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At the triennial convention of the United Steelworkers (USW) in the US state of Nevada on 2 July, a cross-border merger of two big amalgamated unions took place. The USW and UK&rsquo;s Unite announced an alliance creating a structure to be called Workers Uniting. 
 
&ldquo;This union is crucial for challenging the growing power of global capital,&rdquo; said USW President Leo Gerard. &ldquo;Globalisation has given financiers license to exploit workers in developing countries at the expense of our members in the developed world.&rdquo;
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USW President Leo Gerard
Added Unite Joint General Secretary Derek Simpson, &ldquo;In addition to empowering the interests of our unions&rsquo; members, our mission is to advance the interests of millions of workers throughout the world who are being shamefully exploited.&rdquo; 
 
In a video broadcast to the convention, attended by 3,500 USW delegates, as well as 77 international trade unionists from 23 countries, Unite Joint General Secretary Tony Woodley stated: &ldquo;The creation of our new union is only the beginning. We&rsquo;re laying the foundations of an even larger and stronger union yet to come.&rdquo;
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Unite Joint General Secretaries Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson
The USW has some one million members in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. It is the product of previous mergers between steelworkers, oil and chemical workers, paperworkers, rubber workers, glass workers, and the wood-workers union of Canada. 
 
Unite represents some two million workers in the UK and Ireland. It is a product of a recent merger between Amicus and the Transport and General Workers&rsquo; Union. Amicus, itself, is an amalgamated union that over the past six years has merged the Graphical, Paper, and Media Union (GPMU) with the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU), the Manufacturing, Science, and Finance (MSF) Union, as well as UNIFI, a former financial services union. 
 
The new structure, Workers Uniting, will have a joint steering committee and will be headed by an Executive Director. Staff will include research, international affairs, and communications specialists. 
 
The USW convention also saw the election of its first woman to its Executive Board. Carol Landry, a 16-year union activist from the union&rsquo;s largest Canadian sector &ndash; mining &ndash; was elected by unanimous vote of the 27-member Executive Board. She is an 8-year staff member of USW-Canada, and prior to that had been prominently active in a number of positions at her local union, which represents workers at Highland Valley Copper in the province of British Colombia.

North American Steelworkers, UK’s Unite Forge Trans-Atlantic Union Alliance

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The Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada reached agreement with Canfor Pulp Ltd. on 6 July, marking the bargaining pattern for this year&rsquo;s pulp and paper sector for the Canadian West. 
 
And then on 10 July, that pattern was achieved for 480 CEP members at Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Ltd., an enterprise north of Vancouver, British Colombia, jointly owned by Vancouver-based Canfor and Oji Paper of Japan. 
 
The four-year Canfor accord, retroactive to 1 April 2008, will now be used this summer as the pattern for some 12 other pulp, paper, and converting companies, employing 14,000 CEP union members in Western Canada.
<img height="171" src="" width="130" alt="" />
CEP President Dave Coles
&ldquo;Under the current economic conditions, it is a very good settlement. It will set the pattern in the Canadian West, and hopefully for the Eastern section of Canada next year as well,&rdquo; said CEP President Dave Coles. Coles said a key accomplishment was bringing the term&rsquo;s contract length down from six years to four. 
 
CEP members at a Canfor Prince George, British Colombia, pulp mill, as well as linerboard mill workers at a separate mill there will begin voting on the agreement tomorrow. Howe Sound workers will vote 30 July. The pattern is expected to be presented at Catalyst Paper&rsquo;s four locations next. 
 
The tentative agreement calls for wage increases of 2% in the first year, 2.5% each in the second and third years, and 3% in the fourth. In addition, the tentative agreement contains significant benefit increases, a C$.70-an-hour craft trades adjustment, and job security provisions, including a severance package. 
 
The CEP attempted to negotiate a contract extension with the Canadian East&rsquo;s lead company, AbitibiBowater, in early March, a year ahead of scheduled expirations there. But that company came to the table seeking major concessions, and talks were ended. Contracts for 20,000 unionised pulp and paperworkers in the East, including 5,500 at AbitibiBowater&rsquo;s 13 mills, expire 1 April 2009.

CEP Achieves Excellent Pattern Settlement in Western Canadian Paper Sector

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ICEM affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) of South Africa last week declared wage disputes with three mining houses, DeBeers, Exxaro Resources, and Kumba Resources&rsquo; Sishen Iron Ore mine. The wage dispute filings come just days after NUM announced that it would take industrial action at Gold Fields&rsquo; four mines in August. 
 
The world&rsquo;s fourth largest gold producer, Gold Fields, has let safety lapse in South Africa, accounting for 23 of the country&rsquo;s 87 mining deaths between January and June, 2008. 
 
In late June, NUM and diamond miner DeBeers agreed on salary adjustments for 2008 of 12%. But the company pulled the offer and &ldquo;put forward a different draft that spoke a different language,&rdquo; said the NUM. DeBeers offered 11% over a two-year period, an obvious slight to miners, with run-away inflation in South Africa with due to rising food and fuel prices.
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The two sides will meet on 21 July before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) in an effort to resolve the dispute. If agreement is not reached, some 6,000 miners at six DeBeers operations will then take industrial action. 
 
The dispute at Exxaro&rsquo;s three coal mines is over wage disparities between the collieries that are both inside and out of the Chamber of Mines. NUM is also seeking to establish minimum wage levels. Exxaro is majority owned by private equity company Main Street, with AngloAmerican Plc. holding 9.84%. 
 
At the Sishen Iron ore mine, where 4,000 miners are employed, the dispute is over wages promises that have not been met. 
 
But the continuing story in the South African mining industry revolves around safety. The NUM held a Safety Imdaba from 3-4 July in Boksburg. There, NUM Health and Safety Chairman Peter Bailey stated bluntly, &ldquo;We need to have the same passion about safety as we did in defeating apartheid.&rdquo;
<img height="243" src="" width="220" alt="" />
&nbsp;NUM's Peter Bailey 
 

The summit caused South African Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to call on the nation&rsquo;s Justice Ministry to join it in investigating and then prosecuting companies negligent over safety. Despite 1,500 workers dying in the mines in the past five years, the Justice Ministry has not taken up a single prosecution case. A new Mine Health and Safety bill is under consideration in South Africa&rsquo;s Parliament. It is intended to mandate stricter enforcement measures, and impose harsher fines on those responsible for safety lapses. 
 
At Gold Fields, the company experienced 15 mining deaths between late April to early May at its South Deep and Driefontein mines. And then on 29 June at its 15,000-worker Kloof mine near Westonaria in West Rand, just hours after the company boasted that it had achieved one million fatality-free shifts, two miners were crushed and died 3,000 metres underground due to a ground shift.
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The company&rsquo;s most egregious accident occurred on 1 May. Nine miners, including two from the same family, plunged 2,880 metres to their deaths at South Deep when a lift cable snapped on a cage that was carrying them. Sonjica said then that the deaths could have been avoided if the infrastructure had been properly checked and maintained. &quot;When you don't service equipment, it will collapse,&rdquo; she told a South African newspaper. 
 
Six other miners employed by Gold Fields, including five at Driefonteion, had died because of rock falls or earth tremors in the week before.

NUM Files Strike Notice on 3 South Africa Mining Houses; Safety Strike Looms at Gold Fields

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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;
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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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Mining unions from Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Columbia met 19-21 August in S&atilde;o Paulo, Brazil, in workshops to address enhanced union power in the face of mergers and consolidation within the mining sector. It was conducted by the ICEM, with sponsorship from Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, union-related foundation in Germany. 
 
&ldquo;We made an important step by bringing so many unions together to address the continued fragmentation of power among mining unions,&rdquo; said S&eacute;rgio Novais, ICEM Vice President for the Latin America/Caribbean Region.
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&nbsp;S&eacute;rgio Novais 
 

The ICEM provided a presentation on major trends in the mining industry that addressed how Latin American countries were targets for the major mining houses, companies that have profited from the unprecedented coal and metal commodity prices. The ICEM pointed out that without mining union mergers in Latin America, and the building of regional and global networks, mineworkers will lose bargaining power and will not be able to secure a fair share of the profits. 
 
Featured during the workshop was a day-long presentation by Ecliff Tantsi and Eddie Majadibodu of South Africa&rsquo;s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). They explained how&nbsp;NUM has built its formidable power under the banner of a single union. Their presentation included background on the history of the NUM, its structures, how collective bargaining is carried out, and how the union maintains both its economic and political power. The NUM also discussed how it assists other mining unions in Sub-Sahara Africa in union building and organizing. 
 
Participants jointly signed a letter to the government of Mexico protesting the continued repression of trade union rights in an effort to destroy the Mexican mineworkers&rsquo; union. And ICEM Colombian affiliate Sintracarb&ograve;n, the major mineworkers&rsquo; union in Columbia, reported new death threats against Adolfo Llanos, a union leader at Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n&rsquo;s Puerto Bolivar, and against other community activists. 
 
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda responded with a strongly-worded letter to President &Aacute;lvaro Uribe of Columbia demanding protection against death threats from right-wing paramilitary squads. Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n, the world&rsquo;s largest open-cast coal mine and its export facility, Puerto Bolivar, is equal parts owned by mining giants AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata. 
 
The workshop participants decided to: share information and work toward more unity among trade unions in the mining industry, particularly in Brazil; create Latin American regional networks among unions having common employers; explore innovative structures and legislative changes that would bring about greater unionization; and jointly develop solidarity actions and campaigns that focus on stopping subcontracting, gutting of social security benefits, and improving health and safety.
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Support for ratification of ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, was approved, and the need for increased cooperation between the ICEM and International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) was also a subject of discussion. Only Brazil and Peru have ratified ILO Convention 176 in ICEM&rsquo;s Latin America/Caribbean Region. 
 
The mining workshops were attended by Jorge Almeida, Latin American Regional Secretary for the IMF. The ICEM and IMF are closely cooperating in efforts to build trade union power among Latin American unions.

South American Mine Unions Meet in Hopes of Consolidating Union Power

In this issue of the ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin, we report on the sub-regional workshop in Lagos and the West African assessment mission. Information is also included on the renewal of PEPFAR, the results of the G8 Summit and on latest developments at the Global Fund.
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Sub-regional HIV/AIDS Review Workshop in Lagos 
Fourteen unionists, half of them women, from Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone came together in Lagos, 21&ndash;23 July, for a sub-regional workshop to review progress in their HIV/AIDS work. Working groups dealt with constraints in their HIV/AIDS work and possible solutions; considered new proposals; discussed the role of women and young workers and argued in favour of mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in all union activities; and explored the idea of making HIV/AIDS an organising tool for unions. 
 
Above all, participants discussed future sustainability in view of the expiry of the ICEM HIV/AIDS project. While funding from employers and national and international organisations, and cooperation with NGOs and faith-based organisations are all important, commitment by union leadership is crucial in the fight against the pandemic. Unions should also develop technical competence in proposal writing and project management. 
 
Presentations on HIV/AIDS workplace policies, the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work, and peer education were made by SMARTWork, a US-funded organisation which supports workplace programmes in Nigeria and other countries, in cooperation with employers and unions. (SMARTWork stands for Strategically Managing AIDS Responses Together in the Workplace). 
 
A representative of the Nigeria Business Coalition against AIDS (NIBUCAA) presented good practices by employers in case studies from Nigeria. 
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West African Assessment Mission 
Prior to the late July workshop in Lagos, the ICEM Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator visited Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria to assess the HIV/AIDS work by ICEM affiliates during the past three years. 
 
A full programme in Freetown included meetings with the National HIV/AIDS Secretariat, mine companies, and the Network of HIV Positives in Sierra Leone. These meetings demonstrated the extended contacts the United Mineworkers&rsquo; Union uses for its very successful HIV/AIDS programme and the commitment of leadership. 
 
The national HIV/AIDS coordinator in Nigeria has run innovative activities for NUPENG and PENGASSAN, with the help of SMARWork, and received technical assistance from GHAIN, the Global HIV/AIDS Initiative Nigeria. A new project sponsored by the Humanity Fund of the Canadian ICEM affiliate Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) will take off soon. 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
News from Affiliates 
In the last issue of this e-bulletin, we reported on the national activities supported by the ICEM HIV/AIDS project in Nigeria, Zambia, C&ocirc;te d&rsquo;Ivoire, and Sierra Leone. 
 
ICEM affiliates continue their HIV/AIDS work and reports were received from a number of countries. The Uganda Mines and Allied Workers&rsquo; Union conducted two training courses for HIV/AIDS counsellors in May and June for a total of 50 participants with the objective to developing skills to conduct counselling at the workplace. Unionists as representatives of workers have a special position of trust to overcome stigma and the low uptake of VCT. 
 
The Mine Workers&rsquo; Union of Namibia (MUN), in cooperation with the Occupational Health, Education, and Awareness Programme (OHEAP) of the Chamber of Mines, organised a group education workshop in Walvis Bay in May. Twnety-six participants from R&ouml;ssing Uranium Mine, from salt and chemical manufacturers, and from the surrounding communities attended the workshop. 
 
ICEM and MUN are also sponsoring an evaluation of the OHEAP Programme to be terminated by December. Over the past two years, cooperation between MUN and the Chamber of Mines has increased, recognising a greater role of the union in HIV/AIDS interventions. 
 
In Mauritius, the Chemical, Manufacturing and Connected Trade Employees&rsquo; Union organised an awareness campaign. A total of 192 participants, including migrant workers, attended the main event. With the support of the ICEM HIV/AIDS Project, 7,000 leaflets were printed. The target of the campaign includes female foreign workers who, because of their meagre salaries, often become part-time commercial sex workers in their spare time. 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
G8 Creates Monitoring Mechanism for AIDS 
A three-year lobbying by trade unions and civil society yielded a renewed G8 commitment to universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care, health system strengthening, and the creation of a follow up mechanism to monitor G8 progress on HIV/AIDS. 
 
Such greater accountability was achieved in a three-year campaign lobbying G8 embassies and ministers at UN, OECD, and other inter-governmental meetings. In the short period of seven working days, over 250 organisations, mostly trade unions, signed up in support of the declaration circulated by the World AIDS campaign (see e-bulletin 32, May 2008). 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
US Triples Funding for AIDS, TB, and Malaria 
The US House of Representatives, on 24 July, voted 303 to115 and the US Senate followed with a 60-13 vote to approve a bill that reauthorizes the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The bill allocates US$48 billion for PEPFAR over the next five years. It was signed by President Bush on 30 July. 
 
The bill approved includes a provision that more than half of the program's aid go toward HIV/AIDS treatment and care. It allocates US$2 billion for the Global Fund in fiscal year 2009. The legislation contains an existing requirement that organisations receiving PEPFAR aid have a policy that opposes commercial sex work. The measure also includes a provision that would ease U.S. HIV/AIDS travel restrictions. 
 
(Various sources, as reported in <a href="http://www.kaisernetwork.org">www.kaisernetwork.org</a>) 
<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />

UNAIDS Publishes New Report on Global AIDS Epidemic 
Significant gains in preventing new HIV infections are being seen in a number of countries most affected by the AIDS epidemic. This is according to the 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. The Report, published every two years, highlights specific examples of countries which are seeing changes in sexual behaviour followed by declines in the number of new HIV infections. 
 
However, the Report also shows that despite the declines in new HIV infections, the AIDS epidemic is far from over, and that rates of new infections are rising in many countries. 
 
The 2008 Report is the most comprehensive report on the response to AIDS. It includes data from 147 countries and enables readers to assess progress made since 2001. 
 
(Source: UNAIDS Press Release, 29 July. The report is available on the website <a href="http://www.unaids.org">www.unaids.org</a>). 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Record Gains in South-East Asia 
According to the above report, Cambodia and Laos are among the best reformers in the region when it comes to ARV coverage. By 2007, there were 26,000 Cambodians on ARV treatment of the 29,000 people living with HIV/AIDS who needed it. Similarly, Laos is in the small group of developing countries where the coverage is more than 75%. 
 
With much higher absolute numbers, Thailand&rsquo;s achievements are also impressive. They are largely due to cheaper generic drugs. In November 2006, Thailand applied the compulsory licensing option, which allows developing countries to break patents of expensive drugs for public health emergencies under WTO rules. 
 
Papua New Guinea has made significant progress in scaling up VCT services, as well as expanding ARV access during the past few years. In Indonesia, however, the epidemic is among the fastest growing in Asia. The epidemic, which initially centred largely on injecting drug users in Bali and Jakarta, has now spread to 32 provinces. 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Global Fund Board Confirms Round 9 
The Board of the Global Fund has confirmed that the Round 9 Call for Proposals will be on 1 October 2008, nearly six months earlier than had originally been anticipated. Round 10 is then expected to begin in April 2009. 
 
In the run-up to the decision on R8 proposals, for which the deadline was 1 July, the Technical Review Panel will give more complete information on rejected proposals, including suggested changes that need to be made to submit a proposal for re-submission. In Round 9, CCMs will be permitted to re-submit a proposal that had been assigned to Category 3 in Round 8 and to submit a separate new proposal. As anticipated, there will be a number of changes from the procedures followed in earlier rounds. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, issue 90 of 26 June 2008. GFO is a free service of Aidspan <a href="http://www.aidspan.org">www.aidspan.org</a>, a Kenya-based NGO that serves as an independent watchdog of the Global Fund. To receive GFO send an email to <a href="mailto:receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org">receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org</a>) 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Do Global Fund Grants Work for Women? 
An Aidspan report entitled, &quot;Do Global Fund Grants Work for Women? An Assessment of the Gender Responsiveness of Global Fund-Financed Programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa,&rdquo; has just been published. It is available at no charge, in English only, at <a href="http://www.aidspan.org/aidspanpublications">www.aidspan.org/aidspanpublications</a>. 
 
The report, by Angela Kageni and David Garmaise, provides findings from an analysis by Aidspan of all 211 approved proposals to the Global Fund that were submitted by countries in sub-Saharan Africa in Rounds 1-7. The study examines the extent to which these proposals, including services and activities, were &ldquo;gender responsive.&rdquo; Programmes are said to be gender-responsive when they provide services specifically for women or promote equal access for women to services provided to both men and women. 
 
For five focus countries &ndash; Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia &ndash; Aidspan analysed not just the proposals, but also the grants as implemented, to determine what results have been achieved for gender-related services and activities. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer, issue 92 of 31 July 2008) 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
Kenya in Landmark HIV Ruling 
Kenya&rsquo;s High Court has ruled for the first time that it is unlawful to fire someone on the grounds of their HIV status. It awarded a woman compensation of 2.2 million Kenyan shillings (US$35,000) for unfair dismissal. Homepark Caterers terminated the waitress&rsquo;s contract five years ago after she tested HIV-positive. 
 
The landmark ruling could have positive consequences for many of the 2.5 million Kenyans living with HIV, many of whom hide their status for fear of discrimination. 
 
(Source: SAPA, 11 July) 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
New AIDS Threat Emerging in India&rsquo;s Call Centres 
A new AIDS threat is rising in India's numerous call centres, where young staff is increasingly having unprotected sex with multiple partners in affairs developed during night shifts, a top AIDS expert has warned. 
 
While India has made great strides in bringing down its HIV infection rate, the promiscuity among &quot;call centre Romeos&quot; is a great concern, Dr. Suniti Solomon, who detected the first HIV case in India in 1986, told an international medical conference. 
 
According to her, India has reached a plateau of the infections. Her concern now is the call centres, where many of the young staff works at night to correspond with the daytime working hours of their American and European clients. 
 
It is estimated that India&rsquo;s call centres employ some 1.3 million people, mostly youths fresh out of school and colleges, earning a starting salary of 25,000 rupees (US$600) a month, more than a government doctor's pay check. There are no figures for how many call centre workers are infected with HIV. 
 
(Source: Associated Press Worldstream, 22 June) 
&nbsp;<img height="35" alt="" src="" width="25" />
News from the Global Union Programme and Global Unions 
In its latest Newsletter on EFA and HIV/AIDS Prevention at Schools of 1 August, Education International reports on the controversy in South Africa in making condoms available in schools; and on HIV/AIDS workshops in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Mali. Articles also deal with preparations for the International AIDS Conference in Mexico and consultations on drafting the ILO Recommendation on HIV/AIDS in the world of work. 
 
The Global Union AIDS Programme is organising a two-day Labour AIDS Forum to facilitate trade union cooperation ahead of the biennial International AIDS Conference in Mexico City from 3-8 August.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin

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Elbranschernas Fackforbund BF, the ICEM&rsquo;s Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union affiliate in Finland, has mounted a health and safety campaign against the use of creosote-treated wooden utility poles, reports Trade Union News of Finland. The union has targeted the Swedish firm Vattenfall, which has recently expanded the use of creosote on and inside of electrical poles in Finland. 

Direct evidence leaves little doubt that contact with creosote causes rashes and irritation, and could possibly lead to harmful damage to respiratory organs, reports the newsletter. Creosote is used as a preservative on and inside of wooden utility poles. 

The Electrical Workers&rsquo; Union claims it is impossible for utility workers not to have contact with creosote-stained poles in their daily work. Union Bargaining Secretary Sauli Vantti said the only alternative is for stakeholders of all utilities to implement an immediate cessation of wood treated with the resin fibre. 

In 2001, the European Council adopted a Directive that limits the use of creosote. But the Directive did not forbid its injection into electrical poles, or application on poles. 

The union is asking utility companies to find less harmful means to preserve wooden utility poles.

Finland’s Electrical Workers’ Union Wants Utility Pole Creosote Use to End

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An estimated 80% of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) 1.8 million members participated in a national strike on 6 August, protesting rampant inflation. The day-long strike marked the culmination in a series of four work stoppages calling for relief to rising electric and food costs. COSATU also issued a stern demand for a decent living wage to counter a June inflation rate that hit 12.2%. 

In the South African capital of Pretoria last week, 30,000 trade unionists marched on a government building while the cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki was meeting inside. In Cape Town, another 40,000 staged a four-hour march.
<img height="101" alt="" src="" width="220" />
&nbsp; 

Across South Africa, some 18 pockets of mass strike activity and protests took place. Nearly all the major mining houses were forced to cease operations because miners heeded their union&rsquo;s call to stop work, and three auto assembly plants were also shut by striking workers. 

The nation&rsquo;s workers and consumers demanded a roll back of a government-imposed 27.5% tariff increase in July atop already high electricity costs from state-owned utility Eskom. They also vowed to resist another two-cent-per-kilowatt increase due in September. 

They also protested a hike to food prices totaling 17% in recent months, interest rates that just broke the 20% mark, and fuel prices that rose a full 35% from 2007 to 2008. 

The first national strike called by COSATU this year happened on 9 July. The national labour centre followed that up with strikes on 16 July, targeting the provinces of Kwazulu Natal, Western Cape, Mpumalange, Free State, and Northern Cape. On 23 July, the day-long stay-aways expanded to Gauteng, Eastern Cape, North West, and Limpopo provinces.
<img height="240" alt="" src="" width="160" />
&nbsp;NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni 

The 320,000-member National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), COSATU&rsquo;s largest affiliate, fully endorsed the walk-outs. NUM General Secretary Frans Baleni said fuel costs alone have made it prohibitive for many miners to travel from worksites to their homes to visit families when they are not working. 

&ldquo;We need to send a very strong message that the poor of our society are deeply affected&rdquo; by this current economic crisis, said Baleni. &ldquo;Electricity, food, and everything else is quickly becoming beyond reach.&rdquo;

South African Unions Conduct Wave of National Strikes, Protesting Energy, Food Costs

<img height="39" src="" width="100" alt="" />
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; 
<img height="60" src="" width="120" alt="" />
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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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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