GERMANY: On November 12, after twenty-three hours of negotiations, IG Metall, Germany’s largest labour union, and Gesamtmetall, an employers’ association representing over 23,000 enterprises, reached agreement for a 4.2 per cent pay rise in the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

While the agreement currently only applies to workers in Baden-Wuerttemberg, union branches in the rest of Germany are expected to quickly ratify the deal as well. The contract runs for 18 months until April 30, 2010.

Hundreds of thousands of industrial workers across Germany had staged warning strikes since the start of this month in an effort to press home their demands for better pay.

Germany’s metalworkers will receive a 2.1 per cent pay rise for the period beginning February 1, 2009 until April 30, 2009 and an additional increase of 2.1 per cent for the period of May 1, 2009 until April 30, 2010. Companies can decide to push back the second 2.1 per cent increase by up to seven months.

Additionally, workers will receive a one-time bonus of 510 € per person for the months November 2008 until January 2009 and a lump-sum payment of 122 € in September 2009.

The agreement will cover 3.6 million workers once all regions ratify the contract.

RUSSIA: Alarming news was received from the  Russian Interregional Trade Union of Autoworkers (ITUA), an affiliate of the International Metalworkers' Federation regarding a recent attack against Alexey Etmanov, ITUA co-chairman and chairman of the ITUA primary organization at Ford enterprise in Vsevolozhsk.

Etmanov was assaulted on the evening of November 8 when he returned home from the second shift at the Ford plant. He parked his car and was walking in the direction of his home. On the street, three assailants armed with brass knuckles ran towards Etmanov and without a word assaulted him.

During the scuffle Etmanov managed to remove his rubber bullet gun and made a shot. The assailants escaped. Originally, Etmanov believed these were ordinary robbers. However the next day the deputy chairman of Etmanov, Vladimir Lesik, received a call on his mobile phone and was alerted that the night incident had no relation to a robbery or a plunder. "You were softly scolded. But if you continue to create obstacles for us, we will take away your life", threatened the anonymous caller.

Earlier, on June 24 and July 26, Alexei Gramm and Sergei Bryzgalov, activists of the ITUA primary organization at Taganrog enterprise OAO  "TagAZ" producing Hyundai cars, also became victims of  assault after their participation in a picket at the entrance of the enterprise. Gramm and Bryzgalov were trying to get  information about wages and compensations as well as demanding  management to recognize their union.

In a statement regarding the assaults, IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi warned of IMF's grave concern over "the authorities' indifference to violations of fundamental human and labour rights and the failure to act promptly and effectively to ensure these rights are fully upheld and protected" and demanded "an immediate, unbiased and transparent investigation into the facts of attacks against trade union leaders Alexei Etmanov, Alexei Gramm and Sergei Bryzgalov, as well as the death threats made to Vladimir Lesik".

Click here to read the full text of the statement.

IMF is urging affiliates to send letters calling for an immediate and transparent investigation into these attacks to:

Mr. Chaika Yuriy
General Public Prosecutor of Russian Federation
125993, Moscow,  GSP-3, 15a B. Dimitrovka str. 
RUSSIA
Fax: +7 (495) 692-96-00  

Mr. Romanyuk Sergey
Public Prosecutor of Leningrad region
194044, Saint- Petersburg,
av. Lesnoi, str. 20, kor. 12
RUSSIA
Fax: +7 812 542 00 15

Mr. Kuznetsov Valeriy
Public Prosecutor of Rostov region
344082, Rostov region
Rostov-na-Donu, per. Bratskiy, 11
RUSSIA
Fax: +7 863 262-45-25

Ms. Golikova A. Tatiana
Minister of Health Care and Social Development
127994, GSP-4, Moscow, per. Rahmanovskiy, 3
RUSSIA
Fax: +7 495 628 09 48  

To send  solidarity support letters to the ITUA, email: [email protected]

 The Africa Office is the oldest regional office within the IMF and was established during the period of the mergers of the major metal unions in South Africa at that time. Numsa, the IMF’s largest affiliate in the region, is a result of the merger. The office was created in the pre-democracy years where the struggle for worker rights in South Africa was experiencing its most volatile era through major protests, strikes and other desperate industrial actions.

The regional office has 28 affiliates with a total membership amounting to over 320 000 members. The region is divided into four sub-regions: East, West, North and Southern Africa. The two most active sub-regions are East and Southern Africa with West Africa struggling to alleviate some of its internal problems and the IMF Head Office sharing most of the responsibility for North Africa because of language and geographical dynamics.

The regional office concentrates on union building, education and equal rights as part of its core activities in line with the IMF Action Programme. In addition, the office encourages mergers of small unions in order to facilitate growth and development of bigger, more powerful unions, as well as encouraging solidarity among workers through this process. Furthermore, the regional office has assisted affiliates with collective bargaining and organising campaigns as well as campaigns to highlight the poor effects of precarious work.

The regional office faces many challenges on a regular basis that sometimes acts as impediments to real progress in the region. Due to the lack of large manufacturing bases in Africa, there are very small metal unions on the continent. This has thus highlighted the need to develop more general unions and to create space for different merges to take place.

Another severe challenge is that of HIV/AIDS: Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world and whose direct impact is to kill off communities and the workforce in many countries. HIV/AIDS is a severe threat to livelihoods of families through deaths of bread-winners and therefore education and training around HIV/AIDS needs to be done on a continuous basis.

Women continue to pose a further challenge for unions on the continent. Women remain in the background of union decision-making bodies are therefore marginalized on a regular basis. Leadership on the continent continue to downplay the valuable role that women bring to the labour movement and therefore are not opening up and creating adequate space for women to operate and lead within unions.

The economic and political landscape in Africa is often unstable with high inflation rates, food insecurity and rising energy and fuel prices being the order of the day. This inevitably does not easily facilitate sound democracy and good governance from governments. The problem is compounded with high levels of poverty, unemployment, HIV/AIDS and a general economic meltdown of essential social services in almost all affiliated countries.

Thus, the environment in which the office operates has many challenges, but we continue to endeavour towards building strong, effective unions that can tackle many of the challenges listed above.

The regional office produces a quarterly newsletter, UMOJA, as well as assists affiliates in the region to develop educational and training materials.

JAPAN: Affiliates of the International Metalworkers’ Federation from both the developing and developed world reach an historic agreement last week to develop a global response to climate change in the steel industry.

Metal unions from Australia, Brazil, India, Russia, UK, USA, and Japan met in Tokyo November 5 and 6 as part of the IMF Steel Action Group Meeting to discuss ways in which unions and the IMF can contribute to an international strategy for the steel industry in an effort to tackle the growing problem of global warming and its impact on workers.

"Climate change is a vitally important issue for workers in the steel industry, it stands to affect not only our employment prospects in the future but also the environment we live in", said Rob Johnston, IMF director for steel. "This agreement proposes a practical approach that unions can advocate internationally on behalf of metalworkers."

As part of the agreement, unions have committed to:

• Develop policy positions on climate change issues that link environmental and economic sustainability.
• Ensure that revenue generated by any international trading, permit or carbon tax scheme should be used to benefit the workers in affected industries, support low carbon innovation and technological development and for climate change mitigation and adaptation project.
• Advocate our position to National Governments.
• Collectively bargain with employers for environmental representatives and advocacy where we have a presence.

Concrete steps the IMF will take include:

• Establish a network of key affiliates to work on climate change issues.
• Through the network, develop an agenda for a subsequent meeting to be held in 2009 in Asia (with a view to engaging the All China Federation of Trade Unions and its metalworking organisation on climate change issues).
• Further develop the climate change policy document and produce practical materials for distribution.

To download the full text of the agreement, please click here.

BULGARIA: More than 2000 workers from Bulgaria's largest steel plant, Kremikovtzi, staged massive protests Monday for a fourth time in two weeks following the government's failure to assist the plant in the payment of delayed salaries, as it had pledged to do last week.

Workers launched a three-day protest on October 29 following the news of the pending closure of the Kremikovtzi mill which employs roughly 5,000 steelworkers represented by metal unions Metalicy and the Federation of Metallurgy, both affiliates of the International Metalworkers' Federation.

On October 31, Peter Dimitrov, the country's Minister of Economy and Energy, announced that the government had made a plan for an eventual bail out package and that all unpaid salaries would be paid by November 7.

Kremikovtzi workers, who have not been paid since July, are calling on the Bulgarian government, which owns a 25 per cent stake in the plant, to intervene to ensure that:

• August and September salaries are paid immediately;
• the plant is rescued from closure and liquidation; and
• that no workers are dismissed.

The Kremikovtzi plant, which is the biggest steel maker in the Balkans and produces 10% of Bulgaria's total exports, is majority owned by Indian company Global Steel Holding of Pramod Mittal, the brother of ArcelorMittal's Laksmi Mittal. 

GERMANY: This week, IG Metall launched a wave of "warning strikes" across Germany to put pressure on employers to accept the union’s demand of an eight per cent pay rise for 3.6 million metalworkers.

More than 150,000 autoworkers, engineers and electronics workers at more than 500 production sites participated in the temporary walkouts that began on November 1 and are scheduled to continue throughout the week.

The trade union has rejected the 2.9% wage rise over 14 months offered by employers.

Some companies where warning strikes have been held include: Opel, Siemens, Porsche, Deutz AG, Audi, Daimler, Ford, Mahle, Continental, Federal-Mogul,  TRW, MAN, Bosch, VW , Mercedes,  and BMW.

IG Metall is due to resume wage negotiations on Nov. 11 and has warned of a nationwide general strike on November 17 should talks fail.

USA: Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) voted by 74 per cent to ratify a new 4-year contract with Boeing Company. A tentative agreement was reached on Oct. 27 after five days of intense bargaining in Washington, DC.

The new agreement covers 27,000 IAM members, including electricians, painters, mechanics, and other production workers at Boeing facilities in Washington, Oregon, Kansas and California.

Contract gains include:

• general wage increases of 15 percent over the life of the agreement;
• pension increases;
• a lump sum payment of 10 percent of the previous year’s earnings or $5,000, whichever is greater;
• contract language to protect thousands of jobs at risk in the material handling classification; and
• unchanged health care costs.

IAM members went on strike on September 6, 2008. The walkout was the union’s longest in 13 years and the fourth at Boeing in 20 years.

"We warned Boeing when the strike began that when they take on the IAM, they take on the world’s metalworkers", said IAM International President R. Thomas Buffenbarger. "The many letters and other expressions of international solidarity that our members received during the strike proved it. "

Boeing, a leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes, posted a record profit of $4 billion last year and has a reported $300 billion worth of commercial plane orders in its books.

NORWAY: Aker ASA, a renowned shipbuilding company, on October 28 signed an International Framework Agreement (IFA) with the International Metalworkers’ Federation and its Norwegian affiliate Fellesforbundet for the development of good working relations in companies that are part of Aker.

The agreement reflects the company’s "commitment to respect basic human and trade union rights in the community, acknowledging the fundamental principals of human rights as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the OECD guidelines on Multinational Companies."

The agreement covers provisions on freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, discrimination, forced labour, child labour, health and safety, living wages, employment conditions, working hours, HIV/AIDS, environmental issues and skills training, referencing the standards as established by the core labour conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The agreement relates to all parts of Aker and states that the company will use its influence to secure compliance with the standards set out in the agreement with its subsidiaries and third party business associates, with non-compliance ultimately resulting in potential termination of a contractual relationship.

The signing took place during the Fellesforbundet’s executive committee meeting in Oslo on October 28. During the ceremony speeches about the importance of the agreement were given by IMF general secretary Marcello Malentachhi, Fellesforbundet president Arve Bakke, Aker ASA director of communication Geir Arne Drangeid, and the senior shop steward in Aker Atle Tranøy. A report by Fellesforbundet on the signing can be seen in Norwegian here.

Aker was established in 1841 and today has divided its activities into four market sectors: energy resources, energy technologies, maritime technologies, seafood and marine biotechnology. The Aker companies have a total of 27,100 employees on five continents and operating revenues totalling NOK 62 billion (7 billion Euros) in 2007.

A copy of the agreement in English is available on the IMF website. Other languages will be published as they become available.

PHILIPPINES: "The search for a solution to the global financial crisis must ensure people's mobility, not restrict it," said Sharon Burrow, International Trade Union Confederation president and conference chairperson of the civil society days of the Forum, at the opening of the conference on October 27 in Manila.

The ILO estimates that the present financial crisis is likely to lead the loss of some 20 million jobs world wide. The ILO added that "the number of working poor living on less than a dollar a day could rise by some 40 million – and those at two dollars a day by more than 100 million". Others say this is an underestimation.

Burrow cautioned world leaders grappling to find solutions to the global financial crisis against restricting labour migration, a move adopted by governments during the Asian 1997 crisis.

Two days prior to the Forum, representatives from ITUC and the global union federations, including the International Metalworkers' Federation, met in Manila to exchange information on experiences, policy options and best practice in the field of migration and to prepare the trade union participation in the civil society days of the Forum.

Speaking on organising migrant workers during the Global Union meeting, Suharshan Rao, IMF South Asia regional representative, spoke about IMF's experience in organising inter-state migrant workers in the shipbreaking yards in Mumbai, India.

"These migrant workers were organized in the existing union Mumbai, Port Trust, Dock and General Employees' Union (MPTDGEU) by amending the constitution and reducing the rates of subscription. Non-economic demands like civic amenities, Occupational, Health and Safety (OHS) and social problems were taken up. A Mohalla Committee (Neighbourhood Committee) was set up to integrate these migrant workers bridging the language and cultural gaps. NGO's were involved and collaboration with them really helped in organizing the workers," explained Rao.  

"This effort has since spread to Alang, which is the largest shipbreaking yard in the state of Gujarat, where the workers registered the first ever union of shipbreaking workers in India. Today the union membership stands at 5,705," he said.

A copy of Rao's paper on migration in India is published in English on the IMF website.

Sharon Burrow's full speech to the Forum is available at the following link: http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article2486

EUROPE: On October 21 trade unions from Germany and Italy protested against recently made public restructuring plans of the group HP-EDS. According to the announced restructuring program the company is going to reduce 7.5 per cent of its workforce around the globe within the next three years, which means 24,600 employees of the newly formed company across the globe could lose their jobs.

Trade unions are concerned about the scale of the announced lay-offs, the highest in the history of the companies. In Europe the lay-offs are supposed to affect mainly EDS workers, where 8,400 could be dismissed.

In Germany the European Works Council (EWC), the trade union Ver.di and IMF affiliated IG Metall held a "joint lunch" in front of the EDS headquarters in Rüsselsheim, to protest the company plans.

Unions in Italy called for a tripartite meeting with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development aimed at discussing industrial strategies, production and the assets of Italian-based EDS and HP operations. Following EDS’s refusal, with HP’s silent support, to suspend cancelling previously achieved agreements the unions expressed serious concerns over the company’s "failure to present at this stage even general lines of the industrial plan for Italy." In response, the unions held a national strike for all EDS and HP workers in Italy on October 21. All three IMF affialites FIM-CISL FIOM-CGIL UILM-UIL took participation in it.

The redundancies were announced as part of a global restructuring program following Hewlett Packard’s acquisition of the business group EDS at the end of August 2008.