Globalisation and restructuring means the IMF and its affiliates must find ways to engage automotive companies to protect and defend the interest of workers in the sector.

IMF auto activities use company – and industry-based meetings, action groups and networks at the regional and global levels, along with research on trends impacting workers, to facilitate the exchange of information, build union contacts and develop strategies.

Helmut Lense, [email protected], is the Automotive Director.

In February 2006, the government illegally removed the union's General Secretary, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, and replaced him with a government appointee, Elías Morales Hernández. Next, the government perverted the Mexican legal system and levelled charges of corruption and embezzlement against Gómez. An independent audit of the union's accounts, commissioned by the IMF, proved all funds were accounted for and exonerated Gómez of any wrong doing, yet the government still refuses to correct this wrong doing.

When a number of inquiries into theses actions revealed that the government had used falsified documents, concealed evidence, and coerced officials to issue baseless arrest warrants against the union leader, Grupo México and the government moved to divide the union, granting overnight recognition to a procompany union and holding "elections" in which workers were forced and coerced to join its ranks.

Meanwhile, Grupo México enjoys full use of the national army and federal police to break strikes, kill workers and arrest union leaders fighting for safer working conditions in Grupo México-owned mines.

Gómez was officially reinstated as General Secretary on April 11, 2007, after a federal court ruled the Labour Secretariat had overstepped its authority and failed to comply with established procedures.

However, Gómez remains in exile due to unfounded pending charges and intense safety and security threats against him and his family.

Today, it seems Grupo México is able to murder, torture, intimidate and abuse workers with complete impunity while the acts of defending democratic freedoms and workers' rights are deemed illicit. The government has relied on force and violence to resolve the country's labour disputes, while criminalizingtrade union activity.

The IMF and its affiliates are calling on the Mexican government to:

• release all union funds illegally seized by the government;
• lift all charges still pending against Napoleón Gómez Urrutia and other members of the SNTMMSRM;
• prosecute in a court of law, immediately and transparently, all those responsible in the corruption of documents and facts; and
• investigate Grupo México's involvement in the  murder of Reynaldo Hernández González and the detention and torture of 20 SNTMMSRM members in Nacozari, Sonora.

Through our solidarity work, the International Metalworkers’ Federation responds to rights violations immediately and effectively and fights for human and trade union rights by exposing governments and companies that exploit workers and violate international labour standards. In cooperation with global labour bodies and our affiliates, the IMF is improving workers’ rights and conditions by launching solidarity campaigns to reduce precarious work, end union repression, raise health and safety standards, and fight legislative initiatives which seek to undermine unions and their members.

COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT

Anita Gardner
Director: Communications
+41 22 308 5032
[email protected]

Alexander Ivanou
Communications officer
+41 22 308 5033
[email protected]

Useful links to organisations, media outlets, etc. 

INDIA: More than 1300 workers went on indefinite strike on April 20 after management at Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL), located in Chennai, India, refused to negotiate contract demands with the Hyundai Motor India Employees' Union (HMIEU).

The company has taken a firm position that it will not negotiate with HMIEU, the sole registered union at the plant, and instead is pressing to enter into agreement with a company-appointed Works Committee. Workers downed tools after three rounds of mediation by the Deputy Labour Commissioner (DLC), during which HMIL expressed its refusal to negotiate with the union, failed to bring results.

Hyundai Motor India, which employees some 3000 precarious workers, has a history of rights abuses in the plant. The company recently terminated the contracts of some 600 workers, some who had worked at the plant for almost 4 years, just prior to them receiving permanent status.

Since July 2007, in response to the formation of the HMIEU, trade union leaders, members and supporters have suffered from dismissals, suspensions and transfers and workers have faced management's widespread use of threats, harassment and intimidation for joining a union. Currently 65 workers have been fired for their union activities and 34 more are in the process of being dismissed.

Approximately 1200 permanent workers, out of a total of 1500 permanent employees, and a large number of precarious workers are supporting the strike.

Among the charter of demands, workers are calling for:

• Union recognition and a collective bargaining agreement;
• Equal treatment of all workers;
• Reinstatement of all precarious workers fired as a result of the company's response to the economic crisis or those fired in an effort to deny them permanent status;
• Reinstatement of union members and officers unfairly fired, transferred or suspended and the withdrawal of all charges pending against them.

In March 2009, the International Hyundai-Kia Workers' Network meeting hosted by the International Metalworkers' Federation and the Korean Metal Workers' Union passed a resolution in support of HMIEU efforts and calling for an end to violations of trade union rights at HMIL. To see resolution text, click here.

Welcome to the IMF, the International Metalworkers' Federation. Our organisation represents the collective interests of 25 million metalworkers in more than 200 unions in 100 countries. The IMF is a federation of national unions – a union of unions – in the metal industry at world level. The IMF head office is in Geneva, Switzerland, where worldwide activities are coordinated with a network of regional offices.

 

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

 

GLOBAL: IBM Workers made redundant as a result of offshoring can now apply for jobs in the country the work has shifted to – but with the reduced wage and conditions of the low-cost nation.

According to online reports, the Project Match program offers laid-off US and Canadian workers the opportunity to move to nations like India, Brazil and China to work on local terms and conditions.

Employees who accepted the offer would need to work away from their home country on proportionally much lower wages, and would probably struggle to save enough to come home, according to Alliance@IBM, an organisation of the IMF – US affiliate CWA.

"If this trend spread to other sectors or industries it would even further undermine workers' ability to maintain wages and conditions," said the IMF's director for the ICT industry, Robert Steiert.

"Jobs should always be retained in the nation where they were first located instead of being sacrificed for the sake of company profit."

Project Match and other offshoring issues will be discussed at a joint meeting between the IMF and global union federation UNI later this year.

Mexico: The Cananea mining company, owned by Grupo Mexico, has announced it will terminate employment contracts with its workers after a ruling made by the Labour Department's Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Court (JFCA).

One thousand and two hundred workers at the Cananea mine have been on strike for 21 months in support of improved health and safety conditions and in support of their union leader, Napoleón Gómez.

In March, the company announced it would have to close the mine and dismiss all the workers because of damage caused to machinery during the prolonged strike and applied to the JFCA for a ruling.

On 14 April, the authorities declared the strike was legal. However, on the same day, a few hours later, the JFCA granted the company's request to dismiss the workers.

The court's decision means that the company can now end its employment contract with the workers and make a new agreement with other unions.

Sergio Beltrán Reyes, Secretary of the National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM) Executive Committee, described the ruling as "an aberration considering that the court decided in favour of the company just a few hours after the strike was declared legal. This cannot be allowed to happen. How can they ignore the right to strike? They should sit down and negotiate an end to the strike and then see whether conditions at the mine make it viable and possible to operate or not".

He added that this is one more injustice against the union and explained that the union had applied for an injunction against the court ruling. However, he said, the union was prepared for any attempt by the company to evict the workers.

The miners are acting as a human shield to stop either the company or the government taking possession of the mine.

"We are going to defend the mine, because it is a source of employment for Mexican workers and we will not let the authorities take our work from us. We are ready to face the federal and police forces and we hope we do not suffer any provocation that might lead to more martyrs in this fight", said the union leader.