1. Overall Structure
   
   The official structure of the International Metalworkers’ Federation consists of:
   1. the Congress
   2. the Central Committee,
   3. the Executive Committee,
   4. the Finance Committee,
   5. the Auditing Committee.

1. In order to achieve these objectives, the IMF works to build a strong international trade union movement capable of effectively representing and promoting workers’ interests, in the face of an ever-expanding global economy — a global economy that has yet to embrace, let alone recognise, adopt and enforce workers’ rights.
2. The IMF affirms that only through trade unions and the practice of collective bargaining the goals of attaining social security and constant progress for workers can be achieved. The IMF therefore fights for all workers in their desire for freedom of association to form their own trade unions, the right to collective bargaining, the right to enter into collective agreements and the right to strike to achieve their demands.
3. The IMF also supports all its affiliated unions, particularly in developing countries, in their efforts to achieve higher living standards for workers and to promote democratic, economic and social development.
4. The IMF also fights for all other related internationally recognised labour standards, such as the right to a livable wage, safe and healthy working conditions, prohibitions against discrimination, and prohibitions against child labour or compulsory forced labour.
5. The IMF stands ready to make common cause with other independent, autonomous, and democratic trade union organisations, notably the International Trade Union Confederation and other Global Union Federations in pursuing international trade union objectives. It seeks to work with non-governmental organisations which share a commitment to promote trade union and other human rights.
6. Specific IMF activities which support these objectives include:
   1. Supporting the organisational efforts of metalworkers everywhere, particularly in developing countries and in all countries where freedom of association and the existence of free trade unions are threatened.
   2. Actively voicing metalworkers’ positions on potential international trade union, political, social, and economic issues concerning metalworkers throughout the world. Such participation includes appearances and submissions with respect to relevant international forums such as the World Trade Organisation, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Trade Union Confederations, etc.
   3. Serving as a catalyst, depository and exchange of information and material for affiliates needed in accomplishing these objectives.
   4. Providing moral and practical support and leading in the development of creative and innovative strategies to assist in economic, political and social conflicts.

1. The International Metalworkers’ Federation (hereafter called IMF or Federation) is an international association of metalworkers’ trade unions fighting to promote respect for trade union and other basic human freedoms, democracy, and social justice throughout the world.
2. The IMF provides means for trade unions of men and women in all facets of the metals and related industries – hereafter called metalworkers – to cooperate in pursuing common economic, social, labour and political objectives internationally.
3. The IMF works to achieve the recognition and effective enforcement of all international labour standards as specified by the International Labour Organisation’s Conventions and Recommendations.  These standards include safe and healthy working conditions, elimination of all forms of discrimination, freedom of association, freedom to engage in collective bargaining, and prohibitions on child labour and forced labour.  In addition, the IMF works to improve job security.
4. The IMF also works for peace, freedom and self-determination for all people in the struggle for social progress of workers throughout the world, including the elimination of the social and economic differences between industrialised and developing countries, as well as all types of exploitation perpetrated by various nations and transnational corporations.
5. The trade unions affiliated to the IMF – while retaining their autonomy – accept its basic purposes and work for the practical achievement through a diversity of structures and means which contribute to the richness and strength of the Federation.

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Table of contents
ARTICLE 1 – PURPOSE OF THE FEDERATION
ARTICLE 2 – MISSION OF THE FEDERATION
ARTICLE 3 – STRUCTURE OF THE FEDERATION
1. Overall Structure
2. The Congress
3. The Central Committee
4. The Executive Committee
5. The Finance Committee
6. The Auditing Committee
ARTICLE 4 – EXECUTING BODIES OF THE FEDERATION
1. Federation's Secretariat
2. Industrial and Organisational Departments
3. Regional Structures
ARTICLE 5 – DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, GENERAL SECRETARY AND ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARIES
1. Duties of the President
2. Duties of the Vice President
3. Duties of the General Secretary and Assistant General Secretaries
ARTICLE 6 – NATIONAL SECTIONS AND COMMITTEES
ARTICLE 7 – ADMISSION, RESIGNATION AND EXPULSION
1. Admission
2. Suspension and Expulsion
3. Resignation
ARTICLE 8 – FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS, ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS, SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
ARTICLE 9 – SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ARREARS AND EXONERATIONS
ARTICLE 10 – REVISION OF RULES
ARTICLE 11 – IMF HEADQUARTERS
ARTICLE 12 – DISSOLUTION OF THE FEDERATION

ITALY: The IMF Fiat Working Group, which involved more than 30 trade union representatives of Fiat Group workers across countries covering most  of the company’s global workforce, convened on 17-19 June 2009 in Turin, Italy.  The meeting takes place at a time of unprecedented restructuring, the pace of which has intensified and accelerated due to the global economic crisis.

Trade unions stressed that there must be no involuntary dismissals, plant closings, spinoffs, or precarious employment or working conditions as means to restructure.  Restructuring challenges require company and coordinated government policies that fully engage trade unions from the beginning of any considered restructuring that could impact workers. All alternatives should be considered and if any restructuring does occur, it must be done in a sustainable and socially acceptable manner. Long-term commitments, employment security and real progress towards lower carbon vehicles and transportation systems are essential.

The Working Group agreed on establishing a Fiat Trade Union Network to provide mutual support and exchange of information for purposes of defending and promoting worker and trade union rights, strengthening the organizing of the unorganized and collective bargaining. A top priority is the negotiation of an international framework agreement with the Fiat Group. Such an agreement is viewed as an important tool to advance global industrial relations in response to global strategies of Fiat and its suppliers.

Increasing union membership, establishing unions at unorganized facilities and strengthening unity at national and international levels are also priorities. The Working Group emphasized the importance of such efforts focused on younger workers, those at newly established Fiat operations and those at small and medium-sized suppliers.

The Working Group expressed serious concerns about ongoing violations of fundamental workers’ rights at Sinter Metal, a supplier to Fiat located in Turkey, demanding immediate ceasing of violations, reinstatement of unjustly dismissed workers and the commencing of collective negotiations to reach a fair settlement.

COLOMBIA: A shareholders meeting of Siderúrgica del Pacífico (Sidelpa), owned by the Gerdau Group, which acquired Sidelpa and Diaco in 2005, has decided to stop production and wind up the company, directly or indirectly leaving around 400 workers without jobs.

The company said the closure was due to the world financial crisis (variations in world demand for steel) and the shutdown of a furnace at the steelworks by the government environmental authority, Corporación Autónoma del Valle del Cauca, which ordered a halt to production on June 2, 2009 because of air pollution.

Immediately after the company announced the news, the 280 directly employed workers declared themselves in permanent assembly, according to the union (Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Siderúrgica del Pacífico). Edgar Perea, union vice president, told the media that the company had presented a voluntary redundancy plan but added that "we did not accept the plan because what we want to do is work". 

These were not the only workers to lose their jobs. More than 150 contract workers and 200 workers at Diaco, Cali, which processes Sidelpa products, are also now unemployed, said Sintrametal, to which the union is affiliated. 

Edward Portilla, Sintrametal’s national vice president, explained that the company wants "to get rid of us. It dismissed about 200 workers in November and December and then implemented a compulsory redundancy programme. Then came the CVC order, which the company used as an excuse."

Given the seriousness of the situation, which leaves 400 families without an income, the IMF Regional Office calls on its affiliates to show solidarity with the Sidelpa workers’ fight to keep their jobs.

MEXICO/GLOBAL: Parliament members, policy makers and union leaders from around the world are calling on Mexican President Felipe Calderón to accept their request to meet to discuss the recent murder and ongoing detention and harassment of members of the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM).

In July, an estimated 50 labour leaders and members of parliament from countries that are key trading partners with Mexico will participate in a high level fact-finding mission. Over the course of five days, the delegation will meet with Mexican government officials, Ambassadors stationed in Mexico, members of the miners’ union and widows and families of the victims of violence.

The mission is in response to a marked increase in violence against members of the SNTMMSRM, many of whom have been on strike for more than 22 months at mines owned by Grupo Mexico, the country’s largest and most powerful mining company. Grupo Mexico’s influence in the Mexican government has resulted in a number of illegal arrests of miners’ union members as well as the falsification of documents, corruption and a perversion of the legal system in an attempt to crush the union.

The SNTMMSRM is a long-established independent union representing workers in the mining and steel industry and has been an outspoken and powerful advocate for the rights of workers. It has been one of the few unions in Mexico to carry out a militant program of industrial action.

Attacks against the union, the subject of official complaints launched with the International Labour Organisation and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have in recent months escalated. The government has illegally frozen all union accounts, national and local, attacked strikers with brutal force and pursued criminal charges and lawsuits against SNTMMSRM members. On June 11, an SNTMMSRM member on strike in Sombrerete, Zacatecas was beaten to death when violence broke out at the Grupo Mexico mine. Three others were critically injured.

Parliamentarians and union leaders will be calling on the Government of Mexico to cease assisting the multinational mining company Grupo Mexico in its campaign to destroy the SNTMMSRM, release all union accounts illegally seized by the government, and prosecute in a court of law all those responsible for crimes committed against SNTMMSRM members.

The delegation is being jointly organized by the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), the United Steelworkers (USW) and the SNTMMSRM.  The decision to undertake this action was agreed upon at the IMF Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place in Buenos Aires last week.

At its Central Committee in 2003, the IMF adopted a policy stating that equitable and sustainable growth and development must be based on the following four pillars:

• Job creation and purchasing power;

• Re-regulation of the global financial market, including among other instruments a Tobin Tax;

• Debt cancellation; and

• Reform of the WTO and international financial institutions.

Today more than ever, these are the indispensable components of a development agenda based on social justice, an adequate strategy of fighting against poverty, fair international rules to regulate trade and investments, and an effective multilateral system. This is what the IMF will continue to pursue together with its affiliates, other international trade union organisations, and like-minded social and political organisations.

It has to be recognised that very little has been achieved by the international trade union movement since our last Congress in terms of democratic world governance, respect of human and workers’ rights, and the fight against poverty and workers’ exploitation. This applies in particular to trade negotiations: governments give no consideration to workers and pay no more than lip service to employment and development concerns.

Even if the joint efforts of trade unions internationally have achieved some progress, like the integration of social standards into the principles of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, it is difficult to see any positive concrete implementation. In practice, the International Monetary Fund continues to advocate deregulatory policies that undermine labour rights. The IMF strongly reiterates the trade unions’ demand to incorporate fundamental labour rights in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. This however is not enough without effective enforcement mechanisms that take into account the particular situation of countries with poor legal protection for the right of workers to organise and bargain collectively.

The opening of markets should be an instrument for sustainable development. For this to be possible, industrial policies that promote employment are indispensable. In fact, the fundamental link between market opening and sustainable growth is still missing. That link is jobs, good jobs for all, and a fair distribution of the wealth for the workers who create it.

In its actions on trade, the IMF working with its affiliates will focus on employment and economic development and search for fairness by taking into account possible conflict of interests between workers caused by market opening. Creating quality employment for all to generate wealth and redistributing income to reduce inequalities is an objective that is equally important for industrialised and developing countries. The IMF will coordinate its affiliates’ efforts to make this the priority in the trade policies of all governments. The sustainable growth we stand for cannot happen at the expenses of others, and we will fight for balanced solutions that do not damage weaker parties. It is the role of the IMF, particularly through its Working Party on Trade, Employment and Development, to build a solidarity strategy to help harmonize the legitimate interests of workers in the North and the South. The IMF will continue promoting a transparent debate among its affiliates to address the concerns arising from trade liberalisation that may impact negatively on jobs and rights in some countries while protecting employment in others.

Governments have to include development and labour rights issues in trade negotiations. These must include explicit consideration of the expected employment repercussions of trade liberalisation. Together with its affiliates the IMF will continue to demand that governments give serious estimates of potential new jobs generated by market opening and foreign direct investment agreements. This is indispensable to avoid ungrounded or misleading evaluations of the impact of increased trade

The IMF, in close collaboration with other GUFs, the ITUC and TUAC, will work to influence international institutions to adopt a democratic system of multilaterally agreed rules that fairly take into account the different needs and conditions of countries, and of different groups within countries. The lack of a real development agenda has made any progress in the Doha Round negotiations impossible, while bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) increasingly promote the interests of corporations and their allies at the expense of workers and citizens. Since the last IMF Congress there has been successful resistance often led by trade unions to some of the proposed agreements. These struggles, are important examples of unity and solidarity between workers in different regions on which the IMF can build future actions.

Sustainable development should be a key objective in the strategies of developing countries for attracting foreign investments. It should also be an indicator of success, along with the creation of quality employment and of a fair system of public social protection. The IMF will coordinate joint action and promote solidarity between its affiliates in developing and industrialised countries against the establishment of special economic zones where the incentives granted to TNCs cause the suppression of fundamental human and worker rights and make workers’ living and employment conditions extremely precarious.

The IMF will work in close collaboration with other GUFs, TUAC and ITUC, and other like-minded social movements to ensure that:

• Global financial markets are regulated, including as an initial step better disclosure of transactions, strengthened monitoring schemes and regulation of leveraging;
• Sustainable development be brought into trade and investment deals, access to markets be fair and balanced, and transparent monitoring mechanisms of already signed agreements be put in place;
• Impact and sustainability assessments along the social and economic development dimension of possible trade agreements be carried out prior to the conclusion of negotiations;
• Employment repercussions of trade liberalisation be considered by governments in the negotiations of multilateral and bilateral trade agreements and assessed with full involvement of trade unions; and
• Universal respect of fundamental workers’ and trade union rights as set out in the ILO 1998 Declaration be included in all bilateral and multilateral agreements on trade and investments along with effective enforcement mechanisms.

The IMF and its affiliates will work together to:

• Unite metalworkers at the regional and international level in the search for fair solutions to conflicts of interests in trade liberalisation that would damage weaker parties;
• Build solidarity among affiliates against the possible negative effects of market opening on employment in developing as well as industrialised countries;
• Challenge government resistance to transparently assess, together with social partners, the potential employment impact of trade deals; and
• Promote information and awareness raising campaigns among workers and citizens on the economic advantages that companies, as well as the countries where they operate, can get from the respect of fundamental workers’ rights everywhere.

The IMF will assist its affiliates in:

• Monitoring the impact of FTAs on employment and working conditions in metal working industries;
• Mobilising their memberships, in cooperation with their respective national centres, and like-minded political parties and social movements, against proposed FTAs that would undermine development, workers rights, good jobs and public services for working families; and
• Fighting against precarious employment conditions caused by foreign investments.

The IMF will seek to challenge TNCs and their supply chains by using IFAs, ILO instruments, OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, increased union cooperation and, in addition to international solidarity, cooperation with NGOs that share our aims to protect and promote worker and trade union rights.  Trade union organization of worksites is an essential precondition to monitor and implement workers’ rights. IFAs, however, do not replace the need for binding intergovernmental regulations to enforce core labour standards, or the need for national laws to enforce labour standards and to regulate the activities of the TNCs more effectively.

As instruments negotiated at the international level by GUFs in cooperation with their affiliates on one side and a TNC on the other, IFAs are important tools that the IMF and its affiliates can use to establish minimum labour standards across the operations of TNCs and their supply chains. The IMF has adopted a model International Framework Agreement along with policy recommendations covering four key areas: improving the content, initiating, negotiating, and implementation and enforcement.

Drawing on the experiences of the IFAs already negotiated with TNCs, the IMF will:

• Strengthen implementation, monitoring and enforcement through IMF structures and regional offices, and by training and involvement of affiliates with the aim of achieving best practices across TNCs that have signed framework agreements;
• After consultation with unions covered by the agreements, identify opportunities to strengthen existing agreements, and the options and means that are optimal for pursing improvements of their content;
• Coordinate the involvement of affiliates in negotiating additional IFAs;
• Explore possible strategies to encourage resisting TNCs to negotiate, implement, and comply with IFAs; and
• Implement a training programme on IFAs, including a guide, to help affiliates use these instruments in accordance with IMF policy.

Cooperation of affiliates, particularly those in the home country of a TNC, is instrumental to such efforts.

A key role of the IMF is to build effective solidarity and cooperation among affiliated unions present in metalworking TNCs to ensure an equal playing field for workers, which goes far beyond minimum standards. To achieve this, the IMF and its affiliates must actively engage workers in TNCs and their supply chains and give them an opportunity to actively participate in day-to-day trade union work and cross-border activities.

Building relationships and strengthening solidarity on an ongoing basis with trade union representatives from different countries enhances the affiliates’ ability to act jointly in crises, such as when the rights of workers are violated, during collective bargaining negotiations, when mass layoffs are carried out, or in the event of restructuring to prevent workers being played off against each other. The IMF uses global union networks and the IMF world company councils to build greater capacity for working together in defence of workers’ interests across national boundaries.

Whenever a TNC announces redundancies or a decrease in working conditions in a given country and the workers and their unions directly affected are actively resisting these changes, the IMF will coordinate solidarity actions involving all countries where that TNC operates. Solidarity actions will include among other initiatives: information campaigns targeting workers and the society at large; the commitment by all unions not to accept the transfer of production from the country in conflict to another one; protest demonstrations in the different countries of operation of the TNC, and wherever possible interruption of production and/or of supplies. In those solidarity campaigns a decisive role will be played by the home country trade union

This is particularly important to build solidarity with workers in countries like China, where they strive for workers’ rights and independent and democratic unions.  In this context, it is also important to engage with non-IMF organisations such as the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and its metal industry-organisations.  

Another step is to institutionalise networks and IMF-world company councils in order to create representative, functioning, financially viable and organised global structures of workers’ representation. In this respect, the IMF will resort to the experience made with company-related international cooperation in all regions.

The IMF continues to seek to establish IMF world company councils in TNCs.  Whenever possible,   financing of such councils will be negotiated with TNC management without compromising union inclusion and control. Management should play a role in these councils through regular meetings and providing information about the company’s situation, policy and investment.

These IMF-world company councils shall be underpinned by union networks made up of the responsible trade union coordinators from different countries and / or local areas in which plants of the TNC are located. These networks shall assure that all unions can be part of the information exchange process.

At companies such as Volkswagen, Daimler, SKF and Rolls Royce world employee representations/world works councils have already been established, which consist of employee representatives. They were negotiated with and are funded by the respective company.  Trade unions may be involved through an agreement or supportive trade union networks. IMF affiliates seek to engage with those councils to pursue IMF policies.

The most important benefit of this company-related, national, regional and international cooperation is the fact that trade union representatives from the company level can exchange information and reach agreed positions.  In so doing, activities of national or local workers’ representations may be coordinated internationally. Thus, the networks, world works councils and IMF-world company councils are a way of building solidarity and overcoming competition between workers in different plants of the same company. 

The IMF will support and organise training measures that equip union representatives at company level and union officers in charge of TNC with international and intercultural competences. Here, the goal is to efficiently foster cooperation at the company level. The communication between company union representatives and their national trade union must be organised according to the practices in the respective country (e.g. by union officers in charge of certain sectors or companies).

Trade union networks, world employee councils/world works councils and IMF world company councils have the potential to develop into negotiating bodies.  The IMF can support this where there is sufficient trade union strength and provided that it is mandated by the trade unions and trade unions are involved and clear IMF guidelines are adhered to.  Building on previous experiences and debates, guidelines for the work of company networks need to be discussed and defined by the IMF. Consideration should be given to focusing resources and efforts in a number of key companies balanced across different sectors and countries.

Trade union networks, world works councils and IMF world company councils work within the broader context of IMF sectoral activities and must take into account the varying structures of production chains, and competition in the metal industries. Sectoral work brings together workers from companies that compete with one another to discuss developments and seek shared positions and joint strategies. These strategies should address management attempts to create competition between workers in the sector.

The IMF’s regional sector-based meetings improve coordination by combining company and sector-level forums for workers, in support of global level activities. Developing sectoral and regional work around consistent responses to  the challenges  facing the industry’s workers  will be facilitated when it is done in concert with strengthening trade union links at the enterprise-level, based on an evaluation of the work done already.

In some countries, potential leverage to engage TNCs is available to unions through workers’ capital in the form of pension and retirement funds. IMF affiliates, particularly those in TNC home countries also have a variety of national means to influence corporate governance. These tools can be used to promote and protect worker and trade union rights across global production chains, to fight corporate corruption, and to push for greater social accountability by corporations.

Global campaigns against TNCs that consistently violate worker and trade unions rights are essential to furthering the interests of workers. This requires the support of IMF affiliates, world councils, actions groups and networks, and making use of possible workers’ capital and communication strategies.

To achieve strengthened union solidarity and cooperation across sectors and TNCs the IMF will:

• Pressure TNCs to take responsibility for working conditions in their operations and in their supply chains and to remove barriers to freedom of association;
• Build mutual understanding among affiliated unions present in metalworking TNCs to ensure an equal and level playing field for workers that goes far beyond minimum standards;
• Develop a TNC network strategy, working methods and tools, based on a critical analysis of the current networks, councils and available resources in each of the major TNCs. The strategy will include guidelines, to be developed by the Executive Committee, for the work of company networks. These will cover the roles of home country unions, IMF and other affiliates, avoiding co-optation by the companies, building the role of national unions, and tools/protocols for communication and action. The strategy will focus resources and efforts on a number of key companies that are distributed across different sectors and countries;
• Assist affiliates to form and coordinate global union networks at TNCs and/or the sectoral level through which employee representatives from the plant level and national unions can engage in a cross-border exchange of information and consultation on a regular basis;
• Coordinate activities and develop training and information material to build mutual trust and solidarity under the motto "United we stand – divided we fall!";
• Develop networks for information exchange and action that aim to be efficient, timely, accurate and accessible;
• Gather, analyse and distribute information on the metalworking industries, with particular focus on companies and industrial sectors where workers and members are concentrated, covering collective bargaining, technological changes, innovations on how production is organised, working time, pay and classification systems, and industrial actions;
• Work through TUAC and the ITUC to further strengthen mechanisms to influence corporate governance and socially responsible investment plans of pensions and retirement funds; and
• Work jointly with other GUFs, the ITUC, and TUAC to have structures of union representation in companies at the global level, together with rights to consultation and information, explicitly recognised by the ILO and in international laws and regulations.

IMF affiliates will:

• Provide technical and political support to build and strengthen networks and for successful international coordination of information coming from the national and regional levels; and
• Engage members at the national level to build mutual trust and solidarity to ensure an international approach towards worker and trade union rights when confronting corporate strategies including during transnational restructuring processes.