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Thousands of trade unionists demonstrated at the main square of the Slovenian capital Ljubliana, last Saturday 28 November, to demand higher wages and protest their governments&rsquo; plan to increase retirement age. 
 
Just before this big and important demonstration, the ICEM, through its General Secretary Manfred Warda and Chemical and Rubber Industries Officer Kemal &Ouml;zkan, attended a full day workshop organised by its affiliate KNG, Chemical, Non-Metal and Rubber Workers Union. The meeting was attended 25 participants from the KNG&rsquo;s local offices. 
 
KNG became a fully autonomous and independent trade union in 1990 and represents more than a third of all employees in the chemical, metal and rubber industries in Slovenia. 

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KNG President Tomas Kumer
President Tomas Kumer gave a detailed presentation about the effects of the economic crisis in their sectors. Job losses, lowering wages, problems arising from low value-added were principally mentioned, while the social pact does not seem successful in combating the social problems brought by the economic crisis. 
 
The workshop discussed how to use international mechanisms to put pressure on employers to get more trade union influence. Pharmaceutical, rubber and glass sectors were defined areas for future cooperation. 

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The ICEM also visited production facilities of Sava where KNG represents workers. The President of the Sava Union of KNG, Janez Justin, presented the situation of the factory in the face of global crisis. Justin reported that in 2008, the first indication of global recession came in September. The Union and the employer identified the problem and negotiated on a shorter work calendar, winter collective vacation and agreement on temporary redistribution and uneven distribution of work time through a Flex time Agreement. This allowed the employer high flexibility with the workforce engagement, and the workers the possibility to spend winter holidays with their families while employees managed to secure their jobs with no layoffs. In 2009 market demand reduced by 30% in some segments, for this reason employees are limited to work 306 days. Through intensive social dialogue, carried out on a daily basis, no layoffs occurred; only collective vacation in the summer (14 days) and collective vacation in December were agreed with employers.

Slovenian Unions Demand Higher Minimum Wage, Protest Government’s Effort to Increase Retirement Age

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Through a series of meetings in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 21 to 24 November, ICEM affiliated unions in Brazil explored the possibilities of engaging in (much) more social dialogue in their country. The meetings came at the end of a sequence of activities, organised this year as part of the ICEM Brazilian social dialogue project, which is funded by SASK Finland and LO-TCO Sweden, and supported, including through active participation in the meetings last week, by ICEM affiliates in these countries (IFMetall and Pappers from Sweden, and Kemianliitto and Toimihenkil&ouml;unioni from Finland). 

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As a way of dealing with labour relations, social dialogue is not very well developed at all in the ICEM sectors in Brazil, and even that may be an understatement. That said, going over the potential advantages of having a regular union-company dialogue outside of the bargaining period, all participants, including from the employers&rsquo; side (with employer representatives present from Petrobras, Braskem and Akzo Nobel), voiced support for the initiative to be explored further. Currently, in the often rather confrontational Brazilian union-employer relations, unions and companies tend to only schedule discussions at the time of the yearly collective bargaining negotiation sessions. 
 
During the one-day joint employers-unions conference on 23 November, where &ldquo;sustainable development&rdquo; was the leading theme, there was general agreement that it would be to the advantage of both parties to sit down around the table on a regular basis and discuss specific issues. These &ldquo;social dialogue topics&rdquo; would, certainly in the earlier phases of the dialogue processes, mainly include the lesser antagonistic priorities, i.e. those where both employers and unions would have a similar interest, ranging from such issues as health and safety or sustainability over the problems of young or women workers to the issue of social dialogue itself. At the same time, all parties also agreed that it may take a bit of time before there is enough trust for this dialogue to deliver spectacular results. 
 
One particular suggestion that is going to be followed up on by the unions in Brazil is to see if more companies - many of whom did show an interest, but were not present at the meeting for various reasons - can be brought into a regular dialogue via existing Brazilian employers&rsquo; organisations. 

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0911EliasPintado.jpg" width="123" height="130" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0911SergioNovais.jpg" width="119" height="130" />
Elias Pintado and Sergio Novais
Sergio Novais, ICEM Vice-President for Latin America, ran the meeting, together with Elias Pintado, Coordinator of the Brazil Social Dialogue project.

Promising Potential for Social Dialogue in Brazil

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The Third Congress of Sindicato Nacional dos Papeleiros (SINAP), the ICEM pulp and paper union affiliate that is part of CNQ/CUT in Brazil, made great strides on gender equity over the weekend, including passage of a host of resolutions that clearly marks this union as the trend-setter in Latin America regarding involvement of women in all aspects of national and local branch work. 
 
Some 132 delegates from 20 local branches attended the benchmarking Congress, held in S&atilde;o Sebasti&atilde;o, S&atilde;o Paulo state, from 26-29 November. The Congress also saw a changing of the guard, with SINAP founder and President Iduigues Martins stepping down due to term limits and bring replaced by Carlos Monteiro, SINAP&rsquo;s international officer who has led a union branch in Bahia state. 

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New SINAP President Carlos Monteiro speaks to Congress. At right, Outgoing President Iduigues Martins 
Martins has provided the union with steady and reliable leadership for the better part of ten years, growing the union with assistance from pulp and paper unions in Canada, Sweden, and Finland. He will remain on the Executive Committee of the union. 
 
The Congress elected &ldquo;Caco&rdquo; Claudecir Lopes Vargas to serve as Vice President. He is from the local branch of SINAP workers at Otacilio Costa in Santa Catalina state. 
 
But the story of the Congress was the progressive corner turned mandating enhanced and immediate gender equity inside the union. The Congress passed no fewer than seven resolutions mandating such, including one motion that called for SINAP to strive for at least 30% women involvement in all structures, both national and local branches. 

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Women's rights Won the Day 
The Congress created a national gender committee, to be composed of one woman from each of the SINAP&rsquo;s 20 branches. A resolution was enacted mandating that women would serve on local branch bargaining committees. 
 
Another called for a fight for more community maternity centres and day-care facilities for children. And yet another called on the publication of a gender primer for use inside SINAP, as well changes in all union print and statutory materials to make then gender neutral. 
 
Of further significance, and again a milestone for any Latin-based trade union, the committee&rsquo;s name that brought forward these motions was called the &ldquo;Gender and LGBT Committee,&rdquo; or lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans-sexual. 

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Finnish Paperiliitto President Jouko Ahonen 
Perhaps the most emotionally debated resolution came on the Congress&rsquo;s final day, yesterday, 29 November. That was a motion for SINAP not to endorse racial quotas in Brazilian society. The motion was narrowly defeated, thus putting the union firmly on record in support of racial equality in Brazil. 
 
The SINAP Congress also moved to create a minimum national wage for paperworkers in the country. 
 
SINAP&rsquo;s Third Congress was attended by several international guests, who pledged their continued support and solidarity, including Jouko Ahonen, President of Paperiliitto of Finland and chairman of ICEM&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper Sector; Dave Coles, President of the Canadian Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union, and Joe Gargiso, Administrative Vice President of CEP from Quebec; Walter Silva, President of the CUOPyC Pulp and Paper Federation of Uruguay; Patrick Bauret of French CGT-FILPAC; and Mikke Sterbeck of Pappers Union in Sweden.

SINAP Congress in Brazil Charts New Path with Gender Initiatives

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China&rsquo;s deadliest coal mine disaster in two years occurred in the early morning hours of 21 November when 108 miners died deep in shafts at the state-run Xinxing mine in Hegang City, located in northeastern Heilongjiang. 
 
Considered one of China&rsquo;s most up-to-date and safety advanced collieries, the miners perished after alarms went off indicating high methane gas levels. Some 80 minutes later, an explosion occurred. China&rsquo;s State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) initially blamed lack of timely evacuation, poor ventilation in several mine shafts, and over-crowding as cause. 
 
A total of 528 miners were working the 1.45 million metric-tonne-per-year mine at the time of the blast. A maze of shafts extend some three to four kilometers underground and several kilometers horizontally and is thought to be too vast and extensive to support the existing and modern ventilation system. 

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The gas density levels inside Xinxing when the explosion happened at 02h30 on 21 November registered five times the levels in which miners are expected to be evacuated. 
 
The state-owned Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Company began paying compensation of 342,000 yuan (US$50,000) in immediate and long-term compensation to the victims&rsquo; families. In addition, the All Chine Federation of Labour (ACFTU) allocated one million yuan (US$148,000) in emergency relief for injured workers and families of victims, while local branches of the ACFTU have also pledged smaller amounts. 
 
At a meeting with the ICEM a day before the Xinxing explosion in Geneva, ACFTU International Department Deputy Director Xu Hu said the high number of coal-mining accidents in China is an issue that &ldquo;troubles us the most.&rdquo; He said the labour confederation, together with SAWS and other agencies have put pilot safety projects in place province by province at smaller mines, and China has taken some private enterprise mines into state hands. 
 
By Chinese standards, Xinxing is one of the biggest mines. It has over 100 tunnels and 30 mining platforms and on a normal work day, employs some 3,000 miners underground.

108 Coal Miners Dead in China’s Northern Heilongjiang Province

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Strike actions occurred in Europe in recent days against South African pulp and paper producer Sappi. Workers holding memberships in four Dutch unions continue to be in dispute with Sappi at two mills in the Netherlands, Nijmegen and Maastricht. 
 
And at one of two mills in Finland that Sappi purchased from M-real one year ago, Kirkniemi, members of the local branch of ICEM affiliate Paperiliitto took a four-day industrial action 19-23 November over serious safety issues. 
 
At Nijmegen on 26 November, workers staged a 24-hour strike over the company&rsquo;s failure to come to a terms in meeting minimal union demands for a new labour agreement. More actions are expected this week at Nijmegen and Maastricht. 

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On 24 November, Dutch unions FNV Bondgenoten, CNV Bedrijenbond, ACV, and De Unie issued a demand for a one-year wage increase, July 2009 to July 2010, of 1.5%. The unions, representing 800 workers at the two paper mills, also demand retention of &ldquo;seniorendagen,&rdquo; the annual reward days off for workers with long service careers. If this is to be lost in a new collective agreement, the unions said in a demands declaration, a financial equivalent for both senior workers and younger workers for the social benefit must be substituted. 
 
Sappi Europe has been stingy in its pay offer, as well as unfair in benefit takeaways. In mid-September, workers rejected a 21-month Sappi proposal that was deemed inferior by a 95% vote. On 15 October, in a protest joined by ICEM and its global pulp and paper unions, 50 of the two mills&rsquo; workplace leaders took a petition to Sappi&rsquo;s European headquarters in Brussels. (See InBrief No. 142 <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3455-Pulp-Paper-Unions-Assist-Dutch-Unionists-in-Contract-Dispute-with-Sappi-">here</a>.) 
 
Following a revised company offer a few days later, union leaders again decided to take the proposal to Dutch workers at Nijmegen and Maastricht for a vote. They rejected that with a 99% vote. 

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At Kirkniemi in Finland, earlier this year, Sappi thinned job ranks by 63 workers from a workforce of 400. The 19-23 November strike was over the fact that the remaining workers have taken on more work duties and occupational safety has been jeopardized. Sappi bought five European coated paper mills from M-real in early 2009 and intends to completely close one of those mills &ndash; Kangas, Finland &ndash; by the end of this year, thus giving the sack to 150 members of Paperiliitto. 
 
At a Sappi mill in North America, another labour dispute is coming to a head. Members of the United Steelworkers (USW), early in the week of 16 November, made a statement about a regressive Sappi contract proposal with an 82% rejection vote. Some 600 union members at a pulp and coated paper mill in Cloquet, Minnesota, have been without a current labour agreement since 1 May 2009. Sappi&rsquo;s less than adequate pay offer contains no retroactive wages to that date. It also falls short in meeting pension offsets and the company has ignored a USW request to assist Sappi in finding lower-cost private health care alternatives.

Paperworkers in Finland, Netherlands Take Strike Actions against Sappi

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A new three-year labour contract was achieved for 470 Kimberly-Clark paperworkers at the Millicent, Australia, paper mill and Tantanoola pulp mill on 20 November. Union members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union (CFMEU), Pulp and Paper Division, ratified the accord with 82% approval, granting proof that a positive labour-management relationship can benefit workers in tough economic times. 
 
The renewal agreement provides wage gains of 2.5%, 2.5%, and 4.5%, with the first year&rsquo;s increase paid in back wages to 1 July 2009. 
 
CFMEU&rsquo;s Millicent Sub-Branch leaders used an excellent internal communications network to keep shop-floor workers informed on all details stemming from ten bargaining sessions dating back to mid-year, the date when draconian Australian individual work agreements (AWAs) expired and enterprise or collective agreements again became the official policy of the government of Australia.. 

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0911.cfmeu_.kimberly20clark.JPG" width="240" height="180" />
At left, CFMEU Sub-Branch Secretary Kevin Millie, Mill Manager Scott Whicker, and CFMEU Pulp/Paper Federal Secretary Alex Millar 
Branch Secretary Kevin Millie said the AWAs were never a concern in the lead-up to this year&rsquo;s bargain, since Kimberly-Clark local management never had attempted to impose individual work agreements during the latter period of Conservative John Howard&rsquo;s government. &ldquo;We kept our members in the loop and that helped us get the agreement we got,&rdquo; said Millie. 
 
He added that sub-branch leaders issued communiqu&eacute;s after each session and that when management proposed a two-year agreement at 2.5% for each of the years, the committee to workers&rsquo; networking produced a massive turnout at a union meeting, thus squelching that proposal and sending the message that workers expect more. 
 
&ldquo;This is a win,&rdquo; said Millicent Sub-Branch President Trevor Sinclair. &ldquo;We maintained our terms and conditions and built on them in some areas.&rdquo; 
 
The CFMEU gained flexibility on long-service leave, allowing workers to take such time off in smaller blocks instead of the prior and required month at a time period. They also achieved wage guarantees on career-path transfers so workers will never receive less, and got written language that Kimberly-Clark will give formal reports on all temporary work performed inside the mills. 

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0911.cfmeu_.kimberly20clark.2.jpg" width="276" height="183" />
CFMEU members at Millicent during 20 November ratification meeting 
In compromises to the company, the union agreed to a total on-site ban on smoking, ahead of South Australia state law due to take effect, and agreed to the mandatory wearing of Kimberly-Clark work uniforms. 
 
CFMEU has had a good labour-management relationship at Millicent and Tantanoola, and with general manager Scott Whicker. Workers and managers have worked jointly and hard to deal with high energy costs. They have also dealt together on market pressures on paper towel and tissue manufacturing, including imports and tight domestic profit margins due to only two major Australian major chains that control retailing. 
 
That jointness began in 2002 when the CFMEU Sub-Branch and Millicent management signed a memorandum of agreement, giving the go-ahead for the board of directors of the American-based company to make an A$300 investment at Millicent. That capitalization gave the mill Paper Machine No. 5. In return, the union agreed to transform to skills-based career paths and operator/maintenance duties on paper production equipment. 
 
&ldquo;The magnitude of that investment has become apparent in the years since,&rdquo; said Sinclair. &ldquo;Workers here are confident that Kimberly-Clark is committed to a future at Millicent and that has only enhanced our positive relationship.&rdquo; (Millicent now operates with four paper machines and eight converting lines.) 
 
In other CFMEU bargaining news related to the paper sector, at SCA&rsquo;s Sancella feminine hygiene plant in Springvale, Victoria, near Melbourne, union members will vote on a new three-year labour contract later this week The tentative accord, also backdated to the summer, contains a wage package with 3.5%, 3.5%, and 3.5% wage increases. At SCA&rsquo;s Box Hill towel and tissue mill, where 250 CFMEU members have been covered by an enterprise agreement, that contract comes due in March 2010.

Australia’s CFMEU Pulp, Paper Division Makes Gains with Kimberly-Clark

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The US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on 20 November informed the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) that it would seek a rare federal court injunction against Covanta Energy over the waste-to-energy company&rsquo;s unfair labour practices against workers attempting to organize and collectively negotiate a labour agreement. 
 
In issuing the Section 10(j) injunction against Covanta under US labour code, the NLRB has determined that Covanta has committed serious labour law violations that cause real and immediate harm to workers. The NLRB invokes the rare procedural application of Section 10(j) only in cases considered egregious enough to warrant federal court intervention. 

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/covanta-smoke-4-copy.jpg" width="216" height="160" />
In May 2008, 140 workers at a Covanta solid waste plant in Rochester, Massachusetts, voted in an NLRB-conducted election to join ICEM-affiliated UWUA. Since, the UWUA and its Local 369 bargaining committee at Covanta have negotiated in good faith in hopes of achieving a first labour contract, but the company has frustrated that process. 
 
Earlier in 2009, the NLRB did issue unfair labour practice complaints against the company, including one charging Covanta with withholding scheduled salary and bonus payments to workers because they formed a union. 
 
An NLRB trial before an administrative labour law judge resumes today in the state of Massachusetts over that and other illegal workplace practices committed by the company. 
 
Publicly-listed Covanta generates electric energy from the burning of solid waste at some 40 US locations. As the company has attempted to expand its waste-to-energy businesses in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, and Canada, the ICEM has assisted the UWUA in illuminating Covanta&rsquo;s work rights violations, safety and health infractions, and certain environmental practices before communities and trade unions in those countries. 
 
For more information on the UWUA&rsquo;s Campaign for Justice at Covanta, visit <a href="http://www.cjcw.org">here</a>.

US Labour Board Issues Stern Injunctive Relief against Covanta

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The daily dangers continually faced by trade union officials and activists in Iraq were graphically demonstrated by the brutal murder 26 November 2009 of Majiid Karim, an executive member of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers. Brother Karim died when his car exploded. An improvised explosive device, believed to have been timed, had been attached to his car by as yet unknown individuals. 
 
The GFIW is the largest national trade union centre in Iraq, two of its affiliates covering workers in the Oil and Gas and Electric Power Industries are affiliated to ICEM. 

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Iraq.png" width="250" height="115" />
Majiid Karim had been a key union official ignoring the anti-trade union legislation from the Saddam era and actively organizing workers in the public sector despite continued government attempts to use legislation 150 of 1987 to ban public sector workers from trade union membership. He was also a key figure in building unity among Iraqi workers and in the trade union movement. 
 
ICEM joins the GFIW in mourning their loss, as well as joining their demand that the Iraqi government and its security authorities conduct an urgent and thorough investigation to uncover the full circumstances of this appalling criminal act, and ensure that the guilty are brought to justice. 
 
We will keep you informed of the case as more information becomes available.

Iraqi Trade Unionist Murdered

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Turkish public sector employees have legally had the right to organise and form their own unions since 2001, as stipulated by the Public Employees' Trade Unions Act No. 4688. Although the law recognizes the right to organise, there are numerous groups of employees who are excluded, lawyers, civil servants at the Ministry of Defence and Turkish Armed Forces, employees at penal institutions, special security personnel, public employees &quot;in positions of trust&quot;, presidents of universities, and directors of high schools. 
 
In terms of negotiating and taking strike action, these workers have no rights at all. Act 4688 allows for &ldquo;collective consultative talks&rdquo; for the negotiating of working conditions with government, it is then the government that makes the final decision on salaries, allowances, compensation, and bonuses. Likewise, there is still no formally recognised right to strike for public employees. This clearly is not in line with core ILO Convention 98. The International Labour Organisation repeatedly criticises this and urges the Turkish Government to make necessary modifications to the Act. 

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0911.KESK_.strike.2.png" width="205" height="133" />
Centre&nbsp;Sami Evren, President of KESK,&nbsp;right Bircan Akyıldız, President of T&uuml;rkiye Kamu-Sen
The collective consultative talks have proved inadequate in achieving the deserved working conditions for public sector employees, two major Turkish trade union confederations, T&uuml;rkiye Kamu-Sen and KESK, have decided to take joint strike action on 25 November to urge the government to change the law and recognise the right to bargain and strike. On that day, both confederations report, aircrafts, trains and ships will not work, education will not be done, taxes will not be collected, &ldquo;all the public services will be stopped&rdquo;. 
 
The President of T&uuml;rkiye Kamu-Sen Bircan Akyıldız stated that eight years of commitment to collective consultative talks have produced nothing for workers. &ldquo;The strike on 25 November will not just be done on behalf of Kamu-Sen and KESK, but also for defending the rights of all public emloyees&rdquo;, he added. The President of KESK, Sami Evren, stated that the parties have never bargained from equal positions during the collective consultative talks, leading to the Government ignoring the demands of public employees. &ldquo;We have exhausted all internal judicial possibilities, and then applied to the European Human Rights Court, which ruled that Turkish public employees should have the right to bargain collectively&rdquo;, he added. 

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0911.KESK_.strike.3.png" width="350" height="74" />
The ICEM has affiliates from both confederations and fully supports the strike on 25 November, in line with the decision of the ICEM Turkish Coordinating Committee, which met on 2 November in Izmir. In his letter to the Presidents of T&uuml;rkiye Kamu-Sen and KESK, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda has conveyed the solidarity of the whole ICEM family to the Turkish public employees in their struggle for bargaining and striking rights. &ldquo;We cordially convey to you our deepest sympathy and solidarity for your rights which are guaranteed by international conventions that have been ratified by Turkey. It is our firm belief that your struggle, fought since the 1990s, for empowered unions with all rights, will be successful. The joint strike on 25 November is a clear signal for this. The ICEM has been and will always stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this honourable and rightful fight&rdquo;.

Turkish Public Employees to Stop Work on 25 November Calling for Right to Bargain, Strike

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The ICEM was saddened today to learn of the passing of Neil Kearney, the General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF). Kearney died of a massive heart attack in his sleep last night in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 
 
Kearney was a tireless advocate in halting ill-willed sweatshop practices around the world, child labour in its worst forms, and the horrid working conditions he saw throughout the developing world, conditions that Neil saw as a disgrace on humanity. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ITGLWF100.jpg" width="100" height="100" />
&ldquo;He was a friend, a fighter for workers&rsquo; rights, and an extremely dedicated trade union leader,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. &ldquo;His passing must now stand as a juncture where all of global labour re-dedicates itself to the causes he strongly championed, the dignity, compassion, and justice for the dispossessed who work in the worse scenarios imaginable.&rdquo; 
 
Kearney, 59, became the General Secretary of ITGLWF in 1988. Born in Donegal, Ireland, he started his trade union career with the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers in 1972. In 1998, he received the &ldquo;IL Natale, La Notta della Vita&rdquo; International Award for his work on the elimination of child labour worldwide. A year later, he received the &ldquo;Work and Environment Award&rdquo; of the Associaiazione Ambiente e Lavoro for his work to improve working conditions in the developing world. 
 
He is survived by his wife, Jutta, and two daughters, Nicole and Caroline. Funeral arrangements are pending. The ICEM mourns the loss of a humanitarian in the truest sense of the word.

ICEM Mourns Death of Neil Kearney, ITGLWF General Secretary

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