A globalised economy could benefit workers throughout the world and improve prospects for social progress and sustainable development.  However this will not happen by following a deregulation agenda.  The growing inequalities between and within countries generated by neo-liberal policies and free trade show that workers are not receiving an equitable share of the wealth they create in society.  Unsustainable commercial and production practices, spurred on by unregulated globalisation, have caused risks posed by industry, public health concerns, environmental preservation, and climate change to move to centre stage. 

Climate change is a threat to sustainable development and will affect human well-being, industrial activities, and employment.  It is not just a concern for the developed countries, which still account for most greenhouse gas pollutants. The rapid, energy-intensive growth in China, India and other fast-moving industrialising economies is also contributing to the increase in green-house gas emissions.

Global warming is now widely acknowledged to be the most critical environmental issue facing humanity.  There is strong scientific evidence that most of the warming observed is attributable to unregulated economic activities and consumption based on a massive and excessive exploitation of natural resources, which also results in widespread industrial pollution.  Fast growing emissions caused by transport, industries, and fossil fuel power plants are made possible by a globalisation that is promoted by neo-liberal policies, including a huge increase in free trade and the associated transportation costs. Production regardless of costs to the environment and the costs of recycling and disposal is prevalent.  There is a scientific consensus that immediate measures such as cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, a stop to the destruction of forests (especially rain forests), and a change in agricultural production towards  biologically-based systems is essential.

Furthermore, trade in dangerous wastes such as chemical and other industrial residues including nuclear power stations must either be strictly regulated, or should be stopped. Today, such wastes are often dumped by industrialised countries in developing countries.  The latter accept these practices for the short term and minimal income they provide.  There is much evidence that the receiving countries often cannot handle the wastes in a safe and proper manner. Frequently, they are stocked in open spaces where children and poor women go in search of the wherewithal for survival.

The global fight for environmental protection must take employment implications and opportunities fully into consideration. Whilst environmental protection has a cost, there is a huge potential for job creation in metal industries, particularly in those related to alternative energies, construction, and fuel-efficient transportation. Creation of stable, safe, and good jobs must be put at centre of the response to the environmental crisis. These jobs must be based on production of goods and services that are useful and accessible to everyone in the community.  Because many environmental problems have their roots in the workplace, workers are in a unique position to contribute to solutions.  Moreover, the role of trade unions, especially industrial unions, needs to be strong at the sectoral level where special attention must be given to auto, steel, aluminium, aerospace and power generation, which are all  fundamental for the future of our economy.  Finally, these positive developments will only happen if trade unions all around the world and their allies fight against neo-liberalism and for effective national industrial development policies.

Globalisation and its social impact is an important factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS and other new epidemics.  As a result, these epidemics. cannot be addressed as an isolated issue, but only in the context of trade, investments, the employment relationship, and social protection. Less developed countries with high levels of poverty and inequality are especially vulnerable. As a result of the policy pressures from international financial institutions, poverty amongst the most economically marginalized groups is deepening. This affects both the spread and the response to the epidemics.  Unions are key actors at the workplace; they can protect workers and develop agreements with employers to promote access to care and treatment, and to prevent discrimination.  Trade unions also play a wider social and political role within civil society, which seeks to alleviate poverty and deprivation by raising wages, living and social standards.

A global arms race, which stirs up tensions and conflicts across the world, also threatens a sustainable future. World military spending has increased by 45 per cent since 1998. The struggle to secure access to vital supplies of energy and other raw materials is a major factor contributing to this military build-up.  At the same time these limited resources are depleted by wasteful and unnecessary production and growing populations. On the other  hand,  investment in much-needed education and health programmes, and in official development assistance has lagged behind.

Too often governments prioritise the interests of TNCs over the interests of workers, which is particularly apparent when it comes to questions of trade. Not surprisingly the current world trading system continues to demonstrate its inability to tackle the issue of sustainable development and address the needs of workers worldwide. Trade unions energetically oppose the current proposals for further liberalisation of trade in manufactured goods, because these would undermine prospects for progress in many developing economies and weaken labour relative to multinational capital in developing and developed economies. While multilateralism is in crisis, there is a proliferation of bilateral and regional trade agreements that, in most cases, have been negotiated without any trade union consultation and input. 

Unfair trade practices and the resistance of governments to incorporating core labour standards in an enforceable manner in trade and investment agreements are intensifying current strains in the multilateral system. Trade can be an engine for economic and social development, but for this to happen current policies and practices must be fundamentally changed. Violations of core labour standards are not only an affront to human rights, but also an economic distortion. They are no different than the distortions caused by unfair subsidies or violations of intellectual property rights, which are subject to WTO sanctions. 

China’s growing participation in international trade has increased competitive pressures on workers in both developed and developing countries, and breaches of core labour standards.  In particular, the development impact of China’s involvement in Africa and Latin America, driven by a need to access energy and mineral resources to feed its rapid industrialisation, has become a major source of concern, as has its currency policy.

TNCs seek to shift their risks and costs onto workers, often with institutional and government support. In addition, offshoring, outsourcing and subcontracting have become an integral part of corporate cost-reduction strategies and affect not only production work but also increasingly high-skilled and well-paid jobs in design, research and development activities. Relocation as well as a large part of green-field investment takes place in countries where, in many cases, there is a very low rate of unionisation, no democratic unions or no unions at all.

TNCs have provided employment through direct capital investment, while building complex global supply chains and multi-level networks, which reach out to thousands of contractors and suppliers all over the world.  These networks have made it possible for companies to source goods and services anywhere, reorganise production lines quickly, forcing workers to adapt constantly to new performance requirements, or to leave the country at a moment’s notice if a cheaper and more compliant workforce is available somewhere else.

TNCs have thus significantly altered the industrial structure within and among countries for their own benefits, including by moving decision-making centres and by transforming the employment relationship on which labour protection systems are largely based.  While it is abundantly clear that TNCs have a significant influence over the working conditions of millions of workers across the world, they refuse to recognize their influence and they argue that they are not responsible for the workers along the supply chain. 

TNCs have created a global labour market in which workers from the same and/or different countries are continuously put into competition with each other.  Moreover, the unrestricted mobility of capital allows it to take advantage of differences in wages, working conditions, and labour legislation.  Conflicts of interests are created between groups of workers in different regions, between workers at different worksites, and also within and across countries. Workers are pushed to work faster, cheaper, and for longer hours, which leads to increasing work-related health problems. The TNCs ability to relocate manufacturing and research and development is a threat not only to jobs but also to wages and workers’ bargaining power.

To date, trade unions have had limited success in challenging the power of TNCs. The relocation process driven by TNCs is taking a heavy toll on workers and many regions are facing the spectre of de-industrialisation. However, industry is a key component of growth, technological and social development, and balanced trade patterns. It is vital for employment. Government policies are therefore needed to promote equitable and sustainable growth, facilitate the adaptation of traditional industries, and encourage the development of new ones.  Unions have a new role to play in this field, linking the social and environmental dimension in their strategy for the benefit of all workers. 

Millions of workers around the globe continue to face repression, imprisonment, discrimination and all kinds of threats and pressures due to their trade union activities. Trade unionists are killed in the exercise of their rights.

Poor labour standards and lax enforcement of labour legislation are often used as a means to attract much-needed foreign investment as is the case in export processing zones (EPZs).  Millions of workers, above all women, are employed today in such zones. Discrimination and abuses are common in EPZs where attempts to form unions and bargain collectively are often met with intimidation, violence, sackings and even death threats. 

The policies of international financial institutions have also hurt workers around the world.  By imposing conditions designed first and foremost to promote labour market deregulation, privatisation and economic liberalization, these policies have undermined basic workers’ rights, exacerbated financial instability, fuelled inequalities, and created serious hardships for workers and their communities.

This attack on jobs and the dilution of the employment relationship is also an attack on unions and workers’ rights. Employers, in many countries with the full support of governments, are attempting to divide working people. Trade unions are struggling with declining membership and a deteriorating collective bargaining environment.  Adverse trends include changes in industries, employment status and industrial relations (including a shift from industry and sector level bargaining to enterprise agreements or even individual contracts) as well as anti-union actions by governments and corporations.  In addition, unions have not adequately responded to this adverse environment and to the challenge to renew themselves and organise effectively.   The aggressive anti-union campaigns conducted by employers in certain countries with the help of outside consultants are playing a major role in the sustained assault on unions and collective bargaining.  Such union-busting activities are being exported to other countries and represent a serious threat to the rights of workers all over the world.

The ILO estimates that the present financial crisis is likely to lead to the loss of some 20 million jobs worldwide and conservatively estimates that the number of working poor living on less than a dollar a day could rise by some 40 million, with those at two dollars a day rising by more than 100 million. Even now, before the full effect of this crisis is known, over one-third of the world’s workforce is jobless or underemployed.

The so-called modernisation of labour laws that governments and business interests are seeking to introduce is also part and parcel of the neo-liberal agenda and a direct attack on workers. Not only is there a rise in unemployment worldwide, but also employment creation increasingly comes at the expense of quality jobs.  More and more workers are finding the search for full-time, permanent employment a fruitless quest.  Precarious work is becoming the norm, spreading in all sectors of the economy including in professional groups.  Others find their jobs are outsourced, misclassified, and lack protection from existing labour laws.

In many developing countries, workers have been squeezed out of regular employment into the so-called informal economy due to severe economic crises, widespread privatisation programmes, and the job destruction resulting from economic restructuring. The unregulated economy is expanding and a growing number of people struggle to survive on poverty level wages. Unemployment and poor living conditions spur migration within countries and across national boundaries, creating a multitude of tensions in many parts of the world. 

Precariously employed workers face job insecurity and an uncertain future, low wages, limited or no access to social benefits, such as health or pension schemes, and increased health and safety risks at work. Precarious workers are also frequently denied rights at work, such as the right to join a union or bargain collectively. The rise of precarious employment is creating a two-tier workforce, which is undermining social cohesion and weakening trade unions.  This is part of a larger union-busting strategy used by employers in their well orchestrated anti-union campaigns.

Financial capital has come to dominate productive capital. Short-term speculative investment has gained the upper hand at the expense of long-term investment in job creation, skills development, research and innovation, and sustainable development. The current food, fuel and financial crises, are neo-liberal policy failures, that have drastic consequences for working people and the poor, and that are now dragging the world economy into a severe recession.

Over the past few years the globalisation of finance has taken on a new dimension with the proliferation of novel speculative products that escape monitoring and regulation. Speculative funds are fed by banks and institutional investors such as insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds. Some part of private equity assets also come from sovereign wealth funds with huge resources at their disposal, and with a deliberate lack of transparency as to their political and economic objectives, as well as to their practices and investment strategies.

Never before has the influence of private equity and hedge funds on markets and enterprises been so strong.  Many of them are located in tax havens, which deals another blow to already declining public income from corporate taxation. The financial economy based on short-termism and high rates of return is increasingly disconnected from the real economy with devastating consequences for workers.

Today, hardly any company is immune from takeover by private equity funds. In most cases, these funds take control of enterprises without any industrial plans, and for the sole objective of boosting share prices and extracting maximum returns over a short period. The potentially high short-term gains attract institutional investors, including pension funds. Thus workers who have put their retirement savings in these pension funds find themselves unwittingly involved in speculative finance that is destroying jobs. Many workers have already watched their savings dissolved by corporate scandals.   

The instability of the world’s financial markets is not just a problem due to a few speculators – the whole system requires new rules.

Since the IMF Congress in 2005, metalworkers and the whole trade union movement have been confronted with an increasingly hostile political, economic and social environment. Corporations have led globalisation to maximise the global reach and profits of their operations with the support of governments and international institutions by promoting neo-liberal policies, which feature deregulation of capital and labour markets, privatization of public services and assets, a reduction in employment growth in many regions, an erosion of social security systems and the frequent denial of worker and human rights.  Even today, a large proportion of the world’s metalworkers do not enjoy the fundamental right to have a union.

While the world economy has grown and created vast amounts of wealth, the divide between rich and poor has widened.  Ever more workers have been faced with deteriorating working and living conditions, job insecurity and an erosion of their rights. Capital has gained huge profits, while the purchasing power of most workers has fallen or at best stagnated.

The global economy is in the throes of a unique crisis. The ideology that unbridled greed for profits is the driving force behind human progress has been discredited. What we need is a new approach where politics and economics serve the development of society and quality employment. The current crisis is not only the result of misjudgements and misguided developments in the market, or the result of overheating financial markets. It is entirely the result of the ideology of an unrestrained market and economic and political policies directed at maximising  short term profits.  On a positive note however, while undoubtedly the next four years of the International Metalworkers´Federation work will be tough and difficult, the current economic situation also provides us with a real opportunity to create a new international development model that rivals that of neoliberalism and is based on regulation, fairness, equality, sustainability and decent trade union and labour rights.

Therefore, the fundamental mission of the trade union movement is more than ever to improve workers’ wages, working and living conditions, and to ensure that workers and workers’ rights are respected. The mission of the IMF is to work towards the achievement of these goals in metal­working and related industries by working with its  affiliates and on the global level.

Today, corporate-led globalisation is still massively infringing on the rights of workers. The policies promoted by employers, most governments and the international institutions they dominate have resulted in increased economic inequality, precarious employment and a reduction in the bargaining power of working people around the world.

Recognizing that union building/organising and collective bargaining are at the heart of our work, metalworker unions must organise and mobilise union members to challenge the neo-liberal agenda of corporations and most governments, and ensure working people have a fair share in the wealth generated through economic growth.

The goal of the IMF is to support, coordinate and strengthen the activities of its affiliates to:

• Improve workers’ wages, working and living conditions;
• Organise new members into democratic workers’ unions throughout the world;
• Build and strengthen national metalworking unions;
• Ensure that internationally recognized Core Labour Standards are applied in every country and that national laws are changed to reflect these standards;
• Defend and protect workers’ rights;
• Fight for safe and healthy working conditions;
• Make women’s rights, interests, and representation one of the highest priorities;
• Struggle for sustainable economic growth that protects the environment and improves social conditions;
• Strengthen the power and unity of trade unions to build a counterweight to the power of transnational corporations (TNCs), including their power over the allocation of employment and investment;
• Struggle for fair trade, social justice and the elimination of poverty; and
• Support and build solidarity with countries and governments who promote progressive policies aimed at delivering fairness, equality and social sustainability.

It is clear that trade unions cannot achieve these goals only at the national level.  National initiatives must be complemented with international action in order to be successful

For this reason the role of the IMF is to:

• Unite national metalworking trade unions in a global union structure capable of mobilising its membership in solidarity at all levels wherever and whenever required;
• Bring unions together to share information, overcome conflicts of interest and build common strategies;
• Coordinate solidarity and support for affiliates during major disputes or when fundamental workers’ rights are infringed;
• Provide information on developments that affect the activities of metalworker unions;
• Actively voice the concerns and interests of metalworkers in effective and innovative ways that involve and mobilise trade union members and bring the IMF into the daily activities of affiliate unions;
• Direct resources and solidarity support towards building strong national unions in countries where unions are weak or non-existent;
• Support trade union education that tackles core trade union activities such as organising, collective bargaining, defending workers’ rights and international solidarity;
• Coordinate an international strategy for building unionism in TNCs and their suppliers at the sectoral and enterprise levels.  Challenge the power of TNCs by developing the capacity to bargain collectively at the international level – based on a case by case mandate from the affiliates and by such means as sharing information and experiences among affiliates  and building on the work of negotiating, implementing and monitoring International Framework Agreements (IFAs);
• Expose and challenge governments that violate fundamental trade union rights or interfere in the functioning of independent trade union bodies;
• Represent the interests of metalworkers in international bodies which take decisions affecting jobs and employment conditions, such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO);
• Work with other Global Union Federations (GUFs), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD to pursue closer cooperation and action in the interests of affiliates; and
• Build, whenever possible, dialogue, alliances and joint actions with appropriate political and social organisations.
• Affiliates of the IMF will make significant contributions to the attainment of our goals by:
• Strengthening their political influence, capacities, and resources through organising and collective bargaining at the national level;
• Sharing information and actively communicating with the IMF and other affiliates at the national, regional, and international level;
• Engaging in the regional and global structures of the IMF;
• Supporting each other during disputes or when fundamental workers’ rights are violated;
• Participating in international actions and international networks organised through the IMF; and
• Giving visibility to international trade union action by incorporating IMF co-ordinated activities in day-to-day trade union work.

Ultimately, to achieve our goals, the IMF must go beyond simple coordination and become a truly global trade union organization that is able to counteract social and economic challenges and is based on the principles of independence and democracy following the mandates given by the decision-making bodies.

In the process of developing a new Action Programme we see the strengths of the International Metalworkers’ Federation. We find that the things that unite us are much greater than the things that divide us.  In the borderless world of today, we share common experiences, challenges and an analysis of the situation facing workers globally.

This common ground helps the IMF family to decide upon the direction we will take in order to tackle the problems metalworkers confront every day.

The fact that this Action Programme was adopted in the midst of a global economic crisis is not insignificant. But we didn’t need the global crisis to understand that the neoliberal model that used to dominate the world was destructive to workers’ rights and social development.

This IMF Action Programme adopted at the 32^nd World Congress puts increased emphasis on concrete action and what IMF affiliates can accomplish together through global solidarity. In order to maximise our influence we need to mobilise the forces of the whole IMF family.

We have to invest more resources in organising everywhere.  We will systematically target transnational companies that are reluctant to allow workers to exercise their fundamental rights.

The campaign against precarious employment becomes solidified in this document.  The Programme recognises that we need to say and do more on the question of sustainable development and combating global warming.

Building trade union networks in transnational companies offers a possibility for exchange of information and joint action to make sure that enterprises behave well wherever they operate.  Union building programmes help us strengthen trade unions where they are weak.

This Action Programme contains exciting and challenging new commitments for IMF affiliates to respond with real and effective action to build stronger unions and when workers’ rights are violated.  If we work together to implement this Action Programme, we can achieve our mission.

In solidarity,

Jyrki Raina,
IMF General Secretary

June 2009