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Members of ICEM Colombian affiliate Sintraquim at the pharmaceutical firm Casar Laboratorios S.A. have been on strike because the firm has not paid wages and benefits since last December. Company management now says it will liquidate the factory and workers&mdash;nearly all family-supporting women&mdash;will be without earning power. Sintraquim President Pastora Rosales and union activist Doris Amanda were employed at the factory. The ICEM is reviewing the situation and action is imminent.

Pharmaceutical Strike in Colombia Over Unpaid Wages

A strike by 1,000 members of USWA also in Canada continues at Michelin&rsquo;s B.F. Goodrich tyre plant in Kitchener, Ontario, despite renewed bargaining that took place in mid-July in Pittsburgh. Despite Michelin net income doubling to C$528 million in the first half of 2004, Kitchener management is seeking wage and benefit cuts amounting to 15%. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t about being asked to help a company that is in financial difficulty,&rdquo; stated USWA Assistant Ontario/Atlantic Director Marie Kelly. &ldquo;This is about feeding a corporate giant that has always been anti-union.&rdquo; The strike began 1 June. In separate bargaining also in Pittsburgh, the USWA is engaged in hard bargaining with Michelin over the master rubber contract at three US tyre plants.

USWA Strike in Canada Against Michelin Continues

Also in the North American rubber sector, the USWA has filed a US labour board charge against German rubber manufacturer Continental Tire. The charge is over the firm&rsquo;s intent to close a tyre plant in Mayfield, Kentucky, by year-end that would cost 800 steelworkers their jobs. The union contends the announcement of the closure was timed to coincide with a 22-24 July unionization vote at a nearby Continental tyre plant in Mount Vernon, Illinois, thus serving to discourage workers there from voting for USWA representation. The USWA has obtained internal documents verifying Continental&rsquo;s anti-union bias, including plans to manipulate financial statements, and will present the evidence in its case before the US National Labor Relations Board.

USWA Protests Continental Tyre’s Plant Closure in US

ICEM New Zealand affiliate Engineering, Printing &amp; Manufacturing Union (EPMU) emerged from its biennial conference in Rotorua 24 July with a priority to achieve employer-funded superannuation schemes. The New Zealand Institute was established to promote policies and aid New Zealand&rsquo;s largest trade union with developing asset ownership funds held by workers. Andrew Little was re-elected EPMU national secretary at the conference for a second four-year term, while Trevor Ruby was elected president, Don Pryde senior vice president and Dennis Robertson junior vice president.

EPMU Leaves Congress with Focused Priorities

The deadliest mine disaster in four years in the Ukraine occurred 19 July. Thirty-six coal miners perished when a methane gas explosion rocked the Krasnolymanskaya mine in eastern Donetsk region. &ldquo;Safety rules, especially those of ventilation, were constantly violated in that mine,&rdquo; said Mikhail Volynets, president of the Miners&rsquo; Independent Trade Union of Ukraine. The mine is Ukraine&rsquo;s most profitable, producing 10,000 tonnes per day. On 27 July, the government ordered around-the-clock inspections of air volume, effectiveness of mine degassing, dust content and explosive risks of equipment for a two-week period in all coal mines in the country.

Deadly Coal Mine Explosion Kills 36 in Ukraine

CFMEU of Australia won an important court decision late last week that will broaden its organising strength in development-rich Western Australia. A federal court refused to ban the union from a construction site on the Barrup Peninsula where an A$650 million ammonia plant is being built. Contractors last January blocked CFMEU from entering, saying employees already had individual work contracts under the Howard government&rsquo;s Australian Workers&rsquo; Agreements. The decision is expected to have far-reaching effects across Australia for union organizers.

CFMEU Wins Case against Howard Government’s Work Contracts

Hundreds of thousands of Australian workers will take to the streets 15 November to protest the Howard government&rsquo;s proposed reforms to industrial relations, reforms that are expected to be tabled in Parliament by late October. Called a National Day of Community Protest, the event is being coordinated by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and will feature a satellite link-up to hundreds of locations across Australia spelling out the loss of workers&rsquo; rights if the reforms are adopted. The nationwide Union Meeting, as it is billed, is expected to become a one-day national strike against the union-smashing measures being put forward by Prime Minister John Howard following the Conservatives new majority in the Parliament&rsquo;s Senate.

Australians to Protest Labour Reform 15 November

This is the first issue of the e-bulletin on HIV/AIDS. The e-bulletin will be a regular feature in the ICEM&rsquo;s information strategy on the pandemic. Emphasis will be on workplace issues. It contains news on international governmental organisation such as the ILO and its Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS &ndash; UNAIDS, the World Health Organisation &ndash; WHO and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The e-bulletin features news from the ICEM and other Global Unions as well as business organisations. It also gives links to useful websites and materials for union activists who want to deepen their knowledge and broaden their activities to fight HIV/AIDS. 
 
ICEM affiliates are already engaged in a wide range of activities, some have formal agreements with companies; others run education and awareness programmes at the workplace. To spread the information on new agreements and campaigns and to build on best practices affiliates and project coordinators are invited to send news and information to hiv.aids@icem.org. Any feedback on the format and contents of the e-bulletin is also welcome. 
 
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, send an e-mail to press@icem.org. Please put &lsquo;subscribe ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin&rsquo; in the subject line. 
 
Unfortunately, the e-bulletin can only be published in English. For a free automated (non-ICEM) translation of this HIV-AIDS bulletin into other languages, you may want to try http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr or http://www.google.com/language_tools. 
 
 
Revised Statoil Global Agreement Contains HIV/AIDS Clause 
 
The ICEM and its affiliate NOPEF renewed the Global Agreement with the Norwegian gas and oil producer Statoil. The agreement, which was ICEM&rsquo;s first when signed in 1998 and has since been reviewed and renewed twice, now contains a clause on HIV/AIDS. The clause stipulates that &ldquo;the company provides a clear and supportive policy on HIV/AIDS and that this policy is effectively implemented throughout Statoil&rsquo;s operations.&rdquo; 
 
In the upcoming review of other Global Agreements and in new agreements, the ICEM will strive to include a clause on HIV/AIDS. 
 
 
Crucial Role of Business Fighting HIV/AIDS 
 
In an interview with Newsweek former US ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who is the CEO of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, stressed the vital role of workplace interventions in the prevention and treatment of the disease. He stated that 95% of all the people in the world who are HIV-positive don&rsquo;t know it and are therefore spreading the virus for the seven or eight years it lies without any symptoms in a person&rsquo;s body. Without voluntary but highly encouraged testing and prevention, the amounts spent on treatment will be a bottomless pit. Companies have to get heavily engaged in prevention and treatment. 
 
While he conceded that Africa is at the heart of the problem, he emphasised that it is not just an African disease. The fastest growing rates of the disease are in countries such as Russia, the Ukraine and India, which because of its large population has the first or second largest number of victims already although the prevalence rate is still low. 
 
The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS &ndash; www.businessfightsaids.org - has a wide range of case studies of the HIV/AIDS policies and interventions of its member companies. 
(Source: Newsweek, 15 August 2005) 
 
 
Global Fund Replenishment Meeting Falls Short of Target 
 
At the replenishment meeting in London at the beginning of September, government donors pledged USD 3.7 billion to the Global Fund. This commitment, which fell short of expectations, will be sufficient to pay for grant renewals during 2006 and 2007 after the two-year review period and also for the 2005 anticipated shortfall, but it will not cover the cost of any new rounds. The total needs, including cost of new rounds, had been estimated at USD 7 billion. It has to be said, however, that some countries could not yet commit themselves because of their budgetary cycles. Such late pledges and a further replenishment meeting in June 2006 might still bring the commitments to a level to allow for another round of financing. With a commitment of USD 600 million so far the US is well below its target of contributing one third of total funds committed. 
 
The relatively low level of support raises questions about the G8 commitment in July to place on antiretroviral treatment by 2010 all HIV patients who need it. In June the WHO reported that one million people received ARV treatment. The target of 3 million people on ART by the end of this year, the 3 by 5 Initiative of the WHO, is unlikely to be reached. 
 
(Source: Global Fund Observer Newsletter, Issue 50 of 7 September 2005) 
The GFO is an independent source of news, analysis and commentary about the Global Fund. The Newsletter is provided free of charge; to receive it send an email to receive-gfo-newsletter@aidspan.org. 
 
 
Mozambique/South Africa: Catastrophic AIDS Death Toll Among Miners 
 
The level of mortality from AIDS among Mozambican miners in South Africa has reached catastrophic levels, according to the Mozambican Deputy Labour Minister. In the last four years at least 2,500 Mozambican miners had died of AIDS. This figure almost certainly understates the true mortality, since it only includes known cases of the disease. There are currently about 46,000 Mozambicans working in South African mines. The article states that some South African mining companies have adopted discriminatory practices, immediately repatriating miners when they are known to have been infected. Miners who suffer this fate die in Mozambique and are thus not included in the South African figures. 
(Source: www.allafrica.com from Agencia de Informa&ccedil;ao de Mo&ccedil;ambique, 13 September 2005) 
 
 
ILOAIDS Website 
 
Visit the website of ILOAIDS, which was re-designed in the course of the year. 
www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/trav/aids/index.htm. 
New features include a step-by-step guide to workplace action, a registration facility to keep you informed of events and new materials and a 24-hour news service focusing specifically on HIV/AIDS in the world of work. You can also find the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and World of Work in some 20 languages.

ICEM HIV/AIDS e-bulletin - No. 1

In the 1990s, the ICEM led the global labour movement by innovative use of the early Internet for instant and effective solidarity. The Wall Street Journal, in a front page 1999 article, said the ICEM &ldquo;is changing the face of traditional labor protests by moving strikes, pickets and other union actions into cyberspace.&rdquo; A mining house spokesman admitted in the same article it was the advent of labour activists &ldquo;trying to globalize via the Internet.&rdquo; 
<img height="86" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/icem-logo.jpg" width="100" alt="" />
The 20-million-member Global Union Federation launched a new and improved website this past weekend, effectively and seamlessly tying together countless struggles, issues, and worker-related facts on all things relevant in the ICEM&rsquo;s six major industrial sectors as well as the world of labour with a new website that replaces the global labour movement&rsquo;s initial, trend-setting static website. 
 
The new site maintains the same address as the old: http://www.icem.org, and visitors are welcome to explore the ICEM&rsquo;s topical website. 
 
The site provides information in ICEM&rsquo;s seven statutory languages&mdash;English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish and Russian. 
 
&ldquo;We are proud to present our affiliates, firstly, with a practical and useful website as an aid to built strong trade union structures,&rdquo; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &ldquo;The new website takes full advantage of the most modern communication technologies to support and advance our work with our affiliates.&rdquo; 
 
The ICEM website contains a wealth of materials and documents on current ICEM projects and campaigns such as Contract and Agency Labour, HIV/AIDS relief, Gender Issues, Health/Safety and Sustainable Development, Global Framework Agreements and Global Union Networks. In easily accessible archives are all ICEM News Releases, InBrief newsletters, Circulars (direct action calls), and other ICEM documents and information from past events. All materials are indexed by ICEM regions and major industrial sectors, and by individual country as well. 
 
ICEM sectors: Energy including Oil, Gas and Nuclear; Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals; Mining/Diamonds and Gems; Pulp and Paper; Rubber; and Materials, which includes Glass, Ceramics and Cement. 
 
ICEM&rsquo;s website design is compatible with the many and varied web browsers available. This means the site can also be read on small-screen and mobile information technology. Conversely, the website has been deliberately designed to allow easy access and easy download for the many workers of the world in regions where only slow internet service exists. 
 
The ICEM, based in Brussels, has 420 affiliated trade unions in 125 countries.

ICEM Introduces New, Advanced Website

Contents: 
 
1. Algeria - Drop-in Assistance Center for Sexual Harassment Victims 
2. Bayer Honored as Top Company for Working Mothers 
3. Women Expose Rapes by Military Regime 
4. Colombia - Message from Beatriz Chinchilla 
5. FNV Netherlands - Women and Development Project Evaluation Asia 
6. International Transport Federation ITF - Women's Conference 
7. Rwanda - Women's Leadership Spreads to Villages 
8. South Africa - New Equality Inspectors 
9. Spain - Workshop on Sharing Domestic Responsibilities 
10. United Nations Human Development Report 
11. UNIFEM - Progress of the World's Women 2005 
12. UN Division Dialogue on Violence Against Women 
13. United States - Women's Health Resources 
14. World Bank - Equity and Development 2006 
15. World March of Women 

1. Algeria - Drop-in Assistance Center for Sexual Harassment Victims 
 
The General Union of Algerian Workers, the country's largest labor body, has set up and funded a Drop-In Assistance Center for Female Sexual Harassment Victims. One of the goals of the institution is to break the silence around harassment, and another is to create a non-governmental organization which can tackle harassment more vigorously. However, relatively few of those who visit the center have taken the step of filing complaints against their aggressors. Women are afraid the crime is difficult to prove and they will end up losing their jobs and their livelihoods. In response to these difficulties the National Committee of Working Women and human rights groups have been conducting a campaign in recent months to convince women to take harassers to court.
 
2. Bayer Honored as Top Company for Working Mothers 
 
Bayer Corporation has been recognized by Working Mother magazine as one of 100 best companies in the United States for working mothers for the third time. Bayer was honored for its policies and programs in connection with childcare, culture, flexibility, parental leave, women's advancement, total compensation, work-life culture and family friendly programs. The complete list of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers is available on the magazine's site <a href="http://www.workingmother.com/mainstory.html">www.workingmother.com/mainstory.html</a> 
 
 
3. Burma - Women Expose Rapes by Military Regime 
 
Burmese female activists working to expose the military regime's systematic violence against women, including rape as a tool of counter-insurgency, won an international women's rights award from the Gruber Foundation. Women from the Shan Women's Action Network and the Women's League of Burma traveled to New York and Washington to raise awareness around the globe about human rights violations under the Burmese military dictatorship. In 2002 women in the activist network published the report License to Rape which detailed the incidents of rape since 1996 as part of the military's crackdown on ethnic dissidents. According to the report 83 percent of the rapes were committed by officers, and women who dared speak out were fined, detained, tortured or killed. Many women have fled the civil strife that embroils Burma and settled in neighboring countries. These groups have banded together in exile to help other survivors. Many initially joined student and ethnic organizations along Burma's borders in Thailand, India and Bangladesh. Later they started to focus on protecting female refugees and fighting to make women a respected part of the pro-democracy movement. Burma has kept Aung San Suu Kyi, a leading democratic opposition leader and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, under house arrest since she and her supporters were attacked by government-affiliated forces in 2003. She has been detained numerous times since 1990, when her party, the National League for Democracy, won 80 percent of parliamentary seats in the last elections held in Burma. 
 
 
4. Colombia - SINTRAELECOL Women's Committee - Message from Beatriz Chinchilla 
 
The national women's committee of SINTRAELECOL Colombia carried out the first regional meeting in the Atlantic coast region from 15 to 17 September, attended by 25 women from the electric power sector, mothers from the community, independent women and university workers, together with 5 men from other unions. The committee worked on free trade agreements, HIV/AIDS and work-related illnesses, gender and women's participation in politics, and social energy. 
 
 
5. FNV Netherlands - Women and Development Project Evaluation Asia 
 
FNV Netherlands has carried out extensive evaluation of its women and development projects with Asian trade unions. The report is available both in English and Spanish and can be requested from ICEM - ask <a href="mailto:carol.bruce@icem.org">carol.bruce@icem.org</a>. 
 
 
6. International Transport Federation ITF - Women's Conference. 
 
ICEM participated in the Women's Conference organized by the ITF on 22 and 23 September where the changing transport workforce in terms of gender and globalization was examined. The transport workforce is losing its character of male dominance in particular jobs, sometimes due to restructuring. In addition there are now less typical male operational transport jobs and more jobs that are in white-collar, technology-driven fields. In the ITF the fastest growing sector for women's jobs is road transport, although much of this employment is office-based. There are many overlaps between ICEM and ITF, including in the oil industry and more and more in logistics. ICEM and ITF have a strategic alliance in oil and gas. We will be working together on women in the oil industry and women offshore. 
 
 
7. Rwanda - Women's Leadership Spreads to Villages 
 
In Rwanda women hold nearly 49 percent of the seats in the lower house of parliament. Several women are cabinet members, including the minister of justice. A woman is deputy police chief and another heads the National Reconciliation Commission, which has been working to ease the country's deeply entrenched ethnic wariness lingering from genocide. Much of the women's rise in power is due to the absence of men. As a result of the conflict women outnumber men 7 to 1. Now as the country struggles to rebuild, political organizers are pushing for more women to take charge of local government in hopes of extending women's political gains into the future. Marte Sabre is head of the Rwandan Women's Caucus and runs country-wide workshops for women to teach lobbying and campaigning techniques as well as media relations. She says that while women are making strides in leadership, they still cope with maintaining family responsibilities and overcoming deeply ingrained gender stereotypes that keep men as head of the household. Domestic violence remains a real concern in Rwanda. Female politicians are aware of the importance of gender development for men. Before the genocide about 10 percent of women were literate. Now the figure is over 50 percent. The next step is to transform the numbers into real influence that will transform women's lives. Many women suffer the wounds of war, including rape and physical violence as well as the trauma of witnessing the deaths of family members. The spread of HIV/AIDS continues, with 13 percent of Rwandans infected, although many do not get tested. Life expectancy fell to 39 in 2003 from 45 in 1990. 
 
 
8. South Africa - New Equality Inspectors 
 
The South African Department of Labour is going to set up a roving team of inspectors to ensure compliance with the Employment Equity Act. The team should be in place by November. Inspectors are currently undergoing training and will undertake unannounced inspections on companies and government departments with an aim to ensuring compliance with legislation. The legislation requires employers with 50 or more employees to draw up equality plans, display them on notice boards, and discuss them with either workers or their representative trade unions. The team of inspectors will operate like a special task force. The Department has taken this step to improve enforcement of equity legislation. The Department has indicated that companies who fail to comply with the equity laws could be prevented from bidding for lucrative government contracts in the future. 
 
 
9. Spain - Workshop on Sharing Domestic Responsibilities 
 
The Pamplona local council will organize workshops for women and men geared to sharing domestic responsibilities. The point will be for women to learn to do the tasks generally done by men and vice versa. The women's workshop will include plumbing and heating, electricity, bricklaying and other domestic repairs. The men, on the other hand, will learn cooking and baking, cleaning and dishwashing, and mending clothes and ironing. The courses are free and open to 15 participants. 
 
 
10. United Nations Human Development Report 
 
The UN Development Programme UNDP released the 2005 Human Development Report on 6 September, a report well known for its human development index, a ranking of 177 countries on the basis of performance on health and education, in addition to per capita income. This year's report focuses on global aid, trade and security policies and their respective roles in lifting the world's poorest people out of poverty. It highlights the world's unfair trade practices which undermine the livelihoods of those who survive on less than 1 USD a day. Poverty is the obstacle to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The Human Development Report can be downloaded from http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005 and is also available in other languages. 
 
 
11. UNIFEM - Progress of the World's Women 2005 
 
Progress of the World's Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty makes the case for an increased focus on women's informal employment as a key pathway to reducing poverty and strengthening women's economic security. It provides the latest available data on the size and composition of the informal economy and compares national data on average earnings and poverty risk across different segments of the informal and formal workforces to show the links between employment, gender and poverty. It looks at the costs and benefits of informal work and their consequences for women's economic security. It also provides a strategic framework with good practice examples for how to promote decent work for women informal workers and shows why strong organizations of workers in the informal economy are vital to effective policy reforms. This should be a call to make poverty history. The report is available at www.unifem.org. 
 
 
12. UN Division Dialogue on Violence Against Women 
 
The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women is hosting a three-week online dialogue to combat violence against women. It will go until 14 October 2005. The online discussion is intended to provide a forum for activists around the world to feed into and help inform the UN work to combat violence. Visit the website to see reports from expert groups on data and statistics, good practice, consultations on key issues and action, a guidance for NGO inputs and the UN Secretary General's report, including the outline of the study. <a href="http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/index.htm">www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/index.htm</a>. 
 
 
13. United States - Women's Health 
 
The US Department of Health and Human Services publishes a newsletter on women's health which can be accessed at www.womenshealth.gov. It is also available in Spanish at www.womenshealth.gov/Spanish/ 
 
 
14. World Bank - Equity and Development 2006 
 
Inequality of opportunity, both within and among nations, sustains extreme deprivation, results in wasted human potential and often weakens prospects for overall prosperity and economic growth, concludes the 2006 World Development Report, the World Bank's annual publication. To correct this situation and reduce poverty more effectively, Equity and Development recommends ensuring more equitable access by the poor to health care, education, jobs, capital, and secure land rights, among others. It also calls for greater equality of access to political freedoms and political power, breaking down stereotyping and discrimination, and improving access by the poor to justice systems and infrastructure. For more information about this report see www.econ.worldbank.org/wdr. 
 
 
15. World March of Women 
 
The World March of Women has published a document critical of the Millennium Development Goals, providing a feminist vision of the 8 goals. It makes suggestions to improve the indicators and to really eliminate poverty as well as violence against women. See www.marchemondiale.org/en/index.html - which is also available in French and Spanish. 
 

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ICEM Women’s bulletin No. 5 – October 2005

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