CANADA:  The delegates of IMF affiliated International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) from the U.S. and Canada met recently in Vancouver to discuss how communications will develop in the future. The delegates, including local and district communicators, educators and web stewards, spoke about the ways their union could manage to get on the forefront of 21^st century communications.

The speakers at the forum were IAM general vice president Rich Michalski as Chairperson of the Conference, IAM’s Canadian general vice president Dave Ritchie, IAM general secretary-treasurer Warren Mart, and former Senator Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff Tamera Luzzatto.

One of the most important events at the forum was the launch of a newly designed IAM website http://www.goiam.org/. The developers made the site more user-friendly and added new features including the possibility for visitors to leave their comments, rank and share stories. Interactive video is another innovation on the site. The IAMAW turned its electronic newsletter iMail into a blog. In addition, the site is updated with a new search system allowing the search by keywords known as ‘tags’.

Staying on the forefront of new communication technologies the IAM launched its official Facebook and Twitter pages www.twitter.com/machinistsunion.

The IAM event proceeds the IMF-EMF Communicators’ Forum, which is scheduled for November 17-18 and will be hosted by German IMF affiliate IG Metall in Frankfurt. For more details see our previous story.

GLOBAL: Metalworkers around the world are participating in the World Day for Decent Work today calling for an end to precarious employment and joining the International Trade Union Confederation in its call for getting the world to work.

In the continuing fallout from the global financial crisis, millions of workers in precarious employment have lost their jobs. For employers, cutting temporary and agency jobs has proven to be a cheap and easy way of reducing their workforce. But for workers it has resulted in hardship, uncertainty and a complete lack of control over their working lives.

As economies begin to recover, there is a real risk that companies will increase their dependence on temporary jobs, replacing jobs that were once permanent with precarious jobs.

The importance of employment in the recovery is the subject of a new ITUC report released on this World Day for Decent Work. Jobs – The Path to Recovery, How employment is central to ending the global crisis describes how in response to the global economic crisis, the worst since the Great Depression with tens of millions of jobs disappearing, the economy must be built on social justice and environmental sustainability, respect for internationally-recognised workers’ rights, effective financial regulation and global governance which puts people first.

Global unions, including the International Metalworkers’ Federation, have been calling on governments to focus on jobs in response to the crisis. At the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh last month global unions warned that the full ripple effect of the year-old crisis is only now being felt as tens of millions of jobs are cut, with a forecast of more job losses to occur in 2010 and 2011.

The G20 Leaders’ Statement, available on the IMF website here, offers some positive prospects for workers, but regrettably begins with the self-congratulatory assumption that the worst is over and recovery is in sight.

The ITUC/TUAC evaluation of the 3^rd G20 Summit indicates that the results of the Summit "represented some advance on the outcome of the April Summit in London but also demonstrated a degree of complacency and progress was slow in some crucial areas". A full copy of the evaluation is published on the IMF website here.

"The IMF joins the ITUC and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD in expressing deep concern for what seems to continue being a dangerous underestimation of the employment issue, in terms of both job losses and deterioration of the employment conditions everywhere in the world," said IMF general Secretary Jyrki Raina.

"Around the world, the IMF, metal unions and their members are mobilizing, organizing and bargaining for secure jobs and equal rights for all workers" he said.

To read the full ITUC report  Jobs – The Path to Recovery, How employment is central to ending the global crisis: 

http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Finacial_crisis_EN-final.pdf

http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Financial_crisis_DE.pdf

http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Financial_crisis_FR.pdf

http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Financial_crisis_ES.pdf

To read the ITUC/TUAC evaluation of the 3^rd G20 Summit:

English

Spanish

COLOMBIA: The multinational company Gerdau is trying to close another of its subsidiaries in Colombia. It is now trying to close the Laminados Andinos plant at Duitama, which will mean more dismissals and the disappearance of another trade union.

In response, Duitama workers have occupied the factory in order to defend their jobs.

The Yumbo branch of SINTRAMETAL, the national metalworkers’ union, is calling on the trade union movement to complain about the company to the International Human Rights Committee, the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association, the OAS and the United Nations and "to defend the right to work, human dignity and our class consciousness, to keep the company open and to live with dignity in our own country."

Sintrametal added that the union must fight harder than ever over the next two months in order to stop the company dismissing their members. It is worth recalling that the company Sidelpa S.A. and consequently the 50 year old Yumbo branch of SINTRAMETAL were closed in July this year. Despite trade union action, the company terminated the employment contracts of approximately 800 workers.

The IMF has offered its solidarity to our Colombian colleagues and written to Gerdau executives demanding respect for the jobs of workers at Laminados Andinos and all other workers employed by this multinational in Colombia.

THAILAND: International trade union federations lend their support to the Thai labour movement’s campaign to protect precarious workers and their demands for the ratification of fundamental International Labour Oraganisation (ILO) conventions numbers 87 and 98, on Freedom of Association and the Right to Organise and the Right to Collective Bargaining.

Thousands of workers will gather outside the United Nations Building on Ratchadamnoen Road from 10:00am to attend the big open air seminar on ILO Conventions 87 and 98 in front of the UN Building where the ILO office is also located.

The workers then will march to Government House in Bangkok at noon on October 7 demanding the abolition of temporary, casual contract and other form of non-regular employment and calling for the ratification of the core ILO conventions to protect workers’ rights in Thailand.

Representatives of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) attended the rally in support of the Thai unions’ action, which coincides with the World Day for Decent Work and a week of global mobilisation against precarious work. 

Fernando Lopes, Assistant General Secretary of the IMF, will speak at the rally. Lopes states, "across Thailand and around the world regular employment is systematically being replaced by precarious employment and this situation not only affects workers but also trade union membership. With low wages, lack of social security and tenure of employment these workers are the most exploited."

"Around the world today, unions are taking the fight to governments, calling on them to ensure equal rights for precarious workers and to strengthen legislation to prevent employers from using precarious employment in place of permanent and direct employment," added Lopes.

"The economic crisis has made this demand all the more urgent, not only because precarious jobs have been the first to be lost, but because there is a real risk that employers will use the crisis as a justification to replace permanent jobs with precarious jobs. We support our affiliate the Confederation of Thai Electrical Appliances, Electronic Automobile & Metalworkers (TEAM) in their demands on government to protect workers and ensure that employers can’t treat them as a disposable commodity," he argued.

For the ICEM, ICEM Thai Union Affiliates’ Committee Chairman Rawai Pupaga, the President of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation Labour Union (GPOLU), said, "For decades, the labour movement has urged the Thai government to ratify these Conventions, but prior governments have neglected the labour demands."

"Non-ratification of these important Conventions has resulted in barriers and obstructions to workers who want to form trade unions and pursue collective bargaining. Now is the time for the Thai government to prove that we have a democratic country, because Conventions 87 and 98 give basic and democratic rights inside the workplace."

Added ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, "It is important that the Thai government lead by starting the process toward ratification of these ILO core labour standards. It is also important that the government create and maintain a healthy, sustainable economy by promoting temporary and agency work into permanent, full-time employment opportunities."

Besides GPOLU, Warda commended other Thai labour federations affiliated to the ICEM that are taking action in Bangkok tomorrow on World Day for Decent Work. They include the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand Labour Union (EGATLU); the Petroleum and Chemical Workers’ Federation (PCFT); the Paper and Printing Workers’ Federation (PPFT); and the Chemical Workers’ Union Alliance (CWUA).

In addition to ICEM and IMF, the rally is supported by the International Textile, Garment, and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF), the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF), Public Services International (PSI), International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), State Enterprise Relations Confederation (SERC), Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC), and all the national trade union congresses in Thailand.

The action is being organized by TEAM, ICEM Thai Committee, Thai Labour Solidarity Committee and the State Enterprise Relations Confederation.   

IMF Mexican affiliates, together with members of the National Council of Metalworkers CNTM-FITIM, held a national meeting in support of the IMF global campaign against precarious work on October 7 in Mexico City.  The aim of the meeting was to take stock of the disastrous consequences precarious working conditions have on workers.  In addition, this meeting was in line with implementing an IMF 2009 Congress resolution on precarious work and the economic crisis.  In fighting precarious work, IMF Mexican affiliates agreed on:  

a) asking for the reopening of the IMF Office in Mexico to devise strategies and programs to reach out to more Mexican unions;

b) seeking the IMF support to an organizing campaign, including the presence of union activists in unorganized working places;

c) holding a meeting of IMF Mexican affiliates in Guanajuato, on 20 November 2009, to establish strategies and a program of activities for 2010 focusing on the fight against precarious work. 

GLOBAL: In conjunction with the global week of action against precarious work, IMF today released a new report of a survey that focused on the experiences of migrant workers in the metal industry. IMF affiliates from every region of the world responded to the survey, providing vital information about the status and conditions of migrant workers in the metal industry, as well as the problems unions face in organizing them. The survey findings clearly show that migrant workers are currently being employed in all sectors of the metal industry. It also showed that overwhelmingly they are only offered precarious employment contracts.

Other key findings of the survey include:

• Wages paid to migrant workers are generally less than for local workers in similar jobs
• Deductions from wages for accommodation, transport etc are commonly made
• Even where it is prohibited by law, migrant workers in the metal industry are being required to pay fees to recruitment agencies
• Migrant workers face significant problems in accessing social security, legal and health systems
• The unionisation rate of migrant workers is extremely low, in most cases less than 20 per cent
• It is very difficult for unions to make contact with migrant workers

The report provides information on ways that IMF affiliates are supporting migrant workers. It confirms that there are many obstacles to migrant workers joining a union, including cultural and language barriers, but that the biggest obstacle to unionization is workers’ fear. Included in the report are many examples of how IMF affiliates are working to improve the rights of migrant workers, with the goal of ensuring equal pay and conditions with local workers. The report is available on the IMF website in English and Spanish.

Strategies for organizing migrant workers in the metal industry will be further discussed at an IMF global conference taking place in Bangkok on November 11-12 , ‘Migrant Workers as Precarious Workers’.

INDONESIA: Unions from seven Asian countries came together in Batam, Indonesia on September 30 to share successful strategies for organizing workers in Export Processing Zones (EPZs). The island of Batam is itself an EPZ where IMF Indonesian affiliates FSPMI and Lomenik-SBSI have managed to organize many of the factories located there.

Delegates once again emphasized the poor quality of jobs in EPZs and the enormous difficulties that must be surmounted in order to make contact with workers and organize them. Precarious employment is endemic in EPZs, wages are low and often underpaid and working hours are excessive, in many cases exceeding legal maximum hours. Unions are restricted from entering EPZs and so are forced to find alternative means to reach workers.

Given the high percentage of women workers in EPZs, at times up to 90 per cent, affiliates reaffirmed the importance of ensuring that women take on leadership roles and are given training to be active in the union.

Wages emerged as a key issue to organize around with some unions taking action in support of increases to the minimum wage. In other cases unions have discovered workers being underpaid and have motivated them to join the union by helping them ensure they are paid correct wages.

All unions involved in EPZ organizing stressed the value of taking organizing beyond the workplace and into communities. Delegates from TEAM in Thailand said that organizing in the communities where workers live helps raise the profile of the union and creates a positive impression. In the Philippines, workers that have been laid off organize on the ground in their communities. One union in India has a special unit dedicated to helping members address their social needs. This can involve assistance in securing places in school for workers’ children, or support in applying for a bank loan.

At the same time as organizing, unions are taking action at the political level to persuade governments of the negative impacts of their EPZ policies. In India there is strong resistance from unions and other social groupings to the government’s policy to promote SEZs, or Special Economic Zones. The net outcome of constructing an SEZ is often the opposite of the stated intention, namely the loss of jobs and reduction in incomes. This is because construction of an SEZ involves massive displacement of people dependent on agricultural, fisheries and related self-employment.

The meeting concluded that unions must work on two fronts: to organize EPZ workers and improve their working conditions and at the same to force governments to reconsider whether their EPZ policies promote sustainable industries and employment.

L’affiliata polacca NSZZ „Solidarność" ha tradotto l’opuscolo in lingua polacca e lo distribuirà a tutta l’organizzazione durante la settimana di azione.

Potete scaricare l’opuscolo polacco in file pdf

Die polnische Mitgliedsorganisation NSZZ „Solidarność" hat das Flugblatt ins polnische übersetzt und wird es während der Aktionswoche in der gesamten Organisation verteilen.

Die polnische Version kann als pdf-Datei vom Internet heruntergeladen werden.

Det polska IMF-förbundet NSZZ Solidarność har översatt broschyren till polska och kommer att sprida den inom organisationen under aktionsveckan.

Ladda ned den polska versionen som pdf-fil.