Congress adopted changes to the IMF Rules to create two new elected positions. Previously filled by appointment, the IMF Vice President and Assistant General Secretary roles will now be elected every four years, along with the General Secretary and President positions.

Incumbents Tom Buffenbarger, Fernando Lopes and Hiroshi Kamada were elected Vice President and Assistant General Secretaries respectively on the first official day of Congress.

The elections of President and General Secretary however brought two new leaders to the head of the IMF. IG Metall President Berthold Huber, a former toolmaker, was elected President of the IMF, taking over from outgoing President Jürgen Peters.

Nordic IN General Secretary Jyrki Raina was elected General Secretary, replacing Marcello Malentacchi, who retired after 20 years as IMF General Secretary. Raina pledged to make the Action Programme the central policy of the IMF.

Raina identified the issue of precarious work as a key priority for the IMF, noting that in developing countries typically 50 to 80 per cent of employment is informal and elsewhere atypical work is exploding. Raina warned of the risk that during economic recovery good jobs that have been lost will be replaced by precarious jobs.

At Congress, metalworkers overwhelmingly endorsed a four year action programme that seeks to lead to more effective solidarity, better rights for workers, growing union power and a real challenge to neo-liberalism.

The IMF Action Programme 2009 – 2013, adopted in its entirety by Congress, puts greater emphasis on action and what IMF affiliates can accomplish together through global solidarity.

Although there had been vigorous debate among Action Programme Committee representatives in the months leading towards Congress, all sections of the Action Programme were adopted unanimously. 

Each section of the Action Programme debate was introduced by a different Committee member and in some cases a short video illustrating IMF’s work in the related area, reflecting the diversity of experience and background of IMF affiliates.

Specific issues of concern for metalworkers were also picked up in the 12 Resolutions adopted by Congress. Resolutions were on topics ranging from improving workers’ health and safety, preserving permanent jobs, tackling climate change and xenophobia, and removing barriers to organising in the U.S. Solidarity with Mexican miners, workers in Belarus and Toshiba workers in Indonesia were also the subjects of the Congress Resolutions.

Text / Congress communications team

The 32nd IMF World Congress held in Gothenburg, Sweden, demonstrated both the value and increasing need for global cooperation between metalworking unions.

Over four days, nearly 800 union leaders from all over the world were brought together to debate common strategies to improve the working lives and conditions of metalworkers globally.

The current global economic crisis and the serious difficulties working people face was a major topic of discussion at Congress. It was noted by several speakers that the crisis is of historic proportions and what began in the financial markets has reached the metal industry, representing a huge threat to workers’ jobs and income security.

Commenting on the crisis, keynote speaker Heiner Flassbeck, former deputy finance minister in Germany, now head of UNCTAD’s Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, argued that governments must step in and regulate markets and that deflation, especially wage deflation, must be avoided. "A reduction of wages is the biggest threat to the economy. For that reason wage deflation must be avoided at all cost," he said.

Congress delegates were united in their call on governments and corporations to urgently engage with unions to find socially acceptable and equitable solutions to the global economic crisis, adopting a declaration on the subject.

LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN: Representing affiliates in the region, the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean condemns the military coup in Honduras on 28 July against President Manuel Zelaya, against democracy and against the people of our sister country, Honduras.

President Manuel Zelaya was democratically elected president, in accordance with the constitution, and has a mandate to govern until January 2010. The military, which kidnapped and expelled President Zelaya from the country, want an end to democracy and have violated the will of the people as expressed through the ballot box.

The Regional Office, in a letter signed by the Regional Director, Jorge Almeida, expressed its solidarity with the Honduran people and the social and trade union organisations that are resisting this savage authoritarianism. "We are taking action jointly with the international trade union movement. We call on all democratic governments in the region to defend democratic institutions and the sovereign will of the people by putting pressure on the usurpers of power in our sister republic of Honduras."

We demand the immediate reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya, the return of democratic institutions and the restoration of constitutional order in Honduras.  

Napoleón Vallecillo, of the Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros y Metalurgicos de Honduras ((Miners and Metalworkers Federation of Honduras) says that "all FETRAMIMH affiliates have joined the resistance to the coup."  He added that the Honduran people are permanently in the streets "demanding the return of President Zelaya and the punishment of those who carried out the coup."

The IMF Regional Coordinator for Mexico and Central America, Gregorio Santana, said that "at no time and in no circumstances is a military coup acceptable." He added that the alleged violation of the Honduras constitution should be resolved with the President and all the country’s institutions, through the democratic system. President Zelaya should be allowed to return."

The IMF Regional Office reiterated its call to affiliates to take action in solidarity with the Honduran people by writing letters or taking other initiatives to demand the immediate reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya and the return of democratic institutions to Honduras.

HONDURAS: The Honduran people, victim of a military coup against the President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, last Sunday, is resisting but is subject to tremendous intimidation, says Napoleón Vallecillo, president of the Federación de Trabajadores Mineros y Metalúrgicos de Honduras (Miners and Metalworkers Federation of Honduras), affiliated to the IMF.

Napoleón told the IMF that "all FETRAMIMH affiliates have joined the resistance to the coup." He said there has not been such fierce repression for 30 years and the coup was a backward step. "Some people have disappeared, others have been killed and wounded and the authorities have a black list of 600 leaders they are looking for."

"There is a tremendous amount of intimidation in the country and the government has suspended constitutional guarantees, such as personal freedom, freedom of movement (between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.) and the freedoms of association, expression and information. Moreover, individuals can be arrested without charge."

He also explained that the people are engaged in a national strike of popular resistance, which the federation has joined. The Honduran people are permanently in the streets "demanding the return of President Zelaya and the punishment of those who carried out the coup."

FETRAMIMH thanks IMF affiliates and the IMF Regional Office for the solidarity they have given.

The IMF Regional Office offered its solidarity to our mining and metalworking colleagues in Honduras, condemned the military coup and called on all affiliates to take action in solidarity with the Honduran people by writing letters or taking other initiatives to demand the immediate reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya and the return of democratic institutions to Honduras.

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: The International Metalworkers’ Federation implemented the second phase of its occupational health and safety project for affiliates in the countries of the former Yugoslavia from June 23 to June 26. The project, which is carried out in close cooperation with the IMF Spanish affiliate MCA-UGT and the Spanish Trade Union Institute of Cooperation for Development, was launched in April 2008 in Belgrade and will continue until 2010. It targets the steel and non-ferrous sectors and aims at training health and safety shop-stewards and improving health and safety at the workplace.       

Prevention was the main theme of this second seminar. Earlier this year the IMF had conducted a survey on health and safety standards in these sectors that had revealed a high level of accidents often due to lack of proper training and awareness on OHS hazards, and low trade union involvement in prevention planning and evaluation.  

Health and safety experts from MCA-UGT and the Spanish steel companies association UNESID participated in the seminar and gave enlightening presentations on risk analysis and prevention techniques, using visual aids such as videos with subtitles in the local language. Strong emphasis was put on the fact that commitment to OHS could only be generated by involving everybody in the process – trade unions as well as management. Participants also discussed organizing prevention campaigns and the cost of non-prevention, and were able to interact during the group work activities arranged as part of the curriculum.     

All the material used is being translated and will be made available to the participants and their unions for further use as an information and educational tool. As an outcome of the seminar, the participants committed themselves to start developing OHS programs locally and/or nationally and mainstreaming OHS in trade union work. 

The last step of the project will deal with collective bargaining and social dialogue, and OHS as leverage for union building. This project is carried out with the support of the Spanish agency for Development Cooperation.

1. The location of the Federation’s Headquarters shall be determined by the Congress.

1. The International Metalworkers’ Federation can be dissolved only by a two-thirds majority of the Congress.  In such a case, the last Congress shall decide on the use of any remaining funds.

1. The Congress alone may amend these Rules by a two-thirds majority.
2. Proposals concerning the revision of the Rules are to be submitted in accordance with IMF procedures outlined in Article 3.2. K., L., M. and N. of this document.

1. The General Secretary shall notify all organisations which are in arrears in their contributions.
2. An organisation in arrears in the payment of subscriptions loses speaking and voting rights at all IMF meetings, including the Executive Committee, Central Committee and the Congress.
3. Exoneration from the payment of subscriptions must be asked for in writing in the first half of the year for which the exoneration is required.
4. Exoneration from the payment of annual subscriptions shall only be granted by the Executive Committee in extraordinary cases such as civil war and repression of workers’ rights.