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<img alt="" src="" style="width: 140px;height: 78px" width="390" />The abuse of basic labour rights in Iraq, and the bravery of Iraqi workers to continue to organise under extreme pressure of aggressive employers supported by viciously anti-trade union legislation from the Saddam era is continuing. A raft of recent attacks on trade union activity of oil workers is attracting wide condemnation from international trade unions, and includes fines, forced demotions, and relocation of union officials.Join the <a href="http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1390">LabourStart campaign</a>&nbsp;and join thousands sending messages to the Iraqi government, condemning the continued repression of oil worker trade unions, and calling for a proper labour law that brings the country in line with international standards.The Court of Appeal has ruled against Ibrahim Radi, vice-president of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), confirming a fine of 34 million Iraqi dinars (US$30,000), an amount far beyond the trade union leader&rsquo;s ability to pay. In case of non-payment, Radi will face jail, and also the possible dismissal from his job. Hassan Jumaa Awad Al Assadi, President of IFOU calls for solidarity and assistance from trade union comrades abroad.&nbsp;<img alt="" height="266" src="" width="200" />Hassan JumaaIFOU President Hassan Jumaa has himself recently been disciplined for trade union activity, being arbitrarily demoted three years seniority including a substantial drop in salary.In May 2011 ICEM reported on the Sadrist-controlled Ministry of Labour controlling trade union elections, appointing a &ldquo;Ministerial Preparatory Committee&rdquo; (MPC), consisting of un-elected, politically bias officials, mostly from the Sadrist Party. MPC officials distributed union membership cards, arbitrarily choosing members favourable to their faction. Union offices were taken over with support from police and military personnel, and the union elections were held inside the Sadrist Party offices. Following international outcry, those election results were voided, but today the Ministry of Labour recognised the 2011 election results and asked the same preparatory committee to oversee a new round of worker elections on 2 June. The elections stand to appoint worker representatives at all levels, and will be marred with fraud and misconduct.

Support New LabourStart Campaign for Iraqi Oil Workers

ICEM Women’s Bulletin: June 2012

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 59px" width="390" />

	The ICEM affiliate in Sierra Leone, United Mineworkers&rsquo; Union (UMU), stepped in yesterday to negotiate a partial resolve to a strike by casual workers employed by subcontractors of iron ore producer African Minerals Ltd. That strike, lasting from 17 April to 23 April, was marked by police violence in the north-central Sierra Leone town of Bumbuna that saw one woman killed by police gun fire and at least nine others seriously injured.

	The agreement reached last night near Bumbuna between the UMU, African Minerals and several Sierra Leone ministry officials &ndash; including ministers of Labour and Social Security and Mineral Resources &ndash; produced several remedial measures to last week&rsquo;s spontaneous strike by some 500 casual workers.

	UMU General Secretary Ezekiel Dyke said he hoped his union&rsquo;s intervention would move the London-based mining company that relies almost totally on subcontractors to finalise a collective agreement with the UMU. African Minerals earlier this year began production at Sierra Leone&rsquo;s Tonkolili project near Bumbana, containing the world&rsquo;s largest reported magnetite iron ore reserves of 12.8 billion tonnes.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" height="140" src="" width="123" />&nbsp;

	Ezekiel Dyke

	UMU has been in talks with African Minerals since last year over a collective agreement. Last week&rsquo;s strike by nearly half of the workforce of 1,000 casual workers was caused by delayed salaries to some, meagre pay to all, lack of medical care, and on-going lack of union representation as production ramped up and rail shipments to the capital of Freeport began.

	On the strike&rsquo;s second day, 18 April, violence ensued when Bumbuna towns-people joined strikers and blocked entrances to the Tonkolili project. Riot police then stormed protestors in the village, firing live ammunition, wielding batons and shooting tear gas directly at strikers and their community supporters. The police action created a stampede that tore through a marketplace in Bumbuna.

	Killed instantly was Musu Conteh, a woman in her 30s employed by the catering firm ATS. Some nine others were seriously injured by bullet wounds to their legs, said the UMU&rsquo;s Ezekiel Dyke, while perhaps 20 others were treated in an ill-equipped medical centre in nearby Makena for gas inhalation and police-inflicted wounds.

	Dyke said upwards of 40% of the casual workers employed throughout the Tonkolili project are women.

	The remedial agreement reached last night will see African Minerals immediately pay owed back salaries of up to two months for casual workers who work on the mine&rsquo;s rail link. It establishes a framework whereby casual workers will become permanent employees of either African Minerals or their subcontracting firm after three months of employment, or in some cases extended to six months.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 200px;height: 92px" width="390">

	It also mandates that African Minerals provide a full review of salaries, work conditions and job categories within two weeks. The primary employer also agreed to investigate and pay compensation to the deceased woman&rsquo;s family within two weeks, as well as provide compensation to injured victims in that same period. African Minerals also agreed to pay compensation to market vendors &ndash; mostly women &ndash; for their losses from the 18 April violence.

	There will also be a thorough investigation of the unchecked police force used last week.

	Major contractors for African Minerals in Sierra Leone include the company BCM, doing production work, while UK-based engineering and construction companies Dawnus and Hawk also employ casual workers, as does South African-based Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO). There are scores of Sierra Leone-based companies that reportedly also exploit workers.

	Between the latter half of 2011 and last month, China-based Shandong Iron &amp; Steel Group Co. Ltd. of state-owned Shandong Province Asset Commission purchased 25% of the Tonkolili project from African Minerals, along with the same percentage of related rail and port subsidiary companies for nearly US$1.5 billion.

	UMU currently has collective agreements in Sierra Leone with iron ore miner London Mining, BSG Resources&rsquo; Koidu Holdings, a diamond miner, Cluff Gold, Baomahun Gold Mines, and Sierra Rutile, a miner of titanium dioxide. &nbsp;

Temporary Truce Reached in Sierra Leone Mine Strike, Quelling Violence Against Contract Workers

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	The global tyre industry is driven by four major multinationals &ndash; Bridgestone of Japan, Michelin of France, Goodyear of the US, and German-based Continental A.G. The ICEM has strategically targeted these leaders and as a result, Workers&rsquo; Networks have been formed within Bridgestone and Goodyear.

	Now Michelin is on ICEM&rsquo;s radar screen. It employs 115,000 workers and has 69 production facilities in 18 countries. ICEM French affiliates, along with the Michelin European Works Council (EWC), have traditionally played active and supportive roles during times of labour conflict at factories throughout the world.

	The latest examples include in Colombia, Thailand, and most recently, in Romania. The Secretary of the EWC, Cyrille Poughon, a member of French affiliate FCE-CFDT coordinates relations with all unions organizing Michelin employees.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 271px;height: 159px" width="390" />

	ICEM&#039;s &Ouml;zkan, FCE-CFDT&#039;s Poughon, EMCEF&#039;s Lefevbre&nbsp;

	In the latest meeting of the Michelin EWC, attended by 32 workers&rsquo; representatives from 14 countries &ndash; held 27-30 March in Alessandria, Italy &ndash; the ICEM participated together with sister organization, the European Mine, Chemical, Energy Federation (EMCEF). The ICEM was invited as a keynote presenter, and participants discussed tyre production strategies, cost-cutting programmes, and current and prospects for the Michelin Group in Europe for 2012.

	During the final session of the meeting, ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan presented the policies and practices of the ICEM, as well as the unification process of new Global Union Federation, IndustriALL.

	&Ouml;zkan also gave an overview about global tyre industry, including overviews of the other three companies, as well as emerging Asian companies and the difficulties and challenges in labour relations in Thailand, South Africa and the US. In addition, &Ouml;zkan gave reports on active solidarity and support extended by the EWC of Michelin over the past several years.

	The ICEM presentation concluded with the functions of Workers&rsquo; Networks in the global tyre and rubber industry, and a series of case studies involving the different companies in select countries and regions.

	&ldquo;This EWC meeting proved very promising for extending union solidarity from European partners to Michelin workers throughout the world, stated &Ouml;zkan.

Michelin EWC Gets Close Look at Global Solidarity in Tyre Industry

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	Some 35 trade union leaders, mostly from Indonesian pulp and paper mills of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), attended a two-day workshop on 28-29 March in Serong, Indonesia, on trade union rights, environmental issues, and the health and safety record of the multinational company that is part of Indonesia&rsquo;s Sinar Mas Group.

	The workshop was intended to kick-start w Global Workers&rsquo; Network around APP, a company within the Indonesia-based Sinar Mas Group that also includes palm oil holdings and the European and North American pulp and paper company Paper Excellence. The workshop was generously supported by the Humanity Fund of the Canada&rsquo;s Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia, and the Solidarity Center of the US.

	The ICEM&rsquo;s Indonesian Council of Unions, headed by D. Patombong Sjaiful, hosted the event and aptly handled all logistics.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 229px;height: 159px" width="390">&nbsp;

	Delegates from multiple Indonesian labour confederations and affiliated trade unions, including the forestry and pulp union Kahutindo, that represent workers at APP owned and partially held Indonesian mills attended, and &nbsp;received valuable training on global labour standards contained in ILO Conventions, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the UN&rsquo;s Global Compact.

	They also heard presentations on APP&rsquo;s forestry practices in Indonesia, the ways and means of the world&rsquo;s three forest certification programmes, and they participated in a session on community-building that was conducted by Tim Woods of FitzpatrickWoods consulting group of Australia.

	Also participating were union representatives from CFMEU&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper Division of its Forestry sector, local union presidents from CEP Local 440 in Nova Scotia &ndash; representing workers of Paper Excellence at the Pictou Mill there &ndash; and CEP Local 1092 in Mackenzie, British Colombia, representing Paper Excellence pulp mill workers there.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 255px;height: 159px" width="390">

	As well, the United Steelworkers (USW) of the US had delegates from a pulp mill in Halsey, Oregon, attend, and the US-based union provided a look at its labour-environmental network called the BlueGreen Alliance. Other representatives came from the Swedish Paperworkers Union, Pappers, which sponsors a pulp and paper project in Indonesia, and the Pulp and Paper Products Manufacturing Employees&rsquo; Union (PPPMEU) of Malaysia.

	The central conclusion formed at the workshop is that intensive work must now start in order to unite the different unions and their respective confederations at APP&rsquo;s Indonesia&rsquo;s pulp, paper and tissue mills. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Pulp, Paper Unions Conduct Workshop on APP in Indonesia

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Asia-Pacific Regional Chemical Unions of the ICEM discussed union organizing and strong union representation inside workplaces at a seminar entitled Coordination of Trade Union Networks and Implementation of Global Framework Agreements in the Chemical and Related Industries.

	The seminar was held 9-10 April in Shanghai, China, with support and assistance from German-based Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) through its Shanghai Coordination Office for International Cooperation led by Director Catrina Schl&auml;ger.

	Attended by 50 participants from China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam and India, the seminar was opened by speeches from Dr. Jiang GuangPing, National Secretary of All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), Yoshio Sato, General Secretary of ICEM&rsquo;s Japanese Affiliates&lsquo; Federation (JAF), and ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 240px;height: 160px" width="390">

	Manfred Warda

	ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan introduced global and regional developments in the chemicals industry, which clearly depicted the rapidly growing importance of the Asia-Pacific region. Representatives from Japan, China, India, Thailand and Pakistan presented their experiences with other participants.

	Delegates underscored the importance of a strong union presence at chemical workplaces for getting more shared and added value from the burgeoning industry as it ramps up in the region.

	Another important topic discussed was trade union networking inside the ICEM-represented companies and sectors at the global, regional and national levels. Following ICEM&rsquo;s general overview, trade union representatives from major chemical multinationals such as BASF, Linde and Akzo Nobel put forward their experiences and discussed how to further networks in the upcoming period.

	As an important role, trade union networking was analyzed in supporting union organizing and struggling against precarious employment in Asia Pacific Region. Contributions on this subject were presented to the meeting.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 323px;height: 160px" width="390">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The Shanghai meeting also brought forth discussion on international labour instruments, social dialogue and Global Framework Agreements (GFAs), particularly on activities carried out within ICEM&rsquo;s Project for Multinational Companies and Social Dialogue in the Asia-Pacific Region.

	The meeting heard a number of specific examples on how GFAs have successfully worked for shop-floor improvements, including cases involving French-based company Rhodia. Rhodia&rsquo;s China Country Manager, Michael Zu, presented how the GFA has impacted improvement of labour relations at the workplaces of the company in China.

	Two trade union representatives, Lee Daeyong of Rhodia in South Korea and Vadhavkar Sanjay Suryakant from Rhodia in India, shared their respective situations on implementing the GFA in their respective countries.

	On the seminar&rsquo;s second day, participants were divided into two work groups and given the task of devising future cooperation strategies on union networking and GFAs. Specific delegates related to companies BASF, Linde, Akzo Nobel and Rhodia worked in a separate work group. All groups discussed advantages, challenges, and strong and weak points of their tasks, as well as future cooperation opportunities among chemical unions in Asia-Pacific.

	&ldquo;This seminar provided an important opportunity to drive forward union organizing and strong representation through the various instruments that were studied, and to develop networks and resulting Global Framework Agreements,&rdquo; said &Ouml;zkan in summary.

Asia-Pacific Chemical Unions Decisive in Unity Through Networking

Today on International Women&#039;s Day, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) is calling for the immediate apprehension of the killer or killers of Pinky Mosiane, a 28-year-old South African woman who was employed as a miner at American Platinum&rsquo;s (Amplats) Khomanani mine in North West province. On 6 February, she was raped or sexually assaulted, and then brutally murdered with a large rock crushing her skull.

	The ICEM calls attention that today, 8 March, those responsible for this barbaric crime have not been captured. Underground mining is tough enough for both men and women, and women who work in mines should not have to fear aggression of any sort from other workers, supervisors or anyone else. At the Khomanani mine near Rustenburg, Amplats employs 3,800 workers and 262 of them are women.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 140px;height: 97px" width="390" />

	Pinky Mosiane

	The ICEM has confidence that Anglo American plc., the Amplats parent company, and police in South Africa are doing all that they can to solve Pinky Mosiane&rsquo;s murder. But we urge the investigations be stepped up and those responsible for this heinous crime against a co-worker be apprehended at once, for a safe and secure workplace at the Khomanani mine.

	&ldquo;Workplace violence against women in any form is a glaring violation of decent work and a severe signal of gender inequality,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. ICEM statistics show that seven of ten women suffer some kind of gender-related violence at some point in their lives. And 50% of women in the European Union suffer on-the-job harassment or bullying.

	Pinky Mosiane of Pshing township, South Africa, leaves a seven-year-old son, who also lost his father in 2010, and her mother, Mary. To die this kind of death at the workplace, particularly in a mine, is nearly incomprehensible. But it happened and on this International Women&#039;s Day &ndash; and the days to come &ndash; the ICEM will not rest until the perpetrator(s) of this bestial act are apprehended and shown justice.

	For further information, contact ICEM Gender Officer Carol Bruce, &nbsp;<a href="mailto:carol.bruce@icem.org">carol.bruce@icem.org</a>, +41 79 734 9031, or ICEM Information Officer Dick Blin, &nbsp;<a href="mailto:dick.blin@icem.org">dick.blin@icem.org</a>, +41 22 304 1842.

International Women’s Day: ICEM Demands Immediate Apprehending of Pinky Mosiane’s Murderer(s)

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 110px;height: 50px" width="390" />

	There is increasingly wide recognition that contract and agency work is contributing to the destruction of permanent employment and to high levels of job insecurity.

	On 6th March unemployment figures were released in the Netherlands which revealed that only 2,000 people signed a permanent contract in 2011, as opposed to 83,000 in 2010. At the same time, according to the UWV the Dutch office for unemployment insurance, the use of fixed-term contracts has increased from 227,000 in 2010 to 368,000 in 2011, while the number of those classified as self-employed has doubled to 750,000 in 2011.&nbsp;

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 259px;height: 121px" width="390" />

	Says Marcel Nuyten, Union Director for Temporary Workers at FNV Bondgenoten: &ldquo;Permanent contracts are abolished in the Netherlands. That&rsquo;s one of the results of the enormous flexibility and flex contracts in the Netherlands. We are the flex champions of the EU and we have the worst growth figures of the Northern European countries. Flexibility means total lack of security. That&rsquo;s what we see in the Netherlands&rdquo;. More information about <a href="http://cal.icem.org/index.php/en/marcel-nuyten">FNV Bondgenoten&rsquo;s campaign against CAL</a> is available here.

	A recent OECD document also highlighted how the use of CAL is contributing to employment insecurity in Spain. According to &lsquo;OECD Economic Outlook 2011 &ndash; How does Spain compare?&rsquo; since late 2007 almost 9 in 10 jobs lost in Spain were temporary jobs. Temporary employment in Spain has reduced by a third, compared with a 3% reduction in permanent employment. The OECD document attributes this to the fact that it is easier for employers to dismiss temporary workers than permanent workers.

CAL Destroying Permanent Jobs and Increasing Insecurity in Netherlands and Spain

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 110px;height: 50px" width="390" />

	The Global Unions have released an updated set of joint principles on temporary agency work. Although there are varying approaches taken by trade unions in different countries and sectors to dealing with temporary employment agencies, ranging from total bans to partial bans to strict regulation, all Global Unions agree on a number of key principles. They include: &bull; the primary form of employment should be permanent, open-ended and direct; &bull; agency workers should be covered under the same collective bargaining agreement as other workers in the user enterprise: &bull; temporary agency workers should receive equal treatment in all respects; &bull; the use of temporary agencies should not increase the gender gap on wages, social protections, and conditions; &bull; temporary work agencies must not be used to eliminate permanent and direct employment relationships; and &bull; the use of agency workers should never be used to weaken trade unions or to undermine organising or collective bargaining rights.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 253px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	Speaking about the revision of the joint principles Jim Baker, Coordinator of the Council of Global Unions, explained &ldquo;The major reason why the Work Relationships Group recommended amending the principles on temporary work agencies is that it was clear in ILO meetings that private employment agencies were being treated as a &ldquo;sector&rdquo; even though they supplied, and in many cases, employed workers in multiple economic sectors. In that context, &ldquo;sectoral&rdquo; collective bargaining might divide them from the sectors in which they were working; resulting in significant differences in salaries and conditions of temporary and permanent workers, who might be performing the same tasks and working side by side.&rdquo; The updated Principles make explicit that temporary work agencies do not constitute an economic sector and state that agency workers must be specifically guaranteed their right to negotiate the terms and conditions of employment with the user enterprises which effectively control them.

	Continued Baker: &ldquo;Another change is to make it clear that Global Unions are concerned about the effect on the rights of workers in triangular situations, where the worker does not have an employment relationship with the real employer, regardless of whether the workers are employed on a temporary or permanent basis&rdquo;.

	The updated <a href="http://cal.icem.org/images/documents/10-03-31%20Amended%20draft%20version%20of%20the%20Global%20Union%20Principles%20on%20Temporary%20Work%20Agencies%20as%20updated%20PR.doc">Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies</a> are available here.

Updated Global Union Principles on Temporary Work Agencies

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 130px;height: 63px" width="390" />

	Over 8,000 trade unionists and supporters rallied in Alma, Qu&eacute;bec, Saturday, 31 March, on behalf of locked-out workers belonging to Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos d&rsquo;Alma Local 9490, an affiliate of the United Steelworkers (USW). Some 780 workers at an aluminium smelter of Rio Tinto&rsquo;s Alcan subsidiary have been ruthlessly locked out of their livelihoods now for 14 weeks, and the economic stranglehold Rio Tinto has on the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region of Qu&eacute;bec is clear to all.

	Bus-loads of union militants from across Canada&rsquo;s only French-speaking province converged on Alma, a community of 30,000, to stand with the victimised Alma steelworkers. And the USW organised convoys and buses as well from elsewhere in Canada, including Toronto, Hamilton and other industrial cities in Ontario province.

	Some 50 international trade unionists also attended, representing workers employed at Rio Tinto or Alcan in Australia, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, US, and other nations. A day prior to the manifestation, the ICEM held its bi-annual North American regional meeting in Alma as a global signal to the 780 Alma workers that they are not alone in their struggle for fairness on the job.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 302px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	The well-organised rally started with speeches at an Alma shopping mall, before a march complete with sound truck playing working-class music wound its way through the streets of the city to an amphitheatre. There, political and union leaders continued to chastise the world&rsquo;s second largest resources company for delivering economic devastation to workers&rsquo; doorsteps in central Qu&eacute;bec.

	ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda pledged that global labour will mobilise Rio Tinto workers across the globe in this struggle.

	&ldquo;If the ruthless social agenda of Rio Tinto cannot be defeated here in Qu&eacute;bec, there will be little hope that it can be stopped when others face company attacks,&rdquo; Warda said. Rest assured, &ldquo;we will take the indignities committed by Rio Tinto Alcan here throughout the world until this company agrees to stop the attacks against your community and your union.&rdquo;

	Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), said Rio Tinto must &ldquo;show respect for current and future workers and stop callously cutting labour costs and decent jobs without regard for the local economy.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 190px;height: 143px" width="390">&nbsp; <img alt="" src="" style="width: 190px;height: 143px" width="390">&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Manfred Warda, Jyrki Raina address Alma rally

	&ldquo;If Rio Tinto wants to prosper, it cannot break the delicate balance that connects it to the community,&rdquo; said Raina.

	ICEM Vice President and USW Canadian National Director Ken Neumann had a message for the Conservative government of Stephen Harper in his country, where the federal government has turned a deaf ear to several attacks by multinationals on Canadian workers.

	&ldquo;Stephen Harper clearly fell short of his task by failing to impose conditions on the sale of Alcan to Rio Tinto in 2007 and to protect jobs,&rdquo; said Neumann. &ldquo;For someone who is so bent on involving himself in labour relations, why doesn&rsquo;t he intervene with Rio Tinto to put an end to this abhorrent lockout?&rdquo;

	That lockout was brought about by Local 9490&rsquo;s rightful effort to stop erosion of permanent jobs that pay a living wage of C$34-an-hour against Alcan&rsquo;s labour plan, which is aimed at replacing those jobs with outsourced work that pays half that amount.

	By late afternoon on Saturday, about an hour after the final speeches were given at Parc le Festiv Alma, Rio Tinto Alcan issued a defensive statement criticising the &nbsp;USW event, and saying&nbsp; a &ldquo;calmer climate&rdquo; was necessary in order to carry on with negotiations.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 212px;height: 159px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	Turkish mineworkers solidarity for Alma locked-out Steelworkers

	But for nearly three months &ndash; until 19 March when Qu&eacute;bec public pressure mounted primarily because Alcan was capitalising on the lockout by selling excess hydro-electric power back to the province &ndash; the company shunned bargaining, preferring instead to operate the modern and low-cost Alma smelter at reduced capacity while waiting for global aluminium prices to rise. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4943-Negotiations-Restart-between-USW-Rio-Tinto-Alcan-in-Canadian-Lockout">ICEM report</a> from 21 March.)

	Syndicat des M&eacute;tallos Local 9490 and Alcan did return to talks for two days in March, with the help of provincial mediators, and two more days of negotiations occurred on 28-29 March. The two sides will in all likelihood meet again this week.

	But ever since the company prematurely halted negotiations and imposed the lockout on 30 December before a majority of workplace issues could even be tabled, Rio Tinto has been content to rob the Saguenay-lac-Saint-Jean region of C$1.8 million per week in lost salaries and benefits.

	With or without a settlement to the Alma lockout, the 31 March manifestation will stand as the prelude to a global fight against Rio Tinto to resist its anti-social agenda that has become all too common everywhere it does business.

Thousands March, Manifest in Alma, Canada, for Locked-out Steelworkers

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