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Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

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GENEVA: During the Extraordinary Executive Committee meeting of the International Metalworkers' Federation, delegates discussed the impact of the financial crisis on the automotive sector. A resolution adopted unanimously by Committee stressed the obligation and responsibility of employers to negotiate, inform and consult with trade unions and employee representative bodies on terms, conditions and impacts in advance of any decisions that may impact workers and their livelihoods.&quot;Metalworkers and their trade unions face severe restructuring challenges globally due to the spreading financial crisis and deepening worldwide economic slowdown. The financial and market factors that led to and compound the very grave situation have been outside the control of workers. Yet it is workers who have disproportionately suffered the adverse consequences of the systemic crisis,&quot; stated the IMF resolution.The resolution calls for General Motors and all employers to&quot;...ensure that any restructuring process first considers alternatives, and if restructuring does occur, that it is done in a socially acceptable manner.&quot; It calls for urgently needed coordinated government policies around the world that include:<ul><li>Prompt adoption of stimulus programs that benefit and protect workers economy-wide.</li><li>Protecting employment and income support, along with skills development.</li><li>Addressing company solvency and restoring credit lines, ensuring that if any sacrifices are unavoidable, that the burden is equitably and justly shared. </li><li>Stimulating demand for motor vehicles including restoring liquidity for vehicle financing.</li><li> Progress on cleaner vehicles and fuels.</li></ul>The IMF's Automotive Department Director Ron Blum presented a preliminary evaluation of the global crisis and restructuring in the motor vehicle sector. Key trade union challenges cited include maintaining solidarity when conditions have heightened already existing risks of divisions between workers, blocking attempts by companies to substitute precarious jobs for permanent ones in the aftermath of the crisis, and needing to broaden and deepen trade union efforts to organize workers during a period of deteriorating economic conditions.

Executive Committee members adopt a resolution in solidarity with workers at General Motors and across the sector.

IMF Resolution in Solidarity with Workers at GM and Across Sector

IMF Executive discuss global crisis and the automotive industry

INDONESIA: A company manager has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for discriminating against union members in a court case brought by the Federation of Indonesian Metalworkers Union (FSPMI).Fathoni Prawata, local manager of electronic component manufacturer PT Kim Jim Pasuruan (KJI), was imprisoned after being found guilty of a number of union-busting tactics including unfair dismissal of union members. KJI is a subsidiary of Japanese company King Jim Co Ltd. According to FSPMI President Said Iqbal this is the first time Indonesian courts have found management personnel guilty of violating ILO Convention 98 and Indonesian labour law 21 and sentenced them appropriately. FSPMI lodged the court case after Prawata unfairly dismissed FSPMI members and refused to pay wages, bonuses and leave to workers who demonstrated during negotiations for a collective agreement.The case sets an important precedent. FSPMI hopes the decision can assist other unions to take similar action and serve as a disincentive for other anti-worker employers. FSPMI is an affiliate of the IMF.

An Indonesian union has won a historic case against a company manager found guilty of violating local and international labour regulations.

Indonesian company manager imprisoned for union-busting

JAPAN: Affiliates of the International Metalworkers' Federation from both the developing and developed world reach an historic agreement last week to develop a global response to climate change in the steel industry.Metal unions from Australia, Brazil, India, Russia, UK, USA, and Japan met in Tokyo November 5 and 6 as part of the IMF Steel Action Group Meeting to discuss ways in which unions and the IMF can contribute to an international strategy for the steel industry in an effort to tackle the growing problem of global warming and its impact on workers.&quot;Climate change is a vitally important issue for workers in the steel industry, it stands to affect not only our employment prospects in the future but also the environment we live in&quot;, said Rob Johnston, IMF director for steel. &quot;This agreement proposes a practical approach that unions can advocate internationally on behalf of metalworkers.&quot;As part of the agreement, unions have committed to:<ul><li>Develop policy positions on climate change issues that link environmental and economic sustainability.</li><li>Ensure that revenue generated by any international trading, permit or carbon tax scheme should be used to benefit the workers in affected industries, support low carbon innovation and technological development and for climate change mitigation and adaptation project.</li><li>Advocate our position to National Governments.</li><li>Collectively bargain with employers for environmental representatives and advocacy where we have a presence.</li></ul>Concrete steps the IMF will take include:<ul><li>Establish a network of key affiliates to work on climate change issues.</li><li>Through the network, develop an agenda for a subsequent meeting to be held in 2009 in Asia (with a view to engaging the All China Federation of Trade Unions and its metalworking organisation on climate change issues).</li><li>Further develop the climate change policy document and produce practical materials for distribution.</li></ul>To download the full text of the agreement, please click <a href="../main/files/08111211165784/Steel%20Agreement.pdf">here</a>.

IMF affiliates lead fight for international solutions to climate change in the steel industry.

Steel Agreement on Climate Change

Steel unions agree to environmental global strategy

BULGARIA: More than 2000 workers from Bulgaria&#039;s largest steel plant, Kremikovtzi, staged massive protests Monday for a fourth time in two weeks following the government&#039;s failure to assist the plant in the payment of delayed salaries, as it had pledged to do last week.Workers launched a three-day protest on October 29 following the news of the pending closure of the Kremikovtzi mill which employs roughly 5,000 steelworkers represented by metal unions Metalicy and the Federation of Metallurgy, both affiliates of the International Metalworkers&#039; Federation.On October 31, Peter Dimitrov, the country&#039;s Minister of Economy and Energy, announced that the government had made a plan for an eventual bail out package and that all unpaid salaries would be paid by November 7. Kremikovtzi workers, who have not been paid since July, are calling on the Bulgarian government, which owns a 25 per cent stake in the plant, to intervene to ensure that:<ul><li>August and September salaries are paid immediately;</li><li>the plant is rescued from closure and liquidation; and</li><li>that no workers are dismissed.</li></ul>The Kremikovtzi plant, which is the biggest steel maker in the Balkans and produces 10% of Bulgaria&#039;s total exports, is majority owned by Indian company Global Steel Holding of Pramod Mittal, the brother of ArcelorMittal&#039;s Laksmi Mittal.

Workers of the ailing Kremikovtzi steel plant have not been paid for three months and are calling on the government to intervene.

IMF solidarity letter to Kremikovtzi workers

Bulgarian steelworkers&#039; hold mass protests

USA: Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) voted by 74 per cent to ratify a new 4-year contract with Boeing Company. A tentative agreement was reached on Oct. 27 after five days of intense bargaining in Washington, DC.The new agreement covers 27,000 IAM members, including electricians, painters, mechanics, and other production workers at Boeing facilities in Washington, Oregon, Kansas and California. Contract gains include:<ul><li>general wage increases of 15 percent over the life of the agreement;</li><li>pension increases;</li><li>a lump sum payment of 10 percent of the previous year's earnings or $5,000, whichever is greater;</li><li>contract language to protect thousands of jobs at risk in the material handling classification; and</li><li>unchanged health care costs.</li></ul>IAM members went on strike on September 6, 2008. The walkout was the union's longest in 13 years and the fourth at Boeing in 20 years. &quot;We warned Boeing when the strike began that when they take on the IAM, they take on the world's metalworkers&quot;, said IAM International President R. Thomas Buffenbarger. &quot;The many letters and other expressions of international solidarity that our members received during the strike proved it. &quot;Boeing, a leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes, posted a record profit of $4 billion last year and has a reported $300 billion worth of commercial plane orders in its books.

After 57 days of strike action, 27,000 IAM members in the U.S. return to work.

Machinists on Strike at Boeing

Nordic IN

GMTN

IF Metall

Metalicy

Metalworkers' Federation KOVO

ABVV Metal

European Metalworkers' Federation's solidarity letter to IAM

Solidarity letter from International Metalworkers' Federation

Machinists Ratify New Boeing Contract

NUMSA leadership has never shied away from criticizing South Africa democratic government led by African National Congress (ANC), the ruling majority party, and Irvin is no different. He believes some of the ANC's strategic decisions were erroneous. While he does not deny the victory the democratic breakthrough represents, Irvin believes ANC government needs to take responsibility for South Africa's growing inequality and the fact that infrastructure, education, water resources and health systems remain unfairly distributed across the societies of South Africa.In 1995 South Africa was granted membership in the World Trade Organization, and according to Irvin it cost South Africans many jobs as liberalization of trade destroyed industries. &quot;Under the ANC government, exchange control was removed with the hope that the capital will come and make investments. Instead the capital took money from the country and invested it in stock exchange speculations and no real investment happened in productive sectors of the economy,&quot; says Irvin.The fall of apartheid removed legal differences between the rights enjoyed by white and black South Africans, but &quot;access to those rights for people is determined by their economic position in our society,&quot; says Irvin.As South Africa grapples with the impact of the global financial crisis, Irvin is also critical of the double standards of government and business and their &quot;casino&quot; attitude to the economy. For years NUMSA has been calling for nationalisation in the interest of South African people, to no avail. However, now when the banks are in crisis, government and business have been willing to nationalise debts. Meanwhile profits remain private. Opposing this approach and calling for new solutions will be a priority for NUMSA under Irvin's leadership, along with other long-standing campaigns including opposition to the spread of precarious jobs and the AIDS pandemic. Maintaining continuity following recent changes with NUMSA is also important to Irvin. He points out that the new leadership elected at the recent National Congress are all long time NUMSA members and officials. Emphasising statements made at Congress, Irvin says, &quot;our responsibility is that our union should stay united and consolidated.&quot;<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19222&amp;mwId=19189">&lt;&lt; back</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

Profile of Irvin Jim Download pdf file with illustrations >>

Confronting the legacy of apartheid remains vital for South African workers

-------------------------------------------------------------------------Text and photo / Alex IvanouIn 1991, on only his second day at work, Irvin Jim&#039;s fellow workers at Firestone Tyres nominated him as their union representative. Irvin laughs as he recounts the shock of company management when a general meeting was called to elect the young rubber worker. Aged only 23, Irvin turned down the nomination that day but within three months had taken on the role of shop steward, and was well on the path to becoming one of South Africa&#039;s most senior trade unionists. In October 2008, Irvin was elected General Secretary at the Congress of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). Despite his smiling manner, Irvin immediately conveys the impression of a person who has his own views and convictions and is ready to defend them. Irvin&#039;s rapid ascension within the union was assisted by the skills he gained as a student activist in South Africa&#039;s youth movement in the late 1980&#039;s. Following the fall of the apartheid regime in 1994, Irvin became the NUMSA regional chairperson for the Eastern Cape region. He was at that time the youngest member of the NUMSA Central Committee and remained Regional Secretary until his election to the leadership role last year.The fight against the apartheid regime has been a central theme for both Irvin and the union he now heads. NUMSA was formed in 1987 as a result of a merger between four unions to unite different sectors into a single metalworkers&#039; union. The IMF played a key role in the creation of the union and continues to work closely with NUMSA, which represents southern Africa at IMF Executive committee meetings. &quot;Politically and economically we&#039;ve been a very fortunate country, a country that succeeded to win solidarity with the people of the globe,&quot; says Irvin. &quot;The biggest challenge now is to ensure that the very same globe appreciates that the legacy of apartheid has not been dealt with.&quot;<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19224&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

The new leader of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa brings a long history of activism to combat old and new challenges.

Organizing women and bringing them into leadership positions is central to the IMF Action Program. In 2005, the Congress voted to expand the Executive to 25 seats; six are reserved for women and are to be equally distributed among the regions. The plan also set a 20 percent target for women's participation in the Central Committee and Congress, and called for holding a Women's Conference in conjunction with the Congress. Regional structures such as the Latin American Gender Council, East Asian Women's Committee and the Macedonian Women's Section have been set up. In Brazil and the Dominican Republic, the increasing role of women is changing union cultures. The ILO recently recognized the Canadian Auto Workers' (CAW) historic struggle for gender equality. In some cases, progress is directly linked to the crucial task of organizing more women. Women are the predominant workers in EPZs the world over, and in Indonesia, the IMF affiliates' success in EPZ organizing are largely due to strong advances in bringing women into leadership positions.Global labor at a turning pointRight now, the world is mired in the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As the IMF repeatedly underlined, neo-liberalism was a disaster waiting to happen. Deregulation, privatization, weakening of social safety nets, neglect of public investment, and hostility to worker and human rights by many national governments, the Bretton Woods institutions, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), led to the stagnation of living standards for the popular classes and enormous riches for a few. The basic elements of the crisis were growing indebtedness and unregulated financial speculation in a now global financial market. The current crisis is a disaster for the world's poor and working people. Declining production, even when mergers and bankruptcies can be avoided, will bring unemployment and loss of incomes to billions of workers. Union membership is bound to decline in the short run and will have to be rebuilt.Nevertheless, there is a bright side to the debacle. For decades, unions swam against the stream, but now the failure of neo-liberalism is obvious to all but those who will not learn. Leaders of banks and industries - the former cheer-leaders for neo-liberal &quot;reforms&quot; - now beg for government hand-outs. Deficit spending is advocated even by conservative experts and public ownership is on the rise. This is a great opportunity for the IMF, international labor, and its progressive allies. Although the current crisis is economic, its roots are political. Discredited policies can be reversed by a new push for respect of core labor standards not only nationally but in world trade, by demanding the rebuilding of social safety nets, stricter environmental safeguards (including a switch to clean energies), re-regulation of finance and industries, and effective economic intervention by government that will counteract depression even as it improves infrastructures and promotes sustainable industries and services. The future IMF must seize this opportunity and meet these challenges.<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19220&amp;mwId=19189">&lt;&lt; back</a></td><td> </td><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19215&amp;mwId=19189">beginning</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

Download the pdf file of the special report with illustrations >>

IMF - The last twenty years

In Latin America, unions began to see the fruits of their decades-long struggle against dictatorships. Together with political and civil society allies, unions ultimately succeeded in electing progressive governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela. At its 1989 Congress, the IMF had 19 regional affiliates, but none in the economically powerful Brazil and only three medium-sized organizations in Mexico. By 2005, the IMF counted 35 metalworking unions, including the two largest in Brazil, and seven significant unions in Mexico including the powerful mine workers (SNTMMSRM). This positive turn in Mexico was largely due to an increase in IMF activities after 2000. Nevertheless, much work remains to be done there - a conservative government and a majority corporatist union movement still inhibit the formation of independent unions.The Asia-Pacific Region saw strong economic development during the last twenty years. For unions, particularly metalworkers, there were some important successes. There were affiliations in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal, but most notably, the large metalworkers' organization in Korea (KMWF, now KMWU) and important unions in Indonesia (FSPMI and Lomenik-SBSI) joined the IMF. In 2000 the IMF expelled the Thai union and assisted in the formation of a new independent union called TEAM. Through workshops organised annually since 2003 for the then Vietnam National Union of Industrial Workers (VNUIW) the IMF has consolidated its relationships with the successor organisation, the Vietnam National Union of Workers in Industry and Trade (VUIT), which has recently applied for affiliation to the IMF.The IMF's engagement with China began with a 1994 fact-finding mission which was followed by a high-level mission to China in 2000 and 2006. After a long process of discussions, a small meeting with the Chinese Machinery, Metallurgical and Building Materials Workers' Union (CMMBMWU) was organised at the beginning of January 2009 and a joint workshop on collective bargaining has been planned for April 2009. Nevertheless, these gains cannot obscure the enormous obstacles that independent unionism faces in Asia, including China. However, the IMF is committed for the long term, and persevering efforts are necessary to make further progress in the future. In India, independent unionism is relatively weak in the private sector, and a number of important unions linked to Communist parties are not yet prepared to follow their counterparts in Europe and the former Soviet Block and join, or at least work with, the IMF. In cooperation with its affiliates, the IMF has launched a number of projects, which include union-building among shipbreaking workers and targeted educational activities. The IMF is also working with Indian unions to advance organising in fast growing sectors such as steel and automotive industries. Nevertheless, strengthening and uniting metalworker unions in this rapidly developing part of the world remains one of the key challenges confronting the IMF.<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19216&amp;mwId=19189">&lt;&lt; back</a></td><td> </td><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19215&amp;mwId=19189">beginning</a></td><td> </td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19218&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

IMF - the last twenty years

Post Cold War Union BuildingUnder new leadership, the IMF immediately addressed these challenges. By December 1990, a &quot;Plan of Action&quot; identified Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary as key transition countries and focused on preparing them for the role independent unions play in democratic market-based societies. In 1991, seminars were held in the target countries as well as Romania and Bulgaria, and in December the first IMF conference in Eastern Europe took place in Brno, Czekoslovakia on the issue of migration. Starting that year, millions of metalworkers in Central Europe began to join the IMF, and by the time of the centenary congress in 1993, metalworking unions from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania were IMF members. The Slovenian metalworkers became members that same year. By 1997, IMF affiliates in this region by-and-large took over responsibilities for their own programs. The first IMF office opened in Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest in 1997 and efforts turned to South-eastern Europe, where the rebuilding of cooperative relations after years of war and ethnic conflicts was a priority. Affiliations, mostly in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, soon followed. IMF attention then turned to the former Soviet Republics and the Baltic states. Plans for a Project Office in Moscow were developed and implemented over several years. A new milestone was passed with the affiliation of unions in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine in 1999. In 2001, the IMF Executive was enlarged to include a representative from Central and Eastern Europe. By 2004, the 12 regional affiliates the IMF counted in 2001 had grown to 19, including a first affiliation from Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan). Since 1989, strong metalworking unions have been built throughout the former Soviet Bloc, but many challenges remain. Entrenched regimes still regard independent unions with hostility, particularly in Belarus, where the Lukashenko dictatorship tries to crush them. Economic difficulties persist in many countries, and even where there has been some progress, metalworkers' gains are sure to be threatened by the deepening economic crisis that began in 2008.Eastern and Central Europe was not the only world region where the IMF and the movements it had assisted, progressed. In South Africa, combined international and domestic pressures forced the apartheid state to release Nelson Mandela, who was elected to lead the country in 1994. South African metalworkers were already well represented in the IMF in 1989, particularly by the huge NUMSA, but in the rest of Africa, there were only 13 affiliates and none in Mozambique, Angola or Nigeria. That number grew by 2005. Excluding South Africa, there were 24 affiliates in Africa, including important unions in Mozambique and Angola as well as countries on the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, despite this membership growth and a few bright spots, there was no significant economic development in post-colonial Africa.<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19215&amp;mwId=19189">&lt;&lt; back</a></td><td> </td><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19215&amp;mwId=19189">beginning</a></td><td> </td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19217&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

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