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As we remember those that have died, been injured or suffered ill health as a result of work, we must also commit to making occupational health and safety one of the highest priorities for IndustriALL Global Union.

	Every year, on April 28, the World Day on Safety and Health at Work, workers take a moment to reflect on the devastating toll taken by workplace fatalities, injuries, and occupational diseases.

	IndustriALL Global Union will soon be created, a new organization speaking for some 50 million workers represented by its affiliates. Here are some statistics that should give us all pause. Of IndustriALL&#039;s 50 million affiliated workers:
<ul>
	<li style="text-align: justify">
		An estimated 16,400 will die in 2012 as a result of their work. That&#039;s about 45 fatalities per day.</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify">
		About 5,000 IndustriALL members will die this year of cancer, alone.</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify">
		1,570,000 will be diagnosed with a non-fatal occupational disease.</li>
	<li style="text-align: justify">
		An enormous number, millions, impossible to estimate with any accuracy, will be injured on the job.</li>
</ul>

	These numbers, shocking as they are, are certainly gross underestimates.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" height="90" src="" width="360" />&nbsp;

	Drawn from International Labour Organization&#039;s Bureau of Labour Statistics and estimates of occupational fatalities and diseases produced in 2008, they rely on nationally accepted statistics reported to the ILO by member countries. In most cases, these are taken from the country&#039;s workers&#039; compensation systems, immediately omitting workers whose disease or death was not accepted as &quot;occupational&quot; in origin, or who were not covered by the workers&#039; compensation system. Occupational diseases are chronically under-diagnosed, and occupational injuries are subject to various strategies to suppress reporting or fraudulently misrepresent them.

	In addition, these estimates simply divide world totals by IndustriALL&#039;s fraction of the global labour force. In reality, IndustriALL will represent workers in industries with many more hazards than most. It is worth remembering that even in traditionally dangerous workplaces such as coal mines, an estimated five times as many workers die of occupational diseases, than of sudden accidental causes such as fires, explosions, falls, or encounters with machinery.

	IndustriALL clearly has to make occupational health and safety one of its highest priorities.

	There are a large number of global standard-setting agencies and agencies that engage in different aspects of occupational health and safety. The alphabet soup of their acronyms includes ILO, WHO, OHSAS, ISO, GRI, UNEP, GHS, REACH, SAICM. IndustriALL must watch all of these closely and pressure them to do a better job of protecting workers.

	IndustriALL will inherit a substantial number of Global Framework Agreements with trend-setting multinational companies. Occupational health and safety provisions must become more prominent in most of these.

	Global campaigns on specific issues, such as the ongoing campaign to raise the number of ratifications of ILO Convention 176 on Safety and Health in Mines, must continue.

	Occupational health and safety is a complex problem. Interconnected systems must be created to identify and control workplace hazards, and protect workers from them. Central to that effort must be the full participation of workers through their representatives, and on Joint Health and Safety Committees.

	There is no simple, magic solution that can be quickly implemented. Instead, occupational health and safety requires hard work and determined campaigning by union activists. Despite the global race for profits, our health is not for sale.&quot;

28 April 2012: A Day of Mourning

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The global tyre industry is driven by four major multinationals &ndash; Bridgestone of Japan, Michelin of France, Goodyear of the US, and German-based Continental A.G. The ICEM has strategically targeted these leaders and as a result, Workers&rsquo; Networks have been formed within Bridgestone and Goodyear.

	Now Michelin is on ICEM&rsquo;s radar screen. It employs 115,000 workers and has 69 production facilities in 18 countries. ICEM French affiliates, along with the Michelin European Works Council (EWC), have traditionally played active and supportive roles during times of labour conflict at factories throughout the world.

	The latest examples include in Colombia, Thailand, and most recently, in Romania. The Secretary of the EWC, Cyrille Poughon, a member of French affiliate FCE-CFDT coordinates relations with all unions organizing Michelin employees.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 271px;height: 159px" width="390" />

	ICEM&#039;s &Ouml;zkan, FCE-CFDT&#039;s Poughon, EMCEF&#039;s Lefevbre&nbsp;

	In the latest meeting of the Michelin EWC, attended by 32 workers&rsquo; representatives from 14 countries &ndash; held 27-30 March in Alessandria, Italy &ndash; the ICEM participated together with sister organization, the European Mine, Chemical, Energy Federation (EMCEF). The ICEM was invited as a keynote presenter, and participants discussed tyre production strategies, cost-cutting programmes, and current and prospects for the Michelin Group in Europe for 2012.

	During the final session of the meeting, ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan presented the policies and practices of the ICEM, as well as the unification process of new Global Union Federation, IndustriALL.

	&Ouml;zkan also gave an overview about global tyre industry, including overviews of the other three companies, as well as emerging Asian companies and the difficulties and challenges in labour relations in Thailand, South Africa and the US. In addition, &Ouml;zkan gave reports on active solidarity and support extended by the EWC of Michelin over the past several years.

	The ICEM presentation concluded with the functions of Workers&rsquo; Networks in the global tyre and rubber industry, and a series of case studies involving the different companies in select countries and regions.

	&ldquo;This EWC meeting proved very promising for extending union solidarity from European partners to Michelin workers throughout the world, stated &Ouml;zkan.

Michelin EWC Gets Close Look at Global Solidarity in Tyre Industry

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Some 35 trade union leaders, mostly from Indonesian pulp and paper mills of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), attended a two-day workshop on 28-29 March in Serong, Indonesia, on trade union rights, environmental issues, and the health and safety record of the multinational company that is part of Indonesia&rsquo;s Sinar Mas Group.

	The workshop was intended to kick-start w Global Workers&rsquo; Network around APP, a company within the Indonesia-based Sinar Mas Group that also includes palm oil holdings and the European and North American pulp and paper company Paper Excellence. The workshop was generously supported by the Humanity Fund of the Canada&rsquo;s Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) of Australia, and the Solidarity Center of the US.

	The ICEM&rsquo;s Indonesian Council of Unions, headed by D. Patombong Sjaiful, hosted the event and aptly handled all logistics.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 229px;height: 159px" width="390">&nbsp;

	Delegates from multiple Indonesian labour confederations and affiliated trade unions, including the forestry and pulp union Kahutindo, that represent workers at APP owned and partially held Indonesian mills attended, and &nbsp;received valuable training on global labour standards contained in ILO Conventions, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the UN&rsquo;s Global Compact.

	They also heard presentations on APP&rsquo;s forestry practices in Indonesia, the ways and means of the world&rsquo;s three forest certification programmes, and they participated in a session on community-building that was conducted by Tim Woods of FitzpatrickWoods consulting group of Australia.

	Also participating were union representatives from CFMEU&rsquo;s Pulp and Paper Division of its Forestry sector, local union presidents from CEP Local 440 in Nova Scotia &ndash; representing workers of Paper Excellence at the Pictou Mill there &ndash; and CEP Local 1092 in Mackenzie, British Colombia, representing Paper Excellence pulp mill workers there.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 255px;height: 159px" width="390">

	As well, the United Steelworkers (USW) of the US had delegates from a pulp mill in Halsey, Oregon, attend, and the US-based union provided a look at its labour-environmental network called the BlueGreen Alliance. Other representatives came from the Swedish Paperworkers Union, Pappers, which sponsors a pulp and paper project in Indonesia, and the Pulp and Paper Products Manufacturing Employees&rsquo; Union (PPPMEU) of Malaysia.

	The central conclusion formed at the workshop is that intensive work must now start in order to unite the different unions and their respective confederations at APP&rsquo;s Indonesia&rsquo;s pulp, paper and tissue mills. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Pulp, Paper Unions Conduct Workshop on APP in Indonesia

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Asia-Pacific Regional Chemical Unions of the ICEM discussed union organizing and strong union representation inside workplaces at a seminar entitled Coordination of Trade Union Networks and Implementation of Global Framework Agreements in the Chemical and Related Industries.

	The seminar was held 9-10 April in Shanghai, China, with support and assistance from German-based Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) through its Shanghai Coordination Office for International Cooperation led by Director Catrina Schl&auml;ger.

	Attended by 50 participants from China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam and India, the seminar was opened by speeches from Dr. Jiang GuangPing, National Secretary of All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), Yoshio Sato, General Secretary of ICEM&rsquo;s Japanese Affiliates&lsquo; Federation (JAF), and ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 240px;height: 160px" width="390">

	Manfred Warda

	ICEM&rsquo;s Kemal &Ouml;zkan introduced global and regional developments in the chemicals industry, which clearly depicted the rapidly growing importance of the Asia-Pacific region. Representatives from Japan, China, India, Thailand and Pakistan presented their experiences with other participants.

	Delegates underscored the importance of a strong union presence at chemical workplaces for getting more shared and added value from the burgeoning industry as it ramps up in the region.

	Another important topic discussed was trade union networking inside the ICEM-represented companies and sectors at the global, regional and national levels. Following ICEM&rsquo;s general overview, trade union representatives from major chemical multinationals such as BASF, Linde and Akzo Nobel put forward their experiences and discussed how to further networks in the upcoming period.

	As an important role, trade union networking was analyzed in supporting union organizing and struggling against precarious employment in Asia Pacific Region. Contributions on this subject were presented to the meeting.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 323px;height: 160px" width="390">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The Shanghai meeting also brought forth discussion on international labour instruments, social dialogue and Global Framework Agreements (GFAs), particularly on activities carried out within ICEM&rsquo;s Project for Multinational Companies and Social Dialogue in the Asia-Pacific Region.

	The meeting heard a number of specific examples on how GFAs have successfully worked for shop-floor improvements, including cases involving French-based company Rhodia. Rhodia&rsquo;s China Country Manager, Michael Zu, presented how the GFA has impacted improvement of labour relations at the workplaces of the company in China.

	Two trade union representatives, Lee Daeyong of Rhodia in South Korea and Vadhavkar Sanjay Suryakant from Rhodia in India, shared their respective situations on implementing the GFA in their respective countries.

	On the seminar&rsquo;s second day, participants were divided into two work groups and given the task of devising future cooperation strategies on union networking and GFAs. Specific delegates related to companies BASF, Linde, Akzo Nobel and Rhodia worked in a separate work group. All groups discussed advantages, challenges, and strong and weak points of their tasks, as well as future cooperation opportunities among chemical unions in Asia-Pacific.

	&ldquo;This seminar provided an important opportunity to drive forward union organizing and strong representation through the various instruments that were studied, and to develop networks and resulting Global Framework Agreements,&rdquo; said &Ouml;zkan in summary.

Asia-Pacific Chemical Unions Decisive in Unity Through Networking

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Aminul Islam, a trade union activist in Bangladesh who only two years ago was arrested for his role in protests against the garment industry&rsquo;s miserly low salaries, was found murdered on 5 April on the side of a road near Ghatail, 80 kilometres north of Dhaka.

	Islam, 40, was last seen the day before in the textile manufacturing centre of Ashulia, 30 kilometres north of Dhaka. He worked as a senior organiser for the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), and reportedly closed the NGO office in Ashulia early on 4 April after noting police surveillance outside.

	His tortured body was found half buried with several bruises from the waist down, including his toes and ankles smashed. Police in Ghatail then buried the unidentified body, but a brother identified Islam when his tortured body was shown in a newspaper photograph. His body was exhumed and then re-buried on 9 April in his home village of Kaliakoir.

	He is survived by his wife, two sons and one daughter.

	Aminul Islam was arrested in June 2010 along with some 20 other demonstrators after they violated a ban on protests when the government raised the minimum wage for garment and textile workers only a token amount. Those charges were still pending against him and a few other trade union activists.

	Islam and the BCWS had most recently been leading a campaign of liveable wages and fair treatment against the Shanta Group, a garment supplier to Nike, Ralph Lauren and PVH, the latter a maker of garments for Tommy Hilfiger. He had also assisted in arranging news interviews by an American television network with exploited workers in the Ashulia area.

	The International Trade Union Confederation has written Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina demanding a full and impartial investigation of Islam&rsquo;s death. That letter can be found <a href="http://www.ituc-csi.org/ituc-letter-to-bgd-minister-of.html?lang=en">here</a>.

Garment Workers’ Activist Brutally Murdered in Bangladesh

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Workers belonging to several unions in Guinea began strike action on 4 April against UC Rusal at the Russian company&rsquo;s Friguira alumina refinery in the city of Fria. The strike by 5,000 workers is termed an indefinite one and started after managers of the company refused to adhere to better working conditions for workers.

	Rusal said the strike is illegal and has urged the Guinean government to intervene. On 10 April, the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow issued a terse statement calling strikers &ldquo;extremist syndicalists,&rdquo; urging the government to take decisive action to end the strike.

	But late last week the government closed the offices of Rusal in the capital of Conakry &ndash; 100 kilometres from Fria &ndash; in violation of environmental regulations at Frigura. In September 2011, Guinea passed a new mining code mandating that a 35% stake of all resource-producing enterprises be placed in state hands. Rusal has resisted that law, even though it bought the bauxite and aluminium operation valued at US$257 million in 2006 for US$19 million.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 200px;height: 92px" width="390" />

	Since, Guinea&rsquo;s government has found that Rusal has evaded some US$860 in taxes due and non-payment of royalties.

	At the Friguira operation, the only aluminium refinery in the West African country which holds roughly two-thirds of the world&rsquo;s bauxite reserves, workers are seeking a doubling of the current US$200 monthly wage and for Rusal to pay their medical expenses. The Frigura refinery can produce 630,000 metric tonnes early of aluminium.

	Rusal has a long history of exploiting workers in Guinea&rsquo;s bauxite industry. In 2009, following an ICEM Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) workshop attended by government officials, the Russian industrial relations manager of the company, Anatoly Pantchenko, was expelled from the country after exposure to practices regarding the use of casual labour.

	It was customary for Rusal to allow front-line managers to establish phantom labour brokering companies in order to hire casual workers at low pay with commissions going to the font-line bosses. The ICEM considered this practice the perpetuation of abject poverty in a country many consider to be the poorest nation on earth.

Guinea’s Unions Take Strike Action Against Rusal’s Aluminium, Bauxite Operations

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The campaign to free Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, long-time Thai campaigner for labour rights, is growing as the one-year anniversary of his arrest approaches. Somyot is being held in prison only on remand, facing unproven charges of l&egrave;se majest&eacute;, or daring to &ldquo;defame, insult, or threaten&rdquo; the King Bhumipol Adulyadej of Thailand.&rdquo;

	Brother Somyot, a former ICEM Thailand Coordinator, must be freed immediately and unconditionally, states the ICEM.

	The disgraceful detention and persecution of Somyot is based on two articles published in the journal Voice of Thaksin, but Somyot was not the author of either piece in question and, in fact, the articles do not threaten or insult the king. Brother Somyot was the acting editor of the publication, but was not the legal publisher.

	Indisputably, Somyot is incarcerated purely for his trade union and left-leaning political activism. For those reasons, he also is not receiving a fair judicial process with violations that include hearings being relocated to distant provinces so that key defence witnesses cannot participate.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 88px;height: 178px" width="390" />&nbsp;

	Somyot Pruksakasemsuk

	Brother Somyot has been held in inhumane conditions in jail, where cells are overcrowded to the extreme. Through his transfers to distant judicial hearings, Somyot has been transported standing over 4,000 kilometres in a cage on the back of a truck and bound by heavy chains.

	This unacceptable treatment has moved supporters to push hard for Somyot to be released on bail, but the courts have refused such petitions on eight occasions on the grounds that he would flee Thailand, or interfere with witnesses while on bail. Somyot is 50 and suffers from bad health, reasons why he should be released on humanitarian grounds.&nbsp;

	The ICEM joins the large international coalition in condemning the continuing use of the &ldquo;l&egrave;se majest&eacute; law&rdquo; to crack down on legitimate protest in Thailand. The archaic legislation allows for harsh punishment for freedom of expression, an internationally recognised fundamental human right. Brother Somyot faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two articles, if found guilty.

	Send your protest to <a href="mailto:somyot.righttobail@gmail.com">somyot.righttobail@gmail.com</a>. Use the <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/ICEM%20Somyot%20Protest%20Letter%20April%202012.docx">model letter</a>&nbsp;found here.

	A new trial of Somyot begins today, with prosecution witness hearings every day until 26 April, and defence witness hearings 1-4 May.

	See more on the <a href="http://www.freesomyot.wordpress.com">Free Somyot campaign</a>&nbsp;website here.

	Another labour and human rights defender is also in detention on non-credible charges. Brother Sirichai Mai-ngam of Thailand also has ICEM&rsquo;s full support.

	The ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Conference resolved last week for the ICEM to launch campaigns supporting the two activists in Thailand so that they are released with all charges dropped.

Free Somyot NOW!  Unionists Urged to Send Letters Demanding Thai Justice!

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	In the ILO&rsquo;s annual report on global labour conditions released early this week, the UN agency predicts that European social unrest will heighten this year as governments continue to forge ahead with ill-advised austerity policies. It also forecasts that over 202 million people worldwide will be unemployed in 2012.

	<a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/world-of-work/">The World of Work Report 2012</a> states that 2012 global unemployment will increase to 202 million from 196 million in 2011. The report says this figure is likely to increase by another five million in 2013, and up to 210 million by 2016.

	&ldquo;Four years into the global crisis, labour market imbalances are becoming more structural, and therefore more difficult to eradicate,&rdquo; the report states. &ldquo;Certain groups, such as the long-term unemployed, are at risk of exclusion from the labour market.

	&ldquo;For a growing proportion of workers who do have a job, employment has become more precarious. In advanced economies, involuntary part-time employment and temporary employment have increased in two-thirds and more than half of these economies.&rdquo;

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 348px;height: 154px" width="390" />

	The ILO report condemns the austerity policies in many industrialised countries, making the inevitable obvious: employers gaining greater latitude to sack workers, lower pay and corresponding social benefits, with an effect of reducing &ldquo;job stability and exacerbate inequalities while failing to boost employment levels.&rdquo;

	The result has been vast increases of long-term unemployed, with upwards of 40% of job seekers in developed nations between the ages of 25 and 49 not having worked in more than a year.

	The ILO said societies are &ldquo;becoming increasingly anxious about the lack of decent jobs.&rdquo; It says that 106 countries surveyed that have available data, 57 of them indicate an increase in the Social Unrest Index for 2011 over 2010.

	&ldquo;The two regions of the world that show the most heightened risk of unrest are Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa but there are also important increases in advanced economies and also in Central and Eastern Europe.&rdquo;

	The ILO report expressed grave concern at the way young people are being shut out of labour markets, as well as the rise of short-term contracts, which, it says, affect young adults and women the most. &ldquo;Youth unemployment rates have increased in about 80% of the advanced economies,&rdquo; the report says.

ILO Report Says Joblessness, Social Unrest Will Persist in 2012

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Daniel Aguirre Piedrahita, the General Secretary of SINALCORTEROS, Colombia&rsquo;s Nation Union of Sugar Cane Cutters, was assassinated last Friday night, 27 April, as he accompanied his wife, Helena, to make a telephone call in their Casilda neighbourhood of Florida municipality, Valle del Cauca department in west-central Colombia.

	He was shot twice in the head by a cowardly assassin only 70 metres from his home. In a statement, SINALCORTEROS said the cold-blooded murder occurs in a continued context of violence and intolerance of trade union work in Colombia. It urged members and activists not to let this &ldquo;reprehensibly violent action torpedo our union&rdquo; and derail activities, but rather to &ldquo;reaffirm our actions and our mission.&rdquo;

	The government of Colombia did put out a statement early this week condemning the killing. Deputy Minister of Labour David Luna Sanchez said the ministry supports the Interior Ministry&rsquo;s Protection Unit director&rsquo;s call for an investigation to determine if the killing was related to union activity.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 213px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	Aguirre, 35, was a stalwart leader of sugar cane cutters and their fight to bust the chains of servitude inflicted by sugar mill employers who considered them self-employed independent contractors.

	He was instrumental in 2005 in forming SINALCORTEROS, now an affiliate of the International Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), through strikes. He also led strikes of 18,000 sugar cane cutters in 2008 in both Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments that two years later resulted in collective agreements, labour pacts he instituted that in part made recruitment less cumbersome.

	More recently, he had been advocating revisions to Colombia&rsquo;s labour statutes to bring them up to ILO standards and he was a fierce opponent of the Free Trade Agreement with the US, something he felt would lead to exploitation of workers and the product that they harvested.

	Daniel Aguirre becomes the seventh Colombian trade unionist killed this year, and the 61st since Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August 2010. He is survived by his wife and three daughters, ages 14, 10 and 4.

	A <a href="http://www.rel-uita.org/internacional/ddhh/Rel-sinalcorteros_asesinato_daniel_aguirre.htm">letter of condolence</a> (in Spanish) from the IUF to SINALCORTEROS President Alfonso Viafara can be viewed here.

Coward Guns Down Colombian Sugar Cane Cutters’ General Secretary on 27 April

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Warning strikes in German metalworking, engineering and electronic sectors will broaden beginning today with the break-down last week of third round bargaining between IG Metall and employers&rsquo; associations in several states.&nbsp; Upon expiration of a labour peace accord on 28 April, 2,500 German metalworkers began the warning strikes at select locations, taking creative and imaginative actions.

	Talks for 3.6 million German workers represented by IG Metall began in several states in late winter. Bargaining was stalemated in the last state talks, on 26 April, after employers put forth a less than satisfactory salary offer. They also refused to agree to union demands assuring full work guarantees for apprentices once their training tenures are over and more job rights for contract and agency workers.

	The offer put forward by employers&rsquo; association Gesamtmetall through its state chapters on 24 April was termed &ldquo;a provocation&rdquo; by IG Metall, thus causing mobilisation over the weekend when the peace accord expired. The proposal saw employers offering a 3% increase over 14 months, of through June 2013. The union is seeking a 6.5% pay rise over 12 months.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 216px;height: 160px" width="390" />

	The union&rsquo;s goal is based on a run-up in productivity development, as well as projected inflation in 2012 and 2013. Guaranteed opportunity for apprentices and contract workers is also based on the fact that Germany currently experiences a shortage of skilled workers.

	The 6.5% wage proposal is indicative of German industrial workers being the driving force in a nation that is Europe&rsquo;s biggest industrial power and strongest economy, with high pay and workers&rsquo; savings being the wellspring of that strength.

	Last weekend&rsquo;s warning strikes began on 28 April in the eastern city of Zwickau in Saxony state, where hundreds of young metalworkers conducted a motorcycle parade. Other demonstrations over the weekend occurred in Bavaria, Berlin, NorthRhine-Westphalia, and Nordenham in northern Germany, where workers from several plants held a protest and mass breakfast early on Sunday morning.

	In Ingolstadt in Bavaria, some 80 apprentices gathered the night before and flashed a light-projector against the wall of a factory expressing their demand for job guarantees. Workers from a TDK factory in Munich held a torchlight parade that same night, and autoworkers from a Daimler Mercedes-Benz plant in Rasiah, Baden-W&uuml;rttemberg state, protested on Sunday.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 272px;height: 160px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The actions continued on 30 April with loud protests in cities and streets near a Daimler Mercedes-Benz factory in W&ouml;erth-am-Main in Rheinland-Pfalz, at a MAN diesel plant in Augsburg, in Baden-W&uuml;rttemberg in Bavaria, where lead talks will resume on 8 May.

	Yesterday on May Day in Hamburg, IG Metall President Berthold Huber pledged that the union will not be deterred from its agenda, and will bring the dispute into June if employers do not adhere to union demands. If upcoming talks do not produced the desired results, IG Metall is planning continuous strike actions commencing on 16 May.

	Besides a number of further warning actions today, mass demonstrations tomorrow, 3 May, are set at an Audi factory on Neckarsulm and a Porsche plant in Stuttgart. Some 900,000 of the 3.6 million workers affected are employed by Germany&rsquo;s primary auto-makers.

German Warning Strikes Begin in Metals, Electronics Sectors

Archive

28 April 2012: A Day of Mourning

Michelin EWC Gets Close Look at Global Solidarity in Tyre Industry

Pulp, Paper Unions Conduct Workshop on APP in Indonesia

Asia-Pacific Chemical Unions Decisive in Unity Through Networking

Garment Workers’ Activist Brutally Murdered in Bangladesh

Guinea’s Unions Take Strike Action Against Rusal’s Aluminium, Bauxite Operations

Free Somyot NOW! Unionists Urged to Send Letters Demanding Thai Justice!

ILO Report Says Joblessness, Social Unrest Will Persist in 2012

Coward Guns Down Colombian Sugar Cane Cutters’ General Secretary on 27 April

German Warning Strikes Begin in Metals, Electronics Sectors

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