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<p>If you have questions about the International Metalworkers' Federation or require information about unions or metalworkers, please write to us. We strive to answer enquiries promptly. </p><p><strong>International Metalworkers&#039; Federation</strong><br />54bis, route des Acacias<br />Case Postale 1516<br />CH-1227 Geneva<br />Switzerland <br />Telephone: + 41 22 308 5050<br />Fax: + 41 22 308 5055<br />E-mail: <a href="mailto:info@imfmetal.org">info@imfmetal.org</a><br /><br /></p>

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<h3>AFRICA</h3><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td width="25%">South Africa</td><td width="35%">Christina Olivier</td><td width="38%">NUMSA</td></tr><tr><td>South Africa</td><td>Irvin Jim</td><td>NUMSA</td></tr><tr><td>Kenya</td><td>Maero Tindi </td><td>AUKM</td></tr><tr><td>Tunisia</td><td>Tahar Berberi</td><td>FGME-UGTT</td></tr></tbody></table><h3>ASIA AND THE PACIFIC</h3><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Indonesia</td><td width="35%">Darmawati Djunaedi Natakusumah</td><td width="38%">FSPMI</td></tr><tr><td>Japan</td><td>Koichiro Nishihara</td><td>IMF-JC</td></tr><tr><td>Australia</td><td>Paul Howes</td><td>AWU</td></tr><tr><td>India</td><td>G. Sanjeeva Reddy<br />(May 09 - May11)<br />Sanjay S. Vadhavkar<br />(Nov. 11 - May 13)</td><td>INMF<br /><br />SMEWFI<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><h3>LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN</h3><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Argentina</td><td width="35%">Luis García Ortiz <br />(may 09 - may 10)<br /><br />Hector Laplace<br />(nov 10 - nov 11)<br /><br />Francisco Gutierrez<br />(may 12 - may 13)</td><td width="38%">ASIMRA<br /><br /><br />AOMA<br /><br /><br />UOM</td></tr><tr><td>Colombia<br /><br /><br />Brazil</td><td><p align="left">Nohora Estela Tovar<br />(May 09 - May 11)<br /><br />Valter Sanches<br />(Nov 11 - May 13)</p></td><td>FETRAMECOL<br /><br /><br />CNM/CUT</td></tr><tr><td>Brazil</td><td>Monica de Oliveira Lourenço Velozo</td><td>CNTM</td></tr><tr><td>Mexico</td><td>Napoleón Gómez</td><td>SNTMMS</td></tr></tbody></table><h3>NORTH AMERICA</h3><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Canada</td><td width="35%">Carol Landry</td><td width="38%">USW</td></tr><tr><td>USA</td><td>Bob King</td><td>UAW</td></tr><tr><td>USA</td><td>Tom Buffenbarger</td><td>IAMAW</td></tr><tr><td>USA</td><td>Leo Gerard</td><td>USW</td></tr></tbody></table><h3>WESTERN EUROPE</h3><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td>Germany</td><td>Berthold Huber </td><td>IG Metall </td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Sweden</td><td width="35%">Stefan Löfven</td><td width="38%">IF Metall </td></tr><tr><td>United Kingdom</td><td>Len McCluskey</td><td>British Section</td></tr><tr><td>Italy</td><td>Giuseppe Farina</td><td>FLM</td></tr><tr><td>France</td><td>Blandine Landas</td><td>FGMM-CFDT</td></tr><tr><td>Spain</td><td>Javier Urbina </td><td>MCA-UGT</td></tr></tbody></table><h3>CENTRAL &amp; EASTERN EUROPE</h3><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Russia</td><td width="35%">Michael Tarassenko </td><td width="38%">MMWU</td></tr><tr><td>Czech Rep.</td><td>Josef Stredula </td><td>OS KOVO</td></tr><tr><td>Macedonia</td><td>Mare Anceva </td><td>SIER</td></tr></tbody></table>

IMF Executive Committee (2009-2013)

<p>Workers in the world&#039;s iron and steel industry are severely affected by the cyclical nature of this sector. Through trade union strength at national and international levels this department advances workers' rights. In order to do this we facilitate meetings, undertake research and challenge companies who fail to recognise that trade unions often hold the solution to workplace problems. <br /><br />Rob Johnston, <a href="mailto:rjohnston@imfmetal.org">rjohnston@imfmetal.org</a>, is director for this sector.</p>

Iron, steel and non-ferrous metals

<p>This department deals with a wide range of companies, for example producers of consumer electronics and computer hardware and software. Companies include GE, Philips, Siemens, Infineon and Intel. </p><p>The department aims to develop trade union strategies for the sector and improving and strengthening the information exchange in transnational companies. </p><p>Jenny Holdcroft, <a href="mailto:jholdcroft@imfmetal.org">jholdcroft@imfmetal.org</a>, is director for this sector. </p>

Electrical and electronics

<p>The Aerospace department aims to coordinate affiliates' policy in the sector and to develop a common strategy for unions to address developments and challenges in the industry. The work is carried out through a Steering Committee. There is also close cooperation with the European Metalworkers' Federation and its Aerospace working group.</p><p>Jenny Holdcroft, <a href="mailto:jholdcroft@imfmetal.org">jholdcroft@imfmetal.org</a>, is director for aerospace.</p>

<p>The IMF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean has been located in Montevideo, Uruguay, since March 2008. It represents trade unions in many Latin American countries in the metalworking, mining, automotive, steel, electrical and electronics, aerospace, shipbuilding, mechanical engineering sectors. <br /><br />The IMF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean represents affiliates in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Curaçao,  Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela. </p><p>The regional office team provides advice and education services on trade union issues and organises sector activities and meetings for members of affiliated unions in the metalworking and related industries with a view to contributing to the development of international trade union policy and international solidarity, promoting the involvement of unions in trade agreements and analysing trade union structures in order to improve them so they are able to meet the challenges they face today.</p><p>In addition, the office channel&#039;s international experience on labour and trade union rights to trade union leaders during disputes with multinational companies and governments.</p><p>The regional office also implements projects and activities in cooperation with trade unions, especially in the automotive, mining and metalworking sectors.</p><p>The regional office has staff for financial administration, education and projects, the organisation of conferences and meetings and communications and press. The regional office has been previously located in Caracas, Venezuela; San Jose, Costa Rica; Mexico City and Santiago, Chile.</p><p>The Regional Officer is Jorge Almeida, an Argentinean national, a trade union leader in the automotive industry from a young age and specialist in the area of trade union education.</p><p>The regional office has a quarterly publication called <em>Mundo Metal</em>, which reports on the activities, programmes and projects of the IMF and its affiliates and discusses issues of regional importance.</p>

<p>Mexico: Grupo Mexico has decided to close the Cananea mine because of the strike that began on 30 July 2007. The courts have declared the strike to be legal.</p><p>Grupo Mexico issued a statement announcing the closure of the mine. It said that the nine-month-old strike has led &quot;the company to close the mine and pay off employees in accordance with the law&quot;.</p><p>The miners&#039; union believes the announcement is purely tactical. The union&#039;s secretary for Political Affairs, Carlos Pavón, said the announcement of the closure of the company Mexicana de Cananea and the offer to pay off the workforce was &quot;tactical&quot;. He added that: &quot;we all know the strike is legal, so they can&#039;t do a thing. They&#039;re only trying to frighten the workers&quot;.</p><p>He explained that the company is not legally allowed to close unilaterally because a collective employment contract is in force. The company would have to ask the Conciliation and Arbitration Tribunal for permission to close the mine.</p><p>The union spokesperson said that the workers remain calm and are aware of what is happening. He said that Grupo Mexico &quot;had expected the courts would accept its appeal against the legality of the strike, but things did not turn out as it expected and it is now clutching at straws&quot;.</p><p>Approximately 1,300 unionised workers are employed at Mexicana de Cananea, which is considered to be one of the biggest mines in the world.</p>

Carlos Pavón, spokesperson for the miners' union, said that Grupo Mexico cannot close the mine because a collective agreement is in force. He said that the company is only trying to frighten the workers.

Court rules that Cananea strike is legal

IMF White Paper and documentary on Mexico

IMF pledges support to Mexican miners

Grupo Mexico vows to close Cananea due to strike

<p>This May Day the international labour movement will host a Night of Labour Film Shorts to showcase union films from different sectors and parts of the world that tackle issues important to working people. </p><p>&quot;More and more, unions around the world are using film and video to explain issues, motivate membership, persuade policy makers and educate the public,&quot; said Anna Biondi, Director of the International Trade Union Confederation Geneva Office and Secretary of the International Labour Organisation Workers' Group, who will open the event on May 1, 2008.</p><p>The programme will include film shorts from Australia, Iran, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the UK and feature the documentary<strong> Morristown: In the Air and Sun</strong> by Anne Lewis. Filmed in the mountains of east Tennessee, interior Mexico and Ciudad Juarez, <strong>Morristown</strong> presents a working class response to globalisation, migration, factory flight and the organised demand for economic and social justice.</p><p>The struggle for equal pay (Equal Pay Story: Scenes from a Turbulent History), the fight for fundamental human rights (Freedom Will Come - The Story of Mansour Osanloo, An Injury to One: The Mexican Miners' Struggle for Union Independence) and trade union efforts to secure improved working conditions (1 er novembre 2007: les chantiers de Zurich en grève, Our Story Our Dream) are just some of the themes of the film shorts.</p><p>&quot;A common theme in all of these movies is how working people go about securing and defending their rights, pay and conditions, in the hope of improving their lives,&quot; explained Ms Biondi. &quot;These stories speak to us all, in every part of the world.&quot;</p><p><strong>WHAT:</strong>       A Night of Labour Film Shorts</p><p><strong>WHERE:</strong>    Grütli Theatre, Rue du General-Dufour 16, Geneva </p><p><strong>WHEN:</strong>       May 1 from 19h00 to 22h00</p><p><strong>RSVP:</strong>        Admission is free, please RSVP by April 28 to ensure available seating call +41 22 308 5050 or email: <a href="mailto:info@imfmetal.org">info@imfmetal.org</a></p><p><strong>The full programme and further information is at: </strong><a href="../labourfilms">www.imfmetal.org/labourfilms</a></p>

Trade unions from around the world showcase films in Geneva.

Night of Labour Film Shorts

<p>FRANCE: Vallourec, a world market leader in the field of seamless tubes, on April 9 signed an &quot;Agreement on the principles of responsibility&quot; with the Vallourec European Works Council and the IMF.</p><p>The agreement states:</p><ol><li>Wherever the Group is located, Vallourec applies the international conventions and national laws and respects the national cultures and local customs.</li><li>In its position as a company of international standing, Vallourec aims in particular to respect human rights and the universal fundamental principles that protect the dignity, respect and liberty of the employees.</li></ol><p>An annex to the agreement specifies the core conventions of the International Labour Organisation covered by the agreement. The conventions included cover areas such as the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, no forced labour, no child labour and the right to equal remuneration and no discrimination.</p><p>The agreement also states that, &quot;Vallourec demands the observance of these fundamental rights from its suppliers and sub-contractors, and integrates these criteria into its evaluations.&quot;</p><p>To monitor the agreement it is agreed that the General Management shall report annually to the European Workers Council on complaints received during the year and the corresponding measures taken.</p><p>The Vallourec Group supplies tubes to the oil and gas, power generation, mechanical engineering, petrochemical, automotive and steel architecture sectors. Head quartered in France, Vallourec employs 18,000 people and has plants in Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America.</p><p>A copy of the agreement in <a href="../main/files/08042417265566/Vallourec-Mannesmann-IFA-engl.pdf">English</a>, <a href="../main/files/08042417301266/Vallourec-Mannesmann-IFA-franz.pdf">French</a> and <a href="../main/files/08042417321466/Vallourec-Mannesmann-IFA-dt.pdf">German</a> is available on the IMF website.</p>

The IMF signs an International Framework Agreement with the Vallourec Group.

Vallourec IFA in German

Vallourec IFA in French

Indesit (previously Merloni)

Volkswagen

Daimler

Leoni

Rheinmetall

Bosch

Prym

Renault

EADS

Röchling

PSA Peugeot Citroën

Brunel

Umicore

Vallourec

Aker

Electrolux

Norsk Hydro

Vallourec IFA - English

IFA with Vallourec Group signed

<p>GLOBAL: Metalworker trade unions from around the world are calling on the Mexican Government and mining company Grupo México to end their repression of independent trade unions in Mexico.</p><p>The country's largest mining company, Grupo México, and the Mexican government, first under President Fox and now under President Calderón, have systematically and repeatedly violated Mexican law and international standards in an attempt to crush the National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM).</p><p>Attacks on the union have included withdrawing legal recognition of the union's democratically elected General Secretary Napoleón Gómez Urrutia and other elected leaders based on forged evidence and issuing baseless arrest warrants against Gómez. The government and Grupo México have attempted to divide the union by granting overnight recognition to a pro-company union and holding elections in which workers were forced to join its ranks. Meanwhile, Grupo México seemingly is able to murder, torture, intimidate and abuse workers with complete indemnity.</p><p>SNTMMSRM is an affiliate of the International Metalworkers' Federation and Gómez sits on its Executive Committee.</p><p>The IMF, representing 25 million metalworkers in 100 countries around the world, is calling on the Mexican government to:</p><ul><li>Release all union funds illegally seized by the government;</li><li>Lift all charges still pending against Napoleón Gómez Urrutia and other members of the SNTMMSRM;</li><li>Prosecute in a court of law, immediately and transparently, all those responsible in the corruption of documents and facts, and</li><li>Investigate Grupo México's involvement in the murder of Reynaldo Hernández González and the detention and torture of 20 SNTMMSRM members in Nacozari, Sonora.</li></ul><p>These rights abuses are documented in &quot;<em>An Injury to One: The Mexican Miners' struggle for union independence</em>&quot;, a White Paper and an 18 minute video on the situation in Mexico, both published by the IMF. On April 23, IMF affiliates from Europe, Latin America, and Mexico's NAFTA partners, Canada and the US, delivered the White Paper and documentary to government officials in their respective countries, urging them to raise this issue with their Mexican counterparts. </p><p>For more information about the IMF's campaign for union independence, go to: <a href="../Mexico">www.imfmetal.org/Mexico</a>. </p><p><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=47&amp;l=2&amp;c=17550">Click here</a> to download the White Paper or view the documentary.</p>

IMF White Paper and documentary exposing deadly rights violations and corruption on the part of the Mexican Government and mining giant, Grupo México, has metalworkers mobilized.

Metal unions call on governments to press for change in Mexico

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