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SOUTH AFRICA: The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) reports that the first day of strike action at the X-Strata Chrome company in Rustenburg has received overwhelming and favourable support from the 800 workers who have vowed to continue with the strike until their demands are met. 
Last week, Numsa and the chrome-making company failed to resolve the two-month-old dispute in the conciliation meeting with the Engineering Bargaining Council. The union declared a dispute against the company's voluntary separation package and the layoff of 200 workers. The company is paying laid-off workers 25 per cent of their basic salary, including attendance bonus and housing subsidy, plus 50 per cent of their provident fund contribution, and is guaranteeing insured benefits. It has suspended workers' medical aid membership. 
According to the union, the company acted in breach of its obligations by refusing to accede to Numsa demands on severance packages and layoffs. Workers are taking the industrial action because the company failed to conclude the matter through normal dialogue. 
The response of the employers has not been at all dignified, says Numsa. "The only conclusion we can draw from these illogical responses is that the company is opening up old wounds."

Numsa says that the X-Strata Chrome company is opening up old wounds.

Numsa's demands

Overwhelming support for strike action

KOREA, REP: The president of the Korean umbrella trade union organisation, FKTU, to which the Federation of Korean Metalworkers Trade Unions is affiliated, has been on a hunger strike since April 29. Lee Nam-soon is protesting the government's attempts to suppress the trade union movement and its continued policy of unilateral restructuring. 
Although physically quite weak after 12 days of taking in nothing but water, Lee has declared he will continue his hunger strike "until the government turns its attitude and policies favourably to labour and the people." 
Among demands being made by the FKTU and its members are: 
- trade union involvement in finding ways to overcome the economic downturn and public antagonism, 
- trade union participation in corporate and state management in order to improve dialogue and prevent unfair labour practices, 
- revision of government policies on restructuring, 
- punishment of police officers who used violence to break the strike at Daewoo Motors and the release of workers imprisoned for legitimate trade union activities, 
- enactment of legislation regarding anti-corruption, maternity protection and the 40-hour 5-day workweek this year, 
- expansion of the social safety net for the unemployed, 
- immediate repeal of the National Security Law. 
 
NOTE: The IMF has just been informed that Lee Nam-soon has been hospitalised in critical condition.

Protest will continue until government adopts positive attitude and policies towards labour and the people.

FKTU leader on hunger strike

GREAT BRITAIN: In response to the May 3 announcement by the Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus that it was rejecting the unions' alternative proposals for saving 6,000 jobs and preventing plant closures, unions have declared that they may take strike action. 
The Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, which had presented the steel group with the trade unions' detailed and viable £90 million rescue package, said they were "bitterly disappointed" over the company's negative response to their counter proposals. Decisions as to whether or not to take industrial action will be made at local branch level very shortly. Five plants are affected. 
Following the confirmation by Corus of the job losses and plant closures, the British government announced it would make a lump sum payment of £2,500 (US$3,601) to each of the thousands of steelworkers who will be affected across the UK. A government spokesman said that the priority now was to offer practical support such as training and put in place measures to promote economic regeneration and job creation. A £48 million package for such measures has been announced for England and another for Wales.

Steelworkers may be balloted for strike action, while government offers redundancy aid.

Underlying losses at Corus are comparatively small

Corus rescue plan rejected

SOUTH AFRICA: A deal struck between Goodyear and its workers, represented by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, could set a precedent. The agreement includes special provisions under a "Social Plan" and has turned what threatened to be a confrontation with serious international implications into a settlement that Numsa says is a labour victory against the negative aspects of globalisation. 
Goodyear and the union first entered into negotiations last November after the tire company, which had announced a 10 per cent reduction in its workforce worldwide, said it would cut 400 jobs at its Port Elizabeth tire plant as part of its global restructuring. Numsa reacted by calling a strike and threatening to escalate the affair by seeking support from the international trade union movement. 
Now, after months of intensive negotiations, Numsa members are picking up a severance package which includes a 4 million rand (US$ 499,000) social plan to benefit the local economy by funding retraining for workers and getting them into Black empowerment projects and their own small business ventures. 
For the upcoming 2001 collective bargaining negotiations with South African motor industry employers, Numsa is being encouraged by the government to get commitments from employers that the big companies will buy from smaller companies that are established by retrenched workers under programmes such as that agreed with Goodyear. Automotive worker bargaining strategies in South Africa are also increasingly focusing on training and retraining, particularly improving computer skills. 
Source: just-auto.com

The South African metalworkers' union has negotiated a severance package for laid off workers which includes a 4 million rand social plan.

Goodyear deal could set precedent

EUROPE: Major job losses announced in the past week in Europe affecting thousands of jobs have come from companies such as Motorola, Ericsson and Moulinex. 
Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications giant, revealed on April 20 that it would cut as many as 12,000 jobs worldwide. Some 5,000-6,000 of these job losses are expected in Sweden, mainly in research and development. Mari-Ann Krantz, president of the IMF-affiliated Swedish non-manual workers' union SIF, said that the company's most important asset was its highly-experienced and technically-competent workforce and warned of the risk, when fears of job security prevailed in a company, that the more competent staff might leave first. She hoped that Ericsson management was aware of the possibility of a serious dialogue with SIF to find solutions which would safeguard jobs, because not only the future of the company is at stake but the future of its staff. 
Moulinex-Brandt, the French appliance group, announced on April 26 it would proceed with major restructuring plans, cutting 4,000 jobs worldwide, of which 1,500 will be in France. The company, which produces coffee makers, vacuum cleaners and other small household appliances, will close three plants in France, as well as plants in Ireland, Brazil and in Poland, where 1,700 workers will lose their jobs. The IMF-affiliated FGMM-CFDT stated last year, when the Italian Elfi group, which owns Brandt, took over Moulinex, that the takeover was not accompanied by even minimum guarantees for the future and job security. The union will continue its efforts to safeguard as many jobs as possible at Moulinex and Brandt. 
The U.S. electronics multinational Motorola has made known its plans to cut 7,000 jobs worldwide, and close its biggest plant in Great Britain, located in Scotland, in six months' time, with the loss of 3,100 jobs. Two other UK plants will also be shut down, totalling another 500 jobs. The general secretary of the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, Roger Lyons said that the company had earlier told workers they "did not need a trade union as their jobs were secure!" Unions, workers and politicians strongly condemned the company, which has received approximately £17 million in state aid in the last six years.

In the past week alone, Motorola, Ericsson and Moulinex are among multinationals announcing major restructuring and workforce reductions.

More job cuts in Europe

May Day is not just a day off from work. It is to celebrate international solidarity among workers. Every one of us should be out on the streets joining manifestations being organised worldwide by trade unions and labour movements. Staying home would be to betray the union and its struggle. 
In the last few years, many people have expressed their wishes to me to mark the metalworkers' struggle around the world by devoting one special day to them. Honestly, I do not think it is necessary to change or to add a new day to celebrate our struggle. 
Maybe you think I am too traditionalist and a little bit conservative, but on this particular issue I want to stick to our traditions. May Day came about more than 100 years ago when workers in Chicago went on strike and demonstrated for the 8-hour workday and better working conditions. That day was just a normal working day, but police attacked the group and 11 of them died, shot down by bullets. They were unarmed and inoffensive, like all workers struggling to make a living. 
After that tragedy, the labour movement declared the First of May, or May Day, as THE day to pay respect and tribute to all workers around the world. In the USA and Great Britain, however, May Day is still not recognised as the special day for Labour. This is regrettable and, hopefully, will at some point be changed. 
Just a couple of days before the First of May, on April 28, the trade union movement also observes International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers. This year, for the first time, the International Labour Organisation will join in marking this day to commemorate the victims of unhealthy and unsafe workplaces. Every year, 1.3 million workers are killed (3,300 every day) as a result of accidents or disease related to exposure to bad environmental conditions at work. 12,000 are children. 160 million new injuries and work-related diseases are reported annually. Asbestos alone claims about 100,000 victims. 
This is not acceptable for the trade unions or for society as a whole. This was also what the workers in Chicago fought against when they demonstrated on that first May Day in our history, and this is what we must continue to fight for today, if we want to guarantee our children a better and safer future. 
Join your union demonstration next Tuesday, MAY DAY 2001!

Celebrate May Day !

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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