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French oil refinery workers at Total began partial disruptions to production late on 6 September, successfully making the global oil company modify its disciplinary actions against four workers the next day. The four were exclusively blamed for a fuel leak on 7 August at a refinery in Marseille. The refineries in which job actions occurred included Donges, Saint-Nazaire; Normandie, LeHavre; Grandpuits near Paris; Feyzin, Lyon; and the Provence refinery, Marseille.

French Total Workers Strike over Disciplinary Measures

A start-up gold mining project in Ghana turned to violence on 2 September when three persons were injured by police gunfire. Police were attempting to disperse an angry group of workers who lost their jobs following Newmont Ghana Gold Mining Ltd.&rsquo;s construction of mine milling plants. The workers along with persons from the town of Yamfo, Northern Brong Ahafo, had blocked a street that prevented Newmont&rsquo;s buses from carrying workers to jobsites. Newmont, 100% owned by Newmont Mining Corp. of the US, the world&rsquo;s leading gold miner, purchased a tract of Ghana&rsquo;s Sefwi gold belt early this decade, and is expected to commence production in 2006 from two sites in northern Ghana of stated gold reserves totaling 16.5 million ounces. The company established a hiring procedure for all new jobs but when existing workers from the construction phase did not immediately re-apply, Newmont closed off the recruitment process and hired new workers.

Violence at Newmont Mining&#039;s Start-up Project in Ghana

ICEM Jordanian affiliate General Trade Union of Workers in Mining and Metal Industries has promised to strike if their demands are not met for deeds to 100 housing units built near the Shidiyeh Mines in Maan, Jordan. The union is demanding the housing be turned over to miners and their families, as promised by King Abdullah, before Jordan Phosphate Mines Co. (JPMC) is privatised, which is expected by the end of the year. The Jordanian trade union, protecting the rights of the 1,350 JPMC workers, warned it will stand firm on the housing rights issue as a precursor against curtailment of any set of rights or workers&rsquo; benefits once the company is privatised.

Jordanian Affiliate Demands Housing for Miners

Eighteen Russian coalminers on Sakhalin Island ended their 11-day hunger strike 142 meters underground 9 September when they won backwages totaling four million roubles for 428 miners for the month of June at the bankrupt Sakhalinugol mining firm. They also won assurances that July and August wages due them will be paid this month through sale of mining equipment. The coalmine shut in August. Separate from the strike, the trustee of the mining enterprise in the Uglegorsk region, Tatyana Dmitriyeva, was arrested in early September and charged with profiteering from sale of mining and earth-moving equipment prior to the mid-August shutdown.

Sakhalin Miners End Strike

New Zealand&rsquo;s unions will embark on a third round of stop-work actions at Carter Holt Harvey&rsquo;s (CHH) wood and paper operations starting tomorrow. ICEM affiliates Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) and the National Distribution Union are protesting the company&rsquo;s inferior pay offers of 2.8% to 4%. NZ unions have set a minimum pattern of 5% across all sectors. On 12 September, workers at five CHH wood products plants and one paper converting operation engaged in one-day strikes, and subsequent rolling work stoppages occurred at other jobsites. Workers at one of the company&rsquo;s pulp and paper mills&mdash;Kinleith&mdash;are also protesting a poor pay offer. A set of three-day talks between CHH and EPMU there concluded on 2 September with the company offering only 4% and less for some job classifications. The labour unrest comes when the 50.5% majority stakeholder of CHH, US based International Paper Co., has received a US$1.5 billion sale offer for sale to NZ&rsquo;s richest individual, Graeme Hart and his Rank Group Investment Ltd. CHH&rsquo;s board of directors, however, has recommended shareholders vote down the offer, saying it is 9.1% under the company&rsquo;s true market value.

Carter Holt Harvey Targeted over Wage Deficiencies

Eight trade union leaders of ICEM Malaysian affiliate National Union of Employees in Companies Manufacturing Rubber Products (NUECMRP) are still seeking reinstatement to their jobs at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Selangor after more than a year&rsquo;s time. The eight were dismissed for various reasons after the union called attention to unfair treatment of workers from Nepal, Burma and Vietnam. The union also has protested strongly against the contract and agency labour practices of Goodyear, which utilizes a firm that deploys workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to avoid employment responsibility. Efforts at achieving justice for the eight have been blocked by the Malaysian Human Resource Minister&rsquo;s refusal to bring the dismissals before an industrial court. Goodyear has continued to exploit foreign workers at the 500-worker factory with lower pay, and denying them annual leave and medical leave per employment standards. The US-based company has also rebuffed NUECMRP&rsquo;s requests to create permanent, domestic jobs when vacancies occur at the factory.

Malaysian Affiliate Still Sees Problems with Goodyear

In Nepal from 10-12 September, presence of top-level global trade union leaders made a march and working seminar entitled Wider National Workers&rsquo; Conference both peaceful and unprecedented for the Himalayan country. Some 1,800 workers and their representatives from Nepal&rsquo;s three national union centers marched from Dilli Bazaar in Katmandu into a mass meeting at Padmakanya High School in Naya Baneshwore on 10 September denouncing the Nepalese monarchy&rsquo;s autocratic rule and calling for an &ldquo;absolute democracy&rdquo; that ensures workers&rsquo; and human rights. The conference adopted a 15-point resolution and a declaration calling the weekend event a turning point for all Nepal&rsquo;s workers to escape the killings, torture, suppression and harassment imposed on them by both the ruling monarchy and extremist political forces inside Nepal.

Nepal Conference to Challenge Authoritarian Rule

The ICEM took a major stride in its long-term and unprecedented campaign to curb Contract and Agency Labour in global workplaces with a major conference in Brussels on 15-16 September. The conference was attended by 120 trade union leaders from 41 countries. 
 
It marked the second such conference by the 20-million-member ICEM, the leading Global Union Federation for the energy, mining, chemical and processed industries' sectors. An initial working conference in September 2004 developed a set of strategies, including the right by trade unions to consultation, negotiation and, ultimately, agreement prior to any primary employer engaging a commercial contract that affects the status or working conditions of permanent employers. 
<img height="69" src="/wp-content/uploads/articles/icem-logo.jpg" width="80" alt="" />
The 15-16 September conference drew marked differences over the effect Contract and Agency Labour brings to permanent employment in various parts of the world. For example, while trade unions in developed countries of the west have faced the issue for some time, unions in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as Central Asia have not encountered such rampant use. 
 
But delegates from those countries openly recognise that rapid globalisation, privatisation and economic transformation possibly will soon follow the trend of using non-permanent employment and contract labour in developing regions. Trade union leaders attending from those regions stressed the importance of establishing legal guidelines and regulations on contract and agency labour at national levels in preparation of employers choosing against structured, long-term employment that sustains communities. 
 
Another of the ICEM strategies adopted from last year is to take the campaign to global standard-setting bodies. Leaders of ICEM affiliates on 16 September heard from Vladislav Egorov, a senior labour law specialist of the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Social Dialogue, Labour Law and Labour Administration Department. Egorov outlined the last attempt at an ILO Recommendation or Convention on the employment relationship in 1997-98. That effort failed when the Conference failed to agree on basic terminology of the employment relationship. 
 
&quot;There is no question that labour legislation is lagging behind labour market changes in this area,&quot; stated Egorov. Another speaker was Veronica Nilsson of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The ICEM's agenda also includes lobbying the OECD for a guideline on contract and agency labour. 
 
The conference examined case examples of where the issue is a current flashpoint. In Korea, legislation entitled an &quot;Act on Protection of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees&quot; and a revision of a law on &quot;Protection of Dispatched or Agency Workers&quot; is now before the National Assembly. But Young-sam Park of ICEM affiliate Korean Chemical and Textile Workers' Federation said the proposed legislation does not &quot;protect&quot; such workers, but rather grants employers more extended use of contract workers and agency labour. 
 
Juha Koivisto of Finnish affiliate Paperiliitto told delegates how the issue was central among issues in the May-June lockout of 25,000 paperworkers in the Nordic country, and how the union defeated the proposal by the paper employers' association that would have left up to one-quarter of that number victimized by contractors. 
 
Delegates to the conference also heard about a situation at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. factory in Bangkok in which the American company's use of long-term contract workers has been challenged in court by the Tyre Makers' Union of affiliate Petroleum and Chemical Unions' Federation of Thailand. The case is precedent-setting in Thai labour law in terms of whether or not contract workers can unionise. ICEM delegates passed a resolution supportive of the union and calling on Goodyear to recognise contract workers as part of the in-plant union, and to ensure that their full rights, pay and benefits are met accordingly.

ICEM Focused on Contract Labour Campaign Following Conference

France's five main trade union confederations have issued a call for day-long strikes and demonstrations on 4 October aimed at creating job protection and greater purchasing power from workers&rsquo; wages. Specifically, manifestations on that day will France&rsquo;s five main trade union confederations have issued a call for day-long protest the new and extended terms of temporary job contracts created by Prime Minister Dominque deVillepin, considered a crucial threat to job security. The five unions calling for workers both in the public and private sectors to take strike action are CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC, CGT and CGT-FO.strikes and demonstrations on 4 October aimed at creating job protection and greater purchasing power from workers&rsquo; wages. Specifically, manifestations on that day will France&rsquo;s five main trade union confederations have issued a call for day-long protest the new and extended terms of temporary job contracts created by Prime Minister Dominque deVillepin, considered a crucial threat to job security. The five unions calling for workers both in the public and private sectors to take strike action are CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC, CGT and CGT-FO.

Day of Action in France on 4 October 2005

Mass protests rather than a general strike have begun in Nigeria to protest the government&rsquo;s 26 August fuel price hike. ICEM oil workers&rsquo; union affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN have joined the rallies, which began 14 September to continue for two weeks. The government hiked the price of gas and diesel fuels by 40% in efforts to reduce subsidies and bring the price in line with global prices. Despite being one of the world&rsquo;s leading exporters of crude, Nigeria depends on imports of refined fuels to meet domestic demand because the country&rsquo;s five refineries under-perform from lack of capitalization. Nigerian unions are using the protests to get the government to roll back the fuel price hikes, as well as to demand higher wages incorporating cost-of-living increases.

Nigerians to Stage Protests Against Fuel Price Hikes

Archive

French Total Workers Strike over Disciplinary Measures

Violence at Newmont Mining's Start-up Project in Ghana

Jordanian Affiliate Demands Housing for Miners

Sakhalin Miners End Strike

Carter Holt Harvey Targeted over Wage Deficiencies

Malaysian Affiliate Still Sees Problems with Goodyear

Nepal Conference to Challenge Authoritarian Rule

ICEM Focused on Contract Labour Campaign Following Conference

Day of Action in France on 4 October 2005

Nigerians to Stage Protests Against Fuel Price Hikes

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