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GREECE: On May 17, workers and trade unions representing the different branches of the metalworking industry were among participants in the second massive 24-hour strike within one month in Greece. The protest action, which once again brought the country to a standstill as for the earlier strike on April 26, was organised by the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE). Among the strikers' demands are: 
- the immediate tripartite financing of the social security system; 
- retirement after 35 years of work, irrespective of age; 
incorporation of the whole metal branch as especially hard and hazardous professions. 
Workers remain determined in their opposition to government proposals to increase the retirement age, to reduce pensions, and to re-evaluate hard and hazardous jobs. 
Metal branch participation in the strike was over 90 per cent.

Workers and their trade unions put more pressure on the government in the second all-out 24-hour strike within a month.

Greece at a standstill again

GENEVA: During the upcoming IMF Executive Committee meeting, in Venice on May 22-23, a special website will be launched for the IMF's November 2001 Sydney Congress. To start with, this website (linked to the main site at www.imfmetal.org) will only be available to users having a password, primarily those attending the Congress, who can access practical information contained in this "Sydney Lounge". The main level of the Sydney website will be open to the public about two months prior to the Congress. 
Among important items on the agenda for the Venice meeting will be the debate on the final draft of the IMF's new four-year Action Programme, entitled "Dealing with Global Challenges," to be presented for approval of the Congress in Sydney. The draft Action Programme will be available on the Sydney Lounge of the IMF's Congess website under "Documents" following next week's meeting. 
A discussion will also take place on the initiative the IMF has launched in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. The IMF-ICT Task Force is looking at such questions as the speed with which the ICT sector is growing compared with other branches of the economy, and the importance of ICT industries as a source for new jobs. What are the challenges for trade unions posed by the ICT sector, with industries which are newer than those in traditional metalworking? 
The Executive Committee will hear as well a presentation by Bob Kyloh, of the International Labour Organisation, on the progress to date with the ICFTU's "Millennium Review". The ICFTU Durban Congress in 2000 called for a thorough and inclusive examination of international trade union priorities, strategies and structures, in order to provide the basis for more effective trade union action to transform the global economy.

Four-year action programme and initiative for ICT sector are on the agenda for meeting in Venice.

IMF Executive debates long-term strategy

NEW ZEALAND: The IMF-affiliated Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union reports that the 100 workers at the Tenix shipbuilding yard in Whangarei were informed on May 16 that 45 of them would be laid off on May 18. Tenix, which is manufacturing modules for frigates in Whangarei, had told workers several weeks ago that job losses were likely as work under their frigate building contract with Anzac was nearing an end. 
The national secretary for the EPMU, Andrew Little, said although it was known that the work for Anzac would not last forever, it was regrettable that other work had not been found to fill the gap for these highly skilled workers. 
With average pay at NZ$50,000 (US$21,234) a year, the job losses will be taking more than NZ$2 million a year out of the local economy in wages alone and contribute to the brain drain there. Little commented that several of the shipyard workers were already going abroad to find work, and others would follow if New Zealand was unable to secure more shipbuilding work. 
The collective agreement for the shipyard workers provides up to 12 weeks' redundancy pay.

Redundancies will take over NZ$2 million a year out of the local economy in wages alone.

Workers hit hard as jobs go at Tenix shipyard

FINLAND: An all-important trade union merger has taken place in Finland. The Union of Technical Employees and Union of Salaried Employees in Industry, both affiliated to the IMF, have joined with the Federation of Private Building Employees and the Swedish Association of Technicians and Foremen in Finland to form the Union of Salaried Employees - TU (Toimihenkilöunioni). The first TU congress is being held in Tampere on May 18, under the motto &quot;Yhdessä on vastaus&quot; (&quot;Together is the answer&quot;) and gathering 700 delegates. With this merger, the new organisation has become the largest white-collar union in Finland, with approximately 130,000 members, who work in industry and industrial services as well as in the building sector. Metal, with 35,000 members, of whom about 30 per cent are women, will represent the largest branch in the new organisation.

Newly-formed organisation will be Finland's largest union for non-manual workers.

Website for newly merged union, TU

White-collar unions merge

ARTICULO 7 
El Congreso es la más alta autoridad de la Federación.

El Congreso se reunirá siempre que sea necesario, pero, por lo menos, cada cuatro años; lo convocará el Secretario General, conforme a la decisión del Comité Central. El lugar, la fecha y el orden del día serán fijados por el Comité Central. Las convocatorias deberán enviarse con cuatro meses de anticipación por lo menos.
Los informes y mociones que se quieran presentar al Congreso deberán remitirse al Secretario General tres meses antes de celebrarse el Congreso. El Secretario General deberá comunicar las mociones a todas las organizaciones afiliadas, con tiempo suficiente para que puedan informar de su contenido a todos sus miembros, antes de la reunión del Congreso.

Tendrán derecho a presentar mociones las federaciones afiliadas y el Comité Ejecutivo.
Para que las tareas del Congreso puedan prepararse debidamente, el Comité Central está facultado para constituir comisiones, compuestas de tal manera que se garantice una representación equitativa de los miembros de la Federación y de los distintos continentes. La confirmación definitiva incumbirá al Congreso.

El Secretariado procederá cuando sea necesario a convocar a las comisiones antes de Congreso.

ARTICULO 8 
El Congreso de la FITIM estará integrado por los representantes de las organizaciones nacionales afiliadas a la Federación. Cada organización deberá fijar el número de sus representantes y sufragar los gastos de su representación. Un delegado podrá representar a varias organizaciones de su país. Esa delegación de poder deberá comunicarse por escrito al Secretario General, firmada por el principal dirigente del afiliado que delegue la representación.

ARTICULO 9 
Cada organización afiliada tendrá derecho de voto en el Congreso, siempre y cuando haya pagado su cuota del año en curso. Si la cuota anual vencida no se hubiera pagado en el plazo de seis meses se considerará que el afiliado no ha cumplido sus obligaciones financieras y no tendrá derecho a asistir al Congreso ni al Comité Central ni a participar en el Comité Ejecutivo.

El número de votos estará determinado por el número de miembros que sirvió como base para calcular la cuota. El Congreso tomará sus resoluciones por mayoría simple; sin embargo, para modificar los Estatutos se requerirá una mayoría de dos tercios.

EXTRACTOS DE LOS ESTATUTOS DE LA FITIM

WEST AFRICA: Trade unions in the West African region have been strongly urged to join their respective government's fight against the HIV virus and AIDS. The call came from Napoleon Kpoh, the general secretary of Ghana's Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union, during a two-day IMF conference held in early May in Accra for West African metal trade unions. In addition, Kpoh, speaking to delegates from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone, underlined the importance for regional political leaders to seriously tackle issues related to globalisation and structural adjustment. 
Also addressing the Accra meeting, the IMF assistant general secretary, Brian Fredricks, stated that with modernisation Africa had become more marginalised than ever. Governments of the region, he said, "should not allow globalisation and the lack of capital inflow to continue to marginalise the continent. The IMF is prepared to assist unions in their capacity-building efforts to enable them to influence political, economic and social decisions." He urged trade unions to guard against outside influence and control which could affect their independent decision-making and to push their respective governments to work more vigorously towards efforts to cancel Africa's debt.

During West African metalworkers' trade union conference, delegates are told to support government struggles against this grave threat.

Help fight against HIV/AIDS

GLOBAL: Speaking at the IMF/SIF Seminar on Stress and Burnout, taking place in Djurönäset, Sweden, on April 23-24, Mari-Ann Krantz, president of the Swedish non-manual workers' union SIF and president of the IMF Non-Manual Workers' Department, said that among the issues of particular importance for non-manual workers which need to be addressed is the psycho-social working environment for these workers and the ever-increasing proportion of non-manual workers who are on long-term sick leave because of stress and burnout. Organising non-manual workers into trade unions remains a high priority for the trade union agenda. 
Krantz believes the IMF Non-Manual Workers' Department has an important role to play when it comes to trade union approaches to the psycho-social working environment for non-manual workers worldwide, as together the group will be enabled to evolve methods which, "even if they do not provide complete solutions, will constitute a shared point of view on how to tackle this problem." 
Addressing the seminar for the IMF Secretariat, Anne-Marie Mureau commented that the way work is organised changes considerably when one goes from North to South, however "there are a number of common threads which link the high prevalence of stress and burnout to changes taking place on the labour market, due partly to the effects of economic globalisation. And economic globalisation affects us all." 
It was time, she said, to raise the issue of stress in a worldwide context and give it a higher profile. It was necessary to envisage ways and means to meet the challenge posed by this problem. What should the trade union response be and how can it be translated into practical policy-making? Had programmes been developed to help workers, had legislation been passed? There had to be more public awareness of the problem.

Seminar discusses how to meet the growing challenges posed by stress and burnout.

IMF meets on stress and burnout

Issue of stress needs higher profile

Thirty-four countries of the Americas have decided to sign an agreement on free trade. Even though it concerns 800 million people, few of them know about it. 
In a few years, all countries of the two American continents will have opened up their borders for goods, services and capital. 
Although free and fair trade remains one of the best instruments for development, if it is organised in a proper and just manner, certain fundamental conditions will have to be fulfilled for this purpose: 
1. The agreement, regional or global, must aim at creating sustainable growth for every country. 
2. The main objective should not be just to benefit Capital, but to create jobs and through that good living conditions and standards for all people concerned. 
3. The purchasing power of the entire population must increase considerably, particularly in the developing countries in the region. People must be able to afford to buy what they produce. 
4. A clause guaranteeing minimum labour and environmental standards must be part of such an agreement. 
I am afraid that the new FTAA agreement has not been negotiated in this spirit, and therefore will not benefit the people. The negotiations, which have been going on for some years, have been carried out behind closed doors, and no document was released before the conference in Quebec was over. 
Once again, politicians have missed the opportunity to exercise democracy the way people would expect them to do. 
If trade unions, along with other organisations representing consumers, environmentalists and others, now react strongly against the FTAA and continue protesting, the governments of the 34 countries will have to assume their responsibility.

Full text of IMF Statement to FTAA Summit

The FTAA - &lt;br&gt;a new agreement for the rich

INDONESIA: The following is a statement issued by the 10th IMF Asia-Pacific Regional Conference concerning the March 29th violent attack on striking workers at PT Kadera, which ended with the murder of two workers: 
 
The more then 130 delegates from 18 countries attending the 10th IMF Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, on April 20-21, 2001, are outraged by the attack on peaceful strikers at the PT Kadera plant in Indonesia. 
PT Kadera, a company owned by 90 per cent Japanese interest, produces car seats and is located in the East Jakarta industrial area. 
On March 16, 2001, about 400 workers from this plant went on strike to demand a wage increase and improved conditions of employment. The workers there are being paid less than the national minimum wage. 
On March 29, 2001, at 3:00 a.m., more than 400 unidentified persons (using the name of FMCI) attacked the peaceful strikers, using knives, metal rods, stones, guns and bombs. Most of the strikers were asleep at that time. 
The attack killed two (2) unionists and left 21 injured. 
This conference condemns the brutal crime against the workers. 
It demands that the criminals who attacked the strikers and those who planned the attack be brought to justice quickly. 
It demands that the company immediately enter into serious negotiations with the union to provide workers with justice. 
It calls on the Indonesian government to actively implement ILO Conventions and act to prevent these outrageous anti-worker and anti-union attacks. 
It expresses solidarity to the brave strikers who are fighting for their rights. 
It sympathises with the family of those two brave workers who sacrificed their lives for the working people.

IMF regional conference issues statement demanding those responsible be brought to justice.

Global union condemns murders at PT Kadera

GLOBAL: Stress and burnout is a growing problem for many workers, in particular non-manual workers, and the subject is generating increasing interest and debate. Although at first considered a phenomenon specific to the developed countries, there is more and more evidence that stress and burnout is spreading to the developing world as well. 
What with extensive transformations being carried out in today's workplace, due in great part to economic globalisation, accompanied by restructuring, lean production, subcontracting, outsourcing, as well as new information technology, individual workers are finding higher requirements being placed upon them. 
With this in mind, the IMF, in cooperation with its Swedish non-manual workers' affiliate SIF, is holding its first seminar on the subject, called "Stress and Burnout: a Growing Problem for Non-Manual Workers," on April 23-24, 2001, in Djurönäset, Sweden. Some 40 participants from 15 countries will attend, including scientific experts in this field. The agenda will focus on work-related stress and its consequences, the global costs of stress and burnout, and possibilities for a trade union response to this growing concern. There will be a presentation on the development of stress and burnout in the 1990s, as well as a study carried out on a group of non-manual workers on extended sick leave. 
On April 25, immediately following the two-day discussions, a meeting of the IMF's Working Group on Non-Manual Workers will be held to evaluate the above-mentioned seminar and to further develop a programme of activities for the IMF Non-Manual Workers' Department.

Extensive changes in today's world of work are resulting in a reduced number of jobs plus higher requirements on workers.

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