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The National Federation of Mining, Metallurgy, and Steel Workers UNION (FNTMMSP) of Peru will hold a national session of all its affiliates in Lima on 22-23 November in order to formulate plans for a national strike. 
 
The ICEM affiliate said its discontent is aimed not at mining companies, but rather at the government. A bill now before Peru&rsquo;s Congress aims to change the way profit-sharing plans are regulated. The union also seeks to get the government to regulate and enforce the manner in which contract workers are employed.
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&ldquo;Our problem is a political problem,&rdquo; said FNTMMSP General Secretary Carlos Luis Castillo in a published Reuters report. &ldquo;On November 22 and 23, we will have a national session with delegates from all the country&rsquo;s unions, and we&rsquo;ll define the start date for the strike. 
 
Castillo added that in an era of high demand and high prices for base metals, &ldquo;we show that we aren&rsquo;t passive about things that are happening either because of government inaction or because of laws before Congress.&rdquo; 
 
Mining companies operating in Peru have seen huge profits coming from high global pricing of metals. FNTMMSP has consistently backed the needs of people living in mining areas by seeking more social investment and environmental safeguards for these areas. 
 
Peru&rsquo;s is the world&rsquo;s third largest producer of copper and zinc, and ranks fifth in global output of gold.

ICEM’s Peruvian Mining Affiliate Braces for National Strike

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ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa is outraged by the further retrenchment of 400 miners in the diamond-mining region of Kimberley, Northern Cape. DeBeers said that it would sack the workers, employed near the Koffiefontein diamond mine&rsquo;s New Treatment Plant, by the end of the year. 
 
The company has not, as of yet, conducted the proper consultation process with the NUM. The union also is angered at DeBeers for not providing advance notice of the closure so that &ldquo;avenues or alternatives to retrenchments&rdquo; could be explored.
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&ldquo;In our view, this constitutes bad faith on the side of the employer, who know the magnitude of problems that come (for people) with this kind of mass retrenchment,&rdquo; said the NUM. 
 
The New Treatment Plant was only opened in the year 2000, and was expected then to extend the life of diamond-mining operations in Koffiefontein by 15 to 25 years. But DeBeers closed the Koffiefontein mine last year, costing 600 miners their jobs. In all, over 2,500 miners have been left jobless in the Kimberley area.

South Africa’s NUM Disputes DeBeers’ Further Retrenchments at Koffiefontein

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Over the past two years, ICEM affiliate Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) has faced obstacles that would have crushed any normal union. The National Executive of the union has witnessed two mining companies, Debswana and BCL, now an enterprise of global mining house LionOre, subvert the union&rsquo;s national leadership, instigate a wildcat strike (BCL) in order to sack workers, withhold union fees from BMWU, and now start a rival, yellow union. 
 
But the BMWU hasn&rsquo;t flinched, and has met every onslaught with a legal and dignified response to the overt divide-and-conquer tactics of the two companies. On 3 November, the BMWU General Council met in session and reaffirmed the union&rsquo;s role as the Mineworkers&rsquo; Union of Botswana.
It also set in motion resolutions passed from the 2004 Congress, national union initiatives that had been stalled by the companies&rsquo; conduct, and followed through on a restructuring plan that gives BMWU four regions. 
 
However, interference from both Debswana, a joint diamond-mining company between DeBeers and the government of Botswana, and BCL continues. Debswana is actively pushing members into a rival union, and strong evidence exists that management is funding such a union. 
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&ldquo;The Human Resources Department works around the clock to divert our members,&rdquo; said BMWU General Secretary Jack Tlhagale. He said Debswana took a full year, until September 2006, to recognise the legitimate branch committee from Orapa, a major mining area of Debswana, and has withheld union fees due the BMWU. 
 
Tlhagale also said the world&rsquo;s largest diamond-mining enterprise has unilaterally taken union dues money and used it for fees owed in an appellate court case the BMWU lost in April 2004. Separately, the BMWU is still seeking justice for 461 workers fired in August 2004 when they went on strike, but the case is consistently being delayed in an Industrial Court. BMWU is convinced that the court is unduly influenced by the government and DeBeers in the matter. 
BCL, a copper and nickel mining operation bought by LionOre only in 2005, has entered into an illegal collective agreement with dissidents inside the Selebi-Phikwe branch of BMWU, dissidents who have been jailed for failing to comply with multiple court orders to turn dues monies over to the national union. 
 
BCL has financially supported the jailed group of workers, and has refused to recognise a duly-elected Selebi-Phikwe branch committee that replaced the one consisting of some of the jailed workers. That recognition case is scheduled to be heard in Industrial Court on 20 November. 
 
Perhaps BCL&rsquo;s biggest offence is that management led machine workers and spannermen into a non-sanctioned strike in order to sack them. Some 181 workers were fired after BCL management told them they have no union to represent them. &ldquo;The general manager did this deliberately as a trap to eliminate them,&rdquo; said Tlhagale. &ldquo;He was fully aware that a legitimate union committee was in place, but he said they have no union because the union he recognises is in prison.&rdquo; 
 
The BMWU&rsquo;s National Executive Committee will continue to receive the support, guidance, and solidarity of ICEM and its affiliates as it continues it&rsquo;s legal and moral course for justice and a dignity for all Botswana&rsquo;s miners.

Botswana’s Miners’ Union Fights Repressive Companies, BCL LionOre and Debswana

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Nigerian oil workers&rsquo; unions PENGASSAN and NUPENG are demanding that the country&rsquo;s National Assembly investigate the sale of Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd. by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to Indorama of Thailand. The privatisation of an olefins refinery in Port Harcourt to a group of investors was called into question by the two unions over several fiduciary disparities. 
On another level, the two ICEM oil and gas union affiliates in Nigeria also continue to negotiate with management of Agip, a division of Italian energy company Eni, over security protections. The talks come during another peak in kidnappings and energy installation occupations along the Niger Delta, this time with Agip worksites as the main targets. 
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Agip staff has threatened a strike to shut all of the company&rsquo;s production down unless it provides the same level of security that it provides to expatriate workers. Agip office workers at a regional headquarters in Port Harcourt did strike on 30 October, and barricaded the office in protest to the company&rsquo;s delays in providing extra security and pay. 
 
The security issue also threatens to renew a national oil and gas strike in Nigeria. On 11 October, PENGASSAN and NUPENG, after meeting jointly in Lagos, issued a statement that said a second phase of a national strike is close to being called because of &ldquo;failed implementation&rdquo; of the safety requirements that were agreed to after a two-day September strike. 
 
The Nigerian oil and gas workers&rsquo; unions protested the government&rsquo;s &ldquo;lukewarm attitude&rdquo; in convening a security forum. They also called the failure to date to set up a commission to investigate the kidnapping and murder of PENGASSAN member Nelson Ujeye &ldquo;unacceptable.&rdquo; 
 
The unions, furthermore, called on the government to drop any plans to privatise the Kaduna refinery and petrochemicals division. 
On the flawed BPE privatisation sale, the official communiqu&eacute; to the government from PENGASSAN and NUPENG provides staunch evidence that the investors not only defaulted on loan requirements and still got possession of the refinery, but that after gaining possession Indorama sold spare parts to generate funds for the sale. 
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Since 75% of Eleme Petrochemical had been owned by the state, PENGASSAN and NUPENG said it was seeking the investigation &ldquo;with a deep sense of patriotism.&rdquo; 
 
The joint statement reads: &ldquo;The Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mrs. Irene Chigbue, was quoted as informing unsuspecting Nigerians that Indorama had paid the full price of US$225 million (N$30 billion) for the Eleme Petrochemical Co. Ltd. She was also quoted as describing the sale of EPCL as a star deal of the privatisation programme. 
 
&ldquo;While Mrs. Chigbue is entitled to express her opinion and make personal assessments of her &lsquo;achievement&rsquo; in BPE, we in NUPENG and PENGASSAN have consistently maintained that the sale was another asset stripping and charade, ever done on the national assets of our great country.&rdquo; 
 
&ldquo;Our position is premised on the fact that the selling of the plant at US$225 million is less than the US$336 million, which the Federal Government will pay as outlandish liabilities before Indorama took possession of the plant,&rdquo; the communiqu&eacute; stated. 
 
Meanwhile, a rash of violent acts again hit Niger Delta oil and gas installations, proving the Nigerian government still has not found viable solutions to the safety and security of workers in the area. 
 
About 40 Agip workers, all Nigerians, are still being held by militant youths at Eni&rsquo;s Tebidaba flow-station in Bayelsa State. They, and eight other Nigerian workers, who managed to escape, were kidnapped there on 6 November by some 70 heavily-armed youth militia. The eight who had escaped told of a security guard being shot.

Nigerian Unions Close to Second National Strike

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The ICEM has a new Norwegian affiliate, the result of a merger between oil and gas union NOPEF and chemicals union Norsk Kjemisk. On 4 September in Oslo, the two unions officially merged during a day-long joint Congress to form Industri Energi. 
 
The merged union, with a combined membership of&nbsp;45,000 members, will have its headquarters in Oslo. 
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NOPEF President Leif Sande was elected Industri Energi&rsquo;s first president, while Liv Undheim, former Deputy President of Norsk Kjemisk, won election as Vice President. After a long and successful career as Norsk Kjemisk President, Olav Stoylen took a well deserved retirement, effective with the 4 September Congress. 
 
The union marriage marks the second such merger this year among Norway&rsquo;s trade unions. Last January, ICEM affiliate Fellesforbundet took in the Norwegian Graphical Workers&rsquo; Union, creating one big union for the pulp, paper, graphical and cardboard industry.

Industri Energi the Result of NOPEF, Norsk Kjemisk Merger in Norway

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Despite a compromised wage proposal by the union, ICEM affiliate Oilfield Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU) and Trinidad and Tobago&rsquo;s state oil company, Petrotrin, are no closer to an agreement on a new three-year contract, dating from 2005 to 2008. 
 
The two sides, however, with assistance from the Labour Ministry, continued intense negotiations through last week. 
 
Some 1,500 OWTU members at the company&rsquo;s lone refinery carried out another wave of industrial actions in the nine-month dispute, staging short work stoppages on 7 and 8 September. The action effectively shut production at the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery, and was the fourth such industrial action taken by OWTU members at the refinery since last March. 
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On 5 September, refinery workers marched on Petrotrin&rsquo;s main offices in Pointe-a-Pierre. They were joined by many of the 3,500 other members employed at Petrotrin, who also await updated labour agreements. 
 
In bargaining in early September, OWTU lowered its wage demands from 32% over three years, but Petrotrin has not moved upward from its 10% proposal. OWTU is attempting to negotiate fair and equitable settlements in five labour agreements, covering 5,000 workers. 
 
The credit ratings agency Moody&rsquo;s, meanwhile, has placed Petrotrin&rsquo;s foreign currency issue rating under review for possible downgrade due to the labour dispute. The review will &ldquo;assess the company&rsquo;s operations and debt servicing capabilities in light of its current labour unrest and the highly uncertain dynamics of labour negotiations,&rdquo; said Moody&rsquo;s in a statement. Roughly a quarter of refined output from the former Texaco refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre is for domestic use, with the remainder exported to eastern Caribbean islands, South America, and the east coast of the US.

Dispute in Trinidad and Tobago’s Oil Industry Continues

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Over 200 trade union leaders and activists throughout Zimbabwe were arrested last week, on 12 and 13 September 2006. A large number of them were treated in an extremely violent way by the police forces while in detention. 
 
Victims include the three top leaders of the national centre Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary General Wellington Chibebe were so brutally assaulted that they could not stand up afterwards. First Vice President Lucia Matibenga could no longer walk. She was, as were others, severely beaten on the soles of her feet. 
<img height="146" src="" width="125" alt="" /> 
 
ZCTU General Secretary Wellington Chibebe
After being ill-treated at the Matapi Police station in Mbare on 13 September, the three top leaders were refused immediate medical attention. They were released later on bail. Speaking from his hospital bed, Brother Chibebe told the press afterwards he had been unconscious for over half a day. Police from Matapi later simply denied that the arrested were assaulted. 
 
Reportedly, their physical shape was such that senior police authorities refused to take them in custody at Harare&rsquo;s Central Police Station. Comrade Chibebe has a broken arm. Both he and Comrade Matombo suffered cranial/facial bruising and other head injuries. Many other arrested trade unionists equally suffered from the police violence, having their heads bashed against prison walls and being stamped and kicked in the head. 
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Police reports from last week suggest that the trade unionists could be charged under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), a commonly used law to deter trade union activists in Zimbabwe. 
Ruling party Zanu PF militia had started the repression last week by intimidating and blocking union marchers in many cities, including in Harare. The ZCTU&rsquo;s demonstration was against the country&rsquo;s inflation rate of 1,000 %, in demand of higher incomes, lower taxes and better access to antiretroviral drugs needed to fight HIV/AIDS. 
 
Some 256 ZCTU activists were arrested in total, in at least 16 cities. ZCTU offices were blockaded and sealed by the army and police forces. Meanwhile, the union leaders vow to continue their protest.

Bloody Repression against Trade Union Leaders in Zimbabwe

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Nigeria&rsquo;s two oil workers&rsquo; unions, PENGASSAN and NUPENG, suspended a three-day warning strike after day two on 14 September. The unions received assurances from the government and its oil ministry that security concerns along the Niger Delta and other grievances would be addressed. 
 
The assurances included establishing a commission to investigate the kidnapping and death last month of PENGASSAN member Nelson Ujeya, who was killed in a hail of gunfire by a military task force as he was about to be released. 
 
Meeting in a joint National Executive Committee (NEC) session on 14 September in Abuja, leaders of the two unions requested that 20,000 Nigerian oil and gas workers return to their jobs the following day after government officials promised earnest dialogue to find lasting solutions to security matters and other concerns. The first such discussion forum will be held 21 September. 
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The strike on 13 and 14 September caused domestic disruptions as fuel depots shut, petrol stations closed, and fuel tanker lorries stayed off roads. Oil marketing companies in Lagos, Abuja, Warri, and Port Harcourt all stopped business. The strike also hampered oil and gas exploration and production facilities, although some offshore oil production and crude exports were allowed to continue. 
 
Besides the concerns over security, in which the government has failed to provide a safe and peaceful work environment, PENGASSAN and NUPENG seeks an honest and transparent process on the privatisation of state-owned assets. They cite the recent sale of the Eleme Petro Chemical Ltd. (EPCL) refinery in Port Harcourt and how the facility was under-valued and sold to a start-up company with little experience in the petrochemical business. (In meetings with Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Daukoru, on 13 September, the NEC did receive a commitment for work guarantees for all current staff of EPCL.) 
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Other demands of the two ICEM-affiliated unions include social commitments that jobs and skills development will occur in the country&rsquo;s oil patch for young Nigerians. They also demand strict adherence to past agreements made by energy companies and the government on expatriate quotas in the oil, gas, and related industries. The unions also object to merging the Petroleum Training Institute into the University of Benin. 
 
PENGASSAN and NUPENG demands must now be met or further and longer strikes will occur in the immediate future. The short warning strike last week achieved the unions&rsquo; objective to gain the government&rsquo;s attention to the serious security concerns that oil and gas workers in Nigeria face.

Nigerian Warning Strike Succeeds in Grabbing Government’s Attention

Comrade Peter Esele 
President 
PENGASSAN 
PENGASSAN House 
288, Ihorodu Road, Anthony 
PO Box 10433 
Marina-Lagos 
NIGERIA 
 
Dear Comrade Peter, 
 
The ICEM has learned of the tragic and senseless death of one of PENGASSAN&rsquo;s members, Nelson Ujeya, earlier this week in the vicinity of Brass Creek or Biobou Creek, Bayelsa State. We understand that Brother Ujeya had been kidnapped on 8 August 2006 in Letugbene while performing his employment duties for Shell Petroleum Development Corporation. 
 
We also have unconfirmed reports that he died in a violent gun fight between Nigeria&rsquo;s Joint Military Task Force and militant youth groups on 20 August 2006 as he was about to be released after negotiations. 
 
The 20-million-member ICEM, the Global Union Federation for oil and gas workers, finds it reprehensible that such indiscriminate use of force by Nigerian government militia be used in such a situation. The ICEM stands firmly behind PENGASSAN in holding both the government of Bayelsa State initially responsible for the abduction of Brother Ujeya while in the presence of state officials, and the federal government for its new policy of &ldquo;force by force&rdquo; in dealing with kidnappings that occur in the Niger Delta. 
 
The ICEM calls on all energy companies operating in Nigeria to apply the same effort and resources in securing the release of kidnapped Nigerian workers as they do for their foreign national employees. 
 
Next week, on 30 August 2006, PENGASSAN and NUPENG will conduct a joint National Executive Council (NEC) in Benin City to discuss this and other security matters in the Niger Delta. The ICEM recognises that the combined voice of NUPENGASSAN in Nigeria has been one of reason and soundness in stemming the social instability occurring along the Niger Delta. We know that this combined voice has stood for education, skills training and other social development initiatives that will increase employment opportunities in the oil and gas sectors for Nigerians. We commend and fully endorse that stand. 
 
We would look forward to having a report from the NEC&rsquo;s deliberations as soon after 30 August as possible in order to publicise your sensible positions on the global level. 
 
In conclusion, please convey sincere condolences from the ICEM and its family of global trade unions to the family of Wilson Ujeya. We are very distraught on the circumstances of his horrific death. Also, please express our deep concern to all trade union members of PENGASSAN and NUPENG, who are forced to work in such a difficult and terrifying environment. 
 
Fraternally, 
 
 
Fred Higgs 
General Secretary

ICEM letter to Pengassan

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A strike by glass workers in New Zealand enters its second week today. About a dozen night-shift workers at Pilkington Glass in the Auckland suburb of Mt. Wellington began the strike late on 30 August. They were joined by the plant&rsquo;s 50 other workers the next morning. 
 
The glass workers are represented by ICEM affiliate Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU). Workers are seeking the standard 5% contained in nearly all EPMU-negotiated collective agreements, but Pilkington, now a subsidiary of Nippon Sheet Glass, is offering only 4%. Union members are also seeking an increase in the daily shift allowance from NZ$3.25 to NZ$10.00. 
<img height="152" src="" width="100" alt="" /> 
EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little
&ldquo;(Workers) claims are quite modest &ndash; nothing more than the going rate,&rdquo; stated EPMU National Secretary Andrew Little. &ldquo;The company says it can&rsquo;t afford it, but the New Zealand operation made a NZ$14 million net profit in the year up to March 2005, with a global profit of more than NZ$600 million.&rdquo; 
 
The 60 glass workers started industrial action during the week of 7 August when they conducted two stop-work actions. The next week saw EPMU members begin a ban on all overtime work.

Pilkington Glass Workers in New Zealand Strike for 5% Pay Gains

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