BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: The International Metalworkers’ Federation joins the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) in demanding that the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina intervene on behalf of 1,250 workers in the northern city of Lukavac. The workers have had their pay slashed and are owed wage arrears by India-based Global Infrastructure Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of the Ispat Group, owned by the Mittal steel-making family.

The company is the minority owner but manages a coke-chemicals enterprise called Global Ispat Koksana Industtrija Lukavac (GIKIL), which sells to steel mills throughout Central Europe, Turkey, and in India. The local government of the Canton of Tuzla is majority stakeholder.

In a January 21 letter to Bosnia-Herzegovina Prime Minister Mustafa Mujezinovic and to Canton of Tuzla Prime Minister Enes Mujić, ICEM general secretary Manfred Warda – together with IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina – called on both the federal government and regional government to ensure that restoration of previous pay levels dating to 2003 are restored, that wage arrears are paid, and that the governments be more vigilant on potentially serious health risks existing inside GIKIL.

The ICEM is pursuing justice for Lukavac workers on behalf of one of those affiliates, the Independent Trade Union of Chemistry and Non-Metal Workers of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"The ICEM has probed Global Infrastructure Holdings, its parent, the steel-maker Ispat Group, and Pramod Mittal himself." said Warda. "What we find is a history of depraved conduct placed on people in many countries and total disregard for global social standards, as well as statutes enshrined in European law."

In Lukavac, workers have carried out lawful strikes twice in six months, laying claims to salaries owed them. Despite all workers taking membership in the union, GIKIL’s Indian managing director, Guttupalli Jagannadham, has bypassed the union in slashing pay to 55 per cent of previous earnings. That level is below the minimum wage standard contained in the national collective agreement for chemistry and non-metals, and amounts to just above €200 per month (400 marka), putting it well under the minimum wage threshold for the sector in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Workers staged a strike from January 6 to 14 after salaries had not been paid in October, November, and December 2009. During the strike, the October and November pay was made, but December salaries are still in remiss. A mediated agreement that ended a three-day strike in July 2009 called on GIKIL management to honour the collective agreement, and pay all wages due by December 31, 2009.

The ICEM and IMF also stated concern for workers’ health at GIKIL in the letter to the Bosnia-Herzegovina government. The Independent Trade Union of Chemistry and Non-Metal Workers believes a number of workers have acute cases of cancer due to lack of safeguards around coke ovens.

In the joint letter, the combined 45-million-member ICEM and IMF cautioned the government not to lose oversight over labour-management relations at GIKIL.

BELGIUM: On January 21, 2010 the European Opel management announced its intention to wind-down production at its plant located in the port of Antwerp.

For Belgian trade unions this is a "shot in the neck" of the 2,600 workers at the Antwerp plant and a "slap in the face" for the thousands of workers in the supply chain at companies such as Johnson Controls, Plastic Omniun, Continental and Belplas.

"Industry and the automobile industry in particular do not need to be treated with such arrogance by the current GM management. Stealing away the right to an income of thousands of workers in such a disgusting way, especially after all their efforts and endeavours over the years to produce top quality, is simply a crime," said Guido Nelissen, economic advisor of Belgian trade union ACV-CSC METEA.

After having decided to phase out production of the Opel Astra, GM signed an agreement with trade unions to replace the Astra by two small SUV’s at the Antwerp plant. The company brutally broke this written agreement. For trade unions in Belgium, this decision is inspired by mere political considerations which have no economic grounds whatsoever.

On September 23, 2009 all local and European trade unions announced that they would not accept any plant closures nor imposed lay-offs and that they counted on a fair distribution of available production.

After GM halted its advanced negotiations with Canadian Magna for a take-over of Opel, it announced 8,300 redundancies in its European plants. In addition to Belgium, GM has plants in the UK, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Austria and Hungary. However workers’ representatives never had a chance to see a real plan for the future for Opel Europe. So the announced shutdown of Opel Antwerp, is viewed as just a step in a large but hidden European restructuring plan.

Previously Saab, the Swedish subsidiary of GM, went into bankruptcy protection. After failed negotiations with investors such as Koeningsegg and Spyker, the future of 3,400 workers in Trollhättan remains very uncertain.

The Belgian trade unions have already started a spontaneous blockade of the parking sites of their plant, so no new car can leave the factory. This ‘war chest’ should help to increase the pressure on the management in order to secure an industrial future for a highly productive facility. Other actions are in preparation.

According to the so-called ‘Renault-law’, approved in the Belgian Parliament after the closure of the Renault Vilvoorde plant in 1997, management can only decide to make people redundant after respecting an information and consultation period, whereby the workers’ representatives can introduce alternatives to the proposed redundancies. The Belgian trade unions will make full use of this possibility to convince GM to maintain production in Antwerp.

On Thursday January 26, 2010 a European solidarity meeting will be organised at the Antwerp site and on Friday January 29, the Belgian trade unions will hold a country-wide march for jobs in Brussels.

GLOBAL: Celebrating its tenth year of existence, the World Social Forum (WSF), will take place in 2010 in a permanent way all year-round with at least 27 regional, national and local events throughout the world during the year.

Opening this process, the regional event "Greater Porto Alegre 10 Years Social Forum", which is going to happen from January 25 to 29, 2010 in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, will have over 500 decentralized activities in the cities of Porto Alegre, Gravataí, Canoas, São Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo and Sapiranga.

One of the main activities of the Greater Porto Alegre Social Forum is the international seminar "10 Years Later: Challenges and proposals for another possible world", which aims to examine the new challenges of alter-globalist civil society and to design future directions to be followed by the WSF. It also aims to provide a more systematic reflection on what has been done thus far, including mistakes and successes.

The WSF is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations can engage in a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies. Many trade unions affiliated to the International Metalworkers’ Federation will take part in WSF activities throughout the year.

The dates of the 2010 Porte Alegre event overlap with the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, taking place from January 27 to 31, 2010. The 40th anniversary of the WEF meeting will be held under the theme "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild", where organizers hope that the 2,500 leaders from over 90 countries representing business, government and civil society participating will show true "corporate global citizenship".

You can find the complete list of World Social Forum events and activities here.

Go here for more details on the World Economic Forum.

 

GLOBAL: As of February 1, 2010 the web-based resource RadioLabour http://www.radiolabour.net/ will start broadcasting a weekly 20 minute programme called "Solidarity news". The programme will go live every Monday morning.

According to RadioLabour, the new web service will help to promote global communication between labour organizations of the South and the North and will focus primarily on union and workers’ issues and activities around the world emphasizing the situation in emerging economies and developing countries.

The audiocast is presented by labour educator Marc Bélanger. The reports will be based on materials created by RadioLabour reporters and interested unionists will be also given the opportunity to supply their materials for audio reports.

The scripts of the audiocasts will be stored on the website and will be available for unionists who want to improve their English speaking skills as an additional language in the international labour movement.

Fore further information about the news service, reporting and time of audiocasts please visit: http://www.radiolabour.net/

CANADA: The Canadian Auto Workers’ Union (CAW) is demanding that the federal government release the details of the agreement it made with Xstrata when it took over Falconbridge in 2006, to see if that deal is violated by Xstrata’s plans to close its copper and zinc operations at Kidd Creek, near Timmins, Ontario.

The Switzerland-based company’s December 7, 2009 announcement of the closures has sparked a massive campaign by the CAW in an effort to save 500 of the union’s members’ jobs, another 170 Xstrata employees and 200 workers hired on contract. The CAW estimates additional 3,000 – 4,000 jobs will be lost in Timmins and surrounding communities due to the proposed closures.

"Canadians deserve to know exactly what was in that 2006 agreement," said CAW President Ken Lewenza.  The CAW will press for government action to reverse the closure decision, if indeed, as is expected, the 2006 deal required Xstrata to continue operating value-added facilities.

In a letter to Xstrata CEO Mick Davis, International Metalworkers’ Federation general secretary Jyrki Raina called on the company to "postpone taking such drastic measures and allow for constructive dialogue between the CAW, Xstrata and community leaders in an effort to explore alternative long-term solutions that will prove beneficial to all parties."

The CAW, workers, their families and community members held a rally on January 17 to show solidarity with the workers facing lay-off and activate the community in how they can take action against the closures. Rally participants were asked to contact their government representatives and explain how the lay-offs would impact their families and community.

The CAW campaign titled "Our Resources Stay Here" is similar to the fight the United Steelworkers (USW) has launched against Brazilian-owned mining giant Vale in nearby Sudbury, Ontario. The CAW has supported USW Local 6500 on picket lines and with financial support in its current six-month strike against Vale Inco, and it has also joined USW in calling on the Canadian Parliament to enact legislation that would give transparency to deals made under the Investment Canada Act.

For more information about the CAW’s struggle against Xstrata, go to the union local’s website at: http://www.caw599.ca/

ITALY/ARGENTINA: The Tenaris Workers’ World Council reports that a favourable agreement was reached for Tenaris employees in Italy on December 29, 2009 after 26 hours of bargaining.

In October Tenaris proposed a 114 million Euros investment plan for Italy. The plan included large investments but also the dismissal of 1,024 employees, the closure of the plant located in Piombino and suspended any new investment in the plant located in Costa Volpino.

After several measures opposing the closures and dismissals, including the march of the members of the Tenaris Workers’ World Council to the plant located in Bergamo in November last year, the unions and the employer reached an agreement including:

• No plant will be closed
• The number of job losses will be 741 instead of 1,024 and workers will participate in job reductions only voluntarily
• The employer will provide incentives for early retirements or other separation modalities
• Workers affected if the number needed is not reached by voluntary retirements will continue receiving 80 per cent of their wages and other benefits.

Meanwhile, in Argentina all permanent and contracted employees at the Tenaris plant in Valentín Alsina are currently on strike and picketing the front gate of the plant not allowing any vehicle in or out of the plant.

For three years Tenaris has employed 23 people on a permanent and full-time basis but listed them as contracted employees on their pay-roll. The minister of labour ordered Tenaris to recognize these employees as full-time permanent workers. Tenaris not only refused to follow the ministerial order, but also fired the 23 employees on January 18, 2010. All workers at the plant, permanent and contracted, are on strike in protest of the employer’s provocative attitude.

BELARUS: IMF affiliates REPAM and SPM met in Minsk on December 19-20, 2009 to examine the current situation and develop new strategies. The original plan was to meet at a resort near Minsk, but despite the fact that the hotel rooms were booked in advance hotel employee called REPAM just hours before the meeting, saying there were no rooms available. It was clear the hotel management acted on government orders. However, the meeting still took place at REPAM’s headquarters, and participants were accommodated in different hotels in Minsk.

The participants discussed the relations between REPAM and the national union federation BKDP. Another theme of the meeting was the problem with legal registration of shop floor organizations. While to register a union in Belarus one has to collect 31 documents, staying illegal (i.e. unregistered) may lead to criminal charges and imprisonment.

External threats to union development include aggressive new government policies (for example, increasing the required minimum number of members of a national union from 500 to 7,000), short-term work contracts, fabricated criminal cases against union leaders and activists and other provocations from police and state bodies.

Lack of clear trade union ideology, differences between BKDP affiliates such as the big, widely recognized unions such as BNP and militant organizations under great pressure such as SPM and REPAM, and aging of union members are among internal threats to union development.

The participants discussed solidarity campaigns as a means to protect union activists. There was also an idea of organizing a network of volunteers and supporters, who are not union members themselves since being a union member can sometimes lead to serious problems in Belarus. The task is to mobilize 2,000 such activists.

Another proposed strategy of protecting dismissed union activists was to help them find jobs in foreign countries, such as Poland, Lithuania and Russia. Their children should be provided an opportunity to study abroad – this will strengthen the feeling of solidarity and support in the union movement.

Both rank-and-file union members and union leaders regarded the meeting as highly successful.

GLOBAL: The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has called for "a major international mobilisation of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Haiti" in a statement released on January 13, 2010. In a message sent to all affiliates on January 20, 2010, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) urged its affiliates to support the ITUC appeal.

Funds raised under the ITUC appeal will in the first instance be used to provide humanitarian assistance via the ITUC affiliates in the Dominican Republic, CASC, CNTD and CNUS. The three Dominican Republic organisations have opened up their local trade union offices to collect funds and essential items, which are being trucked across the border into Haiti, in cooperation with the ITUC’s Haitian affiliate the CTH.

Funds for the appeal may be transferred to the following ITUC account:

No. 375-1008200-61

Banque ING, Brussels Branch Institutionals, 1 rue du Trone, B-1000 Brussels

Code IBAN: BE 62375100820061

Code BIC/Swift: BBRUBEBB

The communication "SOS Solidarity – Haiti" must be included with each transfer to this account.

The IMF has no affiliated unions in Haiti, however, Jorge Almeida, IMF regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean went to Haiti on November 29 last year to meet with a group of metalworkers to promote the formation of a union in their sector. At that meeting a working committee was established responsible for building a union in contact with the IMF regional office and IMF subregional co-ordinator Gregorio Santana.

Gregorio Santana, who is also general secretary of FENATRAMIM, IMF’s affiliate in the Dominican Republic, said the situation in Haiti is very complicated with problems of communication and co-ordination for assistance. The current priority is the recovery of bodies, the medical and health care of the wounded and food for the population. Santana will keep the IMF informed of the needs of the people and the reconstruction of Haiti.

Unions around the world are raising money and sending volunteers to Haiti. There’s full coverage of the activity on LabourStart at: http://www.labourstart.org

INDIA: Trade unionists from India’s shipbreaking yards met with Mr Okechukwu Ibeanu UN Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights.

Shipbreaking workers explained to Mr Ibeanu the conditions and struggle faced by workers in Alang, the world’s largest shipbreaking yard. Despite the union being able to improve basic health and safety conditions, since April 2009 there have been 14 fatalites in Alang alone.

The workers also described the deadly cocktail of inexperience, lack of training and the high volume of work that has made the situation more hazardous.

Recent attempts by employers to increase profits have included dumping waste materials in the sea and at nearby farms and villages to avoid paying the use of official facilities.

Rob Johnston IMF Executive Director stated at the meeting, "not only are workers facing hazardous materials in the work place but the dangers are following them home.

"By polluting the local area, not only are the employers endangering workers’ lives, but also adding strength to the voices of those that want to see this activity shut down."

The workers explained that they believe it is possible to carry out the shipbreaking in a more sustainable way but all parties must show more responsibility for this to happen.

CHINA: In its urgent appeal for letters to be sent to Gold Peak, Good Electronics reports on calls for an inquiry into the violence used against workers by security guards at Power Pack, a Gold Peak subsidiary in Huizhou, China during a strike in December.

Non-governmental Chinese labour groups, including Globalization Monitor and the Asia Monitor Resource Centre are also calling on Gold Peak to pay the full hospitalization costs of the workers injured by this violence and to compensate the workers sacked in relation to the incident.

In December 2009 growing dissatisfaction with low wages at the plant resulted in a two-day strike, which turned sour when three workers were locked up and treated badly by the company’s security guards. In the course of the strike, workers blocked the gates as well as the main road to the compound.

Four employees of Power Pack were later summoned to the local police station to assist in an investigation into the road blockade. Among the four was Ms Wang Fengping, a 45-year old engineer employed with Gold Peak since 1995. Ms Wang suffers from severe kidney failure, caused by cadmium exposure while working for Gold Peak. Ms Wang was released after being questioned for more than 10 hours on account of her medical condition; the three other workers were kept in detention until January 2, 2010. Following the detention at the police station, Gold Peak has fired Ms Wang.

These recent problems at Power Pack are set against the background of the unresolved issue of the compensation of Gold Peak workers who have been exposed to cadmium. Over the past years, hundreds of workers involved in the manufacturing of cadmium batteries have been diagnosed with cadmium poisoning or excessive cadmium levels in their urine. Till this date, the Gold Peak management and the workers have not been able to reach an agreement over diagnosis methodology and compensation packages.

Gold Peak batteries are used in all types of toys and electronics products.

Click here to join Good Electronics’ urgent appeal to Gold Peak to improve its record: http://goodelectronics.org/urgent-appeals/letters/gold-peak/