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Several hundred union members rallied in Melbourne, Australia, today outside the headquarters of BHP, the minerals, metals and oil multinational. 
 
They were protesting over a radical policy shift in BHP's Australian iron ore operations. Management there has abandoned its traditional cooperative approach to industrial relations in favour of a hard-line policy that denies its workers the right to bargain collectively. 
 
BHP issued its 1,000 iron ore workers in the Pilbara, Western Australia, with individual staff contracts, saying it was not prepared to negotiate a new collective agreement. The company had previously operated under a collective agreement negotiated with unions. 
 
The individual staff contracts were delivered to workers' homes on November 11. BHP decreed that workers must either sign the contracts or stay on their expired agreement. Sticking with the expired agreement would mean forgoing wage and superannuation rises and lump-sum sick leave payouts. Under the individual contracts, BHP would be able to impose workplace changes and alter pay scales without having to negotiate with unions. BHP offered workers a bonus of three months' back pay if they signed by December 3. 
 
The Secretary-elect of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Greg Combet, said the BHP iron ore division had moved sharply away from its successful cooperative approach to industrial relations, and was aping the hard-nosed American-style tactics that characterised its competitor, Rio Tinto. 
&quot;Not only is BHP now displaying great disregard for the right of employees to bargain collectively,&quot; Combet pointed out, &quot;it is adopting discriminatory practices against one section of its workforce. BHP is offering these Pilbara workers 14 percent superannuation only if they sign an individual contract, and yet BHP already pays its steel workers the same amount under a collective agreement negotiated with the unions. 
 
&quot;If BHP Steel can work out a collective agreement,&quot; Combet asked, &quot;why can't BHP Iron Ore do the same? Unions and their members in the Pilbara are more than willing to talk about efficiencies and flexibility to boost BHP's domestic and international competitiveness in iron ore.&quot; 
 
BHP's individual staff contract offer came just weeks after conservative lawyers and journalists published articles in the Australian financial press urging the company to drop &quot;its union culture&quot;. Some industrial relations experts are tipping that the move by BHP is a forerunner of similar forays into other areas, such as the coal and steel divisions.

BHP&#039;s Anti-Bargaining Stance Sparks Australian Protests

A dispute has surfaced between ICEM affiliate Associated Mineworkers of Zimbabwe and that country&rsquo;s Council of Mines. The employers&rsquo; group walked out of negotiations after refusing to award reasonable wage and salary adjustments, and then unilaterally granted inferior pay hikes amounting to half of what AMWZ considers a liveable wage. Zimbabwe&rsquo;s Ministry of Labour has intervened and ordered the matter be put before conciliation.
&nbsp;

Mining Dispute in Zimbabwe Centers on Wages

South Africa has signed up to a key international mining safety standard. 
 
The country's Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana announced the good news in a fax received today by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
ILO Convention 176 on safety and health in mines has now been ratified by the South African parliament, Mdladlana told the ICEM. Parliament also approved the accompanying Recommendation 183. 
 
On 4 November, the ICEM asked South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to promote South African ratification of Convention 176. President Mbeki, who was the guest speaker at the ICEM World Congress in Durban, promised to raise the matter at the next meeting of the South African cabinet. 
 
Approved by the world's government, trade union and employer representatives within the ILO, Convention 176 sets out international standards for ensuring health and safety in mines. The ICEM played a major role in its drafting and adoption. 
 
The Convention came into force in 1995 and had already been ratified by 12 countries. Ratification by South Africa, one of the world's biggest mining nations, will send an important signal to mining countries worldwide. 
 
ILO Conventions are ratifiable by states and binding upon them. The related ILO Recommendations set out further detail on implementation of the Conventions. 
 
&quot;We wish to thank you for raising this issue with us,&quot; Labour Minister Mdladlana wrote to the ICEM, &quot;and to assure you that we indeed take the matter of health and safety of all workers, including those in mines, very seriously.&quot;

South Africa Signs World Mining Safety Norms

&nbsp;The government in South Korea has at last legally recognised the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). The labour ministry decision on 23 November came after no less than four previous rejections of KCTU bids to obtain full legal status. 
Announcing the legal recognition at a press conference, KCTU President Dan Byung-ho said the Confederation would base its future action on &quot;the principles of independence, democracy, struggle and moral strength kept alive by so many pioneers who gave their lives in the course of our struggle&quot;. 
 
The 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) has congratulated the KCTU and all Korean workers on their achievement. 
 
&quot;The Korean government has finally recognised the long-standing truth that the KCTU is widely representative of the Korean working class and is no longer a force that can be marginalised from negotiations over social and industrial issues,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;The courage and perseverance of Korean workers over the past years have been an inspiration to the labour movement worldwide.&quot; 
 
ICEM member unions include affiliates both of the KCTU and of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU), which was already legally recognised. 
 
In a statement, the KCTU paid tribute to the many thousands of Korean trade unionists imprisoned and dismissed from their jobs during the struggle for recognition. The new ruling &quot;is also a victory for the international trade union movement and the vindication of the standard-setting and supervisory vigilance of the International Labour Organisation,&quot; the KCTU said. 
 
But it warned that full freedom of association is still not guaranteed in the Republic of Korea. &quot;Some one million government employees are still denied the right and freedom to form or join trade unions,&quot; the KCTU pointed out. Also, &quot;many millions of workers remain outside the trade unions&quot;. And more than 50 percent of Korean workers are employed in &quot;non-standard&quot; jobs which often put them beyond the protection of current labour laws. &quot;70 percent of employed women workers are found in this category,&quot; the KCTU said. It has resolved to &quot;reach out to these workers&quot;. 
 

The KCTU will also campaign next year for the Korean statutory working week to be cut to 40 hours. 
 
And it plans to &quot;transform the current union structure, from enterprise unionism to industrial unionism&quot;. This will be &quot;a vital requirement in the KCTU's effort to reach out to a wider range of workers and to undertake its campaigns more effectively&quot;. But &quot;it may - unless the government and employers acknowledge the inevitability of the change - require continued difficult struggle on the part of the KCTU&quot;.

Korea Legalises Union Confederation

About 3,000 South Africans suffering from asbestos-related diseases are pressing for their compensation claims to be heard by courts in Britain. The claims are against British-based asbestos multinational Cape. 
 
&quot;These claims should be heard in Britain and should be settled quickly,&quot; said Fred Higgs in Durban today. Higgs, who is General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), is himself a British citizen. He is in South Africa for the ICEM World Congress, which ended yesterday. 
 
&quot;It is a disgrace that Cape is even contesting the claims,&quot; Higgs said. &quot;It treated these people atrociously, and it should pay up immediately and in full.&quot; 
 
Many of the compensation claimants were employed in Cape's mining and milling operations in South Africa when they were children. That was during the apartheid era, and the children were forced to work in appalling conditions, with no protection against the deadly asbestos. 
 
In the latest round of the long legal battle between Cape and its victims, a British court ruled last month that the claims could not be heard in Britain. However, the claimants are now likely to take the matter to the House of Lords, Britain's highest court of appeal. &quot;We believe that the rights of the victims have been ignored in favour of commercial interests,&quot; their British lawyer said in London. 
 
The child labourers who survived Cape's ill-treatment are now adults, and many are desperately ill. This week, South African TV showed pictures of their emaciated bodies. 
 
The case took a macabre new turn on Thursday, when between 200 and 250 unmarked graves were discovered next to a mine dump in Prieska, near Kimberley. South Africa's ICEM-affiliated National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is backing the claimants, believes the graves are those of asbestos workers who died during the apartheid era. 
 
&quot;Delegates to our World Congress were outraged to hear about this case and about the latest discoveries,&quot; Higgs said today. &quot;There were immediate consultations between British delegates and the NUM, and they agreed that the cases must be heard in Britain without further ado.&quot; 
 
Both British and South African ICEM delegates went on South African TV last night to call for the immediate hearing of the claims in Britain and the payment of full compensation. 
 
The asbestos victims and their supporters in the Northern Cape are planning a protest march to urge the House of Lords to allow their case to be heard in Britain.

Asbestos: South Africans&#039; Case Should Be Heard In Britain

Canadian-based Inco will have to declare force majeure on some of its deliveries, the company admitted yesterday. 
 
The defaults on shipments result from Inco's lock-out against workers at a Canadian nickel mine in Thompson, Manitoba. 
 
Inco's blunder in Thompson will seriously weaken its credibility as a supplier, observers predicted. The company's sales slogan is Stronger For Our Experience. 
 
&quot;The total quantity of products that the Company is currently expected to be unable to supply as a result of the continuation of the work stoppage represents about 15 percent of the Company's average monthly primary nickel sales for the first nine months of 1999,&quot; Inco said yesterday. 
 
On its own figures, Inco supplies about 26 percent of the world's nickel demand. It is also an important producer of copper, precious metals and cobalt. 
 
1,040 workers at the Thompson mine have been locked out since 14 September. They are members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). The lock-out followed the union membership's rejection of the company's final offer. The Inco offer did not include any improvements in pensions, wages or benefits. USWA members at two other Inco Canadian operations have suspended their participation in joint labour-management design projects until the lock-out at Thompson is settled. 
 
At the global level, the USWA is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Earlier this month, USWA Canadian National Director Lawrence McBrearty asked the ICEM World Congress to back the Inco workers' campaign. Inco's behaviour is an example of a &quot; heartless corporate culture that puts profits before people,&quot; McBrearty told the Congress in Durban, South Africa. The USWA would take &quot;the struggle for justice&quot; to &quot;the four corners of the globe,&quot; he declared. 
 
&quot;We will mobilise our affiliates worldwide to communicate their solidarity with the USWA,&quot; responded ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs, &quot;and we will use every means to urge Inco to reach a settlement with the union expeditiously.&quot; 
 
Inco is present in 14 countries, and has production operations in Canada, the UK, Indonesia, Japan, Guatemala, France, China, New Caledonia and the United States.

Inco Lock-Out Hits Nickel Supplies

Australian trade union leaders are fine tuning a National Union Fightback Campaign against the conservative coalition government of Prime Minister John Howard&rsquo;s radical reforms. Such industrial relations reforms would further weaken collective bargaining. Howard&rsquo;s reforms, expected to be rushed into law after conservatives take control of the Australian Parliament&rsquo;s Senate next month, will destroy the power of the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to set minimum wage, job classification structures and minimum statutory employment conditions. 
It will abolish the IRC&rsquo;s ability to judge cases of unfair dismissal of workers in businesses employing less than 100, or two-thirds of all Australian workers. If enacted, approval of enterprise bargaining agreements will pass from the IRC to an agency that now regulates the Howard creation of individual contracts between employees and employers. The draconian reforms will also strip the country&rsquo;s states from employment regulation in favour of a centralized federal system. Trade unions have the support of Australian state governments in resisting the Howard plan.

Australian Unions Resist Government&#039;s Labour Reforms

ICEM German affiliate IGBCE entered a second round of bargaining with chemical employers 7 June with hopes of achieving a real wage increase for 550,000 workers, as well as special bonuses for trade union members. IGBCE also seeks to include more mid-level and small chemical employers in mandatory industry pension plans. The union and chemical employers association BAVC, representing 1,900 companies, did make progress in May talks toward increasing the number of trainees in the chemicals sector and establishing a fund to pay special stipends to workers in the event of job displacement.

IGBCE, Employers Continue Efforts to Resolve Chemical Talks

<img height="40" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief201.gif" width="100" alt="" />
Bargaining will resume today in the lockout of 25,000 paperworkers in Finland. The Executive Committee of Paperiliitto on 5 June rejected a mediator&rsquo;s proposal that, on the whole, sided with many of the concessionary proposals put forward by the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. Those proposals would have given paper companies the unlimited right to outsource work that would see as many as one-third of all full-time paper sector jobs disappear, and would have weakened worker protections against layoffs. 
Employers have now extended the lockout to six weeks, or until 29 June. EMCEF announced that it will investigate whether Finnish paper firms forced the lockout in order to increase paper prices through reduced supply and the ICEM continues to encourage paper sector unions across Europe not to accept work orders from Finnish paper mills and converters.

Finnish Affiliate Rejects Paper Companies Harsh Concessions

Materials giant Imerys was today accused of acting in bad faith over an upcoming union recognition vote at one of its US sites. 
 
&quot;Imerys headquarters management in France had assured us that the company would not campaign against the union in the US,&quot; said Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;They have broken their word.&quot; 
<img height="263" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/syl2.jpg" width="350" alt="" />
UNDER PRESSURE 
Imerys supervisors are pushing US workers to vote against the union. 
(photo: PACE)&nbsp;
Higgs is General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
An election is scheduled for 22 June at Imerys' Sylacauga site in the US, to decide whether workers there should be represented by ICEM American affiliate the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical &amp; Energy Workers' Unions (PACE). 
 
The vote follows a campaign by PACE, the ICEM and unions at other Imerys sites worldwide to secure the Sylacauga workers' right to opt for a union. 
 
Imerys corporate headquarters had promised the ICEM and PACE that the company would not campaign against the union in the run-up to the poll. 
 
On 17 May, local US manager Randy Sandrik sent all Sylacauga employees a note proclaiming the company's &quot;commitment to a fair and prompt election.&quot; 
 
But a little further into the memo, he unveiled his real agenda: &quot;In consideration of the relationship between the company and unions throughout Imerys, we will not campaign against unions in general. The focus of our communications process will only be union representation at Sylacauga.&quot; Sandrik also gave everybody the benefit of his own views: &quot;I don't think the Sylacauga employees need a third party representative to manage our relationship.&quot; 
 
The results of this duplicity are already plain. 
 
Supervisors at Sylacauga are wearing &quot;Vote NO&quot; stickers on their hardhats and posting the same stickers around the plant. 
 
The supervisors, sometimes two together, are also taking workers one at a time into offices, telling them that unionisation would mean a loss of wages and benefits, and urging them to vote against the union. 
 
And the company is still using the union-busting lawyer Frank Parker to train its local managers. 
 
&quot;One thing is clear,&quot; Higgs said today. &quot;Either the Imerys corporate management in Paris is acting in bad faith - or else it is simply being fooled by its US local managers.&quot; 
 
He urged Imerys CEO Patrick Kron to write immediately to all the Sylacauga workers, assuring them of the company's full neutrality on the issue of union representation at its US site. 
 
PACE has now brought a case against Imerys at the OECD, which has a code of conduct for multinational companies.

Imerys in &#039;Bad Faith&#039; Over US Union Vote

Archive

BHP's Anti-Bargaining Stance Sparks Australian Protests

Mining Dispute in Zimbabwe Centers on Wages

South Africa Signs World Mining Safety Norms

Korea Legalises Union Confederation

Asbestos: South Africans' Case Should Be Heard In Britain

Inco Lock-Out Hits Nickel Supplies

Australian Unions Resist Government's Labour Reforms

IGBCE, Employers Continue Efforts to Resolve Chemical Talks

Finnish Affiliate Rejects Paper Companies Harsh Concessions

Imerys in 'Bad Faith' Over US Union Vote

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