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While the legal proceedings for over 400 sacked miners at Debswana diamond operations in Botswana continue on hold, the fate of their children&rsquo;s education hit a sad, cruel end. Debswana, jointly owned by DeBeers and the government of Botswana, has dismissed from company sponsored schools the children of those who participated in a strike last August. The company does allow children of others from the mining areas to attend on a private-school fee basis. &ldquo;Management has now turned to the cruellest form of torture methods in hitting where it hurts most, children,&rdquo; stated Chimbidzani Chimidza, national chairman of the Botswana Mining Workers&rsquo; Union.

Debswana Delivers Cruel Fate to Children of Botswana’s Miners

ICEM affiliate General Workers&rsquo; Union of Malta is protesting that government&rsquo;s introduction of legislation aimed at eliminating all public holidays that fall on weekends. This means workers&mdash;if the bill is passed as an amendment to Legislation on Public Holidays&mdash;will not get an additional leave day for holidays occurring on weekend days, as mandated in Malta&rsquo;s Industrial and Employments Relations Act. In 2005, if passed, workers will lose three holidays, including the 1 May holiday and Christmas Day.

Maltese Union Protests Government’s Public Holiday Elimination

UPM Kymmene in Canada has heightened the discord in a five-week strike at a kraft pulp mill and coated papers mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick. The Finnish company sought and won a court order in a New Brunswick court to limit the number of picketers at the mill&rsquo;s five gates. The 700 members of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Local 689 are holding strong in this threat to their livelihoods with strike pay from the national CEP, plus a supplement derived from contributions from other paper-sector members of the CEP. The strike was caused when UPM Kymmene refused to table the paper industry&rsquo;s pattern agreement for eastern Canada. No bargaining has been held since the 16 December strike began.

UPM Kymmene Intensifying Paper Strike in Canada

The Executive Boards of ICEM North American affiliates USWA and PACE voted to merge in January, creating the continent&rsquo;s largest industrial union with 850,000 members. The merger is scheduled to be consummated in April when the two unions will hold concurrent conventions.

PACE, USWA Unions in US Lay Preliminary Work for Merger

German affiliate IGBCE proved instrumental in getting a tyre factory in Mexico reopened. The Continental AG plant in the western Mexican state of Jalisco was closed in 2001, idling 1,400. Working with several NGOs and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), IGBCE convinced Continental to sell the plant to a group of Mexican investors and workers as a cooperative. The tyre plant, now called Western Tire Corp./El Salto Tire Factory, will employ between 600 and 700 workers.

Continental Tyre Plant in Mexico gets New Life Thanks to IGBCE

The Transport and General Workers&rsquo; Union of UK is polling 1,200 members at two Michelin plants for industrial action. Michelin&rsquo;s wage offer in December of either 3% or GBP 650 is inadequate, and separate polling of the two workforces will begin this week. The two sites are Stoke in the Midlands with 400 T&amp;G members and Ballymena in Northern Ireland employing 800.

Transport and General in UK Ready for Industrial Action at Michelin

French unions in Elf Antargaz called a strike on 8 February, as a pledge to sell the company sparked fears of major job losses. 
 
Owned by Elf-Aquitaine, Antargaz is France's second-biggest supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). 
 
Elf's pledge to sell Antargaz was one of the main elements cited by the European Commission yesterday when it announced its approval of a merger between Elf and TotalFina. The new company will be the world's fourth-biggest oil group. 
 
To secure the go-ahead from the EU Commission, the companies also undertook to sell off 70 TotalFina service stations along the French motorways and Elf's jet fuel supply business at Lyon and Toulouse airports. 
 
Elf Antargaz workers have been mobilised by French energy unions the FCE-CFDT and CFE-CGC. Some 200 demonstrators marched to the headquarters of Elf Antargaz and TotalFina, where they lobbied the human resources director. 
 
The FCE-CFDT said it will be &quot;extremely demanding&quot; on the conditions for the Antargaz sale. In particular, the union will &quot;reject any dismantling of the enterprise, because separate disposal of different activities (butane, propane, small-scale bulk, bottled gas ...) would mean ceding market share and sacrificing jobs.&quot; 
 
Any purchaser of Antargaz must, the FCE-CFDT insists, &quot;be in a position to implement industrial and commercial policies that will guarantee the development of the enterprise and of employment.&quot; 
 
Current collective agreements for oil industry workers must continue to apply in Antargaz after any sell-off, the union emphasises. 
 
The TotalFina-Elf case led the FCE-CFDT to criticise the inadequacy of unions' information and consultation rights in the case of company mergers - see ICEM UPDATE 3/2000. 
 
The French union, which is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), is pressing for better EU legislation on this.

TotalFina-Elf merger: French Unions Protest over LPG Sell-off

In December, ICEM reported on death threats and extortion attempts to Sintracarb&oacute;n bargaining team members and their families. In fact, those threats were made to national officers of Sintracarbon&mdash;including a bargaining team member&mdash;as well as to leaders of the San Juan Del Cesar branch of Sintracarb&oacute;n. 

&nbsp;

Death Threats in Colombia Aimed at Sintracarbon Leaders

Unions within global mining giant Rio Tinto recognise that the company has to be efficient and competitive, and they are prepared to work with Rio Tinto to achieve this. But the company, for its part, must recognise workers' right to form trade unions and to bargain collectively. There must also be independent monitoring of its compliance with basic labour rights. 
 
That is the message from the network of unions representing Rio Tinto workers worldwide. The offer came at the end of the network's meeting in Canberra, Australia, on 7-8 February. 
 
The unions' main declarations: 
 
- &quot;We recognise the need for Rio Tinto to be an efficient and competitive producer of minerals and mineral products and are prepared to work with the company to that end.&quot; 
 
- &quot;The cooperation of the workforce with the company in achieving its goals must be on the basis of company recognition of the rights of its workers to form trade unions and bargain collectively. To date the company has not met this basic obligation in many of its operations.&quot; 
 
- &quot;Continuing efforts by the company to fragment and isolate its workforce though the offering of individual employment contracts rather than bargain with unions are in direct contravention of this basic obligation.&quot; 
 
- &quot;Until the company respects the basic rights of its workers, the trade unions in the global network will campaign against the company in domestic and international forums and in cooperation with other organisations and peoples who have grievances with the company. We see the success of our campaign as linked with other campaigns over the protection of human rights (in particular, the rights of indigenous peoples in or near Rio Tinto operations) and the protection of the environment from poor mining practices. This campaign will take many forms, and be based on the problems that the company is causing in each operation.&quot; 
 
- &quot;At the global level, the unions in Rio Tinto operations will campaign, in conjunction with the wider labour movement, for the company to abide by the seven core labour standards of the UN&rsquo;s International Labour Organisation and the OECD&rsquo;s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. These standards cover freedom of association and the right to collectively bargain, the abolition of forced and child labour, equal pay and the prevention of discrimination in the workplace. Rio Tinto is currently in breach of these basic labour standards on many counts.&quot; 
 
- &quot;Any commitment the company may make in respect of these core labour standards must provide for an independent monitoring and compliance mechanism in which trade unions participate.&quot; 
 
- &quot;In an age of globalisation and ever-larger multinational corporations, it is increasingly important for the labour movement to organise internationally to protect and advance the position of working people. We see ourselves as leading the way in making global corporations accountable to the communities in which they operate. The globalisation of big business demands a global response from workers as well as governments. The Rio Tinto global union network is part of that response.&quot; 
 
Union delegates from Rio Tinto operations in Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, South Africa and the United States took part in the Canberra meeting. Messages of support were received from network unions in Brazil, Indonesia, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Sweden and Zimbabwe. However, the meeting voiced concern that the company seemed to have prevented some delegates from attending. &quot;It appears that Rio Tinto chooses to act globally but wishes to prevent its own workers doing so,&quot; the network commented. 
 
Organising the Canberra event was the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). The host was ICEM-affiliated Australian mining and allied union the CFMEU, whose National Secretary John Maitland is the ICEM's President. 
 
Some of the international delegates are now visiting Rio Tinto sites in Australia to meet their colleagues there. But difficulties have arisen over access to certain sites. Urgent efforts are under way to resolve these problems with the company.

Rio Tinto Unions Offer To Work With Company If ...

The Australian Federal Court today ordered mining and materials multinational BHP to cease offering and entering into individual contracts with members of its Pilbara workforce. 
 
The decision is a stunning victory for the Australian unions and for collective bargaining, with the court upholding all three grounds in the unions' case. 
 
The unions submitted that there was a &quot;serious arguable case&quot; that BHP had breached the law through its industrial bribery in the Pilbara by: 
 
- Prejudicing employees because of their union membership 
 
- Inducing employees to leave their union 
 
- Breaching a term of the Contract of Employment which provided that BHP should honour collective bargaining and not enter into individual contracts. 
 
The court's decision is the biggest victory for the Australian trade union movement since the waterfront dispute of 1998. 
 
&quot;BHP should immediately abandon its disastrous deunionisation campaign and respect the right of Australian workers to bargain collectively through their unions,&quot; commented Australian mining and allied workers' union the CFMEU today. 
 
At the global level, the CFMEU is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which has been backing the campaign for labour rights at BHP.

BHP Must Halt Individual Job Contracts in Australia

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