USA: For more than a month, 3, 650 members of the United Auto Workers have been on strike at five American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. plants refusing to accept the company’s demands to cut wages in half, replace pensions with individual retirement accounts, decrease health care benefits and cut some 1,000 jobs.

The company has threatened plant closures and the shifting of work out of the country if the workers do not accept demands.  The strike, which began on February 26, has caused North America assembly plants supplied by AAM to temporarily reduce production of vehicles. The UAW has filed a complaint with the National Labour Relations Board against AAM citing unfair labour practices.

Meanwhile, American Axle’s CEO Richard Dauch earned US$10.2 million last year, according to a recent filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company gave Dauch a reported US$850,000 raise in 2007, a 9.2 per cent increase, as well as raises for the company’s three highest-ranking executives, who received raises ranging from 6.7 per cent to 27 per cent.

The International Metalworkers’ Federation and IMF affiliates around the world have expressed their solidarity with the striking workers and the UAW. "The company could not have made the product and profits it has over many years without the efforts and commitment of these workers," said IMF general secretary Marcello Malentacchi, "and now the company is trying to make negotiations a one-way street."

American Axle is a Detroit-based auto parts supplier created in 1994 when General Motors Corp. spun off five U.S. plants. American Axle makes axles, transmissions, suspensions and many other parts used in trucks and cars. Last year the parts supplier posted a US$37 million profit.

COLOMBIA: The National Union of Coal Mine Workers, SINTRACARBON, has reported the deplorable news of the assassination of Adolfo González Montes, the union's leader and a member of the Barrancas branch committee.

The union said its leader was tortured and killed at his home on March 22. It also expressed its concern that several other union leaders have received threatening telephone calls and been subjected to harassment, with unknown persons prowling round their homes.

SINTRACARBON is the union of workers at the Carbones del Cerrejón company, owned by the multinationals BHP Billiton (Australia), Anglo-American (London) and Glencore/Xstrata (Switzerland). The company mines coal in the Guajira region of Colombia.

The union has condemned the assassination of its leader and called on "the state security, enforcement, prosecution and other agencies to conduct a speedy investigation and capture those responsible, so that this crime does not remain unpunished, like the other 2,510 killings of trade union leaders in the last ten years in Colombia. All investigations have concluded that the union leaders were the victims of crimes of passion or robbery," said the union.

The IMF's Regional Office in Latin America condemns the killing and the threats and intimidation to which  the union's leaders are being subjected. It calls on the government and the multinational companies to respect human rights and provide the necessary guarantees for the exercise of the freedom of association. As we have repeated countless times in letters to the authorities, we also demand an end to the persecution of the Colombian trade union movement once and for all.

AUSTRALIA: Unions welcomed the ban on new individual contracts known as Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), which passed through the Australian Parliament on March 19. The law is an important first step in restoring the rights of Australian workers that were taken away by the former Liberal government's Work Choices labour laws.

The ban is good news for workers at Cochlear who have been struggling for the right to be represented by their union. However, the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) warns that:

•  there is still no legal obligation on Cochlear to recognise the union or to negotiate a collective agreement with the union, even if 100 per cent of the workers are supporting a union agreement,

•  the company can still enter into a so called "employee" agreement where it enters into a collective agreement with the workforce which excludes the union, and

•  the company still has many avenues to persecute union delegates and activists as there is very little effective legal protection against dismissal or other punitive actions.

"The new Government has pledged to introduce prior to the end of the year a new industrial law requiring employers to negotiate a collective agreement in good faith where the majority of workers want this to occur," said AMWU president Julius Rowe.

For now, workers at Cochlear and unions across Australia are calling on employers to respect the will of the Australian people and allow workers to go onto a union collective agreement that properly protects their wages, conditions and rights.

"The Cochlear workers are not just waiting around for new laws. They are continuing their campaign in the workplace to achieve a collective agreement," said Rowe.

 To find out more go to: www.imfmetal.org/ListenUpCochlear

GLOBAL: The International Metalworkers’ Federation’s global newsletter, NewsBriefs, delivered by fax or email to trade unionists, educators and NGOs around the world, has expanded and is now available in French and Russian in addition to the existing Spanish and English versions.

NewsBriefs is produced regularly and publishes content from the news section of the IMF website. By subscribing to NewsBriefs you will receive the latest news from the world of labour, in particular metal trade unions. Subscription to NewsBriefs is free-of-charge.

To subscribe go to: www.imfmetal.org/newsbriefs/subscribe

GLOBAL:  In Belarus, IMF affiliate REPAM is confronted with a multitude of problems, one of which is precarious employment in the form of universal short-term contracts. This issue’s feature, Belarus: A Nation on a Contractual Leash, takes a close-up and personal look at how the Belarusian government uses these contracts to control workers.

Metal World’s special report focuses on efforts in Latin America to improve gender equality for women at work and increase their participation in trade unions. In countries like Brazil and the Dominican Republic, there have been important cultural changes in trade union thinking that have opened the way for women to take on leadership positions. However, this has yet to take place in the rest of the continent.

Annie Labaj, who started out on the assembly line at a General Motors plant in Oshawa in 1973, was appointed Director of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) International Department in September 2007. In this issue of Metal World, Annie explains how education plays a vital role in all aspects of successful trade union work.

Metal World also includes all the latest news and photos from the IMF and its affiliates around the world.

The magazine is available as a pdf download on the IMF website in English (Russian and Japanese editions will follow) and is available in print, by sending subscription details to: [email protected] 

Text / Anita Gardner
Photo / Valter Bittencourt CNM-CUT
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TORONTO, CANADA “I have never forgotten the empowerment that knowledge has and how important it is especially for women,” said Annie Labaj, who was appointed Director of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) International Department in September last year. “I think this is why so many of the programs we support in other countries have an educational component.” One such example is the ten-year collaboration between the CAW and the Brazilian trade union CNM/CUT on developing women activists.

“In 1997 two women from CNM/ CUT came up and participated in our education program designed to develop women’s leadership.

The dynamic right from the beginning was something that we knew we wanted to continue,” explained Annie.

“Their union, like ours, saw that there was a need to develop skills and build women’s confidence in playing a leadership role. And that was the main goal of our program.

All most women needed, was to recognize that you didn’t have to be male to be a leader and that once they developed some skills like public speaking they could aspire to be a leader as well,” said Annie.

Annie first felt the need to learn more when she joined the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 222 at the General Motors Plant in Oshawa in 1973. Annie was hired to work on the assembly line at the truck plant and was one of six women working alongside 600 men on her shift.

After five years at the plant, Annie was elected chair of the Women’s Committee. The women decided to better understand their role by learning about the history of the committee. “We learned that this small group of active and outspoken union women from UAW Local 222 succeeded in changing not only their workplace, but also the Ontario Human Rights Code,” recalls Annie. “These women were our role models.” In 1987, two years after the Canadian region spilt from the UAW, Annie began working in the Education Department of the CAW.

She was the first woman to join the department, and her involvement in trade union education continued with the specialized courses on global solidarity and for women activists when she moved to the International Department in 1996.

Having the opportunity to work with the CAW Social Justice Fund — a fund that is negotiated by CAW members into their collective agreements to be able to do international work – has broadened Annie’s perspective and she tries to share this with CAW members whenever possible.

“One of the most important aspects of my work is making sure that CAW leadership and activists feel connected to the various struggles for trade union and human rights on the international scene. One of the ways we try to do this is the week long education course on global issues,” explains Annie. “Another is exchanges whether it is workers coming to Canada or CAW members traveling to other countries. The best way to learn and understand issues is to hear the information first hand, to be able to ask questions and dispel myths,” she said.

“People have to feel comfortable with talking about the issues.

People might accept change, but they won’t necessarily believe it unless they really understand why there is a need for it,” said Annie.

“For example, before a very large “demo”, like the one on trade in Quebec City in 2001, we ran workshops across the country to make sure that the membership understood why the union was opposing the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It is not just that we don’t want trade, we want fairer trade – trade that is going to benefit workers not set them up to compete in an ever downward spiral of working conditions,” said Annie.

“What we’ve seen in successful workers’ struggles is that you have to be persistent in building your leadership and activist core.

It takes time to build a movement — it doesn’t happen overnight,” said Annie. “We know this in the women’s movement and we know this in the trade union movement,” said Annie, adding, “Sustained education combined with action is the only way to make real change.”

To get the full story with illustrations, please download the pdf file.

Text / Valeska Solis
Translation / Chris Whitehouse

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In recent times, women in Latin America have begun to work in almost all sectors of the economy, including those traditionally regarded as the preserve of men.

According to the International Labour Organisation, female participation in the Latin American labour force grew at an annual rate of 4.1 per cent in the 1990s, compared to 2.6 per cent for men. There are several reasons for this trend, including women’s greater access to education and the increase in poverty, which has forced women to seek paid employment. However, most women’s jobs are casual and informal.

Liberalisation of the economy in many Latin American countries has led women to take a more active role in labour issues, mainly in relation to the disadvantages they suffer because of a lack of gender equity.

The most dramatic situation experienced by women occurs in processing plants (maquilas). In Mexico, women accounted for 58 per cent of non-specialised personnel in 1996 and the percentage was higher in Central America, reaching 95 per cent in Panama. In Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic, textile, clothing and electronic assembly factories employ more than 500,000 people. Most of these factories are owned by Koreans, Taiwanese and North Americans and export to the United States.

A study carried out by the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), entitled “El fenómeno maquilador en México y Honduras” describes the situation of women workers and highlights the lack of equal pay between men and women for the same work. “In general, they are subjected to sexual harassment, insults, humiliation and even corporal punishment when they do not fulfil their production quotas. The long working days standing up, the work-related stress, poor workplace ventilation and prolonged urine retention cause health problems such as vomiting, sinusitis and allergies,” says the report.

WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN UNIONS
Although women’s participation in the Latin American labour force has increased, their participation in trade unions is very low. The challenge of including women in the world of work has not been accepted in the region.

The governments of developing countries repress trade unions and most women workers are not union members, with very few of them exercising a leadership role within trade unions.

There are various reasons for this and one of them is the reluctance of male-dominated trade unions to change their culture. Another reason is that women do not have time to deal with trade union issues, because their domestic responsibilities take precedence and very few men share these responsibilities, which is a significant barrier that must be overcome.

It is in this context, that the International Metalworkers’ Federation is developing strategies to resolve the specific problems of women workers.

One of the greatest challenges that must be overcome in Latin America is to increase the number of women trade union members. To achieve this, trade unions must work for greater legal protection for women workers on issues such as maternity rights and equal pay, and work with members to ensure that women participate directly in collective bargaining, an important mechanism to improve respect for their rights.

IMF RESPONDS
At the 31st IMF World Congress in 2005, IMF changed its statutes to ensure that at least six women are on its Executive Committee, whereas previously there were none. The result was that eight women were elected to the Executive Committee, two of whom are from Latin America. At the same time the IMF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean began to refocus work to increase women’s participation in trade unions.

Women’s participation in trade union activities in the region has grown, especially in the Southern Cone, Central American and Caribbean sub-regions. IMF initiatives such as the Regional Gender Council (composed of both female and male leaders, with the latter accounting for 25 per cent of positions), have contributed to this growth.

There has also been an increase in the number of women’s regional meetings, reflecting the gradual emergence of very committed and active women leaders in affiliated unions. These have been prompted by the IMF’s Equal Rights Department, which has encouraged unions to follow the IMF Action Programme to increase women’s representation.

THE GENDER BATTLE
Many people might ask why it is important that women are represented in trade unions. The IMF believes that all workers should enjoy equal rights, independently of their gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, sexual preferences and religion. To achieve this, trade unions must be aware of the problems and needs of women if they are to promote respect for their rights.

“If the unions are going to promote social justice and equal opportunities, end discrimination and improve the quality of life of their members and workers in general, one of the basic steps to achieve these strategic policy objectives is to get women into trade union leadership positions so that they participate directly in union activities and actions, such as collective bargaining and in the whole trade union struggle,” says Jenny Holdcroft, IMF equal rights director.

She adds that, “the women who have taken on leadership positions did not achieve this only by ‘defending women’ but also by fighting, shoulder to shoulder, with men to win labour, social and economic rights for all workers.”

CULTURAL CHANGE IN AFFILIATED UNIONS
Recently, there has been significant progress in changing the culture of unions to be more representative of women.

However this cannot be shown in quantitative terms, because the changes are in people’s perception of gender issues. For example, there is greater concern about the situation of women workers and trade unionists now discuss gender and are beginning to work on the issue.

In the last five years, women union leaders in Latin America have played an important role in the struggle to integrate women into trade union structures and have actively participated in women’s meetings and conferences.

Among the trade unions that have experienced a cultural change, the metalworker unions in Brazil stand out. In this country women are already well integrated into trade union structures and are participating more, working in all sectors of the economy, especially in the electronics industry.

The Women’s Commissions of the three main trade union centres (CUT, CGT and Força Sindical) introduced minimum quotas for women at all leadership levels, which were adopted by the organisations.

Brazil’s CNTM/FS says that this change is reflected in the leadership posts that women occupy on the union executive now that they are seen as relevant to the organisation. Women used to be only members or occupied less relevant positions or acted as substitutes, but this has changed in recent years.

Nair Goulart, President of Força Sindical in the state of Bahía, Brazil and a member of the IMF Executive Committee, says that more women now work in the metalworking and motor industries but they are not represented in the trade unions. “In Brazil, ten per cent of leadership positions in the metalworkers’ unions are occupied by women but there were none when I began to be active in the trade union movement twenty years ago.” Brazil’s CNM/CUT has seen similar changes and reports that women have been increasingly active in the union in recent years. CNM passed a resolution to guarantee participation of women in all events, including congresses, plenaries and other meetings and also to guarantee a minimum of 30 per cent women’s representation on executive committees of confederations, federations and its trade union central. “However, as union membership is about 50 per cent women should also be reflected in the composition of the leadership,” believes Emília Valente, member of CNM/CUT National Executive Committee and member of the IMF Executive Committee.

“But we don’t want women just to make up the numbers or just because it is politically correct to have women in the unions. We want them there so they can contribute to workers’ struggles and help to change the culture within the unions. We now have women presidents and general secretaries leading unions and conducting collective bargaining with the same rights as men,” said Emília.

In the Dominican Republic, casual work has had a major impact and it has been difficult to recruit members, especially in the Free Trade Zones. The working day is long, there are no canteens, there is insufficient transport to get to the factories, workers have to clean other areas after cleaning their own, there is a lack of bathrooms for the number of people and workers are charged for the water they drink. This is why the IMF focused on women workers in this country in conjunction with the National Federation of Miners and Metalworkers (Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros y Metalúrgicos — FENATRAMIM).

Francia Sosa, a FENATRAMIM member, says that previously, “women hardly used to participate at all, but the work that began approximately five years ago resulted in a change.

About 30-35 per cent of leaders are now women. We are very grateful to the IMF’s Equal Rights Department, because it was the proposals we developed together that have helped maintain the work done by the women’s team and participation has increased. We have held several workshops with other members and the men have begun to take on board that we are also participating and that we need equality at the leadership level. This change made the men more aware,” she says.

Other unions have also begun to understand the need to include women and have tried to strengthen women’s commissions, departments and secretariats, developed strategies to include gender issues on the trade union agenda and encouraged women to become trade union leaders. However, there is a lack of practical action to obtain results and in many cases change has not taken place.

Francia Sosa says that unions need to continue working to include women in countries where their representation is very low, for example, in Colombia, where women in the Federation of Metalworkers (FETRAMECOL) say they have not been able to ensure implementation of the union’s policy to include them. In addition, there is strong discrimination on the grounds of age, physical condition and civil status at the workplace, and most women spend their time doing domestic work without pay or welfare provisions.

The Metalworkers’ and Miners’ Federation of Honduras says the problem is that men have the greatest say in society and this hampers efforts by women to play a role.

The union also says that the nature of the work means there are few women members. However, those women that are members do participate well. They highlight the fact that many women workers are single mothers and so it is difficult for them to reconcile trade union activities and family duties.

In Uruguay, two years ago, there was a change in the situation of women in trade unions because gender issues began to be included in collective agreements. The executive of the National Metalworkers’ Union (UNTMRA) has eleven members, only one of whom is a woman, and the national leadership has 25 members and ten deputies, two of whom are women. The union says it must make women understand the importance of their participation in the union, but social circumstances prevent participation.

Women are shouldered with many responsibilities, mainly in their homes, which prevents them from participating in trade union meetings.

Chile is another country in this category. The Federation of Copper Workers has approximately 700 women members out of more than 13,000 members. Two of the 15 members of the National Council are women.

The federation has a women’s department, as does the National Confederation of Metalworkers’ Federations and Trade Unions (CONSTRAMET), which created the Women’s Front (Frente de la Mujer).

The Miners’ Association (Asociación Obrera Minera) in Argentina has very few women members. The union says that many more women work in the industry but they are reluctant to join the union despite efforts to organise them.

Women occupy some posts in the unions but these are posts that have no decision-making power. They are posts on the council or in the secretariat.

CHALLENGES
Union attitudes to improving women’s participation and the difficulties faced by women workers in the metalworking industry show that there have been different degrees of cultural change in Latin America. In general, gender equality within trade unions is not high enough on the agenda and the prevailing culture does not encourage women to join trade unions in most Latin American countries.

Although there is a lot of information available on this issue, what is lacking is the development of union strategies to promote equal opportunities and for unions to really tackle the issue of recruiting women members.

This is a long-term process because of the need to fight different aspects of the culture in each country and the mentalities and social history that so often act as a barrier to progress.

According to women in trade unions in Latin America, IMF support is fundamental. The IMF organises programmes, projects and workshops that contribute to promoting gender equity and cultural change in most of the region’s countries.

Nair Goulart says, “it is important to continue the work that the IMF is doing, especially training both men and women to promote action on participation on all fronts.” She adds that, “it was important to change the IMF’s statutes but this alone will not promote change. The main thing that needs to change is at the grassroots of the unions. There is a need for recruitment campaigns and activities in which women feel included and that take place at appropriate times. The unions must take on this struggle together and include issues like maternity rights and family protection on the collective bargaining agenda so that women can work in peace.” In the light of cultural changes within the trade unions in Latin America, former IMF regional director Jorge Campos says that, “there is still a lot of work to do. We have to eliminate this taboo that many comrades have about women’s participation in trade union activities. When I refer to men, I am referring to the husbands, brothers, sons, colleagues and leaders. In addition, there are other challenges that we must overcome, such as violations of the right to freedom of association, the intolerance shown by many employers towards trade union leaders and the criminalisation of trade union activity.” Latin America has reached a crucial moment in the fight to reduce gender inequalities. There have been important political, social and economic changes and these are needed to eradicate the poverty and social exclusion to which most women are subjected. Hopefully this trend will reach trade unions throughout Latin America. This challenge requires more training and the reorganisation of activities to benefit all men and women in the trade union world. Unions must rise to the challenge and adapt to the new times, new needs and new trends.

To get the full story with illustrations, please download the pdf file
 

text / Alexander Ivanov
translation / Mark Slay
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A RESERVE OF SOCIALISM?
Belarus is one of the 15 republics that were part of the USSR. After gaining its independence in 1991 following the breakup of the Soviet Union, for four years Belarus successfully moved forward on the path to reform. The Constitution, adopted in 1994, received the highest marks from experts in international law for its democratic approach and its unqualified adherence to the principle of the division of powers. The country of ten million inhabitants, which had one of the highest concentrations of nuclear weapons in the world, voluntarily gave up those weapons and declared itself a non-nuclear state. As part of the USSR, Belarus had played the role of an “assembly shop” with a large number of highly trained specialists in many industries. Despite the economic crisis following the break up of the USSR, for a long time Belarus remained a country with high economic, industrial and intellectual potential for development.

Unfortunately, much changed after 1994, when Alexander Lukashenko came to power. Since this time, Lukashenko has continued to occupy the post of President of the Republic of Belarus, despite his term of office expiring long ago. The most recent elections in March 2006 were sharply criticized by  international observers, and pictures of violence directed against peaceful citizens who took to the streets to protest the many falsifications of the elections were seen around the world.

In such a situation, a society inevitably encounters the problem of the free expression of its will, and independent institutions are subjected to pressure by the authorities. Belarus is no exception: independent political parties, human rights organizations and labour unions which clash with the authorities have been subjected to pressure and persecution. In 2000, two unions affiliated to the IMF lodged a complaint with the International Labor Organisation (ILO) against the numerous illegal acts of the authorities against Belarusian unions. Since then, IMF has been following the situation in the country. What has changed during that time and what is the situation today in Belarus, the country with the unenviable reputation of being the last bastion of dictatorship in Europe?

The Belarusian authorities have chosen the Stalinist principle of solving problems: if you have a person, you have a problem; no person, no problem. While the regime could not afford to fully repeat the experience of the Stalinist repressions an attempt was made, as a result of which rumors of the existence of “death squads” in Belarus were reported around the world, and the disappearances
of certain politicians remain unsolved. Lukashenko also silences Belarusians by other means. The authorities have consistently destroyed independent organizations in Belarus. And, to keep people quiet, decided to tie their hands with short-term employment contracts. In 1999, a decree was issued transferring certain categories of workers to short-term contracts; at the time the practice did not become widespread due to the resistance of the relatively independent Belarusian Federation of Trade Unions. But after Lukashenko’s deputy chief of administration became the leader of the Federation in formal elections, the unions retreated, and beginning in 2003 the entire country was rapidly put on one to two year contracts. Workers, engineers, doctors and white collar workers received notice from their employers that they had to conclude contracts with them for one to two years.

DEEP IN THE HEART OF BELARUS
Tatiana Sologubik lives and works in Brest, a provincial administrative center with a population of 300,000 in south-western Belarus. Although it was late January, the weather was unseasonably warm, with scattered patches of snow, and here and there some puddles of water .

Nevertheless, the cold, damp weather was not conducive to talking on the street, so we met Tatiana over a cup of tea. Tatiana is a union organizer for REPAM, a “leader of the workforce”, as her colleagues respectfully call her. She works with 20 people in the printed circuit board shop of the Tsvetotron plant, where 10 are members of REPAM .

Tatiana has been working at the plant for 20 years. It used to be a young enterprise (this year it will celebrate its 25th anniversary) with a promising future, and attracted people from other plants in the city. In Soviet times every worker at the plant would receive a free apartment relatively quickly, as the enterprise built such apartments for them .

The system of issuing free housing disappeared along with the Soviet Union. Now everything has to be paid for .

By the time we met at noon, Tatiana’s shift had already ended, and as it transpired, for several years the whole plant had been working on only one shift. Of the 3,000 people working at the plant in Soviet times, only 300 are left. Wages at the plant are based on piece-work: the more you produce, the more you receive, and the wage scales, like the equipment, are ten years old and out of date. In order to at least partially compensate for the low wages, when calculating pay an increase coefficient is used at the enterprise. The coefficient varies depending on how well the enterprise has performed during the given month. If the plant has earned more, then the coefficient is lower; in the opposite case, it is higher. Tatiana’s highest monthly wage over the last year was 360,000 rubles (US$170) .

Virtually no new employees are hired, and those who have remained at the plant have been put on one-year contracts. Tatiana resisted the practice for a long time and found reasons not to sign, until she was the last employee who had not signed a contract. But a year ago she was informed that since she was not on a contract, they would not pay her the increase coefficient. In practice that meant a serious cut in an already low wage, and so she gave in .

Tatiana’s contract expires at the end of March, and for the time being no one has offered her a new one. There are virtually no young people at the Tsvetotron plant, according to Tatiana the workers are 40 years and older .

Wages are low, and the work is unhealthy by nature, hence young people are not attracted to the work. In view of the unhealthy conditions of production, Tatiana as a circuit board printer can retire at the age of 50. The retirement age in Belarus is 55 for women and 60 for men. But making ends meet on a pension with today’s prices is very difficult. There are already working retirees at the plant .

The workers know they are working in unhealthy conditions, but they “show understanding” for the ailing enterprise and they are glad to have a job and a wage at all. In addition to early retirement for unhealthy working conditions, workers are also given milk. Tatiana does not believe in its healing powers and considers that she has already worked long enough under unhealthy conditions .

She wants to change her job, and does not conceal the fact that there is nothing more to keep her at the plant .

The union tried to fight with the administration at the plant with little success. The most serious way in which the workers could protest was simply to quit. But quitting is no solution, and while Tatiana herself has not yet tried to quit, she hopes to find another job by the time her contract expires .

In Belarus Tatiana’s situation is by no means uncommon, many workers are confronted with a similar problem. If an employer concludes a contract with you, it is very difficult to leave by mutual agreement before the expiration of the contract. In practice, it is always possible to simply stop showing up for work, and sooner or later you will be fired for absenteeism, but your employment booklet will have an unfavourable entry which will not go unnoticed by your next potential employer .

REPAM is not the only union at Tsvetotron. But when it comes to protecting the rights of a specific individual, people do not want to go to the second union. It does offer consultations, but from a jurist who is employed by the enterprise administration and depends on the director .

“A consultation with a city jurist costs 80,000 rubles (about US$40), and not everyone can afford to pay a third of their monthly wage for one consultation,” explains Vasily Zhirnov, the REPAM union committee chairman at the Tsvetotron plant. REPAM offers consultations to its members free of charge .

“At our plant the contract is primarily used to exert psychological pressure,” says Vasily. “Most of the workers at our plant are women, and in the present situation, if you’re a woman and you’re past 40, you won’t find another job because no one will hire you. For that reason, if a contract is signed, a woman will not try to get anything better than the contract, even if her pay is only 80,000 a month, she will hold on to that job. That is why the contract keeps people from leaving.”

A VERTICAL SYSTEM OF AUTHORITY
 Tsvetotron is like many other enterprises of Belarus, but to get the full picture we went to Minsk, the capital city of Belarus. At the very outset of our conversation, Vladimir Karpukhin, the chairman of the primary union organization of REPAM at the Minsk Automobile Plant, immediately apologized for not being able to give us any information on REPAM members at the plant: “I can’t give you any names — the people are operating virtually underground.” Vladimir is 59, and has not been dismissed because of his age: his next annual contract expires on his 60th birthday, and all indications are that he will not be offered another one. “They can’t fire my deputy because he has already worked more than 25 years at the plant. If it weren’t for that, he and I would have been removed a long time ago.

It doesn’t matter that as a specialist I’m on good terms with management, they’re also under pressure from above, from the Ministry, where people also work “against their will”, they are also under contract. Basically, this is vertical authority in action,” Vladimir laughs.

Vertical authority is the system of state authority built up by Lukashenko during his term in office. Essentially, all the changes in this system have been aimed at achieving one goal: concentrating power in the hands of one man, while at the same time removing any dissidence from the structures of authority. Constitutional Court judges, leading officials in the regions who were previously elected, all of them are now appointed or removed from the top down, vertically, by the President of Belarus, and sometimes they even end up in the defendants’ dock.

Wages at the MAZ (Minsk Auto Plant) are among the highest in the country. For that reason people value jobs at the MAZ and are afraid of losing them. However, in the molding shop, where in addition to Vladimir some 300 people are employed, turnover is fairly high at 25 to 30 per cent. The tough working conditions are the reason.

There is another union at the plant, one that in other countries would be called a “yellow” or “pocket” union.

As Vladimir notes, “It is an organization whose entire purpose boils down to collecting funds. It’s a state racket created to extract a certain sum, one per cent, from the workers, and nothing more. If a worker doesn’t want to pay or be a member of that union, he is given to understand that renewal of his contract may pose a problem. ” “People have been atomized,” Vladimir laments, “the saddest thing is that now the people don’t feel that it is their plant. It used to be that patriotism was instilled, worker family dynasties were encouraged, but now, it’s a one-year contract. Everyone understands that the contract is like a snare.” “The contracts were created to keep people under control.

What is taking place is a concentration of power, vertical authority must penetrate everywhere like tentacles, and totally control everything,” explains Vladimir. “On the other hand, history confirms that every dictatorship ends badly for the dictator. We remember Franco, Salazar and Hitler, we remember Stalin and Ceausescu. All the dictatorships came to an end, it’s only a matter of time.”
 

REPAM
REPAM (the Belarusian Union of Workers of Radio and Electronics Industry, Automobile Machinery, Metalworking Industry and Other Branches of the National Economy), a member organization of the IMF, officially operates in Belarus under the name of Unions of Workers of the Radio and Electronics Industry (REP). Initially, the REP and the ASM (the Union of Workers of the Automobile and Agricultural Machinery Industry) were among the first organizations in the post-Soviet area to join the IMF. By interfering in the internal affairs of the ASM, the authorities gained control over it. When it lost the status of a democratic, independent and representative organization, the ASM was expelled from the IMF. At the same time, the authorities essentially tore apart the second member organization by administrative methods. Not wishing to submit to the ill will of the dictator, supporters of the independent labour movement who wanted to defend the rights of the workers, activists of the ASM and the REP, decided to unite in a single union, REPAM.

A founding congress was held at which the leaders of the new union were elected. The Ministry of Justice initially registered REPAM, and then a few months later, unexpectedly and with no justification, took the unprecedented step of revoking its registration. It was extremely important to continue the effort begun, and the union members decided to keep the name REP for official purposes, although throughout the world the union is known as REPAM.

DECREES ABOVE THE LAW
One of REPAM’s priorities is the abolition of fixed-term contracts. “The system of contracts enslaves people, restricts their freedom, we’re not talking about free work, people are bound to their jobs. If someone is a good worker, he cannot move to a better job,” notes Alexander Bukhvostov, co-chairman of the union. In 2007, REPAM put forward an initiative to abolish the contract system.

Potentially, if citizens of the country can gather 50,000 signatures, they can appeal to parliament and initiate a review of any legislative act of the Republic of Belarus.

“But when everything was ready for collecting the signatures, and an initial group of 500 people was created, we were not given a place to assemble, despite applying three times,” recounts Gennady Fedynich, co-chairman of REPAM. “Then we combined a May Day event with a meeting of the group. We set up groups for all the regions, and elaborated a legislative bill.” The problem is that when Lukashenko came to power, there began to appear in Belarusian legislation various supra-legal acts issued by the president, acts whose legal status is not quite certain, for example, the names of some of them are not defined in the Constitution. Presidential Decree No. 29 on the introduction of the contract system is an example of such an act. REPAM believed it was important to make the Labour Code the main legislation in the area of labour relations, that is ensure that everything is reflected in the Labour Code. Finally the Ministry of Justice issued an opinion to the effect that a legislative initiative by citizens can only propose amending a law, but as a presidential decree, such as Decree No. 29, is higher than the law, the citizens of the country do not have the right to amend a decree of the president.

In parallel with that work, REPAM has submitted a proposal to Belarusian parliamentarians to ratify ILO Convention 158 “On Termination of Employment at the Initiative of the Employer”. Ratification of this convention by Belarus would be tantamount to undertaking to renounce the practice of universal fixed-term employment contracts, and in its recommendations to that convention the ILO indicates that if a contract is concluded with a person for one year, the next contract should be permanent.

“The problem is that people are not prepared to defend themselves, they are paralyzed by fear. At the workplace, efforts are made to divide them. From the politicaleconomic point of view the means of production in our country belongs to the state. And in this country the state means the president. The entire profit goes to the state.

Workers’ wages are determined by the state; this is not even capitalism, it is more like slavery,” says Alexander Bukhvostov, co-chairman of REPAM, with regret. Perhaps for this reason none of REPAM’s proposal have been incorporated into Belarusian legislation. But REPAM is not giving up.

At the end of our conversation Gennady and Alexander thanked the IMF and its affiliates for their solidarity and support and stated flatly that without that support REPAM could not survive. They also stressed the importance of visits to Belarus and in particular to REPAM by delegations of colleagues from other unions from around the world.

THE LAW ON TRADE UNIONS
A new legislative bill, which has been proposed allegedly to bring labour legislation in line with ILO recommendations for case 2090, represents a set of draconian measures intended to completely eliminate independent unions. In particular, the new law sets the minimum permissible number of members for a national union (at least 7,000 members employed in related or similar industries). At present only one independent union in Belarus can boast of such a membership: the Belarusian Independent Trade Union, which consists mainly of miners and workers of the oil refining industry. But even that union does not itself conclude collective agreements, rather it accedes to preexisting contracts in enterprises concluded by unions of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus. In the present situation the independent unions cannot exert any real influence on the course of collective bargaining. With the introduction of the new law, they will be forced to move entirely to illegal forms of work.

REPAM, an affiliate of the IMF with a membership of 1,500 and presently holding the status of a national union may be confronted with the problem of whether to continue its activity. One of the main features and problems of the bill is that the workers are denied the right to chose their union, since each union can only accept as members workers of related or similar occupations, while no definition is given of related or similar occupations. The bill is full of similar inexactitudes, which in the future may lead to varying interpretations of the law. The bill is likely to be considered as early as the spring 2008 session of parliament.

To get the full story with illustrations, please download the pdf file.

India:  Shipbreaking workers employed by Kiran Shipbreaking Pvt. Ltd at the no. 82 plot of the Alang Shipbreaking yard staged a successful one-day strike on March 14 demanding their employer restore wage rates to their former level.

Some 250 workers held demonstrations and chanted slogans at the site under the banner of the “Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers Association”, the trade union representing the Alang shipbreaking workers. The union is affiliated to the Steel, Metal & Engineering Workers’ Federation of India (SMEWFI), an affiliate of the International Metalworkers’ Federation.

Workers organized the strike after learning that their employer had arbitrarily cut wage rates. The 24-hour strike proved successful. The employer met with union officials and conceded to pay wages at the former rate.

For the shipbreaking workers in Alang, the victory is a significant step towards building a strong union and defending the rights of shipbreaking workers. Alang is considered one of the most dangerous shipyards in the world, where workers toil under deadly conditions without safety equipment, protection or training. Many workers do not have even the most basic protection, such as gloves or shoes. The shipbreaking industry is largely unregulated, leaving workers vulnerable to employers who repeatedly put profits before workers’ health and dignity.

“The workers have now gained courage and confidence and are having awareness of their rights,” said V.V.Rane, general secretary of Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers Association, “This event will be instrumental for strengthening the collective voice of the workers and to secure justice for them in the coming days.”

For the past five years, the IMF jointly with FNV Modiaal and SMEFI have carried out a number of organizing activities as part of a long-term project to organize metalworkers in the ship breaking industry. The strike’s success is a testament to the ongoing work there.     

A short film documenting the conditions of shipbreaking work in Bangladesh and India is available on the IMF website. Go to: www.imfmetal.org/shipbreaking

COLOMBIA:  Workers at Cerro Matoso and the Montelíbano community organised another march on Sunday March 16 in support of their strike for improved working conditions.

The strike at the nickel mine began on February 27 after the company refused the proposals put forward by the union.

The union, SINTRACERROMATOSO, issued a press release saying that the march’s objective is to put pressure on the Cerro Matoso company, owned by the multinational BHP Billiton, to negotiate in good faith on important issues such as which workers are covered (Campo de Aplicación) by the collective agreement, policy on health services and education, pay and contracts.

The union said, "some contractors are only paying the minimum legal wage to workers so we have asked the company to ensure all temporary workers are paid the proper rate for the job.”

“Let us remember”, it continued “that working conditions are hazardous, with high levels of dust, noise, metal fumes, silica and radiation."

Trade unions with members at companies owned by the multinational in various countries have indicated they are ready to mobilise in solidarity with the workers at Cerro Matoso.

The IMF has sent messages of solidarity, offering help in finding a solution to the dispute and supporting the union’s and the workers’ efforts to achieve decent working conditions. The union is affiliated to UTRAMMICOL.