines. Two other gas blasts added to the death count. Five were killed, 8 still missing at a blast in the southern province of Guizhou and near the southwestern Chinese city of Chongquing, another 12 perished in a natural gas explosion. The fourth 20 October disaster occurred at the Desheng coal mine in Wu&rsquo;an, Hebei province, when flooding cased the deaths of 29 miners.

Day of Death in Chinese Coal Mines, 20 October 2004

Nigeria&rsquo;s House of Representatives will carefully scrutinize an already amended Labour Reform Bill passed by the Senate. The measure, introduced by President Olusegun Obasanjo to punish NLC and trade unions for opposing past fuel price hikes with strikes, did have &ldquo;no strike&rdquo; language removed by the Senate before passage, but other restrictive measures that would weaken the NLC and trade unions remain. House leaders promise comprehensive hearings to ensure Nigerian people are heard on the legislation. Further amendments are likely.

Nigerian Labour Seeks to Further Weaken Labour Reform Bill

Leaders from the Botswana Mining Workers&rsquo; Union face continued legal harassment by Debswana, the diamond-mining joint venture between DeBeers and the government of Botswana. The union faces a 15 October deadline to file affidavits on why leaders should not face jail terms. Debswana is seeking jail sentences of the leaders over a two-week strike staged by some union members at Debswana despite a BMWU plea to continue bargaining. Debswana had received a positive ruling from a Botswana&rsquo;s Industrial Court in early August declaring any strike illegal. The ruling came at the peak of a bitter wage dispute.

Debswana Taking Hard Line Against Botswana’s Miners

Malaysian ICEM affiliates together with national center MTUC conducted nationwide pickets on 28 September protesting the government&rsquo;s lack of response over complaints on failure to implement ILO Convention 87. Malaysian unions have been beset by undue court delays over union recognition and collective bargaining cases, and by ministerial delays over trade union disputes that include worker discharge cases. The government has ignored the calls for response and instead has introduced further restrictions on trade union activity.

Malaysian Unions Protest Government’s Labor Rights Abuses

Letter writing to Ukrainian embassies is the message from the ICEM to all affiliates over the repressive and violent measures taken against Mikhail Volynets and his family. Volynets is president of ICEM affiliate Miners&rsquo; Independent Trade Union of Ukraine, a founder of the national center Confederation of Free Trade Union of Ukraine, as well as a member of the country&rsquo;s parliament, the Rada. On 7 March, two men abducted his 24-year-old son and beat him to near death. Since, Volynets has noticed two members of the Secret Service of Ukraine constantly outside his residence building, as well as two men monitoring visitors to his son&rsquo;s hospital room.

ICEM Protests Against Ukrainian Repression of Mining Leader

Two US ICEM affiliates&mdash;USWA and PACE&mdash;have been jointly working on legislative and member mobilization projects for several years. The two unions have now officially consummated that bond by entering into a formal strategic alliance with each other. The cooperative bond &ldquo;recognizes that it is in each union&rsquo;s mutual interest to coordinate their activities and share with each other the knowledge, techniques and experiences each has gained in areas in which they excel.&rdquo;

US Unions USWA, PACE Form Strategic Accord

German and French unions are teaming up to block the hostile takeover of German-French pharmaceutical Aventis by French rival Sanofi-Synthelabo. Hubertus Schmoldt, president of German IGBCE and Patrick Pierron, general secretary of the French union FCE-CFDT, oppose the hostile takeover. They fear massive job cuts in both countries will result, and jointly expressed disdain over how the takeover was set up. &ldquo;A hostile takeover such as this is counter-production to the stock market. There are hardly any winners with such actions, but certainly plenty of losers,&rdquo; the two unions said.

French, German Unions Resist Aventis, Sanofi Chemical Merger

The ICEM banner in Democratic Republic of Congo continues to show hope for the war-torn country. Last month 13 unions led by ICEM&rsquo;s two Congolese affiliates&mdash;the petrol/chemical union FNTPEC and mining union FENAMICO&mdash;came together in unity and industrial democracy under the ICEM&rsquo;s Regional Shop Steward Development Project of Africa. With war and strife receding in the Congo and multinational concerns rapidly eyeing mining and energy opportunities, the unions have agreed to work together to promote effective leadership and shop steward networks. ICEM Regional Chairperson and NUM President Senzeni Zokwana from South Africa is instrumental in coordination.

ICEM Education Project Making Headway in Congo

The CEP, meanwhile, welcomed 340 Shell oil workers from Montreal into their ranks. An unaffiliated local union there voted to join Canada&rsquo;s dominate energy, paper and communications union and will become CEP Local 121.

Shell Stand-Alone Union in Montreal Joins Canadian CEP

Ukrainian nuclear workers' wages have been paid in full for the past three months, and reimbursement of the wage backlog owed to them is about to get under way. 
 
Alexander Jurkin, President of the nuclear workers' union ATU, confirmed this to ICEM UPDATE today. 
 
The back pay owed to Ukrainian nuclear workers is put at over 15 million US dollars. This March, the union threatened an indefinite strike at Chernobyl and Ukraine's four other nuclear power stations unless measures were taken to pay this debt. As a result, Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma ordered the government to settle the dispute and put the country's debt-ridden energy sector back on a sound financial footing. 
 
Jurkin had further talks this Monday with Deputy Prime Minister V. Kurachenko, at which it was agreed that the National Bank would provide the security for new private bank loans to the Ukrainian energy ministry. These funds will be used to pay off the outstanding wage debt. 
 
Jurkin is now in Brussels for the Executive Committee meeting of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the ATU is affiliated. This morning, his union confirmed that the agreed process is getting under way. A planned protest march on Kiev has therefore been cancelled. 
 
&quot;I told the government exactly where I would be this week, that I would be in meetings with our International, and that the situation must not deteriorate again in the meantime,&quot; Jurkin commented this morning. &quot;The government took the point.&quot; 
 
The ICEM had organised strong international backing for the Ukrainian nuclear workers' campaign. 
 
&quot;This is an important victory for trade unionism in Ukraine and beyond,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe emphasised. &quot;In many transitional economies, the scandal of unpaid wages has driven workers and their families into deepest poverty. The Ukrainian nuclear workers, through their strong but responsible campaign, have secured a repayment plan for what they are owed. The ICEM will be watching to see that this promise is kept. And we will continue to press the governments and employers of Ukraine, Russia and other countries to ensure that all workers receive - in full and on time - the wages that are rightfully theirs.&quot;

Ukrainian Nuclear Wages Paid

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