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The leadership of the Coal Industry Workers&rsquo; Union of Ukraine (PRUPU) was strongly heard at a meeting of the Coal Ministry Board in Kiev on 15 October. 
 
The Coal Ministry&rsquo;s Board meeting was held under the instruction of Ukraine&rsquo;s First Vice-Premier Andrei Klyuev, who said at a Cabinet meeting on 16 September that the challenges facing the coal industry must be addressed. The Vice-Premier&rsquo;s instruction resulted from a report delivered by Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President, who vividly highlighted the most burning of the problems that besiege the industry&rsquo;s workers and mine sites today. 
 
There was no &ldquo;quiet talk&rdquo; at the 15 October meeting but rather strong words on the industry&rsquo;s problems among the close circle of the Ministry officials and the heads of state-owned enterprises attending the meeting. Klyuev&rsquo;s instruction stipulated that the Ministry Board meeting shall involve representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, State Assets Fund, Ministry of Industrial Policy, Ministry of Transport, Ministry for Fuel and Energy, and the leaders of the Ukrainian coal miners&rsquo; union. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Victor20Turmanov.jpg" width="115" height="115" />
Victor Turmanov, PRUPU President
Raising wages was one of the main issues that the union raised at the meeting. In line with the effective law, the minimal wage in Ukraine has been raised to 907 hryvnas from 1 October, yet the actual wages at the operating coal mining sites are calculated using the old basic rates and salaries based on the last year&rsquo;s figure of 744 hryvnas. 
 
And the situation is even worse for the III-d category mines, mine rescue teams, coal-mine builders, and workers at coal processing plants. For workers in the sub-sectors of the coal mining industry, the basic rate of 744 hryvnas is still but a dream. 
 
In this regard, Turmanov pointed out that &ldquo;our priority task is to ensure that the wages go up for industry workers. This was one of the key issues at the Ministry Board meeting.&rdquo; 
 
Unfortunately, bringing wages up to the level prescribed by the law is far from being the only problem in the coal mining industry. 
 
In view of the 15 October Ministry Board meeting, leaders of all territorial organizations of the union met on 28 September to prepare a well-defined list of priority issues facing the industry&rsquo;s sites and workforces to be brought to the attention of the enlarged Ministry Board. 
 
Issues such as the lack of funds for the development of mining facilities or provisions for fuel for homes of coal miners also generated points of discussion. Sharp criticisms were voiced with regard to the Ministry&rsquo;s efforts reforming the regional (oblast) management structure of coal mining sites and other actions. 
 
Union President Victor Turmanov said that if the Ministry of Coal is unable to reform the industry today, the government &ndash; and the President &ndash; must be told so in so many words. If reforms contradict the interests of workers and prove harmful to the enterprises, then we should be better off without them, leaving the industry governance system in its present form. The union shall brook no mindless attempts at reorganization, no reforms for reform sake! 
 
View a video report from the 28 September territorial meeting of union leaders <a href="http://www.prupu.org/video/">here</a>. The union&rsquo;s web site is <a href="http://www.prupu.org">here</a>.&nbsp;

Ukrainian Miners’ Union Get Heard at Coal Ministry Board

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While the world&rsquo;s euphoria was centered on the successful rescue of 33 Chilean miners, 26 Chinese miners were killed and another 11 remain missing today following a gas rush that suffocated miners just metres beneath the surface through a massive coal dust cloud. The accident happened on 16 October at the Henan mine of Pingyu Coal and Electric Co. in Yuzhou, Henan province. 
 
The tragedy occurred when a hole was being drilled to release pressure caused by a methane gas build-up. The miners were buried when an estimated 173,000 cubic metres of gas rushed out, resulting in miners&rsquo; being buried in a coal dust concentration totaling 2,500 tonnes. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/04miningsafety.jpg" width="180" height="132" />
Rescue attempts were still ongoing early today for the missing 11, but hopes that they were alive were slim. They were only 50 metres beneath the surface. Some 239 miners did escape. 
 
The gas level inside the mine was detected at 40% just prior to the accident, far above normal levels that average one percent. 
 
Pingyu Coal and Electric Co. is owned by a consortium of four enterprises, including the China Power Investment Corp. and Zhong Ping Energy Chemical Group. In 2008, 23 miners perished in the same colliery from a methane gas explosion. 
 
On 15 October, a day before the Chinese tragedy and less than 30 hours after the last of the 33 Chilean miners were pulled to the surface, three of four miners died following a tunnel collapse inside the Casa Negra gold and silver mine of Minesadco in El Oro province, Ecuador. The mine employs 100 workers and the accident happened when workers were digging a short distance from where the collapse occurred. Rescue efforts continued today to local the fourth miner, believed either trapped deeper inside the mine or killed by the rock collapse.

37 Chinese Coal Miners Feared Dead in Henan Province Coal Dust Tragedy

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News of the rescue of the 33 trapped miners in Chile dominates news outlets throughout the world. The seventy national mining unions that are affiliated with International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers&rsquo; Unions (ICEM) are closely following the disaster and have sent numerous solidarity messages. Their immediate concerns and hopes are that all the miners are brought out safely to be reunited with their families, and are restored to good health. 
 
Mining trade unions applaud the enormous efforts of the Chilean government and the international response. However unions are just as concerned as to what happens after the rescue is accomplished. Will this dramatic international incident prompt governments and employers to do more to protect the lives of miners? This is a question not only for Chile but one for governments and employers throughout the world. 
 
The ICEM estimates that at least 12,000 miners are killed on the job every year (no reliable international statistics are available). Fatalities and serious injuries will not be reduced or even eliminated without addressing underlying and interrelated causes of most mining disasters today. 
 
A chief cause of continued mining tragedies in most countries is government and employer opposition to unionization. So long as miners do not have rights protected by a union and a legal collective bargaining agreement, they will be forced to work under conditions that jeopardize their lives. In Chile existing labor laws are weak. Employers have no obligation to negotiate even after a trade union is formed, and multiple trade unions can exist at any one site, which plays into the hands of employers to keep workers divided. 
 
The lack of democratic trade unions in China, where mining deaths far exceed those of other countries is a key cause of its staggering number of fatalities. In 2009, China recorded 2,600 official fatalities in coal mines. Actual figures are unknown. Some NGOs have estimated mining fatalities in China as high as 10,000 per year. 
 
Three major fatal accidents in the last ten months in Turkey killed 59 miners, all of whom were unprotected by a trade union. In Colombia, 73 nonunion miners without a voice on the job died in an explosion largely due to the lack of methane detectors in the mine and the inability of miners to refuse unsafe work. In the U.S. 29 nonunion miners died in West Virginia because they had no power to demand even the most rudimentary protection at Massey Energy, one of the country&rsquo;s most notorious anti-union employers. 
 
Unless governments not only improve mining laws but also labor laws, there will not be a dramatic improvement in the working lives of miners. Sebastion Pinera, the president of Chile who has been prominently featured in world news coverage and whose popularity has soared since the mine collapse, is avowedly anti-union. His political roots are linked to the Pinochet dictatorship which in 1973 overthrew Chile&rsquo;s democratically-elected president, Salvador Allende. 
 
A second major cause of mining disasters is poor mining laws and regulation, or poor enforcement of them, even when international standards are met. The ICEM has been in forefront of promoting International Labor Organization Convention 176 on Health and Safety in Mines since 1995 and last year renewed its campaign. Convention 176 was developed on a tripartite basis with trade unions, governments and employers to ensure that mining laws and regulations met core standards to protect miners. Yet after 15 years, only 24 countries have ratified the Convention. The government of India, which has an estimated 600,000 miners, opposed hosting a 2009 tripartite regional meeting for Asia sponsored by the ILO to discuss the Convention. Mining unions there have threatened to strike if the government does not move forward with ratification. 
 
There is little progress toward ratification in Colombia where the ICEM sponsored a tripartite meeting on Convention 176 in conjunction with the ILO, despite Colombia&rsquo;s desperate needs to improve its image in the eyes of the world. Governments in Russia and Ukraine, which have experienced some of the most severe mining tragedies, have been slow to react to trade union demands for ratification. Not a single major multinational employer has stepped forward to work with the ICEM to promote Convention 176. The ICEM offered to work with the International Council on Mining and Metals, an employers group comprising most of the major mining companies, to promote ratification but there was no response. 
 
Among the many important provisions of Convention 176 are: safety representatives elected by the miners, two points of exit from the mine (which did not exist in the Chilean mine), regular mine inspection, and most importantly, the right of miners to withdraw from unsafe conditions. 
 
In some countries that have ratified the convention, laws and regulations are diluted or not enforced. In the United States, which ratified the convention in 2000, the regulatory agency charged with enforcing mining laws was dramatically reduced by the George W. Bush administration, and mine inspections were severely cut back. The result was a series of predictable accidents at largely nonunion mines including the West Virginia explosion that was the most serious U.S. mining accident in two decades. The government had cited the mine with over 1,500 major safety violations in five years, but had permitted the mine to operate. Many governments allow mine employers to pay small fines rather than making them correct the problem. Corruption and bribes are also closely associated with the lack of enforcement of mine health and safety laws. 
 
Compensation systems based largely on production and not on an adequate hourly wage also make mines more dangerous. Low hourly wages and basing compensation on production force individual miners to compromise health and safety to earn sufficient income for their families. This has been cited as a major reason for continuing deaths and injuries in Russia and Ukraine. 
 
The increased use by mining employers of contract workers in mines, thereby substituting experienced miners with poorly-trained and ill-equipped precarious workers, is not only inhumane, it endangers the life of all miners. A survey conducted by the ICEM in 2008 revealed a disturbing and growing trend toward the use of contract work in the mining industry and throughout the world. The nonunion miners killed in Turkey and Colombia were contract workers. 
 
Inadequate capital, technology and training to improve health and safety also endanger miners. Mines operated by smaller and undercapitalized entities are inherently more dangerous. A very high proportion of mining accidents occur at mines operated by employers who lack the capital, economies of scale, and technologies to operate safely. 
 
A final reason for continued mining disasters is employer greed. Even well-capitalized and profitable multinational companies are being tempted by high commodity prices to place more emphasis on production than safety. Some dangerous mines, which closed just a few years ago when metal prices collapsed, have been opened up to take advantage of the temporary spike in prices. Production during times of high prices for raw materials trumps health and safety, despite employer claims to the contrary. 
 
Chile&rsquo;s expenditure to save the trapped miners in San Jose , which some have estimated at 15 million (USD), and its dismissal of some mine regulators for failing to enforce the law and pronouncements to change practices, stands in sharp contrast to what the government spent to safeguard the lives of miners before the incident occurred. With over 900 private mines covering the 4,300 km length of the country, Chile had only 18 mining inspectors. Reports of routine corruption that allowed unsafe mines to remain open have been widespread. It remains to be seen what Chile&rsquo;s government and employers will do to improve the safety of miners and all workers after the television cameras are removed and the media story fades. In the end, it is the workers and their trade unions in Chile and elsewhere who provide the only real hope that miners&rsquo; lives can be saved and the conditions in mines will be improved. 
 
One of the best examples of what needs to be done to save the lives of miners and reduce injuries is found in South Africa where just a few years ago tragic deaths due to accidents in its deep and aged underground mines were increasing dramatically rather than decreasing. In 2007, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) engaged in a general strike of mineworkers over health and safety. This was the first national mining strike for health and safety in the history of organized labor. Over 200,000 mineworkers walked off the job to protest lack of employer and government efforts to safeguard miners. Although problems continue, the NUM has reversed the trend and is working to lessen significantly the number of injuries and fatalities. Today, when a fatality occurs at a mine, NUM members routinely lay down their tools and strike in protest. 
 
The ICEM mining sector is dedicated to support unionization, promote ILO Convention 176, end the scourge of contract work in the mining industry, and fight against compensation systems that compromise health and safety. Our slogan is, &ldquo;the stronger the union, the safer the mine.&rdquo; Manuals to campaign for Convention 176 are available from the ICEM in English, Russian, Spanish and French.

As World Watches and Waits for Rescue of Trapped Chilean Miners, What Can Prevent Future Disasters?

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ICEM&rsquo;s sister trade union organization the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), together with the European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF) organized a joint meeting on steel multinationals and sectoral developments in Cardiff, Wales, 13-14 October 2010. The meeting was hosted by three UK unions, Unite, GMB, and Community. 
 
Delegates discussed labour and industry developments with the Steel Group Strategy Director of multinational Tata, as well as major challenges faced by workers in other steel companies, notably ArcelorMittal. Climate strategies were discussed by delegates as trade unions in the sector look to agree on a common strategy for the transition to cleaner production. 
 
The ICEM, attending the meeting as a guest, discussed the ever-increasing cooperation between the ICEM and IMF, focusing in particular on the coordinated global campaigns against Vale and Grupo Mexico. The need for further work together was stressed, in order to organize worker solidarity and strength along the chain of production. The supply chain for steel production starts with miners taking coal and iron ore out of the ground, while these raw materials are transported often by rail-workers, then by dockworkers and maritime workers, and the steel is manufactured by steelworkers. 
<img src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1010.metal_.photo_.EMF_.jpg" width="127" height="84" alt="" />
Photo:EMF 
 
Over 60 delegates from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, India, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, and the UK, passed a common statement entitled &lsquo;Anticipating change for a sustainable global and European steel industry&rsquo;, calling for the enforcement of five pillars of sustainability: 
 
1. Long-term investment in plants and workers 
 
We urgently demand guarantees on long-term investment in upgrading our plants, investing in innovation and R&amp;D and providing quality and secure jobs. Considering increasing global demand for steel, investment in the upgrading of plants and processes is fundamental to a sustainable response to climate change. The reinvestment of profits into long-term funding for R&amp;D on low carbon steel technologies and carbon capture and storage, taking pilot projects to full-scale operations, must be delivered by steel companies, in cooperation with public authorities. Investment in workers is crucial to ensuring the sustainability and competitiveness of our industry. Governments can play a key role in helping the steel industry build for a brighter future through supporting programmes that train the next generation of steel workers and ensure that we are not faced with a skills gap in the future. Our aim must be a highly skilled, secure workforce in the future. 
 
2. Employment security and safety 
 
Employment quality is a fundamental indicator of a sustainable industry. The IMF and EMF call on steel employers to act responsibly towards their workforces by committing to the respect of labour rights, negotiated solutions, respecting collective agreements, real wage increases, health and safety at work and worker information and consultation rights (including worker representation bodies). The maintenance and development of the skills and knowledge of workers in the steel sector is the basis to ensure its competitiveness emerging from the global economic crisis. We call for guaranteed rights for all workers to access and the provision of vocational training and retraining, plus better employment rights for contract staff and temporary agency workers, and the strengthening social security systems and employment services. The IMF and EMF totally oppose increasing precariousness at work. 
 
3. Environmental modernisation and social responsibility 
 
At Canc&uacute;n in December 2010, we call for our governments to conclude a binding, comprehensive and ambitious international agreement on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction. We maintain our long-held demands for social justice and long-term employment policies as an integral element of climate policy. Only if employment concerns are effectively integrated into climate policy, can economic, technological and social change be directed towards achieving a low emissions and just society. We are concerned that international regulation on carbon emissions unless binding and applied evenly will lead to carbon leakage (the movement of heavy industries from countries who respect or try to implement international governance to countries with weaker or no measures). Climate change legislation must contain strong provisions dealing with international competitiveness (including border adjustment mechanisms), in order to ensure that nations that lack a strong emissions programme do not receive an unfair advantage, and investment in R&amp;D and technology transfer to ensure that industry globally continually upgrades its environmental performance and responsibility. 
 
4. A trade policy working for workers 
 
Promoting trade cannot be a goal in itself, but must be part of a strategy for growth and development in the developed world as well as in the developing world. The IMF and EMF demand that trade rules and trade defence measures provide a fair level playing field, guaranteeing and enforcing core labour rights and environmental standards. 
 
5. Active routes for worker participation 
 
The IMF and EMF demand that workers and their trade unions be fully informed, consulted and involved in corporate and sectoral industrial strategies with the aim of improving the quality and security of jobs in the industry.

ICEM Participates in International Steel Meeting

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Global trade union federations, grouped in the Council of Global Unions, together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) will call on the governments of the G20 to prioritise jobs when setting policy to recover from the global recession. 
 
G20 leaders will meet on 11-12 November 2010 in Seoul, South Korea. The statement is being presented to G20 governments by affiliates of the ICEM and other Global Union Federations prior to the Seoul Summit, urging them to deal with the employment crisis. Focussing on job creation will enable reduction of public deficits through economic growth, instead of cuts. 
<img src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/ITUC.jpg" width="100" height="95" alt="" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/TUAC.jpg" width="79" height="100" alt="" />
Signatories to the statement express concern that the employment crisis is not even on the agenda for the Seoul Summit. &lsquo;G20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh in September 2009 committed to putting &ldquo;quality employment at the heart of the recovery.&rdquo; They have not lived up to this promise,&rsquo; reads the statement. 
 
Over 31 million more people are unemployed since 2007, increasing unemployment jeopardises the process of economic recovery which is already fragile. Continuation of austerity measures will lead to &ldquo;a decade of stagnant labour markets in industrialized countries, the entrenchment of poverty in developing countries and a lost generation of youth shut out from productive activity.&rdquo; 
 
Among other demands, global unions want a formation of a standing G20 Working Group on Employment, with social partner participation. Other central demands include environmental policies that enable job protection and job creation and a &lsquo;Just Transition&rsquo;, and the issue of decent work to be at the heart of the development agenda. 
 
See the statement in full <a href="/sites/default/files/migration/icem/g20%20Seoul.pdf">here</a>. 
 
Supplementing this action the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation has launched a campaign calling on the Korean government to honour its commitments on labour rights inside Korea. Korea is one of the worst countries in the world in terms of worker and trade union repression. See the campaign resources and information <a href="http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=24267&amp;l=2">here</a>.&nbsp;

Global Unions to Present Unified Statement to Seoul G20 – Prioritise Jobs

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The Global Safety Partnership Committee was agreed to by Rhodia as part of its commitments to ICEM in the Rhodia-ICEM Global Framework Agreement. The committee is intended to monitor safety and related issues, provide ongoing dialogue regarding these issues between the company and its workers, and make recommendations for their improvement. With ICEM's help, Rhodia will strive to lead the industry in health, safety, and environmental performance. 
 
At the committee&rsquo;s first official meeting, held 7-8 October at a company Eco Services plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, representatives of Rhodia and representatives from ICEM's affiliates met to review and discuss some of Rhodia's policies, programs, and procedures. Among topics discussed were accident investigation procedures, and the choice of indicators of safety performance. In addition, panel members toured the Baton Rouge facility, one of the company's most important North American sites and one in which workers are represented by Teamsters Local 5. The Baton Rouge site, divided into two manufacturing centres, produces products ranging from artificial vanilla flavouring to sulphuric acid, as well as recycling and disposing of certain industrial wastes. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1010.rhodia.2.JPG" width="342" height="188" />
Rhodia management was represented by: Jacques Kheliff, Group Vice-President - Sustainable Development; Jean-Christophe Sciberras, Vice-President and Group Industrial Relations Director; Deborah Sherwen, Manager Health Safety and CAERS; James Harton, North America Zone President; John Heffernan, Rhodia North America Vice-President, Human Resources; and Marcus Lewis, Vice-President Industrial North America. Baton Rouge site managers also attended and hosted the Committee's visit and site tour. Yol&egrave;ne Coppin, Rhodia's Group Vice-President Human Resources, was unable to attend. 
 
The ICEM team was represented by Juarez Nogueira of Sindquim, Brazil; Scott Harrington of the US United Steelworkers (USW); Maurice Tritsch of CFDT, France; Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM's Chemicals Officer, and Brian Kohler, ICEM's Officer for Health, Safety and Sustainability. Jie Dong, of China, was unable to attend. 
 
The committee also met with Teamsters Local 5 representatives Jason Day and Bryan Hare.

ICEM, Rhodia Global Safety Committee Holds Meetings at US Plant

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The ICEM and the International Transport Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITF) jointly stated on 15 October that they reject the recommendation by the European Commission (EC) to establish a central set of pan-European safety standards for the offshore oil and gas industries. 
 
The two Global Union Federations (GUFs) were responding to EC Energy Commissioner G&uuml;nther Oettinger&rsquo;s rolled back recommendation for a &ldquo;centralised and prescriptive&rdquo; set of safety standards on 13 October. The recommendation follows the European Parliament&rsquo;s rejection of a moratorium on deepwater drilling on 7 October by a 323-285 vote. 
 
The moratorium proposal was in response to BP&rsquo;s Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Both the ICEM and ITF, as well as the industry group Oil and Gas UK, believe that a uniform safety regime imposed by the EC would infringe on union-management best practices already in place in the North Sea. 
<img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/Lars20Mhyre.jpg" width="157" height="132" />&nbsp;&nbsp; <img alt="" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1010.norrie.mcVicar.jpg" width="125" height="144" />
Lars Mhyre and Norrie McVicar
Responding to the recommendation that member states should consider suspending offshore licensing in advance of possible new EU-wide safety standards, Norrie McVicar, Chair of the ITF&rsquo;s Offshore Task Force Group (OTFG), said: &ldquo;This is the wrong position to take and the wrong time to take it. The EC should be protecting the safety gains made in the UK offshore sector, not eroding them by dumbing them down to a lowest common denominator.&rdquo; 
 
Said Lars Myhre, ICEM Energy Sector Chair, &ldquo;You can never be too safe and we would never condone complacency, but the British and Norwegian sectors are generally good examples of best practice. They should be studied, learned from and, where necessary, improved. They shouldn&rsquo;t be remodeled into a one size fits all &ndash; but not very well &ndash; Euro model.&rdquo; 
 
McVicar added: &ldquo;One very positive feature of the UK industry is OSPRA, the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group, which brings together regulators, industry bodies and trade unions such as Unite and the RMT in a joint effort to ensure that we get the oil and gas we need as safely and cleanly as possible. It&rsquo;s that kind of good practice that we&rsquo;d like to see adopted by the rest of the global oil and gas sector, not weakened here in Europe.&rdquo;

ICEM, ITF Reject EC’s Common Safety Prescription in Offshore Oil, Gas

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IndustriEnergi (IE), ICEM&rsquo;s strong Norwegian energy and chemicals affiliate, awarded its first Arthur Svensson International Award for Trade Union Rights to Wellington Chibebe, the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The award came at the opening of IE&rsquo;s Congress in Oslo on 11 October. 
 
Chibebe won the award as one of the trade unionists leading the courageous struggle in Zimbabwe for workers&rsquo; rights. IE&rsquo;s Arthur Svensson Award is named after a longtime leader of Norsk Kjemisk Forbund, the Norwegian Chemical Workers&rsquo; Association, which merged in 2006 with NOPEF to form IE. 
<img src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/0805ZCTUCibebe.jpg" width="175" height="140" alt="" />
Wellington Chibebe, ZCTU General Secretary
Chibebe told African radio upon wining the award that Zimbabwe&rsquo;s unions must continue fighting for its rightful &ldquo;democratic space&rdquo; in Zimbabwe&rsquo;s economic society. The global significance to the award, said Chibebe, is that the world now knows that Zimbabwe has appeared before the ILO Standards Committee every year since 2002, &ldquo;culminating in the commission on enquiry which came to Zimbabwe last year and a report that moved the government to address the problems that have been facing unions.&rdquo; 
 
Chibebe and others in Zimbabwe have been effective global voices against the brutish trade union abuses that occur in the country. In May 2008, he and ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo were locked up and charged with an absurd &ldquo;communicating falsehoods&rdquo; complaint against the state. In September 2006, Chibebe was beaten in police custody after being one of some 200 trade unionists seeking satisfactory work rights. He began his trade union career in 1988 as an apprentice railway worker. He became president of the railway union and then joined ZCTU in 2001. 
 
In praise of Chibebe&rsquo;s award last week, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said in a statement that he has &ldquo;courage, passion, and firmness of principle. We believe the African trade union movement in particular and the global trade union movement in general has an asset in him and we are yet to see more of his outstanding contributions as we intensify our struggle for justice.&rdquo; 
 
The Arthur Svensson International Award for Trade Union Rights comes with a cash prize of NOK 500,000 (&euro;60,000).

Zimbabwe’s Wellington Chibebe Receives First Norwegian Labour Prize

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Proposed amendments to Zimbabwe&rsquo;s Labour Relations Act have rattled the country&rsquo;s employers&rsquo; grouping, but the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is having none of it. Bosses&rsquo; hue and cry over fairness changes to the labour code doesn&rsquo;t add up, union leaders say. 
 
The controversy is over ILO draft recommendations regarding severance packages, contract workers&rsquo; rights, and other common social entitlements. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CFI) met the press in the southern African nation on 11 October, and told them the changes would be burdensome and costly. 
 
ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo countered by saying enterprises covered by the CFI have been paying the lowest wages in southern Africa for a long time. &ldquo;Those who are against this idea are people who have gotten used to profiteering,&rdquo; Matombo told the Harare Herald. 
<img src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/lovemore20matombo20ZCTU20Zimbabwe.jpg" width="150" height="136" alt="" />
ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo
The ILO&rsquo;s review of Zimbabwe&rsquo;s labour law recommends establishment of a minimum set of retrenchment criteria, including education and re-training, and includes severance benefits and other social rights for contract workers, as long as they were on the job for three years. The CFI said severance payments to contract workers would not be sustainable for businesses to survive. 
 
The recommendations include a number of fair-minded social improvements, including paid sick leave, and specifically, revising maximum vacation leave from 30 calendar days to 30 work days. An amendment also calls for daily breast-feeding by working women to be increases from one to two hours for up to18 months. 
 
At the 11 October press briefing, the CFI said the revisions would stifle enterprise and said Zimbabwe&rsquo;s workers must &ldquo;accept the concept of delayed gratification.&rdquo; The CFI argued that business is not just about paying workers, but also earning dividends. 
 
The ICEM supports the progressive social amendments being introduced in Zimbabwe, and stands with the ZCTU and its own affiliates.

Zimbabwe’s Unions, Employers Clash on Labour Code Revisions

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On 29 September, ten million bitter people demonstrated across Europe. They protested government imposed austerity measures brought on by a financial crisis not their fault, or the fault of those now feeling the pain from crisis-caused social cuts. 
 
In the weeks since, that bitterness and anger has not gone away. In fact, it is manifesting itself day by day through differing circumstances in different countries. What the angst and anger have in common from one country to another is the feeling that those that caused the pain do not share in it now. 
 
Perhaps nowhere is the anger more pronounced than in France, where last week&rsquo;s strikes at refineries, pipelines, shipping, and transportation centres were compared to strikes in 2006. The country could be literally shut down this week if the strikes &ndash; focused on President Nicolas Sarkozy&rsquo;s pension reforms &ndash; continue. Prior 24-hour strikes were extended to continuous strikes last week, and another mass day of action is set for tomorrow, 19 September. 
<img src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/1008.no_.to_.austerity.banner.jpg" width="174" height="249" alt="" />
The CFDT said 3.5 million workers taken to the streets by mid-week last. Although Sarkozy has pushed through portions of pension reform, he still seeks legislation to increase the minimum pension age from 60 to 62 and increase the age for a full retirement package from 65 to 67. As the strikes grew throughout last week, a poll showed 69% of French citizens support the strikes. 
 
In Romania on 13 October, Finance Ministry workers stopped work in a spontaneous strike and occupied the Finance Ministry overnight. They were joined by public-sector workers from the Work, Heath, and Post Office, all protesting elimination of bonus payments from July, totaling between &euro;100-150 per month. That accounts for up to 60% of public-sector salaries. 
 
Continual protests in the Central European nation have now had an effect. Late in the week, the finance minister agreed to restore the bonuses for August and September. And a pension reform bill that would have lifted the retirement age for both men and women was sent back to Parliament for amendments because of &ldquo;people mobilisation&rdquo; and pressure from trade unions. The protests could become even bigger this week, since the menace behind Romania&rsquo;s austerity cuts &ndash; the International Monetary Fund &ndash; is scheduled for an evaluation visit on 22 October. 
 
In the Slovak Republic on 12 October, thousands of trade unions marched in Bratislava and assembled in the city&rsquo;s SNP Square, protesting the government&rsquo;s harsh reductions in the 2011 budget. The measures include cutting one-seventh of the entire state budget, including cutting the pay of all public-sector workers by 10%. The Confederation of Trade Unions (KOZ) said the average family of four throughout the country will see a reduction in income of &euro;400 a year, and instead calls for higher taxation on dividend earnings and granting relief measures to ordinary citizens. 
 
In the Czech Republic, trade unions are on strike alert today, anticipating the worst scenario on how a 10% pay cut in across the public sector will be implemented. A poll in the Czech Republic revealed that 58% of people polled believe the austerity measures will result in slower economic recovery. On 21 September, 40,000 Czech public-sector workers took to the streets because of the pay cuts. 
 
In Athens, Greece, protesters that are owed up to two year&rsquo;s back pay barricaded themselves inside the Acropolis and had to be removed by police force. Other tense confrontations appear to be hotting up for Slovenia, Portugal, and the UK. 
 
Instead of pension reform, wage cuts, and budget curtailments, trade unions see jobs and economic growth as the catapult to recovery. Unions bear witness that most victims of austerity cuts are workers and the working poor, victims of an economic crisis set off by bankers and traders and aided then by the same neo-liberal governmental policies that now call out for social cuts.

Deep Anger to Austerity Continues Across Europe

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