With climate change comes the increased incidence of hurricanes and other extreme weather events, and weather satellites can give countries the advance warning necessary to prepare for such events. Gordon Larkins, engineer and fellow shop steward, tells me that Thailand signed up to satellite disaster monitoring shortly after the December 2004 tsunami. Satellite technology is also a lifeline after a disaster strikes. Peter explains that extreme weather events often knock out phone lines on the ground. "How do you communicate then? Someone turns up with a box of satellite cellphones." When the immediate emergency is over, satellites still have a role to play, providing the reconstruction planners with important information about the extent and nature of the damage.

Astrium’s next weather satellite, AEOLUS, will be even more sophisticated than ENVISAT. Alistair Scott, the plant’s communications manager, describes it as "the next generation of everything". The stereoradar used by AEOLUS is so sensitive that it can tell the difference between corn and wheat, between tarmac and concrete. Named after the keeper of winds in classical mythology, AEOLUS specializes in monitoring wind speed and direction throughout the whole height of the Earth’s atmosphere.

AEOLUS will also be able to spot human activity that contributes to climate change. It is sensitive enough to pinpoint areas of deforestation, recording evidence of climate-wrecking behaviour by individuals, companies or governments. Peter explains that such fine-grained detail is also very useful for managing resources on a smaller scale, even at the level of telling a farmer that there’s something wrong with the crops in one field.

Peter is a Midlander with a gift for translating complex engineering concepts into plain English and making them interesting into the bargain. But he didn’t always plan to become an engineer. His first job after leaving school was in the Warwickshire constabulary, but left the police force after a motorcycle accident. After that he briefly studied chemistry. Perhaps it was a fluke of geography that led Peter to a career in engineering: his family home in the East Midlands was near a nuclear power plant, so he took a job at the plant, discovered his flair for engineering and gained professional qualifications there.

His move to his current workplace was a matter of circumstances too. The company that ran the East Midlands plant began discussing a move to the north of England just as Peter and his wife-to-be were planning a wedding and a life together in the south. So Peter took a job at BAE Space & Communications, at the Stevenage site now known as Astrium. 1981 marked the beginning of both his marriage and his career at the plant.

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But it’s when the focus returns to our own planet that things get really interesting. The Earth-observing satellites built by Astrium are helping with the battle against the biggest threat the world has ever faced: climate change. Peter Cheney, thermal engineer and shop steward, explains why weather satellites are essential for monitoring climate change: "To combat global change, you need to have a global view, and you can’t have a global view from the ground."

Currently that global view is given to us by ENVISAT, a satellite launched as part of Europe’s biggest and most complex Earth observation mission to date. "It’s about the size of a bus, a single-decker bus," says Peter. ENVISAT orbits the earth every two hours and returns high-quality data on ten different aspects of environmental change including wave height, wind speed and ozone layer thickness. When the European Space Agency was planning ENVISAT, it chose Astrium UK for the most crucial part: creating all the instruments for measuring the Earth’s environment and the technology for sending that data back to Earth. (The work was done at its now-defunct Bristol plant.) Astrium’s French and German sites were also heavily involved.

Scientists agree that the Earth’s temperature risks hitting a "tipping point" where climate change becomes unstoppable. Where they disagree is how soon we’ll reach it and whether or not it’s already too late. Accurate measurements of global climate change indicators – sea temperatures, wind speeds, polar ice thickness and so on – are vital for feeding into computer models and helping scientists to evaluate the threat. But the potential for satellites to help us cope with climate change goes beyond even that.

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Text / Kate Griffin

The blanket is gold-coloured and smooth to the touch. Look closer, and you can see the flimsy layers beneath the shiny surface. It looks as if it’s been discarded by one of the Wise Men in a school nativity play, but this material is destined for better things. The "blanket" is a sheet of aluminium coated in Kapton, a plastic film designed to be stable at a wide range of temperatures; it’s a substance used in space as the protective coating of satellite modules.

I’m at the UK site of Astrium, one of the most advanced companies in the space industry. From the unprepossessing surroundings of Stevenage in Hertfordshire, Astrium’s UK plant designs and builds satellites and vehicles destined for outer space.

The plant has long been at the cutting edge of the aerospace industry. Perhaps Astrium’s most famous project was Beagle 2, part of the European Space Agency’s first (and ultimately unsuccessful) Mars mission. But the Beagle 2 project is just a fraction of the exciting work carried out at the plant.

Right now, Astrium’s engineers are constructing the Gaia spacecraft, an unmanned craft set to launch in 2012. Its mission is to map a billion stars, using the most powerful telescope ever created. Gaia’s equipment is so sensitive that if the craft was on the moon, it could measure the thumbnail of a person standing on Earth.

Astrium has also been chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) as prime contractor for one of the most ambitious space projects ever undertaken: the ongoing construction and assembly of the International Space Station, which includes an orbital laboratory for scientists to carry out cutting-edge experiments in a low-gravity environment.

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GENEVA: Organized on the occasion of the World Trade Organization’s 7^th Ministerial Conference, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is holding a public conference on "Trade, Growth and Development: Can the WTO promote Decent Work?"

The conference is taking place from 15:30 to 17:30 on November 29, 2009 at the International Labour Organization in Geneva. (Room V, ILO, 4 route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva)

ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder will be joined by Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the WTO, Celso Amorim, Minister of External Relations, Brazil, Rob Davies, Minister of Trade and Industry, South Africa, Eckart Guth, Head of Delegation of the European Commission in Geneva, Alfredo Chiaradia, Secretary of Trade and International Economic Relations, Argentina, and other government representatives that will be participating in the WTO Ministerial Conference.

A copy of the programme is published on the IMF website here.

EUROPE: The European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) wrote to Members of the European Parliament asking them not to sign an EU-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and informed them of a special hearing on the issue taking place in the European Parliament on December 9.

Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world in which to be a trade unionist. 39 trade unionists were murdered in 2007 and 49 last year.

Since 1986 some 2712 have been killed with prosecutions taking place in only 4.4 per cent of cases. The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights has identified numerous serious human rights violations and the International Labour Organization at its most recent conference rejected proposals to accord Colombia "evidence of progress" status. Already, almost 30 trade unionists have been killed this year

Despite this, the European Commission is negotiating a free trade agreement with Colombia.

The International Metalworkers’ Federation joins with the International Trade Union Confederation and Colombian trade unions in expressing their opposition to an EU-Colombia trade deal.

In opposition to the current negotiations between the European Commission and Colombia on the trade agreement, unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland have released a report on the situation in Colombia. The report, jointly published by the Trades Union Congress, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Unite, Workers Uniting and Justice for Colombia is available on the IMF website here.

For more information about the hearing taking place at the European Parliament and on the campaign please go to: http://www.justiceforcolombia.org/

GENEVA: An Interim Report by the Committee on Freedom of Association adopted by the International Labour Organisation’s Governing Body last week calls on the Korean government once again to implement real labour law reform to remove barriers for precarious workers seeking to join a union or collectively bargain.

"…all workers, without distinction whatsoever, whether they are employed on a permanent basis, for a fixed term or as contract employees, should have the right to establish and join organisations of their own choosing, and the non-renewal of a contract for anti-union reasons constitutes a prejudicial act within the meaning of Article 1 of Convention 98," the Committee reported.

The complaint, case number 2602, was lodged in 2006 by the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and documents a series of violations at Hyundai Motors plants in Ulsan, Asan and Jeonju and at Hynix/Magnachip, Kiryung Electronics and KM&I. The ILO has called on the Korean government repeatedly to investigate these allegations of union repression and rights abuses and to reinstate or compensate workers where violations of basic workers’ rights have been committed.

A February 2009 fact-finding mission of the International Trade Union Confederation, IMF and the Trade Union Advisory Committee of the OECD found supporting evidence that precarious workers in Korea continue to be denied the most basic rights, specifically rights to freedom of association, collective bargaining and collective action.

Referring to Korea’s unique penal code 314, which allows employers to seek imprisonment or compensation from union members and unions for "obstruction of business", the Committee recommended that the Korean government "plan the adoption of necessary measures, in consultation with social partners concerned, to establish a general practice of investigation, rather than arresting strikers, and that arrests should be limited, even in the case of illegal strike, to situations in which acts of violence have occurred," noting "the criminalisation of industrial relations is in no way conducive to harmonious and peaceful industrial relations."

The ILO has been calling on the Korean government to reform penal code 314 for almost 10 years and it is the subject of one of the ILO’s longest standing complaints, case number 1865.

The Committee expressed its  "…deep concern at the limited progress with regard to the substantive issues raised by the case."

Korea has not ratified Convention 87 or 98, however "…when a State decides to become a Member of the Organisation, it accepts the fundamental principles embodied in the Constitution and the Declaration of Philadelphia, including principles of freedom of association, and that the ultimate responsibility for ensuring respect for the principles of freedom of association therefore lies with the Government," the Committee stated.

A copy of the Committee’s Report is published on the IMF website here.

MEXICO: Mexican workers in the supply chains of Nokia, Philips, Panasonic, IBM, HP, Lenovo, Sanmina, Jabil and Flextronics have been hit with 6,000 jobs lost, massive dismissals, a 10 per cent reduction in wages and an increase in temporary three-month and monthly contracts from 40 to 60 per cent of all workers since 2008.

Meanwhile, in the last quarter Sanmina reported growth of 20 per cent since 2008, Nokia has recovered the number of workers they lost in 2008, but now with 75 per cent temporary workers contracted by Manpower, Flextronics has announced 1,000 new jobs and Jabil increased their workers 136 per cent, and HP and IBM announced new investment projects in 2010.

This third report about working conditions in the electronic industry in Mexico, published by CEREAL and released on November 17, shows "in the worst year of the crisis the companies have won and the workers have lost."

The report documents the massive loss of jobs across the electronics industry and the re-employment of workers on lower salaries with greater workloads and weaker rights to stable employment.

"Structural changes are needed in the Mexican electronics industry so we can guarantee that all companies in this sector are socially responsible, even during times of economic crisis," writes CEREAL, The Labor Action and Reflection Center, a non-government organisation that has been working for the rights of electronics workers in Mexico in an environment where unionisation rights are severely restricted.

A copy of the report in English is published on the IMF website here.

AUSTRALIA: As part of its "No Workplace Cancer" campaign, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) published a local version of the Occupational Cancer, Zero Cancer booklet first produced by the International Metalworkers’ Federation in 2007.

The new publication takes information from the global booklet and applies it to the Australian context, taking account of Australian laws on occupational safety and regulations on chemicals.

In Australia it is estimated that 60,000 people will have died as a result of asbestos related disease by 2020. Despite knowing in the 1930s of the deadly nature of asbestos, Australia did not ban the importation and exportation of asbestos until December 2003.

"It took decades of campaigning to get this far with asbestos. But we are still introducing new substances and new technologies to workplaces without the necessary investigations and precautions," said Dave Oliver, AMWU National Secretary.

The release of the new booklet coincides with Asbestos Awareness Week in Victoria, Australia from November 23 to 27. The week serves as a potent reminder of the effects of asbestos and provides an opportunity to remember and support the families affected by asbestos-related diseases. Elected occupational health and safety reps also use the week to check that their employer is complying with legal requirements.

A copy of the Australian booklet is available on the IMF website here.

A copy of the global Occupational Cancer, Zero Cancer in English, French, Spanish and Russian can be found here.

Also see: www.imfmetal.org/cancer

GLOBAL: Gerdau workers held a day of solidarity to press the company to address the problems affecting its employees in many of the countries where it operates. Workers called for a solution to the strike at Cambridge, Canada; renewal of the collective contract with the SINTRAMETAL union in Tuta and reopening of the Duitama plant in Colombia; and recognition of the Gerdau Global Workers’ Committee.

Workers at Gerdau plants in Brazil distributed materials produced by the Global Committee. The São José dos Campos and São Leopoldo Metalworkers’ Unions distributed a special bulletin for the day of action at the factory gates of Gerdau plants in their area.

Workers in Colombia organised a series of events for the International Day of Struggle. On November 17, a union delegation visited the Brazilian Embassy in Colombia to present a letter of protest about the company’s behaviour in the country. The diplomat responsible for international trade met the delegation and agreed to arrange a meeting with the ambassador during the next few days.

The workers went on to organise a public meeting in front of Gerdau headquarters on November 18. The Gerdau workers’ delegation was accompanied by IMF officers from Geneva and Latin America, including Fernando Lopes, IMF Assistant General Secretary and Jorge Almeida, Latin America Regional Officer, and by representatives of UTRAMMICOL and FETRAMECOL and the bank workers’ union UNEB. There was also a meeting at the Gerdau plant in Tuta, where workers distributed a leaflet produced by the Global Committee.

The Chilean metalworkers’ confederation, CONSTRAMET and Gerdau-Aza unions 1-2 held a demonstration in front of Salomon Sack, owned by Gerdau-Aza. Workers at Salomon Sack went on strike on November 9 after the company refused to consider a decent pay rise during collective bargaining and tried to impose a four year collective agreement against the union’s wishes. The company tried to break workers’ unity by ignoring the negotiating committee and proposing to reach individual terms with workers. When the workers rejected the company’s offer, the company refused to continue negotiations and used strike-breakers to continue operations. Ninety Salomon Sack employees are currently on strike.

In Peru, the two unions at the Gerdau steel plant in Chimbote held a joint march through the town centre. During the march, workers put up posters produced by the Global Committee. The Siderperu employees’ union also handed out leaflets to all workers inside the plant, distributed information to the press about the strikes in Canada and Colombia and demanded recognition of the Gerdau Global Workers’ Committee.

MAGHREB: Twenty two shop stewards and local trade union organizers from all Leoni units in Morocco and Tunisia met at Hammamet, Tunisia, on November 18 and 19, 2009 to establish regional trade union coordination and to monitor the implementation of the Leoni Declaration on Social Rights at its production sites in Maghreb.

The seminar, organized by the IMF, was hosted by the Tunisian metalworkers. Leaders of FGME-UGTT of Tunisia and SNTIMMEE-CDT of Morocco attended the meeting together with representatives of IG Metall of Germany. This activity is part of the IMF work to develop networking and cooperation between unions organizing TNCs’ workers in their different countries of operation. Multinationals in Tunisia and Morocco are priority targets of IMF activities to support trade unions in Maghreb.

An overview of the employment and working conditions at each production site of both countries was presented and information was shared on the state of industrial relations. Concerns were expressed for an extraordinarily high level of precarious employment arrangements that involve up to 70 per cent of the workforce. This puts enormous stress on the employees and represents a major concern for the unions. The translation of the variety of non permanent or even sub-contracted jobs into permanent ones is on top of the list of demands as the sole guarantee for workers to enjoy social protection and to ensure the respect of fundamental workers’ and trade union rights. The shop stewards pointed at the management’s disregard of trade union proposals for discussion of a classification system, as well as at the lack of basic health and safety guarantees for the employees.

Deep concern was expressed about the behaviour of company management in both countries that negatively affect trade unionists and prevent a constructive dialogue and bona fide negotiations. All participants supported in particular the request of the local trade union at Leoni Mateur Sud, Tunisia, that the company management withdraw the legal proceeding against its General Secretary who’s being victimized exclusively because of his legitimate trade union work.

Despite the commitment to respect social rights taken by Leoni towards its clients and its employees in all countries where it operates, its management in Tunisia and Morocco does not show signs of respect for trade union work; elected workers’ representatives and union activists are hit by intimidation in various ways. All the participants felt that coordinated action at national and regional level is indispensable to systematically monitor the implementation of the international framework agreement (known as Declaration on Social Rights) signed by Leoni with the IMF and the EWC in 2003. Mechanisms to establish a communication network with IMF support were defined to ensure the systematic sharing of information between the Leoni unions in Tunisia and Morocco, and with IG Metall and Leoni unions in other countries.

Informed of the planned meeting, the management of Leoni Tunisia insistently expressed interest to participate. The programme was therefore rearranged to include an informal consultation with management representatives at the conclusion of the seminar. Unfortunately nobody showed up and no explanation was provided.