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Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

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Early in 2009, collective agreements will expire for 30,000 downstream oil workers in the US. In a 45-day period from mid-September to 27 October, local branches of the United Steelworkers &ndash; representing those production workers &ndash; ratified a 12-point national pattern bargaining programme, in addition to granting the union strike authorisation. 
 
That bargaining agenda will aim to gain a share of oil industry&rsquo;s vast profits, which would help ease a US recession by putting money in the pockets of working families. It also is intended to address health, safety, and environmental requirements, grant adequate pensions, and give sufficient medical coverage to workers, their families, and retirees. 
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USW Vice President Gary Beevers 
&ldquo;This strong ratification of the oil policy and strike ratification shows how united and determined the membership is in getting a fair contract,&rdquo; stated USW Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the union&rsquo;s oil bargaining programme. &ldquo;By adopting the policy, the local unions agree that their contracts will not conflict with it.&rdquo; 
 
Most of the collective agreements between the USW and oil companies expire 1 February 2009. With last month&rsquo;s overwhelming ratification, both national and local branch bargaining will begin in December with an exchange of proposals. The USW will negotiate with the industry to set a national pattern on wages, benefits, and working conditions.
The union is seeking term limits of three years, until 2012, and substantial wages increases, in addition to cost-of-living adjustments. It also seeks increases in shift differential, two added holidays, and no regression on previously agreed terms and conditions. 
 
USW will also be negotiating for union neutrality at non-union worksites, renewal and expansion of successorship language regarding new companies taking over enterprises, and additional occupational death coverage. In mid-September, the union&rsquo;s National Oil Bargaining Conference was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and shaped the agenda, which then went to branch unions for ratification, and granting of the strike sanction. 
 
The union represents workers at scores of US and Caribbean refineries, as well as pipeline, transportation, and marketing staff in the downstream sector. Employers include Shell, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, BP, ExxonMobil, and other refiners us Tosco, Tesoro, Sunoco, and LyondellBasell.

US Steelworkers Ratify Oil Bargaining Platform

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Political agreement was finally achieved at the European Parliament over the Directive on Temporary Agency Work. MEPs passed &ndash; without amendment &ndash; a second reading. Adoption by the plenary on 22 October in Strasbourg, France, now means that the Council of Europe will formally adopt the statute in the coming weeks. 
 
The directive gives agency workers equal protection and equal treatment from day one of employment as permanent workers receive. That covers the &ldquo;essential conditions&rdquo; of work and employment, such as hours, overtime, rest time, paid leave, and non-discriminatory policies. 

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The directive does grant national social partners the flexibility to set specific aspects related to temporary employment, such as equal pay and a negotiated time frame of the temporary period. This would allow collective agreements to address governance of agency work, as well as for national legislation to enact laws and work regulations. 
 
Member-states now have three years to implement the directive into their national legislations, or to ensure and enable social partners to introduce provisions through agreement. 
 
The second-reading vote took place six years after the directive had been first proposed. A first-reading vote, that included some 26 amendments, occurred in June of this year. The Council endorsed a common position on the directive in early October. 

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) welcomed the end of a long political deadlock, and gave special praise to the strong language on equality. The equal treatment principle, said ETUC General Secretary John Monks, &ldquo;will not only apply to national situations but also to cross-border agency work. This is very important in the current times of increased mobility of workers and services.&rdquo;

EU’s Directive on Temporary Agency Work Passes Final Hurdle in Strasbourg on 22 October

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With the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria now issuing its Ninth Call for Proposals, it is imperative that ICEM affiliates involved in the fight against the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic respond now. The application form and support documentation are available in six languages at <a href="http://www.theglobalfund.org">www.theglobalfund.org</a>. 
 
Proposals Have to Reach the Global Fund by 21 January 2009 
 
All proposals submitted by the closing date of 21 January 2009 will be reviewed by the Secretariat to ensure that they meet the eligibility criteria. Eligible proposals will then be forwarded to the Technical Review Panel (TRP) for consideration. The TRP will make recommendations to the Global Fund Board, which will then decide. 
 
How Does the Global Fund Work? 
The Global Fund, itself a public/private partnership, is a funding mechanism. Since it was registered in January 2002 and up to December 2007 the Global Fund has approved grants with a total commitment of US$14.5 billion, more than half of it designated for HIV/AIDS. 
 
The Global Fund is based in Geneva. It does not have any country representation. The proposal process and the implementation of grants are devolved to the national level. The Global Fund gives the policy framework and issues guidelines on various aspects of its operations. It raises money, spends it and proves it &ndash; the Global Fund is performance based. 
 
All proposals have to go through the Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM). The composition of the CCMs is supposed to be representative of all stakeholders in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including civil society, the private sector and organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). 
 
How Can Unions Get Involved? 
The role of the workplace in the fight against HIV/AIDS is officially recognised. The workplace is an important entry point for HIV/AIDS services and no workplace activities can be efficiently implemented without unions. The role of national unions and their international bodies, including the Global Union Federations, is acknowledged by international organisations such as the ILO, the World Health Organisation, and UNAIDS. 
 
The Global Fund is supportive of public/private partnerships or co-investment arrangements. Without the involvement of the private sector, universal access to voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), and to anti-retroviral treatment (ART), is not possible or will be further delayed. The private sector is business and trade unions as workers&rsquo; representatives. The Guidelines for R9 proposals mention unions under eligible organisations of the private sector. 
 
The manpower capacities of unions are limited. They have to attend to other day-to-day business. Unions are not single-issue NGOs. They have to look for partners and build alliances with companies and NGOs. 
 
Very few CCMs include unionists. While we continue to call for union representation on CCMs, in the short term, it is vital that unions work through members of the CCMs who are sympathetic to their cause. It is important that unions find cooperating partners who can develop their project ideas into proposals for the CCM. 
 
The German Organisation for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) operates the BACKUP Initiative (Building Alliances &ndash; Creating Knowledge &ndash; Updating Partners), which provides support. GTZ is represented in more than 130 countries. Many USAID offices have HIV/AIDS Coordinators and certain embassies, notably of Nordic countries, the Netherlands, the UK, and the European Union, may be able to give assistance. Global Unions and the WHO have agreed to use the potential of unions in up-scaling and accelerating access to VCT and ART. The ILO and its workplace programme ILOAIDS has focal points on HIV/AIDS in a number of offices. 
 
The most significant feature in recent Rounds has been that the Global Fund recommends that applicants specify one (or more) Principal Recipients (PRs) from the government sector and one (or more) from the various non-government sectors, including the private sector which includes unions (dual-track financing). 
 
What are Your Next Steps? 
&bull; Put down your ideas about a workplace programme on one page and prepare a draft budget. 
&bull; Get to know the members of your country&rsquo;s CCM and lobby those who are potentially sympathetic to union causes for the inclusion of workplace programmes in Round 9 proposals. Country-specific information is accessible at <a href="http://www.theglobalfund.org">www.theglobalfund.org</a>. 
&bull; Contact GTZ, USAID, the ILO, UNAIDS and WHO offices in your country. 
&bull; Build alliances with companies; remind them of their social responsibility. 
&bull; Cooperate with NGOs and organisations of PLWHA. 
&bull; Access the website <a href="http://www.aidspan.org/guides">www.aidspan.org/guides</a> on which a guide to Round 9 applications is available. 
 
How Can the ICEM Help? 
The ICEM Global Coordinator has good working relations with all the organisations mentioned. He can help you with contacts and links to materials. Send your ideas about a workplace programme and mail inquiries to the ICEM Coordinator below. The ICEM has Global Agreements with a dozen multinational companies, which can be engaged in the fight against the pandemic. 
 
Above all 
&bull; Start today if you want to do something. 
&bull; Remember that the private sector includes business, and unions as the legitimate workers&rsquo; representatives. 
&bull; Remember that you have allies who can be mobilized and who can give assistance. 
&bull; Write to the ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator at <a href="mailto:hiv.aids@icem.org">hiv.aids@icem.org </a>for further information and help.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-Bulletin: Global Fund Calls for Round 9 Proposals

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Strategic, year-long pressure by the Pulp and Paper Workers&rsquo; Branch of Australian ICEM affiliate Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU) appears to have severed a supply contract between retail grocery chain Woolworths and Indonesian-based Asia Pulp and Paper (APP). The supply arrangement was for kitchen towels and tissue products. 

The pressure, countering Woolworth&rsquo;s environmental claim on packaging of its Select private-label towel and tissue products, came to a head last week when Woolworths announced it had &ldquo;concluded its contract commitments for the supply of Select paper products.&rdquo; 
The CFMEU is now looking for Australia&rsquo;s largest retailer to tell the country&rsquo;s consumers that it will, in fact, rely only on paper producers that adhere to sustainable forest practices. 

&ldquo;If Woolworths has finally decided to do the right thing, they need to show us by a clear and unequivocal statement they will never go back to APP,&rdquo; said CFMEU&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper Secretary Alex Millar. They must now prove &ldquo;they will source their product from Australia and support Australian jobs the way they expect Australian consumers to support them.&rdquo; 
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The CFMEU campaign focused on a Woolworths packaging claim that its Select products were sourced from an &ldquo;environmentally managed company.&rdquo; In fact, Indonesia&rsquo;s Centre for International Forestry Research in 2007 found that APP relies on 60-70% of its wood fibre from clearing first-growth, protected forests in Sumatra. And much of that is by using illegal logging practices. 

The campaign then discovered that many Select products are made in APP&rsquo;s Chinese mills, where much of the wood fibre used is also derived through illegal means. 

After CFMEU appeals to Woolworths shareholders, most notably in November 2007, the retail chain pulled the Select brands from its shelves. But a few weeks later, those brands were back on the retail market, but without the environmental friendly claim. 

Millar says the CFMEU will now recommend to Woolworths paper-producing companies inside Australia which use proven, sustainable fibre sourcing in paper manufacturing.

CFMEU Forces Woolworths Hand on Sustainable Forest Products

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Rubber workers of Kiyan Tyre in Chahardangeh, Iran, continued their protests last week over wage arrears. Some 600 workers of the factory began striking on 16 July and the protests escalated last week when strikers began setting portions of the factory on fire. 
 
Shouting anti-government slogans on 22 July outside a management building in Chahardangeh, a western suburb of Tehran, workers threatened to bring their next protest to Iran&rsquo;s Majlis, or Parliament.
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&nbsp; 
On 12 April, 1,000 workers at Iran&rsquo;s biggest rubber plant took job actions because their wages had not been paid in five months. Then, the repressive State Security Force ran bulldozers into the protestors, and arrested all 1,000 using electric batons. Most were held for 36 hours, while some 100 strike leaders were held longer. They were finally freed, but as a condition for release, the workplace leaders were forced to sign statements that they would not protest again. 
 
The more recent protests are against a hand-picked management team which reportedly is under-paying wages, or denying payment altogether. Kiyan, formerly called Alborz Tyre Mfg. Co., was established in 1958 as a joint venture with the American company B.F. Goodrich Co. In 1979, it became part of state-owned National Iranian Industries, before being sold to private Iranian investors in 1994.

Tyre Manufacturing Workers in Iran Again Strike Kiyan

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At the Fifth Meeting of the Brazilian national network of trade unions at Dutch-based Akzo Nobel plants from 15-17 July in S&atilde;o Paulo, union representatives from British-based ICI chemical facilities joined the network. Akzo Nobel recently acquired ICI. 
 
The expansion of the network is expected to further the links of solidarity between workers of the two companies in Brazil. 
 
The 25 union representatives present came from plants located in Recife, Santo Andr&eacute;, Mau&aacute;, S&atilde;o Bernardo do Campo, Jundia&iacute;, Itupeva, S&atilde;o Roque, S&atilde;o Paulo, Bahia, Guarulhos, and Rio de Janeiro. 
 
The network meeting opened with a presentation by the Brazilian national centre CUT on a multinational project surrounding the ABC Chemical Workers&rsquo; Union&rsquo;s Project of Life programme. That deals with the demands of life, health, and work, and introduces actions to ensure a better work environment. 
 
The coordinator of the network, Sergio Carrasso, then delivered a report on activities of the network since its inception in 2003. That was followed by the results of a survey done by the Social Observatory Network on working conditions at Akzo Nobel.
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&nbsp; 
The survey reflects a positive outcome through collective negotiations, with workers of Akzo Nobel in Brazil managing to establish better social dialogue practices in which civil rights have been guaranteed and wage differentials bridged. 
 
ICI trade unionists attending made a presentation on their individual plants, including numbers of workers, length of work days, discrimination problems, and social dialogue and corporate social responsibility experiences. 
 
The mid-July network meetings also served as preparation for the Third National Social Dialogue forum of Brazilian unions with Akzo Nobel. The network meeting concluded with a visit to the S&atilde;o Bernardo do Campo plant. 
 
Akzo Nobel workers pledged to continue seeking contacts with workers of the company in Mexico and The Netherlands.

Brazilian Akzo Nobel Workers’ Network Brings in ICI Plants for Effective Solidarity

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&nbsp;The ICEM lodged a stern protest with the government of Turkey following excessive police force to quell a peaceful protest by ICEM affiliate Belediye-İş, the Municipal and General Workers&rsquo; Union. Due to stalled negotiations on behalf of 10,000 union members at different segments of the Istanbul Metropolitan Muncipality, the union issued a 60-day strike notice in mid-July. 
 
On 17 July, 2,000 Belediye-İş members, along with officials of the union, marched to an administrative building of the municipality to hang a banner announcing their legal strike. They were immediately repelled by police, using pepper spray and pressurized water cannons. 
 
The police force was a reminder of the force used on 1 May this year when trade unionists attempted to lay flowers at Istanbul&rsquo;s Taksim Square in memorial to the 37 comrades killed there by government forces on 1 May 1977.
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Police Water Cannons Impede Peaceful&nbsp;Belediye-İş March on 17 July 

&ldquo;The attitude taken by police against peaceful demonstrators reinforces the impression and opinion worldwide on your government&rsquo;s pursuit against (workers&rsquo; rights),&rdquo; wrote ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 
 
&ldquo;Although Turkey has ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98, we understand that neither in law or in daily life can these standards be freely exercised.&rdquo; 
 
The strike notice was issued because the Istanbul Metropolitan Muncipality has closed the door on negotiations after offering only an 8% increase. Belediye-İş is seeking a 40% increase. According to the union, daily consumer costs have rapidly escalated beyond the high inflation rate in Turkey, with water and transportation increases nearing the 35% mark.

ICEM Protests Police Force to Break up Belediye-İş Strike Call in Turkey

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Today, in Bogot&aacute;, Colombia, civil society and trade unions, led by the ICEM electric utility affiliate Sintraelecol, will mark the 25th anniversary of the Guavio dam disaster in which most of the 200 casualities were&nbsp;temporary labourers. They were buried alive when a&nbsp;pair of massive rock slides, totalling 60,000 cubic yards of earth,&nbsp;fell on them&nbsp;in the evening of 28 July 1983. 
 
The day has been designated as not only a Day of Remembrance by&nbsp;ICEM's Latin America/Caribbean Region, but also as a day to push for full labour rights, including safety and health, for contract and agency workers. 
 
The memorial event and symposium&nbsp;will be held at the Hotel del Parque, 23-24 Carrera 5A, Bogot&aacute;, beginning at 14h00. 
 
&ldquo;Today is a tribute to the casual workers and others&nbsp;who passed away in 1983 while they were constructing one of the most important energy projects in our country,&rdquo; said ICEM Colombia Coordinator Carlos Bustos. &ldquo;It is also a call to non-permanent workers and agency staff everywhere to join with labour unions for decent work and a guarantee of protection under established global labour standards.&rdquo;
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Construction of the 820-foot rock-fill dam, the tallest in the Americas,&nbsp;began in August 1981 by Empresa de Energia Electrica de Bogot&aacute;, the electric power company of Colombia's capital city. Between the towns of Ubal&aacute; and M&aacute;mbita, 120 kilometres northeast of Bogot&aacute;, the utility had purchased 2,000 estates from landowners in order to build the continent's&nbsp;biggest hydroelectic dam, one&nbsp;that would generate one million kilowatts of power.
In September 1982, a precursor of what was to come occurred when four miners were killed from a rock slide.
During&nbsp;the spring of 1983, when construction&nbsp;was in full swing,&nbsp;heavy rains set in on the&nbsp;the Bocatoma Valley in the department of Cundinamarca. 

The US$1.3 billion dam project, on the Guavio River, had the financial support of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. March through May, 1983, also saw a 48-day strike by workers against the joint contractors, Rome-headquartered Vianini Lavori Spa and Madrid-based Entrecanles y Tavora. The&nbsp;strike saw the Colombian military&nbsp;called in.
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At 10h00 on 28 July, while boring was underway on a power tunnel and a separate water diversion&nbsp;tunnel,&nbsp;eight workers were slightly injured when a massive rock was dislodged and fell inside the adjacent tunnels. A safety alarm drew the attention of the industrial security team, but after inspection, the area was declared&nbsp;safe for work. Meanwhile, rain continued to ravage the Andes mountainside outside.&nbsp; 
 
At 19h00, pipefitters, electrical pump installers, and other skilled workers were leaving the project&rsquo;s front on buses,&nbsp;their work day complete. Left behind to mine the tunnels overnight were some 100-plus casual labourers, including many teen-age boys. 
 
In the words of one pump installer, who recalls looking back on the worksite&nbsp;from a base camp, the illimination of lights was brilliant. And then seconds later, &ldquo;the lights went dark.&rdquo; Some of the&nbsp;workers, along with rescues teams,&nbsp;began hurrying back to the project&rsquo;s front in buses, only to have a second&nbsp;landslide bury three buses alongside the tunnels. 
 
Buried inside were 138 workers, with&nbsp;another 40 workers crushed to death when the buses they were in&nbsp;became encapsulated by falling&nbsp;rock. Approximately 20 local residents, who were assisting work in one manner or another, also perished inside the tunnels.
The bodies of only one-half of the victims were&nbsp;recovered.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 
The Guavio&nbsp;dam was finally&nbsp;completed in 1988, two years behind scheduled. In 1997, the Spanish company Endesa purchased the hydro-generating operation. 
 
The ICEM salutes its Colombian affiliate, Sintraelecol, with commemorating the 25th anniversary of a disaster that should never&nbsp;have happened, as well as all Latin American/Caribbean trade unions and NGOs who are participating in today&rsquo;s event.

Colombia Dam Disaster of 28 July 1983: ‘The Night the Lights Went Dark’ on 200 Casual Workers

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Forty-one national mining unions from 37 countries met 9-11 July in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the ICEM&rsquo;s quadrennial World Conference on Mining and DJGOP. A total of 138 delegates addressed the major changes occurring in the industry. 
 
At the top of the agenda of an ICEM work plan covering the next four years was the continuing health and safety problems occurring at mines throughout the world. 
 
&ldquo;At a time of unprecedented profits in the mining industry, it is an unacceptable situation that much of this profit continues to be stained with the blood of miners,&rdquo; said Senzeni Zokwana, ICEM President and also President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa.
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ICEM President Senzeni Zokwana&nbsp;
Although there are no worldwide figures on mining injuries and fatalities, serious accidents continue to plague mining operations in more developed countries, such as the US and South Africa, as well as in developing nations. South African-based Gold Fields Ltd., the world&rsquo;s fourth largest gold-mining house, was specifically cited for operating dangerous mines and may be a target of ICEM action. 
 
ICEM affiliates attending the Mining Conference approved a continued global campaign for ratification of ILO Convention 196, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention. Delegates also approved action to assist uranium miners in Africa in preventing exposure to dangerous radiation. 
 
A further focus to the conference was the continued vertical and horizontal consolidation in the mining and metals industries and the growing power of multinational corporations, including emergent multinational mining companies based in Brazil, China, India, and Russia. Delegates pledged to work together to build networks to confront these companies. 
 
Also designated as part of the work plan was the development of a policy on sustainable development, including support for developing clean coal technologies, challenging the use of contract and agency labour and gaining work rights for such workers, and establishing closer relationships with NGOs that show support for workers. 
 
Featured at the conference was a presentation on the fight between the Mexican mineworkers&rsquo; union, known as Los Mineros, and Grupo M&eacute;xico and the government of Mexico, which has attempted to destroy the union. ICEM affiliates pledged full support to the miners and a stepped up campaign against this company and the government. 
The ICEM mining report can be found <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/2008ICEMMiningReportEN.pdf">here</a>.

ICEM Holds Quadrennial Mining Conference in Russia

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Citing the common threat of decent work life being destroyed by rampant privatisation, six ICEM Turkish affiliates have joined with engineering associations and a&nbsp;consumer rights group in building an active coalition to block privatising. 
 
Called the Platform Against Privatisation, the coalition&rsquo;s declaration states that &ldquo;the Turkish Republic has been losing all values and accomplishments created with sweat and blood since (its) establishment.&rdquo; The mobilisation of public resources has been &ldquo;given as gifts to the capitalist class,&rdquo; the declaration says. 
 
The coalition issued a 10-point agenda, including a determination &ldquo;to continue a struggle for the rights and interests of labour and democracy, the fight to resist practices such as subcontracting, removing union coverage, low wages, (and) flexible employment,&rdquo; and to defend the &ldquo;public management of resources.&rdquo;
<img height="101" alt="" src="" width="220" />
The declaration specifically addresses the current privatising of Turkey&rsquo;s electric generating and distribution systems and calls energy a &ldquo;public right for human life.&rdquo; In July, auctions were held on Turkey&rsquo;s first two electric distribution networks, and the entire power grid in the Sakarya region is proposed for privatisation. 
 
Chambers of Engineers representing Chemicals, Electrical, Geology, Mechanical, Metals, and Mining are signatory to the declaration. Also, ICEM trade union affiliates including Tes-İş (Energy, Water, and Gas Workers Union), Petrol-İş (Oil, Chemical Workers', and Rubber Workers' Union), Genel Maden-İş (Coal Mine Workers' Union), the T&uuml;rkiye Maden-İş (Mine Workers), Dev Maden-Sen (Mine Workers' Union), and ESM (Energy,&nbsp;Industry, and Mining&nbsp;Public Employees) are part of Platform Against Privatisation.

Trade Unions, Engineering and Consumers’ Groups Take Stand Against Turkey’s Privatisation

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