MEXICO:  In an interview published in the August 26 edition of the Mexican daily newspaper Excélsior, José Luis Fernández Zayas, the technical officer who produced the post-explosion report on the Pasta de Conchos mine, said it would be feasible to reopen the mine to recover the bodies of the 63 miners who died on 19 February 2006.

José Luís Fernández Zayas, a researcher at the Institute of Engineering of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and, until two weeks ago, director of the Foro Consultivo Científico y Tecnológico (Scientific and Technological Consultative Forum) that inspected the mine after the explosion and wrote the report, said that the company manipulated the report to its own advantage and used it to claim the mine was too unsafe to reopen.

He said that Grupo Mexico and the Labour Secretary have distorted what the technical report actually says and used it to refuse to reopen the mine to recover the bodies.

Zayas says it is possible to recover the bodies. However, all normal safety measures would have to be taken in the mine before doing so.

He said that Grupo Mexico twisted the words in the report, which stated that the mine was not then safe and that it would therefore not be correct to risk anyone else's life by entering the mine. However, Zayas said that this situation could be changed without running any risks or entering the mine and that there are experts in the country who know how to conduct such an operation. The problem was that the company "closed the case".

Zayas added that "only an irresponsible company could tolerate this culture of poor working conditions, only a company that does not know how to behave properly would endanger the safety of its workers. The result is there for all to see and they have been paying wages for years now even though the mine is closed and producing nothing. I think this is a lesson and it must never happen again, and we put this in the report."

Zayas said his report also made it clear that the unsafe conditions present in the mine before the explosion were not much different from the conditions after the explosion, when attempts were made to recover the bodies of the dead miners.

After the interview was published in the press, the miners' union and NGOs distributed copies of the article in Mexico City, including to the United States, Canadian and Spanish embassies, the UN offices in Mexico, the Senate and Chamber of Deputies and to the Presidential Palace.

The tragedy at Pasta de Conchos started a dispute between the mining union and the government and Grupo Mexico that resulted in the union's leader, Napoleón Gomez Urrutia, going into exile.

ITALY: Union representatives of Fiat workers in Italy, Poland, Brazil, Serbia, Spain and Turkey met with the International Metalworkers’ Federation and European Works Council in Turin, Italy today to initiate discussion about negotiating an International Framework Agreement with the Italian automaker.

Organised by Italian metalworkers’ unions FIM-CISL, FIOM-CGIL, and UILM-UIL together with the IMF, the meeting is a first step in ensuring that workers’ fundamental rights such as freedom of association and collective bargaining, as well as the prohibition of child labor and forced labor are respected throughout the Fiat Group.

For more information about IMF International Framework Agreements go to: www.imfmetal.org/IFA

Text & Photo / Alexander Ivanov

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Stefan’s involvement in his union Solidarność first began in 1980 when, for the first time, democratic elections took place in the union. Stefan was elected chairman of the local organization at a factory in Poznan. The enterprise was producing agricultural machinery until it was restructured in 1983 into an auto plant.

However in December 1981, when marshal law was introduced in Poland, trade unions became illegal and had to go underground. This was a grim time for Polish people. Every kind of gathering was prosecuted by the regime.

Today, looking at a relaxed, smiling Stefan, talking about his hobby of gardening, one can hardly believe he was part of the legendary struggle by Solidarność, which resulted in the fall of communist rule in Poland by the end of the 1980s.

In 1984 Stefan was detained and together with thousands of trade unionists across the country he was submitted to a series of interrogations about his trade union activities. His conversation with security servicemen was far from pleasant and during an interrogation Stefan sustained serious injuries resulting in the loss of one of his kidneys.

Later, in 1989, when the plant where Stefan worked was reorganised into Volkswagen Poznan sp. z o.o. and union work became legal in Poland, Stefan, together with his colleagues, set up a local of Solidarność.

Many things have changed since this time and the younger generation of workers is not so keen on trade unions. In Poland today, only 14 to 15 per cent of workers are organised – Solidarność has 700,000 members. Stefan reports that the declining popularity of unions is resulting in weaker protection of workers and precarious forms of employment is a growing reality in Poland. In 2006, labour statistics showed that 250,000 workers were employed through job agencies; in 2007 the number stood at 480,000.

Thanks to the work of a tripartite commission in 2004, the Polish parliament adopted a law restricting the use of the same worker provided by a labour agency for more than one year. However, employers are continuing in their attempts to revise the law.

"At our Volkswagen plant in Poznan, we decided to eliminate the difference between permanent employees and temporary workers. We wanted temporary workers to join the trade union and we decided they should enjoy equal rights together with the permanent workers.

And I think we have achieved our goal, as now temporary workers are members of the trade union and have the same rights in our trade union and the company." In 2005, Stefan’s union demanded that the employer provide the same holiday bonus for all workers at the enterprise regardless of whether they were employed directly or through an agency. The union warned the employer about a strike if the workers’ demands were not met and so the employer agreed.

"It took a long time but we succeeded," said Stefan.

"Solidarność is currently planning what action we will take as part of the international day of action against precarious work planned for October 7 and the week before," explains Stefan, adding "the importance of this work cannot be underestimated."

Text by Ron Blum

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Just two years after Motorola spun-off its fifty year-old microelectronics business into a publicly traded company, Freescale Semiconductors was taken private in the largest ever leveraged buyout in the electronics industry. It was among the biggest deals by private equity firms at the height of the recent buyout boom. A consortium of private equity outfits including Blackstone, Carlyle, Permira and TPG paid US$17.6 billion for the U.S.-based chip maker, outbidding another private equity consortium that had earlier acquired the semiconductor business of Royal Philips Electronics. Among those that gained from the Freescale deal was its CEO, who pocketed US$50 million on the buyout.

Freescale, the leading supplier of semiconductors to the automotive industry, and a maker of computer chips for mobile phones and telecom equipment, ended up burdened with US$9.5 billion in debt to finance the leveraged buyout and interest payments of more than US$700 million a year. At the time of the deal, Forbes Magazine signalled its approval noting that, "chip companies’ cash piles are particularly attractive to private equity. It can help buyout firms pay off the debt that they take on to buy the company."

Soon after the deal was completed in late 2006, Freescale management announced the lay-offs of 700 skilled workers. Then in mid-2008, the company claimed that not having found a buyer for the East Kilbride plant in Scotland, it would close the facility threatening another 900 skilled jobs. In fighting to protect the interest of East Kilbride workers, the UK trade union Unite said it faced a "veil of secrecy" from Freescale’s private equity owners, with management acting to keep the union outside of formal consultations. Meanwhile, the company had moved to cut redundancy entitlements by 30 per cent months before plans for the plant became known.

Freescale workers at operations in the UK, U.S., France and Japan continue to face restructuring challenges compounded by the high debt burden resulting from the excessively leveraged acquisition. In a research and development intensive industry, the owners have nevertheless cut investment spending while a substantial share of the company’s cash flow continues to service the accumulated debt.

The events at Freescale highlight the types of challenges that workers often face in leveraged buyouts. Chief among them are the restructuring consequences of excessive debt, private equity owners’ attempts to sidestep accountability as employers and a lack of transparency. Given the typically shorter-term investment horizons of most buyouts firms, what the unfolding Freescale situation does not reveal is how and when the private equity portfolio companies involved may plan to exit the business. This is characteristically the last step of the leveraged buyout business model. These kinds of challenges present workers with significant risks and uncertainties that need to be addressed.

In response, metalworkers and their unions have developed and are increasingly utilising strategies to counteract the potential excesses of leveraged buyouts and to protect the interests of workers and their communities. Collective bargaining and organising are central, together with mobilising workers and cooperating with trade union organisations and social allies nationally and internationally in the fight for regulations that safeguard public interest, support quality employment and generate productive, long-term investment and skills development.

RESTRUCTURING AND CYCLES OF LEVERAGED BUYOUTS

Mergers, acquisitions, changing ownership and management control have long confronted workers and trade unions. Such challenges go back to the times when capital was forming the transnational companies that dominate today’s metalworking industries. The impacts of leveraged buyouts on restructuring are relatively more recent, having taken shape since the late 1970s.

Two significant cyclical periods of leveraged buyouts have occurred. The first one, confined mostly to North America, peaked and then bottomed out in the 1980s. The second cycle, global in scope, began and accelerated at the start of this decade. It peaked in 2006-07 with deals totalling US$1.4 trillion, which alone accounted for one-third of the value of all buyouts ever done, adjusting for inflation, according to Dealogic. In late 2007, the cycle topped out as signs of the current global financial crisis surfaced.

Between these two periods, leveraged buyout firms adopted a more benign sounding and now familiar name "private equity", yet the nature and risks of the business model remains unchanged; that is, attempts to use high leverage and debt, restructuring strategies and short investment periods in pursuit of excessive returns on equity.

Though the unfolding global financial crisis has reduced the size and number of deals, they continue to take place. Investment banks with balance sheets weakened by the unwinding of past leveraged financial instruments have at least temporarily frozen lending to fund higher-risk leveraged buyout strategies. Leveraged buyout firms are thus seeking other sources of capital such as sovereign wealth funds, which in turn, can minimise their disclosure and transparency by using private equity firms as conduits for buyouts.

In metalworking, leveraged buyouts have appeared in nearly all facets of restructuring, from acquisitions or divestitures related to enterprise restructuring; to situations of "distressed assets", bankruptcy claims and consolidation of operations associated with industry consolidation; and to situations where privately-held, family-controlled enterprises face issues of succession.

What the unconstrained leveraged buyout model introduces into the restructuring mix is a high risk combination of leveraged debt financing with a short-term intent to resell the business in order to extract extraordinary returns. Without protections negotiated by trade unions through collective bargaining, excessive returns under this model can come at the expense of good jobs, secure pension plans, needed investments in operations and product development, and the upskilling and training of workers.

PROTECTING METALWORKERS THROUGH COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

The use of leveraged buyouts in metalworking during the last several decades has taken place in a broader context of industrial restructuring within and across borders. Outsourcing, subcontracting, the substitution of temporary for permanent jobs, consolidation of operations and supply chain restructuring have exacted heavy tolls on workers and their communities. In many cases, consequences have been made worse when investors in pursuit of extracting quick and inordinate profits use highly leveraged buyouts to drive the restructuring process at the expense of workers.

Affiliates of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) have developed and increasingly use counter-strategies through collective bargaining to defend employment and working conditions, maintain pensions and secure investments, and to influence conditions of potential leveraged buyouts. These approaches have evolved over time as trade unions carefully account for institutional, legal and industry factors in order to enhance their effectiveness.

The following examples illustrate important aspects of these approaches used in a range of circumstances in the automotive, aerospace and mechanical engineering industries.

•    Unite in the UK set out concrete demands upon which the sale by Ford of Jaguar and Land Rover would need to be conditioned, impacting the decision of the eventual buyer among which were auto assembler companies and some private equity interests. Among the range of important guarantees achieved in the conditions of sale to Tata Motors in 2008, was the continuation of existing arrangements for trade union recognition and bargaining, protection of workforce terms and conditions of employment including current pension arrangements, and long-term production, development, investment and sourcing commitments from Ford and Tata.

•    With the acquisition by Cerberus of Chrysler in 2007, in which Daimler retained a 20 per cent stake, the United Auto Workers (UAW), Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) along with IG Metall insisted that the new ownership and company structure contribute to a safe and sustainable future for the Chrysler Group. Industry and company level collective bargaining by the UAW and CAW have ensured continuity of negotiated protections of workforce terms and conditions of employment including pension and healthcare provisions.

•    After Dana filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. in 2006, the company tried to cancel labour contracts and the UAW and United Steel Workers (USW) together made it clear that such drastic action could result in a labour dispute. The high-stakes bargaining led to a successful outcome, which included involvement by Centerbridge, a private equity investor. The company agreed to limit how much debt the company could take on; to regular meetings and reports regarding finances; and, to expand the rights of unorganised Dana workers, the unions insisted on fair procedures, including card-check recognition, a process where employers agree to recognise a union once a majority of workers indicate their preference by signing union authorisation cards.

•    When Linde in Germany planned to spin-off its KION division after acquiring BOC in 2006, IG Metall and the works council prepared for a possible leveraged buyout. An established process required that all preferred bidders give presentations on their strategy and future investment plans to the works council and union. KKR and Goldman Sachs won an accelerated auction against three other private equity bidders. The new owners agreed to honour previously negotiated employment guarantees, use finance with a high share of equity capital, commit to future investments, and wait to bring KION to the stock market between 2010 and 2012.

•    Commercial aircraft facilities spun off from Boeing in 2004 formed Spirit AeroSystems. The International Association of Machinists (IAM) and UAW negotiated the Union Equity Program, whereby workers were given share holdings that would provide them benefits from future growth, and rehire and recall provisions to cover nearly all fellow union members. When the company was brought to the market, the value of the shares for workers more than made up for the prior wage concessions, generating an average of US$ 61,000 per worker through early 2007.

From the outset of any considered form of restructuring, it is essential that companies fully inform, consult and negotiate with unions and worker representatives of all potentially affected operations on the nature and possible impacts of restructuring with complete consideration of alternatives. In any acquisition or takeover situation, obtaining concrete information about proposed strategic plans of prospective buyers is critical. Given the nature of leveraged buyouts, it is particularly important to ascertain information on the degree of leverage, the structure of financing, and the length of time and investments that the prospective private equity owners commit to the business.

REGULATION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

The unconstrained leveraged buyout business model has both evolved from and fed a broader process of increased financialisation of corporate behaviour and economic activity. Impacts of deregulation, privatisation and market fundamentalist policies have become all too clear in the unfolding global financial crisis. The crisis demonstrates as well that the use of excessive debt and leverage to amplify returns to capital reaches well beyond the confines of leveraged buyouts.

When it comes to leveraged buyouts, the accountability of private equity portfolio firms as employers, owners, and investors needs to be addressed through changes in rules governing financial markets, corporate taxation and pension fund investments. What is needed are rules and regulations to promote productive investment based on the long-term interests of working people, including long-term employment security and good jobs, and the full and effective protection of worker and trade union rights.

Public attention has increasingly focused on two issues of corporate taxation: the treatment of "carried interest" and the tax-deductibility of interest paid on leveraged buyout-related debt. When a company acquired through a leveraged buyout is sold, the private equity fund manager gets a percentage of profit, usually around 20 per cent. This is called "carried interest". Rather than being taxed as "capital gains", fund managers pay far lower taxes by having the gains they pocket on the sale treated as regular income.

Greater in effect is the tax deductibility of interest on leveraged buyout-related debt. While all businesses benefit from the tax deductibility of borrowed money, the benefits to buyout firms are amplified as the leverage they use increases. Not only does tax deductibility apply to interest on debt borrowed to fund the leveraged buyout acquisition, it is also applies to debt incurred to finance so-called "dividend recapitalizations" that serve to extract built-up equity in the company.

As a result of such rules favoured by buyout firms, public treasuries are thereby deprived of resources needed to fund education, health care and pensions. It shows how financialisation comes at the expense of the interests of working people, and why rules and regulations in the public interest are instrumental to counteract these effects.

THE ONGOING CHALLENGE OF BUYOUTS

Given the cyclical nature of the buyout business, unless much needed changes are achieved, highly leveraged financing to acquire and manage companies for quick returns will continue to challenge workers. IMF affiliates are grappling with the collective bargaining challenges of that business model while mobilising to fight against the deregulation of capital markets sought by private equity firms, hedge funds and other financial interests. Re-regulation is required to promote productive long-term investment, employment security and the creation of good jobs.

Across sectors and internationally, the IMF continues to support advancing these responses through cooperation with other Global Union Federations. These have included joint efforts and activities with the International Union of Food workers (IUF) and Union Network International (UNI), as well as cooperation with Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

As workers at Freescale and many other companies across the metal sector have experienced, the financial mechanisms at the core of the leveraged buyout business model adds significant pressures on workers and trade unions. This is over and above the pressures of ongoing restructuring that have become a constant feature of today’s global and financialised economy. Regardless of the form of restructuring, it is essential that unions continue to mobilise to ensure socially acceptable outcomes through collective bargaining, organising and achieving social and economic protections for all workers.

Text & Photos / Kristyne Peter

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Ridwin Monoarfa, Vice President of the Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers’ Union (FSPMI) stands before a group of workers at a small hotel outside of Batam city limits. With one hand in the air and the other holding a microphone, he asks the workers to show him their fingers. "One finger cannot do much on its own you see," he says wiggling his fingers, "but when your thumb and your finger work together, WOW, all of a sudden you can do things," he picks up an imaginary pen in front of him. "Let me see everyones hands, he instructs, let me see you try to push it up into the air," the workers thrust open hands towards the ceiling, "you don t feel anything do you? people shake their heads. Now bring those individual fingers into a fist, he says, can you start to feel the power?" The crowd shouts enthusiastically, "YES!" He punches the air, and the workers do the same. "Can t you see that? Can t you see that change? If we are united, we are powerful. And if you unite into a union, you will feel that change."

It’s the FSPMI Organising Road Show, an innovative approach to organising workers from the estimated 800 multinational companies that are housed in 25 heavily guarded Export Processing Zones (EPZ) on Indonesias Batam Island, a massive electronics manufacturing hub just 20 kilometres from Singapores southern coast. New members and potential members are bussed in from EPZs in the area for an afternoon of union songs, speeches, socialising and strategy. It is an opportunity for workers to speak freely about complaints they might have at work, ask questions about the union, and interact with fellow workers. Fitria Ningsih, aged 27, is an outsourced operator at Sanwa Engineering and has come to the Road Show to learn more about the union and meet other new members. In her opinion, the union has been key in helping contract workers gain government benefits and avoid termination. "We have a contract every three months. By the third extension of our contract we are moved to a labour agency for a month, and then contracted again for another three months," she explains, adding "they do this to keep us from becoming permanent workers." For Fitria, union membership means the possibility of securing permanent work. "I joined the union because I wanted help to change my status from contract to permanent."

A major challenge for unions in Indonesia, and specifically unions organising workers in EPZs, is the rampant proliferation of contracted and outsourced labour. According to Lomenik SBSI, there has been a 20 per cent increase in the number of workers now employed precariously since 2005. Lomenik estimates that 70 per cent of the country’s workforce is precariously employed, while FSPMI predicts that in Batam that number is much higher, speculating that 98 per cent of all workers in Batam are hired on contract or outsourced through a labour agency.

EPZs are defined areas of a country where government regulation, taxes and trade tariffs are lifted or dramatically reduced in an effort to attract foreign investment. The lack of regulation in EPZs comes at a great cost to workers’ rights, health and safety, environmental standards and social protections. The government goes to great lengths to ensure that rights do not interfere with profits. Union organising in such areas is extremely difficult and potentially dangerous

A GATED LIFE

Driving towards Batamindo industrial complex, Batam’s largest EPZ which hosts 80 companies and employs some 60,000 to 80,000 workers, little kiosks selling everything from hairdos to used clothing line the street. Behind the storefronts, narrow foot paths lead to tin and wooden shanties which house the poorest workers. The massive industrial complex is protected by heavy iron bars with razor wire running along the top. To enter and leave you must pass a guarded security check point and provide identification. Inside the billion dollar complex, corporate buildings of the world’s biggest brand names, complete with polished chrome lettering and tinted glass, loom large amidst the well-paved streets and manicured lawns. Many workers never leave the industrial park. They live in company housing, go to the company shops, visit the company clinic and pray at the company mosque. It is a caged existence.

Miyanti, aged 25, has worked for Kemet, formerly Revox Co., for almost three years. She shares a dormitory provided by the company with 15 other women. The women sleep in bunk beds in one room and share a kitchen, bathroom and small sitting room with simple homemade furniture. Company housing looks like a cross between military barracks and a college dormitory. At shift change or call to prayer, "the campus" is teeming with young workers heading back to their dormitories or heading out to the factory. In 2005, Miyanti was recruited by a labour agency and assigned to a two year contract with then Revox. The agency paid for her travel to Batam and took care of her documentation. She hopes that at the end of three years, she will be made permanent. One of six children, Miyanti comes from a family of farmers in Central Java who rely on the 500,000Rp (US$53.85) she sends home each month. She makes the minimum wage of 960,000Rp (US$104.65) per month but often works overtime which increases her monthly wage to an average of 1,400,000Rp (US$152.70). The company operates three shifts: 7am to 3pm; 3pm to 11pm; and 11pm to 7am. Workers are paid an extra 4,000Rp (US$0.44) if they work the night shift, and shifts are assigned on a weekly basis

Most of Batams EPZ workers are just like Miyanti. Eighty per cent of them are young women between the ages of 19 and 25, who travel long distances, leaving behind family to come to Batam in hopes of work. For most workers, there is an expectation to send money home to the family, where wages are even lower in the countryside. The average amount workers send home is around 500,000Rp (US$54.54) per month, or more than half the average workers’ monthly wage.

Ironically, while the pressure to make money and keep ones job is the main reason workers are afraid to join a union, it has also become the unions’ major allure

STRATEGY THAT WORKS

For an EPZ contract worker, the two most important issues are to secure a decent wage and permanent work. "Everyone wants to be a permanent worker," explains Agun Wyrianto Gunawan, a contracted debt collector for Suzuki. "Because by being a permanent worker it would be a brighter future, for example if I have a family I would need benefits."

Agun is at the Lomenik Batam office to find out more about his rights as a worker. He is considering joining the union.

"I would like to have a union organisation that can help me get the overtime pay that I know I am entitled to," says Agun who is paid to work from 8:30am until 4:30pm, but often works as late as 9:30pm each night without pay.

Competition for jobs is brutal and many workers complain of being considered too old and slow at the age of 25. Many companies intentionally deny workers additional training or skills development to avert expectations of future permanent work. Meanwhile, families rely on the extra money sent home each month.

In addressing the needs of EPZ workers, FSPMI and Lomenik independently set out strategies to increase womens participation at all levels of the union, work to change the status of contract workers to permanent, increase political influence in the decision making bodies that regulate minimum wage and labour policy, negotiate collective agreements that decrease the number of contracted workers and mobilise around the issue.

"We decided that in order to recruit more members, we had to involve women as officers," explained Baris Silitonga, an organiser for the FSPMI Batam branch. "This helped us organise the women workers in the EPZs who make up the majority of the workers. We have implemented 30 per cent participation of women in all of Indonesia," Baris said referring to a 2006 FSPMI Congress decision to amend the unions constitution ensuring 30 per cent womens participation at all levels of the union.

Under Indonesian law, contract workers employed at the same company are entitled to permanent work status after three years. Both unions have fought hard in the courts (and won) to ensure that workers unfairly dismissed just prior to three years are reinstated as permanent employees. The unions also negotiate collective bargaining agreements that move all outsourced workers, those hired through labour agencies and who are more vulnerable to rights abuses, onto contracts negotiated directly with the principal employer. It’s a slow process but has had enormous gains for the workers.

"FSPMI and Lomenik have been the most successful of our affiliates anywhere in the world at organising EPZ workers," said Jenny Holdcroft, Director for Equality and EPZs for the International Metalworkers’ Federation. "Given the well-documented difficulties of organising these workers, it is understandable that unions with limited resources put their organising efforts elsewhere. But the Indonesian example is so important because it shows that with determination and the right strategies, it is possible to organise EPZ workers and improve their working conditions."

Jenny points out that both unions’ success is largely due to an overall commitment to strategic organising. "They have seen that there are huge numbers of potential members in EPZs and they have put their time and resources into targeting them and as a result they have seen their unions grow – not only in terms of numbers, but in political strength. They have been able to do this as they are national unions – decisions are taken at national level on where best to direct resources. They work in cooperation with each other, sharing strategies and experiences – they do not compete for members or status."

Both unions are also actively engaged in supporting candidates for parliament that represent workers’ interests. FSPMI, the larger of the two metal unions, is lobbying for a seat on the highly influential EPZ Council in Batam, which at the moment is comprised of only businessmen and members of parliament. The FSPMI is pressing the EPZ Council for more regulation to ensure the observation of International Labour Organization Conventions within all industrial zones. When the union proposed to the Council that contract workers get paid more than permanent workers and receive health care coverage up to six months after termination, a Singapore businessman responded, "This is just a ploy to get us to hire more permanent workers!"

ORGANISING EPZ WORKERS

Cece "Nora" Sgotia came by herself to Batam from West Sumatra in 2006. It wasn’t easy, for the first three months she stayed with friends who supported her until she found work at a shipbuilding company, PT Aatech Marines and later an electronics company, PT Leo, where she is currently on a six-month contract.

At the age of 30, Nora isn’t your average EPZ worker. The eldest of four, she graduated from law school at the prestigious University of Andalas where she became interested in women’s rights. She joined Lomenik a year ago and began to learn about the rights of workers and in particular the rights of women workers. Training from the union, coupled with her studies at university, led her to become an organiser for the union. "Many of the workers here are women and many of them don’t know their rights. There are cases where if they get pregnant they’ll get sacked. I wanted to educate other women about their rights. Women were surprised to know they even had rights. I had to teach the women that being in an association is not violating any law, they are afraid they will lose their jobs if they join the union. But after our discussions these women were willing to join the union."

Nora is on her way to meet with two women workers to talk about joining the union. She explains that most of her organising comes from setting up social calls with fellow workers on weekends, afternoons and holidays. Walking down the dusty street, lined with little houses painted tropical colours of pink, blue, yellow and green, she explains that the community where she lives is very open to the union, something she says comes from taking the time to talk to her neighbours about the positive things unions bring to communities.

When Nora arrives, the women workers are afraid to come out and meet the rest of the international delegation. With gentle prodding the women slowly appear from behind a curtain that serves as a door between the sitting room and the kitchen. Tiurismawti, aged 23, has been producing electronics connectors for five months on a one-year contract with Schneider Electric. She came from North Sumatra with her cousins in 2004. She says the working conditions are good and she likes the company, although the wages are "a bit lacking". Tiurismawti works Monday through Saturday from 6am until 1pm. She makes 1,100,000Rp (US$120) per month and also receives social security, healthcare and overtime pay. Her father is a farmer and she sends money home each month when she can, she worries about what will happen when her contract expires. The other woman, Kristin Suastri, aged 22, also comes from North Sumatra. She worked for a year at PCI Electronics until her contract expired and was not renewed. She doesn’t know what she is going to do.

FSPMI has a few small cooperative businesses for members in between contracts or out of work. The businesses include motorcycle maintenance, a hair salon, laundry services and tailoring. Workers can also volunteer to teach children in poverty stricken areas basic education.

Ery Istiawan, aged 29, has worked at PT Casio Electronic Indonesia for almost six years. He met his wife, Widya Pertiwi, a former Casio worker, in front of the company lockers four years ago. Ery is an FSPMI organiser and union officer at the plant level, having joined the union in 2004. To Ery the workshop training he received from FSPMI, IMF and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)’s Solidarity Center gave him the tools to be a good organiser. "I started to understand there were so many wrong doings committed by the company. There should be many workers’ unions in these areas, in every company, and that these workers must be united." Of course, organising in EPZs has its risks. While Ery has never been threatened, he is sure he has been passed over for promotions because of his union activism. Widya worries that the company will fire Ery for trade unionism. "I have to be very careful," Ery explains, "because I have to be an example."

Ery started out as a contract worker and after three years he was made permanent. He considers himself lucky. "I have friends from other companies, and these companies do not give social security, in fact they are conducting outsourcing and breaking the law in terms of wages. We have a minimum wage regulation here, but these companies do not want to apply it."

Ery, his wife and two children live in a modest one bedroom house in a residential area outside the massive industrial complex. Still, he asks his fellow union members not to laugh at his home when they see it. Ridwin Monoarfa grabs Ery’s shoulder and explains, "If we laugh, it is because we are happy for you that you have a house and a roof and a place to call home, many workers don’t even have these basic things."

MOVING FORWARD

For FSPMI, organising workers in Batam got its start at the Banana Leaf Coffee Shop back in 2001. Union members at the time met secretly with mid-level managers at key companies inside Batamindo EPZ and mapped out a plan. Since that time, FSPMI has organised 25,000 EPZ workers in Batam and Lomenik has organised 24,000. Last year alone between the two unions, 12,000 EPZ workers joined a union and 17 new plant level branches were established. Much of their work in the EPZs has been supported by the IMF and Swedish affiliates IF Metall and SIF through the EPZ Organising Project that was started in 2006.

Both FSPMI and Lomenik have mapped out new EPZ locations throughout the country and will begin new organising initiatives there in 2009. Meanwhile the IMF is assisting in the exchange of information and ideas in hopes that these strategies may be applied to other countries in the region and around the world.

"EPZ organising will remain paramount to the work of the IMF in this region," says Arunasalam, IMF Southeast Asia-Pacific regional representative, pointing out, "today, EPZ workers in Batam enjoy trade union protection, their conditions of employment and wages have improved greatly, there is trade union representation at the plant level, an organised workforce is now a trend setter for the unorganised in terms of wages and conditions of employment and we have for the first time carried out large scale organising at a selected EPZ and have met success. This experience could be shared with EPZ workers in Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam."

While each union must develop its own strategies for the particular challenges it faces regarding organising workers, there are many features of EPZ employment that present common challenges to unions throughout the world. The success of Indonesia’s organising efforts is immensely significant to IMF work in that the conditions under which EPZ workers toil are no longer confined within gated industrial parks or maquilas. Indeed more and more unions around the world are witnessing the erosion of good jobs – be it conditions, wages, or job security.

"We are seeing this model of employment spread beyond EPZs and the electronics industry into other industries. IMF’s work on precarious employment has shown how the growth in temporary and contract work is threatening secure employment everywhere," notes Jenny Holdcroft. "It is vitally important that unions everywhere acquire the expertise to be able to organise these workers – the very survival of some affiliates already depends on this. EPZs are not isolated "no-go" areas for unions -they are the model for future work patterns under globalisation."

While the unions in Indonesia are very aware that they are fighting an uphill battle, they also know this is a battle that must be fought. As Jazuli, a Lomenik organiser put it, "We know, if we don’t make efforts towards correcting the situation for precarious workers, it will get worse. This is a life long struggle and if we don’t start fighting now, just imagine what will happen?"

Uruguay: Members of the Uruguayan Metalworkers Union (UNTMRA) are battling with employers, after the latter refused union demands for the period 2008- 2010.

In response, workers went on strike for 24 hours and occupied workplaces in all sectors of the industry in which the union has members.

"Our priority is a reduction in the working week without a reduction in pay" said the union, an affiliate of the International Metalworkers’ Federation. "Our slogan is ‘Work less so that there is work for all" , it added.

The union’s demands are as follows:

• Minimum wage of 9,000 Uruguayan pesos (USD $ 450);
• an end to outsourcing;
• compliance with Decree 291/ 007 on health and safety and working conditions;
• creation of sector level tripartite committees;
• special leave for abortions; and
• employer insolvency law.

INDONESIA:  More than 10,000 metalworkers took to the streets on August 14 in a protest against precarious work organized by FSPMI, an affiliate of the International Metalworkers' Federation. Under a burning sun demonstrators shouted slogans such as "Indonesian workers are not slaves", "government – don't ignore workers' plight" and "Hidup Buroh", which means long live labour.

The demonstration started in front of the Hyatt Hotel in Jakarta and then proceeded to the Japanese, Korean and Singaporean embassies, then the Ministry of Manpower before reaching Parliament and the Indonesian President's Palace.

In front of the Japanese, Korean and Singaporean embassies, FSPMI President Syed Iqbal gave inspiring speeches in which he condemned companies from these countries for hiring precarious workers. Companies from Japan, Korea and Singapore are the main investors in Indonesia and have resorted to offering precarious employment on a very large scale.

At the Ministry of Manpower FSPMI Vice President Riduan gave a fiery speech and demanded to see the Minister. The Ministry's Chief Secretary appeared and workers demanded that the government act on FSPMI's complaint or face regular demonstrations. The march then moved on to the Parliament and President's Palace where the union handed protest letters to the government.

Elsewhere in Indonesia, similar demonstrations were held in Batam and Surabaya but on a smaller scale. Campaign materials were widely distributed to factories organised by FSPMI and posted on notice boards. Plant level union leadership held meetings with their respective managements to demand an end to precarious work. The FSPMI has also planned to meet regional governments in their quest to stop precarious employment.

FSPMI President Syed Iqbal said that, "If precarious work is not controlled it will lead to the destruction of unions and exploitation of workers. Wage increases are undermined by precarious employment and this has placed severe hardship on the working community. We will carry on fighting this issue no matter how long it takes."

Please note: The forthcoming issue of IMF's journal Metal World, out in September, will include a feature on organizing precarious workers in Indonesia.

CZECH REPUBLIC:  An agreement was reached on August 25 between Siemens AG and the trade union OS KOVO on redundancy provisions for workers at the Siemens SKV plant in Prague, which is planned for closure next year.

The agreement includes provisions such as:

• If the plant does close, Siemens will offer severance pay equal to 16 months salary (average wage). This is only if the employee does not resign beforehand,
• In August 2008, employees will receive a special payment of CZK15,000 (EUR 612), if they do not resign beforehand,
• Starting in August, employees will receive incentive bonuses amounting to 35 per cent of their monthly wage (average wage). These bonuses will grow by a further five percentage points each month until June 2009 (35%, 40%, 45%,…60%),
• SKV will ensure the qualification of the employees. Qualification-improving measures of up to three months will be financially supported,  
• In case SKV is sold, the company will pay every employee a transfer bonus equal to three months wage (average wage), and
• During the selling process SKV will regularly and timely inform and consult the trade union on that matter.

The negotiation group of Siemens AG representatives and OS KOVO representatives still have to negotiate the details of individual issues mentioned in the Framework Agreement so that they are in accordance with the Czech Legislation.

The agreement followed a warning strike by the workers on August 20 and international solidarity support from unions with members in Siemens elsewhere in Europe.

UNITED KINGDOM:  More than 3.3 million workers (13 per cent of the workforce) are not confident they will still be in their job in a year’s time according to a new YouGov poll commissioned and released on August 21 by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

Those in low paid jobs are less secure than those in better paid jobs. The least confident about keeping their job earn between £10,000 and £15,000 and the most confident earn more than £50,000.

Union members were more optimistic than non-members, with 48 per cent of trade unionists very confident that they would be in their job in a year’s time, compared to 40 per of workers not in a union.

The findings are consistent with a survey conducted last year by the International Metalworkers’ Federation on changing employment practices and precarious work, which found that metalworkers around the world are increasingly feeling less secure in employment.

The IMF surveyed its affiliates in 2006/07 and found that 90 per cent of respondents said precarious work has increased in the last five years.

As part of a united global effort to stop the massive expansion of precarious work, the IMF has called for a week of mobilisation from September 30 to October 7, 2008.

On October 7, IMF and its affiliates will also participate in a global day of action in conjunction with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and all other Global Union Federations (GUFs).

The IMF and its affiliates have voiced their commitment to take action against the expansion of precarious work. Around the world unions are mobilising, organising and bargaining for better and more secure work. Get involved today at: www.imfmetal.org/precariouswork

INDONESIA:  More than 10,000 metalworkers took to the streets on August 14 in a protest against precarious work organized by FSPMI, an affiliate of the International Metalworkers’ Federation. Under a burning sun demonstrators shouted slogans such as "Indonesian workers are not slaves", "government – don’t ignore workers’ plight" and "Hidup Buroh", which means long live labour.

The demonstration started in front of the Hyatt Hotel in Jakarta and then proceeded to the Japanese, Korean and Singaporean embassies, then the Ministry of Manpower before reaching Parliament and the Indonesian President’s Palace.

In front of the Japanese, Korean and Singaporean embassies, FSPMI President Syed Iqbal gave inspiring speeches in which he condemned companies from these countries for hiring precarious workers. Companies from Japan, Korea and Singapore are the main investors in Indonesia and have resorted to offering precarious employment on a very large scale.

At the Ministry of Manpower FSPMI Vice President Riduan gave a fiery speech and demanded to see the Minister. The Ministry’s Chief Secretary appeared and workers demanded that the government act on FSPMI’s complaint or face regular demonstrations. The march then moved on to the Parliament and President’s Palace where the union handed protest letters to the government.

Elsewhere in Indonesia, similar demonstrations were held in Batam and Surabaya but on a smaller scale. Campaign materials were widely distributed to factories organised by FSPMI and posted on notice boards. Plant level union leadership held meetings with their respective managements to demand an end to precarious work. The FSPMI has also planned to meet regional governments in their quest to stop precarious employment.

FSPMI President Syed Iqbal said that, "If precarious work is not controlled it will lead to the destruction of unions and exploitation of workers. Wage increases are undermined by precarious employment and this has placed severe hardship on the working community. We will carry on fighting this issue no matter how long it takes."

Please note: The forthcoming issue of IMF’s journal Metal World, out in September, will include a feature on organizing precarious workers in Indonesia.