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<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/CAL_en.jpg" style="width: 110px;height: 50px" width="390" />

	What does precarious work look like in Australia?

	One of the things that has characterised clothing workers in Australia over many decades has been that companies manufacture goods through very long, complex and broad supply chains. The supply chains in numerous cases have multiple levels and often at the end of those supply chains you find someone working at home &ndash; these are predominantly women, mainly migrant women in the Australian context; they don&rsquo;t have English as a first language and they are working in very isolated circumstances; they commonly work 7 days a week and when there&rsquo;s a rush for orders they&rsquo;ll work throughout the day and night. It&rsquo;s also common that they&rsquo;ll involve other family members including children to try to get the work done and part of the other aspect that characterises these workers is that they&rsquo;re often told that they&rsquo;re not employees, that they&rsquo;re not workers, and the people who give them the work require them to have some sort of company name or corporate structure to be able to give them the work. This is a sham arrangement &ndash; they&rsquo;re not genuine contractors and have no genuine independence at all. This is an attempt by the company and the brand to distance themselves from their employment responsibilities.

	What action has the Textile, Clothing &amp; Footwear Union of Australia taken?

	More than 20 years ago we succeeded in having a legal set of award conditions that said that if you are a worker in a factory in our industry or at home you are entitled to the same pay and conditions &ndash; this along hasn&rsquo;t fixed the problem. So, what we are now doing &ndash; and have had some success &ndash; is with different state governments in Australia introducing state legislation.

	Our unions campaigned for many, many years on this issue, and we don&rsquo;t do it alone we&rsquo;re part of a broader campaign called the &lsquo;Fairwear&rsquo; campaign which is&nbsp; made up of unions, church groups, student groups, community organisations and activists who for more than 15 years have had a campaign which focuses publically on companies who don&rsquo;t take seriously their responsibility to workers in their supply chains, and pressures them to become accredited with a voluntary scheme which makes the whole supply chain transparent. The accreditation scheme is based on Australian legal minimum standards being met, so through the campaign and the unions&rsquo; exposure of many examples of exploitative behaviour of workers working from home we got some state governments to introduce laws and now we&rsquo;re just at the point of having the federal government introduce a national legislation which picks up on what we achieved at the state level and makes it nationally consistent. It&rsquo;s now gone into the Australian Parliament and will be voted on in the next couple of weeks.

	The proposed legislation does 4 keys things. The first thing is it deems all outworkers &nbsp;(our terminology in Australia for these workers working at home is outworkers)&nbsp; to be employees, it says regardless of whether you are required to have a business name or company structure you are an employee. Secondly, it allows those workers to recover unpaid money up the supply chain, so if the person who gave them the work disappears they can go to the next company up the supply chain, or the next company above that, to recover unpaid wages and it includes the notion of the &lsquo;apparent employer&rsquo; so it allows you to recover money from the apparent employer as opposed to only the actual employer. The third thing it does is allow the government to introduce a mandatory code to complement the voluntary code that I spoke about before, and that mandatory code would put obligations not just on the manufacturers but on the retailers &ndash; so it would require retailers by law to make their whole supply chain transparent. The forth thing it does is gives the union greater right of entry powers &ndash; not into homes, we already have right of entry powers in relation to the records etc. about homeworkers and we don&rsquo;t want to be able to enter into someone&rsquo;s home without their permission, but it gives us far greater powers to enter what we describe as sweatshops than apply to most other unions under Australian law - most other unions under Australian law have to give 24 hours&rsquo; notice of entry, and are only able to look at their members&rsquo; records. What this law will do is allow us to not give any notice so we&rsquo;ll be able to go straight into the workplace without giving them any prior notice, and it will also allow us to check all of the workers&rsquo; records, not just the union members.

	How does your union organise homeworkers?

	We&rsquo;ve tried a variety of different methods and are still trying new things all of the time because they are, from our experience, the hardest group of workers to organise. Because of the level of pressure that they&rsquo;re placed under they are very fearful of seeing to be associated with the union, otherwise they lose work. But the method where we&rsquo;ve had some success is that for&nbsp; many years we&rsquo;ve run free English language classes that are targeted to outworkers in their community so in the regions and suburbs that they live in. Those classes deal with English languages and literacy, but also with rights and the role of the union. We also visit workers and try and establish new networks of connecting these workers, often using social occasions as a way of bringing workers together. One of the things that characterises this work is that it is really isolated so we try and find opportunities to bring them together. We do things like a trip to a garden show &ndash; a range of activities where they and their children can come. The other thing we do is employ organisers who have done outwork themselves and also speak the language &ndash; the majority of these workers currently are Vietnamese, so we&rsquo;ve got a strategy of employing Vietnamese organisers in the union that can deal directly with people in their first language and also organisers who have had the experience of doing that sort of work themselves.

	More information on this campaign is available <a href="http://tcfua.org.au/outworkers/union-campaigns">here</a>.

	Since the interview took place the bill has been passed by the Senate and will now be discussed at the House of Representatives.

Interview with Michele O Neil, National Secretary of the Textile, Clothing, Footwear Union Australia

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 78, March 2012

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="/wp-content/uploads/articles/120320pinkie20south20africa.jpg" 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)

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	In calling attention to jobs creation as equivalent economic growth, working people across Europe on 29 February, led by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), manifested in a Day of Action against the European Council&rsquo;s adoption of a budget discipline treaty.

	The decentralised mobilisations occurred in scores of cities and worksites with a common theme pointed at EU governments and decision-makers: &ldquo;Enough is enough! There are alternatives to austerity. Employment and social justice are the number one priorities.&rdquo;

	The 29 February ETUC Day of Action took the form of demonstrations, work stoppages and information postings inside workplaces, as well as government institutions and stated that the European summit&rsquo;s Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance is a &ldquo;straightjacket&rdquo; that will plunge the Eurozone into free-fall recession.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/120220euro20austerity20banner.jpg" style="width: 154px;height: 160px" width="390">&nbsp;

	The actions included two demonstrations in Brussels, site of the European Council&rsquo;s 1-2 March summit where the misguided treaty will intrinsically slash wages and social protections, restrict collective bargaining, and provide even more neo-liberal policies, hardly the remedies for economic growth to assure a sustainable future.

	Union leaders, led by ETUC General Secretary Bernadette S&eacute;gol, met 29 February with Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Parliament President Martin Schulz in Brussels, while a mass rally took place at the European Council building. Members of all Belgian trade unions united in protest on 29 February, and targeted their manifestation outside the Belgian National Bank.

	A sampling of other actions on 29 February included a mass demonstration organised by the Romanian national trade union centres at Victoria Square in Bucharest. In Rome, Italian labour federations CGIL, CISL and UIL demonstrated at Pantheon Place, while Hungarian trade unions held a press conference and manifestation.

	In Greece, trade unions undertook a three-hour work stoppage, while even in Georgia trade unions protested ETUC&rsquo;s Day of Action with a rally at Parliament in Tbilisi. This protest was against their government&rsquo;s utter failure to adopt a fair labour code, all the while developing trade with European markets.

	In the UK, British trade unions used the day to gear up their defense of the National Health Service (NHS), which happens massively today, 7 March, across Britain. Both the ETUC and Trades Union Congress (TUC) denounce austerity measures that &ldquo;fall hardest on the shoulders of the weakest&rdquo; when public services are slashed.

ETUC Holds Day of Protest against Europe’s ‘Straitjacket’ Treaty

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	With 95% approval yesterday, Local 27 members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) ratified a closure agreement with Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), part of Caterpillar Inc.&rsquo;s Progress Rail Services, in London, Ontario. The sizeable financial settlement ends a morbid chapter of labour relations abuse by a company, and leaves an economic wound befitting the worst corporate ill-will that can be served up.

	The loss of 465 union jobs is tragedy enough in London, Ontario. EMD proposed in collective negotiations that CAW members reduce wages from C$35-per-hour to C$16-18, and give up a 50% equivalent of all benefits. When workers said no, on 1 January Caterpillar and EMD locked them off their jobs at a rail locomotive manufacturing plant.

	Thirty-four days later Caterpillar/EMD announced it would close the operation, move production to a start-up plant in the low-wage &ndash; US$12-16-an-hour &ndash; city of Muncie, Indiana, six hours to the south of London, where Caterpillar had already assembled a virulently anti-union management team.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" height="159" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1201.ken20lewenza.jpg" width="156" />

	Ken Lewenza

	Angry Canadians could only beg the answer to the question: What are our federal and provincial governments doing on such brazen desecration of our manufacturing base. Caterpillar had bought the London plant in third quarter 2010 and it came with a bed of government tax breaks. Eighteen months later, the plant is shuttered and Canadian-made machinery and technical know-how is now leaving the country.

	CAW President Ken Lewenza said Canada is in desperate need of a manufacturing jobs strategy. He stated that the free movement of global capital from country to country must be stopped because it is undercutting workers&rsquo; wages.

	Severance packages exceeded what were required by law, partly driven by public indignation of Caterpillar&rsquo;s conduct and mostly by CAW&rsquo;s resolve to get the best possible close-out deals for workers. EMD workers will get three weeks&rsquo; pay for each year of service and a C$1,500 lump sum payment. (See the <a href="http://www.caw.ca/assets/images/EMC_RATIFICATION_(2).pdf">CAW closure agreement </a>here.)

	For one-third of the workforce, that means severance payments of 60 weeks&rsquo; pay or more, while many will average 20-25 weeks. Workers will gain a measure of extended health care coverage, their pension fund will be fully funded, and EMD agreed to settle all claims and grievances with CAW Local 27. That will amount to a C$350,000 payment to the union within 30 days of yesterday.

	Province of Ontario law says that workers with five years of work service must get one week&rsquo;s pay for each year worked, with a cap of 26 weeks. In a company statement on the closure and severance agreement, Caterpillar/EMD boasted that 75 workers, who would not receive pay-outs under the Ontario minimum, will do so now in the negotiated agreement.

	That hollow boast fades in juxtaposition to the wider swath of economic carnage Caterpillar has left on southwestern Ontario. Besides the 670 union, clerical and management direct jobs lost, CAW expects the plant closure to impact another 2,100 peripheral jobs.

	(See previous ICEM 2012 reports on Caterpillar in London, Ontario, <a href="-Caterpillar-to-Close-Canadian-Train-Locomotive-Plant">here</a>, <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4851-15-000-Manifests-for-Canadian-Auto-Workers-in-Lockout-By-Caterpillar">here</a>&nbsp;and <a href="/en/27-North-America/4823-CAW-Members-Victimized-in-Lockout-by-Caterpillar-s-Rail-Division">here</a>.)

Severance Deal Reached in Stained Caterpillar Rail Diesel Closure

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) is demanding that labour and regulatory law in the province of Ontario be toughened in the wake of the social calamity perpetrated by Caterpillar Inc. in the recent lockout/closure of a rail electric diesel factory in the south-western provincial city of London.

	With that nearly all labour law in Canada is governed by the provinces, CAW demanded in a 29 February letter to Labour Minister Linda Jeffrey that Ontario toughen its labour statutes as remedy to lax investment regulations. Specifically, the CAW demands that more powers be granted the Ontario Labour Relations Board to stamp out bad-faith bargaining strategies.

	The CAW is campaigning for a stronger and more modernized labour code in Ontario because of Caterpillar&rsquo;s subsidiary, Electro-Motive Diesel, blackmailing workers and a community in choosing between non-liveable wages and a major plant closure. (See prior <a href="-Caterpillar-to-Close-Canadian-Train-Locomotive-Plant">ICEM report</a> here.)

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Ken.Lewenza.CAW_.jpg" style="width: 100px;height: 145px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Ken Lewenza

	In the letter, CAW President Ken Lewenza said, &ldquo;The company&rsquo;s unjustifiable behaviour &ndash; and the resulting devastation now being brought to bear on workers and the community &ndash; has touched a nerve with Canadians and triggered broad public support.&rdquo;

	The CAW is proposing powers of expedited interest arbitration in pitched labour disputes, as well as new provisions to prevent employers from evading collective agreements by using a lockout.

	Also put forward is a ban on scab replacement workers during a dispute, and restoring workers&rsquo; plant closing rights to negotiate adjustment plans. The CAW also says fairness demands the lengthening of time for giving plant closing notice, and a minimum two weeks&rsquo; pay for each year of service, with elimination of the five-year service tie-in.

	The <a href="http://www.caw.ca/en/10986.htm">CAW letter</a> also calls for an Industrial Inquiry Commission, as stipulated in Section 37, Ontario Labour Relations Act, in order to investigate Caterpillar carnage on workers in the province and the city of London.

	&ldquo;The Caterpillar debacle demonstrates all too well the ease with which an employer can stall out the negotiation process, bargain in bad faith with impunity and manufacture a dispute in an attempt to evade contractual obligations,&rdquo; Lewenza stated.

	&ldquo;Caterpillar did not misjudge or misinterpret Ontario&rsquo;s labour laws; rather, they understood them all too well, and exploited the laws&rsquo; weaknesses as a key part of their overall strategy.&rdquo;

CAW Demands Change in Ontario’s Labour Laws

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390">

	The third phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry&rsquo;s investigation of the Pike River mine explosions of November 2010 that killed 29 concluded in mid-February in Greymouth, New Zealand, and several experts testified to the inherent weak safety mechanisms in place by Pike River Coal Ltd.

	The latest set of hearings also reveal a company that was 18 months behind on orders to deliver &nbsp;premium metallurgical coal, and in the words of a technical services manager who resigned just days before the first explosion, &ldquo;There was no way the company would delay coal production&rdquo; because of safety concerns.

	The manager, Pieter Van Rooyen, testified that workers had given him notice of inadequate methane drainage pipes, requesting that drilling cease until rectified. Despite passing that on in writing to senior operational managers, nothing was done. Van Rooyen said the decision to begin hydro-mining deep within the shaft without constructing a second exit &ndash; and in areas of high methane gas build-up &ndash; was strictly for &ldquo;cash-flow purposes.&rdquo;

	&nbsp;<img alt="" height="159" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1107.pike20river20mine20photo.jpg" width="183" />&nbsp;

	An electrical engineer who investigated New Zealand&rsquo;s worst mining accident in 100 years said the faulty Pike River electrical systems multiplied chances for disaster since stray currents in many mechanical instruments produced sparks. Pike River&rsquo;s main exhaust fan was located underground, an anomaly to modern mining.

	In late October 2010, the company was warned by a regulatory agency that the stability of an expanded roof in an underground area was worrisome, and again nothing was done. A mine safety expert from Australia testified that the blast was caused by a roof collapse deep inside the mine, causing a massive release of gas. When the underground fan failed, the gas could have ignited from a small spark.

	For 16 months now, the bodies of the 29 have remained entombed inside the South Island mine, despite efforts by families to recover their loved ones. In this inquiry round, photos of two miners who were sighted dead near self-rescue units were shown. The photos indicate that the miners might have survived the initial blast on 19 November 2010. In the following days, five more major explosions occurred.

	Pike River Coal Ltd. killed 29 miners, including 26 New Zealanders, a miner from South Africa, one from the UK, and another miner who was an Australian national. The mother of this Australian miner named Josh Ufer is currently speaking out in Australia on the necessity to maintain full trade union involvement in all mine safety matters.

	As the Single Bargaining Unit led by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) wages a battle against BHP Billiton and Mitsubishi to retain union-mandated safety deputies and open cut examiners inside Queensland collieries, Joanne Ufer is versing the dangers inherent in unilateral management control of safety matters in union advertisements.

	The final phase of the Pike River Royal Commission of Inquiry will convene next month, with the commission&rsquo;s report and findings to be issued in September.&nbsp; See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4681-Pike-River-s-Royal-Inquiry-Sees-Troubling-Safety-Issues-Inside-NZ-Mine-Disaster">ICEM report</a> following the commission&rsquo;s second phase hearings.

‘Disaster Waiting to Happen,’ Pike River 3rd Inquiry Told

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	If anyone needs further proof to Vale&rsquo;s global social neglect, it comes in a pair of dirty deeds committed by the Brazilian mining company in and after the bitter 2009-10 strike at a major nickel and copper operation in Sudbury, Ontario.

	One involves circumstances surrounding two deaths inside Vale&rsquo;s Frood-Stobie Mine on 8 June 2011 and the other is added legal proof that Vale&rsquo;s strong-arm tactics in firing union activists during the United Steelworkers (USW) strike was meant to hinder legal collective bargaining.

	An extensive report issued 29 February by the USW over the June 2011 deaths of Jordan Fram, 26, an equipment operator, and Jason Chenier, 35, a supervisor, was done because Vale refused the offer of the USW to investigate the accident jointly. USW blames negligent water drainage maintenance directly tied to lax and &ldquo;little experience or training&rdquo; of front-line supervisors.

	Fram and Chenier were buried 900 metres underground by an overflow of muck, a term for an avalanche of wet rock, gravel, sand, water washing down a mine shaft. With USW Local 6500 the legitimate bargaining representative, the report notes, &ldquo;Vale officials refused to be interviewed by members of the USW team&rdquo; even though union members &ldquo;cooperated fully in management&rsquo;s investigation.&rdquo;

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0908.usw_.canada.png" style="width: 347px;height: 138px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	USW Local 6500 Union Meeting

	The <a href="http://www.uswlocal6500.ca/reports/exectsum.pdf">Executive Summary</a> and the full <a href="http://www.uswlocal6500.ca/reports/dfinvest.doc">207-page USW Report</a> are here.

	The week before USW issued the report, the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) ruled that Vale violated provincial labour law by maintaining a &ldquo;patently unreasonable&rdquo; stance over nine workers Vale fired for strike activity. The OLRB agreed with the USW that the nine trade unionists were denied rights to third-party arbitration by the company, and further cited Vale for &ldquo;troubling&rdquo; labour relations conduct across several areas.

	In January, the <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4838-Ontario-Labour-Board-Rules-Discharged-USW-Sudbury-Leader-has-Worksite-Access">OLRB cited Vale with union interference</a> for denying entry onto company property for one of the nine discharged workers is the elected head of Local 6500&rsquo;s Grievance Committee. The USW is now confident that arbitrated decisions will prevail and the nine workers will return to their rightful jobs.

	The USW District Director for Ontario and the Atlantic Region, Wayne Fraser, said the OLRB&rsquo;s 24 February ruling &ldquo;should give Vale pause to consider the hardship inflicted on families,&rdquo; adding that the unlawful conduct &ldquo;prolonged the suffering and uncertainty for families in our community.&rdquo;

	Vale&rsquo;s safety record in Canada was tarnished again on 29 January 2012 when 47-year-old Stephen Perry, an explosives worker, was crushed to death when a rock face collapsed on him while he was working in a lift basket. This death occurred 1,300 metres inside Vale&rsquo;s Coleman nickel mine near Sudbury.

	A fourth Canadian Vale death in 2011 occurred on 19 October when 51-year-old scooptram operator Greg Leason was killed when his machine fell 40 metres into a cavern inside the T-3 Mine in Thompson, Manitoba.

	Historically, the four 2011 deaths at Vale in Canada are atypical because the USW is a vigilant proponent of joint labour-management process safety procedures that prevent workplace accidents. But with Vale&rsquo;s hostile labour relations still simmering some 20 months after the strike, no cooperation with the union over health and safety issues is proving detrimental to workplace safety.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Continued Canadian Contempt by Vale to Sudbury’s USW Miners

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Union members, affiliated to Unite the Union in the UK, rejected 5 March a redundancy proposal from Austrian packaging company Mayr-Melnhof that would have ended a 19-day lockout at a plant in Merseyside, near Liverpool. Workers rejected it 138-1 largely because management still insists on its own discretionary powers in disbursing redundancy packages to 49 workers.

	Unite has escalated a campaign against the Vienna-based paper carton and packaging company primarily because Mayr-Melnhof has retracted and reduced buy-out terms in this set of talks, and has substantially broken from redundancy pay-outs and terms commonly established in past consultations.

	In talks on 29 February and again on 3 March, the company proposed a social fund to bridge the difference paid in its 2008 and 2010 layoffs, with lesser packages offered now. But the social fund would be discretionary, based on subjective criteria unilaterally set by the company, which underscores Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s bargaining posture throughout this set of 2012 talks.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1203-lennie-unite.jpg" style="width: 203px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Len McClusky (right) Speaks to Unite Strikers at Mayr-Melnhof

	Workers at the Bootle, Merseyside, plant began lawful industrial actions on 10 February over Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s intransigence with six-hour &ldquo;switch strikes.&rdquo; &nbsp;Walkouts rotated from 06h to noon, and from noon to 18h. On 18 February, managers locked workers out and began manoeuvring to move equipment and product out of the factory.

	Workers then entered the factory and staged a shop-floor sit-in to prevent removal. Despite several sets of talks since, Mayr-Melnhof has steadfastly resisted any workable compromise proposed by Unite, and the lockout has continued.

	The union has brought the dispute to Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s Packaging Division workers in Germany, and the ICEM has issued a call for <a href="/en/19-Pulp-Paper/4918-Packaging-Workers-Need-Support-">Solidarity Action</a>, which can be viewed and acted upon here. Trade unionists inside the company&rsquo;s Karton Division, led by Austrian affiliate Pro-Ge, have brought attention to the company&rsquo;s hostile UK labour relations inside Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s eight European paper mills, and Pro-Ge has also protested loudly to CEO Wilhelm Hoermansedar.

	Unite, meanwhile, is preparing an industrial ballot at Mayr-Melnhof&rsquo;s other UK packaging plant, in Deeside, North Wales, on grounds that the company is worsening redundancy terms and conditions from previously agreed. The Bootle plant produces food packaging from tea bags to breakfast cereal to pet food packaging, with Kellogg&rsquo;s the plant&rsquo;s biggest customer.

Mayr-Melnhof Lockout Continues at UK Packaging Plant

<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/InBrief100.jpg" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Legitimate strike action by five bargaining units comprising 600 cement workers in total, members of the ICEM affiliate Oilfields Workers&rsquo; Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago, turned into a company lockout early this week as Trinidad Cement Ltd. (TCL) seeks to gain individual work agreements to break the strike.

	The OWTU began a 90-day strike action on 27 February at the company&rsquo;s two cement and ready-mix bag plants at Claxton Bay and Mayo, but the company countered that on Monday, 5 March, by issuing intent to lockout notice. That means both TCL and TCL Packaging, part of the Caribbean cement company&rsquo;s TCL Group, can now try to coerce staff into signing yellow-dogs contracts.

	The OWTU is confident cement workers will continue to man the barriers and also has expressed a desire to return to the conciliation process. The two sides, negotiating a 2009-2011 contract, are split on the wage issue, with OWTU seeking 16% while TCL is offering only 7%. The OWTU signed a contract for a total of 9% in wage increases over a similar period recently for 5,000 oil workers employed by state-held Petrotrin. (See <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4903-OWTU-Reaches-Excellent-Terms-with-Petrotrin-in-Trinidad-and-Tobago">ICEM report</a> here.)

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1203-trinidad-and-tobago-owtu.jpg" style="width: 240px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	OWTU President General Ancel Roget Addresses Cement Workers

	Foto: Rishi Ragoonath/Trinidad &amp; Tobago Guardian

	The cement strike sent shock waves through the twin-island nation&rsquo;s construction industry after management announced cement inventories would only last one week. TCL immediately began importing cement and ready-mix from its Caribbean Cement subsidiary in Jamaica and its Arawak Cement in Barbados.

	The strike became tense on the evening of 28 February and morning on 29 February when police drew guns and swung batons at strikers as forces left the factory Claxton Bay. The OWTU filed a formal complaint with the police over certain officers&rsquo; use of force in confronting the strikers.

	Since that incident, calm has been maintained at picket lines, and the OWTU has kept a vigilant strike camp near TCL&rsquo;s plant in Claxton Bay. OWTU and TCL held conciliation meetings between 9 February and 23 February, but strike notice was then given when the company refused to increase its wage offer.

Trinidad Cement Declares Lockout to Coerce Individual Labour Agreements

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