PALESTINE:  The General Secretary of the IMF went to Nablus in the first week of October to meet with the leadership of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU). The visit was meant to express the solidarity of the IMF to its affiliate metalworkers’ union in Palestine.

The lives of all Palestinian workers and their families are severely hit by the increasing restrictions on movements of people and the dramatic isolation of the Gaza strip and the West Bank. As a consequence unemployment has reached the level of 55 per cent in Nablus (from an 11 per cent before the year 2000), and possibly more than 65 per cent in Gaza. Most productive activities — particularly in metal working industries — are paralysed or severely undermined by restrictions on the import of raw materials and components. Unless developments take place in the peace process with the lifting of barriers and the provision of work permits in Israel there do not seem to be real prospects for development and unemployment will remain the key problem for Palestinian workers.

In Gaza the present situation makes the protection of the workers’ basic needs extremely difficult. Workers lack any assistance on fundamental issues such as health insurance. The metalworkers of PGFTU are re-organising their structures to overcome the obstacles linked to the present political situation. Their main request to the international trade union movement is for support in their effort to rebuild a democratic and strong trade union able to guarantee respect of the metalworkers’ fundamental rights and minimum wages.

An issue of special concern for PGFTU is the lack of any juridical protection for Palestinian workers employed in Israel where they can only be represented by Israeli lawyers, with costs that are unaffordable for them. For this reason their key priority remains the implementation of the agreement signed with the Israeli trade union congress, Histadrut, in March 1995. They would welcome the assistance of the IMF in setting a clear agenda for dialogue with the metalworkers’ union of Histadrut around the fundamental issues of concern for Palestinian workers.

Like other Global Union Federations, the IMF is committed to support the Palestinian trade union movement to defend workers right, improve organising and employment conditions, create jobs and strengthen democratic unions.

It was agreed that the IMF will assist its Palestinian affiliate in drawing up a strategic plan for metalworkers and will appeal to the solidarity of metalworkers’ unions in all regions in support of their Palestinian sisters and brothers.

The IMF is discussing with the metalworkers of Histadrut the scheduling of a delegation of the IMF Executive Committee to visit the metalworkers of both countries to help re-open a dialogue between them in the interest of all their members.

BRAZIL: IMF director of union building, Fernando Lopes, met representatives of multinational companies in Brazil that have signed International Framework Agreements (IFAs) in São Paulo, on October 1- 2.

The meeting discussed how these agreements are being implemented by the companies. In addition, the IMF-affiliated metalworkers’ confederations of the two union centrals, CNM/CUT and CNTM/FS, signed a cooperation agreement to monitor conditions at the suppliers of multinational companies with IFAs. Suppliers of these companies have a contractual obligation to comply with all the provisions of these agreements.

Twelve foreign companies operating in Brazil have signed IFAs, in which they agree to respect human rights and core International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions. Companies and their suppliers who want to be seen as "socially responsible" must take steps to ensure, for example, that they do not:
– use child labour (ILO Convention 138)
– use slave or forced labour (ILO Conventions 29 and 105)
– discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, nationality, physical condition, age or sexual orientation (ILO Convention 111)
– hinder freedom of association and collective bargaining (ILO Conventions 87, 98, 135)

At the meeting CNM/CUT and CNTM/FS also agreed to work together in approaching six Brazilian multinational companies about signing an IFA with the IMF.

SWEDEN: The Salaried Employees’ Union (HTF) has merged with the Swedish Union of Clerical and Technical Employees in Industries (Sif) to form Unionen, the largest union in the private sector with approximately half a million members.

The new union, approved by HTF and Sif congresses on October 3, 2007, will take affect on January 1, 2008, becoming the country’s second largest union representing members in 66,000 workplaces throughout Sweden. Unionen will be comprised of 45,000 elected representatives and operate regional offices at 27 locations around the country.

Mari-Ann Krantz, currently president of Sif, will become the president of Unionen until the new trade union’s congress is held in October 2008 and Bengt Olsson, now president of HTF, will become Unionen vice president. Stefan Carlsson, Sif, Cecilia Fahlberg, HTF, and Peter Hellberg, Sif, will become Unionen deputy vice presidents.

Sif is an affiliate of the International Metalworkers’ Federation.

BELGIUM: Umicore, a Belgian metals group specialising in metal technology, chemicals, and catalysts systems, today signed an international framework agreement jointly with the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM). The agreement, initiated by the Belgian union, Centrale Chrétienne du Métal de Belgique (CCMB), is for a four-year period and contains language establishing a joint committee to review and monitor the agreement.

The agreement contains six articles: Human Rights, Working Conditions, Environment, Implementation of Agreement, Monitoring, and Validity of Agreement.

Under Human Rights, Umicore pledges to adhere to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, as well as adherence to International Labour Organisation (ILO) core labour standards, specifically referring to ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, and other Conventions regarding child labour, forced labour, and non-discrimination and equal opportunities practices.

Under Working Conditions, the company agrees to ILO Convention 100 on fair and adequate remuneration, and pledges not to compromise on safety and health conditions in any workplace. The Environmental principles include a six-point plan centred on sustainable development issues.

“We are pleased to join with the IMF in establishing global standards with Umicore,” said ICEM general secretary Manfred Warda. “Umicore is a company that crosses into a number of sectors, including those both in ICEM and IMF’s range.”

 “We are confident that both the IMF and ICEM, through our affiliates, will uphold the very best in social practices at Umicore,” said IMF general secretary Marcello Malentacchi.

The framework agreement was co-signed by Belgian labour unions/federations Metaal/FGTB-ABVV, CGSLP-ACLVB, and CSC-ACV, the federation which affiliates CCMB.

Brussels-based Umicore employs 14,000 staff in 35 countries. It began in 1906 as a Belgian mining company in the Congo, and in 2001 changed its name from Union Miniére to Umicore.

A copy of the agreement is published on the IMF website.

ITALY:  IBM workers in Italy will take their dispute with the computer giant into the virtual world from 9am to 9pm GMT tomorrow, September 27.

During the talks to renew a collective agreement with IBM in Italy, the works council, supported by the majority of IBM Italy employees, asked for a small salary increase. IBM responded by cancelling their "productive results benefit", resulting in a loss of €1000 per year for each employee. The company is refusing to talk to representatives of the 9,000 Italian workforce.

Members and supporters will be protesting on the IBM’s virtual “islands” in Second Life, a virtual world which it uses to promote the company and build new links with customers. Real-life protest pickets outside IBM offices in Italy will accompany the virtual picket with workers handing out information on the dispute.

The virtual protest is the first of its kind and has attracted extensive media attention.  The actions of the IBM workers coordinating body in Italy is being supported by global unions UNI and the International Metalworkers’ Federation and the European Metalworkers’ Federation and IBM workers in at least 18 countries. To find out more about how to participate in the virtual protest, visit: www.uniglobalunion.org/secondlife

GLOBAL : A total of 144 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers rights in 2006, while more than 800 suffered beatings or torture, according to the Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations, published by the International Trade Union Confederation.

The 379-page report documents nearly 5,000 arrests and more than 8,000 dismissals of workers due to their trade union activities and investigates 484 new cases of trade unionists held in detention by governments. The report gives accounts of mass dismissals, beatings, detentions and threats against workers and their families carried out in countries in each region of the world.

Dictatorships and authoritarian governments in Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, North Korea and several Gulf countries maintained their suppression of independent trade unions, with more than 100 Chinese workers detained in prisons and forced labour camps in appalling conditions.

The Survey also reports growing government hostility to fundamental workers' rights in some industrialised countries, in particular in Australia, where the government's deceptively-titled "WorkChoices" legislation stripped workers of a raft of rights and benefits, and imposed heavy restrictions on union activity, with harsh penalties for individual workers and union officials.  In the United States a National Labour Relations Board Ruling deprived millions of the right to organise.
 
The anti-union activities of a number of multinational companies, including repeat offenders such as Coca Cola subsidiaries and suppliers, Wal-Mart, Goodyear, Nestlé and Bouygues come under the spotlight.

Women workers in particular continued to face repression, particularly given the exploitation of the mainly female workforce in Export Processing Zones in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with numerous instances of dismissal and outright refusal by employers to recognise even the most fundamental rights of their employees.

The report is available in four languages, French, English, Spanish and German and is available in hardcopy or online at: http://survey07.ituc-csi.org/.

USA: 73,000 members of United Auto Workers (UAW) went on strike at General Motors plants across the United States on Monday after intense contract negotiations broke down over issues of job security, future product investments, outsourcing, and active member benefits. 

The collective agreement that covers autoworkers employed by GM at 82 U.S. facilities, which includes assembly and parts plants and warehouses, expired at midnight on September 14. Negotiators bargained through an unprecedented nine-day contract extension in hopes of reaching an agreement.

“We’re shocked and disappointed that General Motors has failed to recognize and appreciate what our membership has contributed during the past four years,” said UAW president Ron Gettelfinger pointing out that UAW members have given plenty of concessions to GM in recent years including giving up a cost-of-living adjustment in the 2003 contract; a 2005 health care deal that left retirees with higher medical costs; cooperation with GM on its restructuring plan to close a number of U.S. factories and cut 34,000 hourly jobs; and a deal with Delphi Corp. that gave workers cash payments in exchange for lower wages.

"Obviously we're very concerned about this company," Gettelfinger told the Detroit News, “We've done a lot of things to help that company. We were disappointed in this round of negotiations to discover that it was a one-way set of negotiations — it was going to be GM's way at the expense of the workers."

UAW Vice President Cal Rapson and director of the union's GM department, said the one-sided negotiations were “a complete failure by GM to address the reasonable needs and concerns of our members.”

“Instead, in 2007 company executives continued to award themselves bonuses while demanding that our members accept a reduced standard of living,” Rapson said referring to recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that disclosed a number of multimillion-dollar stock bonuses awarded to top auto executives despite massive job cuts and attacks on the wages, working conditions and benefits for autoworkers. In the case of GM, CEO Rick Wagoner was awarded restricted stock valued at $2.8 million and 500,000 options worth $1.4 million. Another 18 GM executives also received bonuses in the form of restricted stock options.

The nation-wide strike, the first against a U.S. automaker in 37 years, has gained widespread support nationally and internationally. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said it will honour UAW picket lines outside GM facilities and will not deliver GM cars. The Teamsters union represents 10,000 automotive transport workers.

The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), who expect up to 100,000 CAW members to be affected by the strike, also pledged support stating that CAW workers will not handle parts from U.S. GM plants out on strike. “GM appears intent on making workers and their communities pay for the problems caused by unfair trade and the flood of imports,” said CAW president Buzz Hargrove. “We have to come together in solidarity." Autoworkers in Brazil and Europe have also expressed their solidarity support for the UAW.

Marcello Malentacchi, general secretary of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), which represents more than 200 metal unions in over 100 countries around the world, acknowledged that the strike against GM and the gains to be made from this collective show of force are important to workers beyond U.S. borders. “The IMF strongly supports the efforts of our UAW brothers and sisters in their fight to preserve good union jobs — jobs that guarantee workers a living wage, a voice in the workplace, health and safety protections and job security. This is something that we as trade unionists are all fighting for.”

UPDATE
September 26: The UAW has ended its strike at GM after reaching a tentative deal in contract talks. Workers will head back to work today and ratification of the deal by the UAW membership will begin this week.

ZIMBABWE: In the days surrounding the second worker stayaway organized by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), government security forces raided the homes of union leaders, abducted trade unionists and their family members, and beat and arrested peaceful demonstrators.

Reports indicate that at least ten ZCTU activists and leaders were arrested between Monday, September 17 and Thursday, September 20. Of them, Michael Kandukutu, national organiser for the ZCTU, Tennyson Muchepfa from the National Engineering Workers’ Unions (NEWU), and Justice Mucheni from the Food Federation were beaten and abducted on September 17 while distributing ZCTU flyers about the worker stayaway scheduled for September 19 and 20. NEWU is an affiliate of the International Metalworkers’ Federation.

The three were beaten and interrogated for two days before being charged with being a “criminal nuisance” and released on bail. They are scheduled to appear in court on October 3.

On September 18, Reason Ngwenya, the regional chairman of the ZCTU in Matebeleland, was picked up by police in Bulawayo. That evening, security forces also raided the home of ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo. When they found the union leader not there, they abducted his brother Kenneth Matombo and another man in an effort to force Lovemore Matombo to come out of hiding. The two reported being beaten in custody and were released the following day.

Meanwhile, at least 200 people gathered outside the Zimbabwe embassy in London, in solidarity with Zimbabwean workers who were participating in the mass stayaway on September 19 and 20. The ZCTU called for the two-day job boycott to protest a wage freeze imposed by President Robert Mugabe's government on August 29 which outlawed all pay rises without government authorisation and froze all rents, school fees and service charges for the next six months. Failure to adhere to the new law will be punishable by fines or a six month jail sentence.

Hardly a week after banning all wage increases for the country’s working destitute, Mugabe gave himself a raise, increasing his salary from Z$62 million annually to Z$1.4 billion.

Workers are fighting for wages to be linked to the poverty datum line, which is adjusted every month in accordance with the country’s rate of inflation, currently at a record breaking 7,600 per cent. 

AUSTRALIA:  After more than a year of struggle, union negotiators have secured redundancy packages for most of the workers remaining at the idle car parts manufacturer Tristar. Twenty-three workers have been advised they will receive their full redundancy entitlements in line with provisions in their union-certified agreement.

Of the remaining nine employees, some are expected to reach a resolution in the coming days, said Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) organiser Martin Schutz. “But we’ll continue our campaign until every last employee gets their full entitlements.”

The Tristar dispute began when the factory effectively ceased operation in April 2006, but retained its longest-serving employees, some who have been with the company for up to 45 years, to avoid paying redundancy payments. Tristar Steering and Suspension was attempting to use the new Australian industrial relations laws to save hundreds of thousands of dollars by keeping “redundant” workers on the payroll until the terms of the union agreement expire.

The collective agreement, which included four weeks of pay per year of service for forced redundancies, was terminated in February 2007. The company was waiting for the terms of this agreement to expire so it would only be required to pay 12 weeks of wages to the redundant workers.

In addition to securing the employees’ entitlements, the Tristar campaign has also succeeded in protecting thousands of other Australian workers from the same fate. Embarrassed by publicity around the case, the Australian government extended redundancy provisions to 12 months. That has since been extended to two years after continuing pressure from the AMWU and community groups.

CANADA/GLOBAL: Unions representing Arcelor Mittal workers from more than 20 countries around the world unanimously voted to establish an Arcelor Mittal World Council at the International Metalworkers’ Federation’s first Arcelor Mittal world meeting held in Montreal, Canada from September 16-17. Delegates committed to fighting for common goals including:

• Stronger collective agreements that secure decent wages, retirement incomes, safe workplaces, and a voice in company decisions that affect workers,
• Company investments to support new and upgraded facilities, the highest environmental standards, and new developments,
• Safe and healthy workplaces and environmentally sustainable operations that is healthy and safe for communities and families,
• Respect for human rights of communities impacted by corporate operations, and respect for the right to union representation,
• Full access to information about corporate acquisitions, mergers, investment strategies, and other developments that impact union members,
• Maintaining the integrity of employment relationships and eliminating outsourcing and contracting out, and
• Implementation of accepted International Labour Standards.

In addition to establishing an Arcelor Mittal World Council, the agreement also called for extending the current International Framework Agreement between the IMF, European Metalworkers’ Federation and Arcelor to include all Mittal operations. Discussions between the IMF and Arcelor Mittal about implementing the IFA were off to a good start when Arcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal, addressed the conference asserting that the company is committed to working towards “raising the bar” of health and safety standards across the globe.

Bernard Fontana, executive vice president of human resources for Arcelor Mittal, also attending the meeting, said management hopes that IFA implementation will occur “sooner than later” and that the company was prepared to dedicate resources to ensure proper execution of the IFA.

IMF general secretary Marcello Malentacchi was optimistic regarding the IFA discussions but noted, “trade union rights, human rights are not negotiable. This is a given right. This is why I hope we sign the same agreement with a new name, Arcelor Mittal IFA.”

The Arcelor IFA was signed in September 2005.