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With great sorrow, we announce the passing of Ann Browne, Projects Officer of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Ann died peacefully in a Brussels clinic on Friday night, at the end of a long fight against cancer. She is remembered by her fellow trade unionists worldwide, both as a kind and charming colleague and as an effective builder of trade unions for those who need them most. 

<img height="279" alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ann.jpg" width="200" />
Ann Browne was born on 18 October 1949 in Strabane, Northern Ireland. After her studies, she joined the Chile Solidarity Campaign and was particularly active in its programme for refugees. Many people in Chile remember her from those days. 
 
In 1982, she joined the Miners' International Federation (MIF), a forerunner of the present ICEM. At the MIF, she had responsibility for projects and particularly for Latin America. After the MIF's merger into the ICEM, she became the ICEM Projects Officer. 
 
Whilst Ann was rigorous in her presentation of projects, reports and accounts, she was never a bureaucrat. She saw her work as that of a militant serving the affiliated trade unions. Never afraid to speak out, she was also no stranger to physical risks and hardship, particularly during her work with trade unions in Latin America. After one visit to Peru, the newspapers there described her as a dangerous activist. 
 
She will also be remembered for initiating the Global Health and Safety Project in the mining industry, for her work with women in mining communities and for her campaigns against the use of child labour in mines. Year after year, she played a crucial role in supporting the Colombian coal miners' union Sintracarbon as it struggled against repression and for the right to collective bargaining. Today, Sintracarbon is one of Latin America's most militant and effective miners' unions. 
 
Ann's struggle against cancer began ten years ago. It was a difficult and often painful fight. Everyone admired her ability to surmount the disease and to carry on her important work in spite of it. Her determination to keep on serving her ideals helps explain her remarkably long resistance to cancer. 
 
Ann's ready laughter, her fine sense of humour and her kindness were blended with a huge working capacity and great willpower. Her address book was full of friends all over the world. She could not conceive of visiting affiliates or attending conferences without arranging side meetings from dawn until late at night. 
 
Yet she had time for people. She cared deeply. And she is deeply missed.

Ann Browne: A Tribute

A new website launched today highlights anti-union practices by ceramics, materials and construction multinational Imerys. 
 
American union the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers (PACE) and the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), jointly announced the start-up of the website on French-headquartered Imerys. PACE is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
&quot;The website allows Imerys workers and their unions throughout the world to communicate, share information and learn about the 'union-busting' practices of Imerys in the US,&quot; said PACE President Boyd Young. 
 
Imerys has been conducting a hostile campaign against union members and supporters at its plants in Georgia and Alabama. In Sylacauga, Alabama, Imerys management hired a professional &quot;union-buster', held mandatory anti-union meetings, and showed a film which implied that US unions are controlled by organised crime and that they cause plants to be closed. Imerys is also using a &quot;secret&quot; manual, uncovered by PACE, which instructs supervisors on how to conduct the anti-union campaign. 
 
PACE has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that Imerys management harassed, threatened and spied on union supporters. Excerpts from the &quot;secret&quot; manual, a summary of legal charges, and an interactive message board are on the website. 
 
Fred Higgs, ICEM General Secretary, stated: &quot;Imerys so far has refused to stop its anti-union practices, and we will assist US workers who are battling for union representation in whatever way we can.&quot; 
 
The ICEM held a press conference on January 20 in Brussels, together with the Belgian General Labour Federation (FGTB/ABVV) and ICEM Belgian affiliate the Centrale Generale/Algemene Centrale, calling upon the Frere family to intervene. The Frere family controls 23 percent of Imerys shares through one of its many holding companies. The ICEM set up meetings with French and British union affiliates, who also represent workers at Imerys plants, and have pledged support for the campaign.

Imerys Campaign: Unions Launch Global Website

The All Pakistan Trade Union Federation is holding a series of rallies to protest price hikes, rising unemployment, retrenchment of workers and restrictions on trade union activity. The first rally, led by Gen. Sec. Gulzar Ahmed Chaudhry, was held yesterday at the Press Club in Lahore. Further rallies are set for tomorrow in different industrial areas of the country.

Pakistan’s National Labour Centre Rallies Over Union Restrictions

Successful negotiations were concluded between Colombian affiliate Sintracarb&oacute;n and Carbones del Cerrej&oacute;n, the profitable coal mining and export company owned jointly by Anglo-American, BHP Billiton and Glencore International. The two-year agreement calls for 8% pay raises in addition to three monthly bonus payments as compensation for agreement on legislative changes.

Sintracarbon in Colombia Posts Excellent Gains at Coal Firm

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa is targeting Hernic Ferrochrome following a 13 December underground mine disaster that crushed and then drowned seven miners in Brits, North West Province. Managers refused to allow NUM representatives to investigate South Africa&rsquo;s deadliest 2004 mine disaster caused by a flood from a dislodged valve that brought a ventilation lattice wall down. &ldquo;The behaviour of this company demonstrates absolute arrogance in the face of calamity,&rdquo; said NUM Gen. Sec. Gwede Mantashe. &ldquo;We will leave no stone unturned in our commitment to ensuring that families of these workers see justice being done.&rdquo; The NUM will be present 15 February when an official Department of Minerals and Energy inquiry commences. Hernic, a high-carbon ferrochrome producer that is just now ramping production up at the Brits mine, is 53.2% owned by Japan&rsquo;s Mitsubishi, 25% by the South African government&rsquo;s Industrial Development Corp., 11.5% by Elg Hansel of Germany, and 7.5% by mine management.

South Africa’s NUM Takes On Hernic Ferrochrome Over Safety

December proved to be another deadly month for mine workers in China. No less than four major accidents were recorded and publicized, claiming the lives of 100 workers. On 9 December, a gas explosion at the Daxian mine near Yangquan, Shanxi Province, killed 33, including five workers as they were being rescued. In Guizhou Province on 12 December, 36 workers were trapped and drowned when the Xujiuabe Tianchi mine was flooded. Two days later near the town of Tanjiashan, Hunan Province, another gas blast killed 18 workers. Then on 22 December, 13 workers were killed at the Nanwugou mine near Linfen in northern Shanxi Province when a build up of gas overcame the workers in a mineshaft.

Mining Deaths Continue to Plague China’s Coal Industry

A pipeline project between Chad and Cameroon headed by ExxonMobil has come under scrutiny with a study detailing abuse of workers by two contractors, TCC and Subsahara Services. US affiliate PACE and NGOs the union is working with have brought the issue to the attention of the US supermajor in ongoing talks over human and trade union rights at company worksites. The study says contract workers are not paid for certain social benefits; violations of work rules exist regarding the number of working hours; non-payment to workers who are injured is prevalent; and the firms are absent of plans regarding demobilization, professional reconversion and social reinsertion.

ExxonMobil Stands Accused of Pipeline Abuses in West Africa

Members of Canadian affiliate Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Local 689 struck Finnish papermaker UPM Kymmene 16 December in Miramichi, New Brunswick, over the firm&rsquo;s refusal to table the paper industry&rsquo;s pattern agreement for eastern Canada. Some 790 CEP members at a kraft pulp mill and a fine papers mill are striking to gain the pattern set when CEP signed a six-year accord with Abitibi-Consolidated last July.

CEP in Canada Strikes Finnish Paper Company UPM Kymmene

CEP is seeking binding arbitration for workers at offshore oil producer Hibernia, the ExxonMobil-led energy consortium that has flagrantly dodged a first union contract at the oil platform off the coast of Newfoundland. Some 420 workers voted for CEP representation in October 2001 but the company has used legal appeals and stall tactics to avoid the bargaining table. CEP is already in first contract arbitration at a similar North Atlantic oil platform called Terra Nova operated by Petro-Canada. Some 90 workers there voted for the CEP in April 2003. &ldquo;Our members at Hibernia and Terra Nova have waited far too long to get Coordinator Joe Gargiso. &ldquo;We prefer to negotiate terms but employer resistance is forcing us into following the mandatory first contract arbitration procedure.&rdquo;

Arbitration Sought to Settle Canadian Offshore Oil Dispute

Hubertus Schmoldt, president of ICEM German affiliate IGBCE, drew attention to the challenges and opportunities facing the union movement in an end-of-the-year message. Schmoldt noted that international competition has grown stiffer with no let up in sight and said global trade union work stressing solidarity is welcome, but unions are only at the beginning of such positive developments. He described biogenetics and nanotechnology as key industries for the future but&mdash;particularly in the case of gene technology&mdash; Germany may soon lose research, development and production capacities. Schmoldt stressed the importance of education and training from early childhood to university levels as key.

Germany’s IGBCE Gives Year-End Challenges

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