White-collar organising

Snap-On in Bollnäs is a traditional industrial factory where workers directly involved in production constitute the majority of employees. A bit further south, about an hour’s drive from Stockholm is ABB, one of the world’s leading high-tech companies and one which is increasingly dominated by white-collar workers and engineers.

Of the 3,500 white-collar workers, 1,300 are organized in Unionen (a merger of the industrial employees’ union Sif and the commercial employees’ union HTF). When the government made the unemployment funds more expensive, Unionen lost members.

"Many older members left," recalls Krista Loiske, Unionen’s branch chairman for ABB in Västerås. "They thought their jobs were secure and that they could afford to be outside the union."

"It has become increasingly difficult to recruit," Krista says. "It used to go without saying that people would stick up for each other. But society has been getting more and more individualized, and we are often confronted with the question: ‘Why should I join, what do I stand to gain from the union?’"

Last autumn the crisis came. And that was when many people’s attitude toward the union changed, says Krista.

"The loss of members stopped, and more people began to join. It was as if the crisis served as a warning that people have to stick together. Which is really the whole point of the union."

That is precisely the point that Unionen’s activists constantly try to make when they meet newly hired people, when they report on their activity, when they offer coffee and show themselves among the employees.

The effect of the crisis in reversing the downward trend of membership figures has also been seen at the national level in Unionen. From September to October 2008 the number of members began to rise.

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A changing political landscape

The high rate of organization in Sweden is usually explained partly by the fact that the unemployment insurance funds are managed by the unions. The unemployment insurance funds were originally created by the unions as protection against cuts in pay.

The idea behind the funds was that no one should have to be tempted to take a job at a pay rate below the contract rate. Thus, unemployed people could refrain from taking a job that paid less than what the unemployment funds gave. In addition, the unemployment funds became a form of pay insurance for those who did have a job. The funds made it more difficult to engage in wage dumping or force workers to compete with each other for jobs with poorer conditions.

But when the present conservative government in Sweden came to power in 2006, they decided shortly after taking office to undermine the unemployment funds. Compensation for the unemployed was reduced. At the same time, the government also made it substantially more expensive to be a member of an unemployment fund.

The unions regarded this as a way for the new government to scare members into leaving their unions.

"In our case, no one has left the union because the contributions to the unemployment fund have increased," says Stefan Halvarsson.

"We made a point of telling people that it was the government that raised [unemployment fund] contributions, not the union."

Another reason for the high degree of union membership in Sweden is the position of the collective contract. "Without a strong collective contract, we would be much weaker," Stefan warns.

According to Stefan, the contract provides strong protection to members, including protection against pay cuts. The contract also gives local union organizations a strong negotiating position against employers.

The threat to unions now is that employers – as a result of the economic crisis – are trying to hollow out the collective contract and weaken it.

"Such attempts have been made before, but we managed to fight back," says Stefan.

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Whenever the company hires new staff, the branch holds an information meeting for new employees. "That gives us an opportunity to explain what the union stands for and why we are needed. It usually results in a useful dialogue with the new employees, who are frequently young people and often do not know much about the union’s values," Stefan adds.

But a good introduction is not enough, says Stefan. The union must be alive all the time. The union must be visible and accessible for the members, who must be kept properly informed and have an opportunity to participate. The Bollnäs plant branch has found a new approach. "If we gather everyone together at a big meeting in the dining hall, usually only two or three people will take the floor. The rest keep quiet," says Stefan. "For that reason we have tried another way."

Member meetings take place on a small scale so that as many people as possible have an opportunity to speak. Members are divided into small groups of about 15 people. To bring the union even closer to employees, they hold annual IF Metall meetings at the plant. A number of issues are discussed in small groups and they also conduct a survey among the members.

In that way the branch gets answers on how union work can be improved and developed. Approximately one out of four branch members attend the IF Metall meetings.

"Through the IF Metall meeting we get to know what the members expect of the union," Stefan says, noting "that puts pressure on us and lays the basis for the branch’s action plan. In addition, it gives us a good basis for working with our superiors. We can show the survey results and point to what needs to be changed at the workplace."

It is also important that elected officials be equipped to work effectively for the members. During the first year an elected official sits in on meetings to listen and learn. Then he or she undergoes a training program which includes law, contracts and negotiating techniques. All officials are given their own areas of responsibility.

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Text / HARALD GATU
Photos / LARS HALVARSSON

In Sweden most people belong to a union and the level of organisation is among the highest in the world. But joining a union is no longer taken for granted. The proportion of union members is declining, forcing unions to make an effort to recruit new members.

Stefan Halvarsson is 38 years old and president of the IF Metall union at one of the American Snap-On factories in Sweden. All workers, except one, are organized in the union. "They used to come and ask to become members, now we need to motivate them to join," he says.

A few hours’ drive north of Stockholm lies Bollnäs, a small town in an idyllic setting of vast forests and beautiful lakes.

The American firm Snap-On has a plant here that makes handsaws. There are 137 workers at the plant, and all but one are union members.

The fact that so many people are members does not mean that the union can relax and expect that every employee will spontaneously join.

"No, it’s not so simple," says Stefan Halvarsson. "Not any longer. It used to be that people spontaneously came and asked to join. Now we have to seek people out and argue for our cause. They want to know what the union can do for them."

Halvarsson is 38 years old, a bowling fan, and has worked at the plant for 14 years. Prior to that he worked in healthcare, and he believes that the healthcare job involving contact with people has made it easier for him to engage in union work.

"Being a union activist means working with people, building relationships and trust," Stefan says.

After a few years at the plant, he was asked if he wanted to undertake a union assignment. He said yes. Today Stefan is the chairman of IF Metall’s branch for the company. "We must always explain why one should join the union. And first and foremost, the union must always be visible. The union must be present among its members."

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GLOBAL: On the eve of the April meeting of the Group of 20 in London Global Union Federations have released  a special publication "Getting the World to work: Global Union Strategies for Recovery."

The joint publication is the result of  work by all Global Union Federations together with the International Trade Union Confederation and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD.

Each organisation has contributed  their vision on the ways to recover from the world economic crisis and to make changes in the world system to prevent it from happening again.

In the preface to the publication Aidan White, editor of the publication and the General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, writes: "At this critical moment, trade unions are mobilising. They have developed a vision for the world economy that goes beyond tinkering with regulation and repairing broken models of free trade".

The publication represents a collection of visions of unions speaking on behalf of workers employed in different sectors of world economy. All of them are united with the idea of the necessity to revise the current global financial system so as to provide workers and their families with a fair and sustainable global economy based on humanitarian values serving future generations as a strong basis for development.

"The crisis can be resolved and a return to decency is possible, but that will not happen unless we give voice to those at work," writes Marcello Malentacchi, IMF General Secretary in his article ‘Decency for a change’.

" That involves making sure that the right to organize and the right to bargaining are the foundation stones of a new economic and social structure that will provide us with the means to ensure that we are never again held hostage by slick and shady global marketeers."

The publication in English is posted on the Global Unions website http://www.global-unions.org/spip.php?article253, French and Spanish translations will follow shortly.

MEXICO: A Mexico City Federal District Court decision has invalidated arrest warrants and Mexican Government extradition requests for Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, leader of IMF affiliate, the National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union (SNTMMSRM).

Gomez is living in exile with his family in Canada after receiving death threats.

Gomez, the democratically elected general secretary of the SNTMMSRM was forcefully removed from his position in 2006.

Gomez spoke out against the Mexican government and Grupo Mexico mining company in response to a tragic mine accident in Pasta de Conchos that left 65 miners dead, many of them members of SNTMMSRM.

The Mexican Government and Grupo Mexico have continued a campaign of harassment against Gomez, the miners' union and its members.

Grupo Mexico has been linked to the physical assault, kidnapping and murder of miners' union members and their families.

In 2006 the IMF lodged a complaint with the International Labour Organisation accusing the Mexcian Government of violating Convention 87, including illegally intervening in union activities, seizing union assets and forcing government appointments into union elected positions.

IMF affiliates throughout the world have shown their solidarity to our Mexican union brothers and sisters through letter writing campaigns, public pressure, and demonstrations.

"The continuing legal and personal persecution of Napoleon Gomez must end," said Ken Neumann, United Steel Workers National Director for Canada.

USW has helped Gomez and his wife secure work papers enabling them to remain in Canada.

The attorney general of Mexico is still pursuing Gomez by trying to move the court proceeding to another district.

Millions of industrial and service jobs have been eliminated during the last few months. Most of them, mainly held by young people and women, come from the most vulnerable parts of the workforce – those on short term contracts, working part time, or locked into other precarious forms of work.

It is undeniable, but hardly useful, to say that what happened was predictable and could have been avoided. Trade unions at all levels, not least on the international scene, have warned that unregulated speculation would be the ruin of the financial system. We argued that what was needed was control exercised within the orbit of national governments and parliaments, as well as agreed rules for governance operated through democratic international institutions.

It is scandalous that it took only a couple of weeks for governments in the rich parts of the world to collect more than US$ 2,000,000,000,000 (that’s right, two thousand billion US dollars) to bail out banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions on the brink of bankruptcy when we know that ten years ago, when the Un asked for a tenth of that amount to halve the poverty afflicting the world’s poor, hardly anyone moved a finger to collect that money.

Market economy based on speculation and uncontrolled capital movement is not the solution to the problems the world is facing. We know that very well, which is why the bail out will not be the solution to the crisis if measures taken by the governments in the USa, europe and Japan are not conditioned by direct state intervention. If the state does not show its hand clearly, the so-called rescue will only feed yet more speculation.

At the same time, beyond the crisis of financial institutions, new industrial policies are required to get economies moving and these must be based on the priority of creating sustainable employment.

The world needs a financial banking system that functions as a motor for progress and provides the drive for the development of a stable and sustainable economic system. Banks and insurance companies need to be bound by rules that are determined not by vague, ambiguous and self-serving voluntary codes of conduct but by laws and international rules that are recognised by all governments.

More importantly, the present crisis should be the wake-up call that forces the world to rethink our economic and social models. We need to reshape the agenda of economic and social organisation to give priority to more security for working people and to bring humanity and an ethic of solidarity into play. The measure of success of policies adopted today will be in actions that will generate stable employment and encourage redistribution of wealth rather than a return to the volatility of markets and short-term profit-taking.

In a civilised world everyone should have access to an adequate job in an economy geared towards producing wealth and providing opportunities for self development and self reliance. These are the fundamental goals for the economic, social and political system for the modern society.

The recent crisis has been caused by speculation through capital movements within the network of stock exchanges around the globe. But wealth for the people can only be based on the production of goods and services.

The enormous sums of money that governments have decided to put up to rescue financial institutions must come from somewhere. People might believe that those funds are resting in the vaults of the central banks and can be made available as soon the decision is made. But it is not that simple.

The equivalent of 2000 billion dollars has to be generated through added value from the productive apparatus. only then can it be distributed to the financial institutions which will then feed it through the system to companies and private persons. What the governments are ready to do is to issue bonds that will give the warranty for future debts contracted by the banks.

In other words future generations will have to create more added-value to repay the debts being built up by today’s decision makers.

The legacy of our generation will not just be failure to secure better standards for our children and grandchildren, but we will leave an increased burden of debt as a result of the present financial crisis.

Our society is based on consumption. The paradox is that we cannot consume if we don’t produce and if we don’t produce we cannot consume either.

None of this points towards a regression towards rural economies or the primitive models of economy based on exchange of goods.

But this is a time when we need to clear our minds and think again about how we reinforce and strengthen the core values on which we believe society should be built.

The system of private capital has come up short. It is demonstrably not the model equipped to solve the enormous problems facing a world challenged by poverty, inadequate health care and sanitation, ignorance and poor education, climate change and water shortage, migration and modern slavery, and the scourge of want that afflicts millions everywhere, but especially africa. All of these and many other problems remain unsolved despite promises that globalisation of the world economy driven by free market economics would provide solutions. It was said that the market could take care of itself. There was no need for any form of state intervention or control. Now we see the consequences of foolhardy liberalisation of the economy first encouraged by reagan and thatcher and then taken up by others including many progressive and social democratic parties and governments.

We need a new course. We can start by aiming for fairer distribution of the world’s wealth. In this the trade union movement at national, regional and global level has a great role to play. Through collective bargaining we can begin to renew the dialogue that leads to fairness, reward and justice for the people who have been forgotten in the rush to shore-up the creaking apparatus of globalisation.

The crisis can be resolved and a return to decency is possible, but that will not happen unless we give voice to those at work. That involves making sure that the right to organise and the right to bargaining are the foundation stones of a new economic and social structure that will provide us with the means to ensure that we are never again held hostage by slick and shady global marketeers.

TURKEY: The IMF and European Metalworkers' Federation demand Sinter Metal immediately cease violating workers' and trade union rights in the Dudullu Organized Industrial Zone in Turkey.

In a joint letter to Sinter Metal the IMF and EMF call for management to immediately re-instate workers who were dismissed for their union activities.

The urgent call for solidarity is the latest development in a three month long struggle.

The company supplies components that go into vehicles produced by a number of automotive manufacturers including Ford, Fiat, BMW and Daimler.

In December 2008, the company management used false pretexts to fire 38 workers involved with trade union activity.

Days later, the employer refused to allow the remaining workers to enter the plant, firing 312 of them, most of whom the company had learned were trade union members.

The Labour Ministry in Turkey issued a report on January 12, 2009 upholding the union's assertion that the reason for the dismissal of the 350 workers was not the economic crisis as the employer attempted to claim, but rather their trade union membership.

Sinter Metal Management actions contravene ILO conventions 98 and 87.

The IMF and the EMF demand Sinter Metal management immediately and in good faith consider the workers' demands, reinstate the dismissed workers, stop violations of rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and start negotiations with union leading to a fair and just resolution.

IMF and EMF affiliates are urged to support the Sinter Metal workers in their demands by sending letters of protest to the company:

Mr. Olgun Tanberk, General Manager
Sinter Metal Imalat Sanayi A.Ş
Yukarı Dudullu Organize Sanayi Bolgesi
1. Cad. No: 25
Turkey

Fax: + 90 216 364 00 32

FRANKFURT, GERMANY: Women's precarious employment is having severe consequences for families and communities according to the outcome of a joint workshop organised by the European Metalworkers' Federation and the International Metalworkers' Federation and hosted by IG Metall.

Women are being disproportionately affected by the global financial crisis.  Since women make up the bulk of temporary and contract workers, the first jobs to be cut have been those primarily held by women.

The workshop also heard how erosion of working conditions for precarious workers is having a severe impact on families.

A survey of metalworkers in Italy found that 45% of women under the age of 25 are precarious employed and that women remain in precarious employment longer than men.

Without permanent employment, women are less able to plan to have children, receive lower wages and are not able to take time off for illness or vacations.

A study on atypical employment in Germany emphasized the importance of women's income to families. Women were the main breadwinners in 20% of the interviewed households, either as sole parents or where partners were unemployed or low-paid, putting paid to the notion of women's earnings as supplemental income.

Unpredictable work hours, conflict over the division of household labour, violence in the home and greater forced independence for children were all consequences of women's precarious employment, putting pressure on relationships and causing increased stress and negative health implications.

For unions to be able to respond to the needs of women precarious workers, the workshop stressed that women must be better represented in union decision-making structures. Unions must put an emphasis on women's needs in collective bargaining negotiations with a focus on equal pay, predictable working hours and well-paid, secure part time work.

TOKYO, JAPAN:  Members of IMF affiliate, the Japan Council of Metalworker Unions (IMF-JC) successfully maintained pay levels for workers during their recent 2009 Spring Offensive employer negotiations.

Unions were also able to secure recognition of the  increasing cost of living and ensure it will be considered in future negotiations.

However many employers are refusing to guarantee pay rises and bonuses as they scale back production or cut jobs.

"The will and vitality of workers is the key to breaking through the current crisis and opening better prospects for the future," said IMF-JC President Koichiro Nishihara in a statement.

"We demanded recognition of the hard work of labor union members and consideration for their daily lives.

"The results [of the Spring Offensive]can be considered the products of down-to-the-wire negotiations."

Thousands rallied in Tokyo during the negotiations to demand companies increase salaries to stimulate recovery from the global financial crisis.

After gathering in a central Tokyo park, workers marched through the capital with banners reading "Pay rise is the strongest economic stimulus" and "Never let workers get fired!".