20 October, 2011The IMF World Congress in 2009 took place in the middle of a global financial and economic crisis. In a difficult situation, metalworkers' unions renewed their commitment to organize and build stronger unions, fight for trade union rights and join the forces of workers to build a counterweight to transnational corporations (TNCs). This article summarizes the IMF's work in the key priority areas during the past two years.
20 October, 2011A new issue of Metal World - the last - went to print and is published on the IMF website.
20 October, 2011On October 3 the lower house of the Belarus parliament adopted in the two readings the bill 'On Making Addenda and Amendments to Some Laws of the Republic of Belarus'. This bill, among other things, makes foreign financial support and financial aid to NGOs (including unions) completely illegal and further complicates arranging of mass protests and actions.
20 October, 2011UAW's tentative four-year agreements with Ford and Chrysler focus on jobs and investments. If accepted by 67,000 USW members at Ford and Chrysler, thousands of new jobs will be created.
19 October, 2011The International Metalworkers Federation is calling on Government and business leaders to back steel industry workers to ensure future success. The call comes amidst a number of high profile companies announcing closures or job losses that could undermine the future sustainability of the steel industry. Recent announcements have included 1,300 job losses at BlueScope Steel in Australia, the permanent closure at Liege (Belgium) and the idled blast furnaces in Florange (France) and Eisenhüttenstadt (Germany) by ArcelorMittal.
3 November, 2011Thousands of workers led by the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) picketed across the nation to protest against the amendment to the labour laws.
2 November, 2011After a more than year-long bitter struggle, the Indonesian labour movement won the fight to reform the social security system, under the banner of the Social Security Action Committee (KAJS).
2 November, 2011São Paulo metalworkers in the CNTM plan to strike unless employers make a new offer on pay and other demands by November 4.
28 October, 2011IMF affiliates from Central and Eastern Europe met in Prague, Czech Republic, on October 26-27, 2011 for the Regional Conference and Women's Workshop. They discussed pay gap between working men and women, women's participation in the new organization, the process of creating the new federation and cases of union rights violations in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Ukraine and other countries in the region.
27 October, 2011Unions should more actively organize young non-manual workers and students, and use social media as a powerful tool to connect youth and union leaders.
