GERMANY: With a wage settlement still not reached between the German metalworkers’ union IG Metall and the employers’ association Gesamtmetall, a second week of strike action has been set in motion. In addition to continuing the strike in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, the industrial heartland of Germany, IG Metall has now expanded its strike action to the northeastern states of Berlin and Brandenburg. The union has rejected the employers’ argument that the pay increase demanded by IG Metall (a minimum of 4 per cent) would threaten the country’s projected economic recovery. It maintains that, on the contrary, improving workers’ purchasing power will contribute to boosting the momentum for an upturn. And, with 9.7 per cent of Germany’s eligible workforce out of work, more demand would create more jobs. In Germany, gross wage and salary costs for the entire metal branch amount to 135 billion euros a year. If IG Metall were to achieve its original wage demand of a 6.5 per cent increase, this would add 8.7 billion euros, or 1.2 per cent to company costs. With the turnover for the metal branch now up to 710 billion euros, and the wage and salary quota down from 25 per cent to 19 per cent, IG Metall’s president, Klaus Zwickel, says the employers can afford it. Support for the German metalworkers’ strike has come from far and wide, with metal unions in Asia, Latin America, North America, Europe pledging solidarity with their metalworker colleagues in Germany and stating they would not allow German employers to circumvent the strike by transferring production to their countries, nor accept overtime to compensate for production losses in Germany. The “Frankfurt Declaration” signed on May 10 by the leadership of the European Metalworkers’ Federation and IG Metall (see associated link) states that European metal unions will be stepping up cross-border exchange of information and coordination during conflicts. The first week of IG Metall’s strike action was followed by over 100,000 workers in 88 plants. This week, still using the one-day rolling or “flexi” strike pattern, the union will call out 130,000 workers and target 135 plants. Bargaining talks, which collapsed on April 19, are set to resume on May 15.

MALAYSIA: The IMF Southeast Asia Office reports that on May 6 a settlement was reached in the dispute between Flextronics Technology Shah Alam Sdn. Bhd. and the Electrical Industry Workers’ Union (EIWU), an IMF affiliate organising workers at the company’s plant in Shah Alam. Thus, 70 workers picketing the plant since April 29 and suspended from their jobs on May 3 went back to work on May 7. The EIWU and the workers had contested Flextronics’ refusal to continue recognition of the union and to comply with the collective agreement. The company, which is U.S.-owned and Singapore-based, bought the Swedish-owned Ericsson Mobile Communication in Shah Alam two years ago, at which time Ericsson recognised the EIWU as the workers’ bargaining representative and had signed collective agreements with the union for 29 years. However, in February of this year, Flextronics officially informed the EIWU it would no longer recognise the union, and in March the company began a total overhaul of the conditions of employment for its workers. The daily 8-hour shift system increased to 12 hours a day, with the extra 4 hours being compulsory overtime. Check-off was stopped, and management formed a company-controlled in-house “joint consultative committee” to represent its employees. The workers were so regimented as to have to sign a logbook in order to use the toilet, and, for Moslem employees, time and space for prayer were severely constrained. All hard-won benefits and terms in the collective agreement were lost, and workers were told to accept the minimum benefits provided under the 1955 Employment Act. With the May 6 settlement, signed between the EIWU and Flextronics at a meeting held at the Human Resources Ministry, the following was agreed:

• Flextronics would forward the “Sales & Purchase Agreement” between Ericsson and Flextronics to the Conciliation Department of the Human Resources Ministry.
• The ministry would study the agreement and advise the union accordingly.
• All suspended workers would be requested to return to work as usual on May 7, 2002.
• The union would call off the picket immediately.
• All conditions of employment under the collective agreement would continue.
• The company would act on all employee grievances.

Commenting on the agreement, the IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, said that “the IMF will be closely monitoring the situation in Shah Alam, and we want the continued presence of the EIWU at the plant.”

ARGENTINA: In a follow-up to the IMF mission to Argentina in April to show solidarity with the IMF’s affiliates there and access the current situation, the IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, has written a letter to the International Monetary Fund drawing attention to its role and responsibility in the extreme crisis which has hit the country. Addressing his letter to Horst Köhler, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the IMF general secretary said that in all discussions held during the international metalworkers’ mission with groups such as employers’ associations, the government and trade unions, the responsibility of the International Monetary Fund and its policies in this crisis were clearly highlighted. Not only had these policies failed, wrote Malentacchi, but “they have led to social and economic disintegration, and brought the country to the brink of collapse.” Malentacchi insisted the International Monetary Fund should not impose more suffering on the people and strongly urged it to “abandon free-market experiments and adopt policies promoting growth with equity, putting people at the centre of development.” For this, trade unions had to be involved. The full text of the IMF letter to the International Monetary Fund can be accessed on the associated link.

PERU: The IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, has written a letter of protest today (May 7) to the management of Sider Peru concerning the company’s determination to maintain a 12-hour nightshift. Not only has this been imposed on the workforce unilaterally, but it is also illegal, and, wrote Malentacchi, “the IMF fully supports the workers and union in their demand for the core labour right to an 8-hour nightshift.” At the time that Sider Peru, a steel-producing company located in Chimbote, northern Peru, was privatised in 1996, working time was divided into three 8-hour shifts, and had been so since the 1960s. However, in January 1999, the company – facilitated by a decree passed by the then Fujimori government, and without consulting the union or workers – enforced a new timetable of two 6-hour dayshifts and one 12-hour nightshift. In February this year, the Peruvian Congress passed Law No. 27671, modifying the Fujimori decree and reinstating the 8-hour work shift. But in March, with the company continuing the 12-hour nightshift, the Sindicatos de Obreros y de Empleados, the union representing the Sider Peru workers, filed a petition with the labour authorities to request the reduction of the 12-hour shift to 8 hours, in accordance with the law. Although the authorities found in favour of the union’s complaint, the company – openly defying the law – still refuses to reinstate the 8-hour shift. The IMF would ask its affiliates to add their support to the Sider Peru workers’ struggle by sending protest letters to the company as follows: Empresa Sider Peru S.A.
Planta Siderúrgica de Chimbote
Fax: (++51) 44 328493 Empresa Sider Peru S.A.
Oficinas Centrales de Lima
Fax: (++51) 1 3620636 with copies to the IMF and the union: Sindicato de Obreros de Sider Peru (Chimbote)
Sr. Eberto Carrión Pérez, Secretario General
Fax: (++51) 44 324135 Sindicato de Empleados de Sider Peru (Chimbote)
Sr. Oscar Palacios Cedamanos, Secretario General
Fax: (++51) 44 325186

GERMANY: Members of IG Metall began strike action on Monday, May 6, in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg. The strike is a result of the collapse of collective wage talks on April 19 – with the employers’ last wage offer at 3.3 per cent, and IG Metall demanding a minimum increase of 4 per cent. The union issued a strike ballot on April 25, which saw 90 per cent of its members in Baden-Württemberg and over 85 per cent in Berlin-Brandenburg endorse their call for industrial action, a result far exceeding the minimum 75 per cent approval rate required by IG Metall statutes. On May 2, the Executive Board of the 2.7 million-strong IMF German affiliate gave the final go-ahead for the strike to begin on May 6, and IG Metall’s president, Klaus Zwickel, has announced that industrial action will expand to the region of Berlin-Brandenburg from the week of May 13 if a settlement is not reached with employers this week. The union is using a so-called “flexi” strike pattern, which involves as many workers and companies as possible in the region. The individual strike targets, chosen by IG Metall at short notice, are limited to one day at a time, with the daily work stoppages moving on to other companies on following days. Some companies may be hit more than once. Such a flexible tactic makes it more difficult for employers to carry out threats of a lockout. IG Metall’s vice-president, Jürgen Peters, says that with one-day interruptions in production “we hit the companies in a neuralgic spot – the efficient flow of production.” He warned the employers about arbitrarily locking out workers and said that the “strike is a citizen’s right; the lockout is the misuse of power.” Commenting on the situation, President Zwickel has stressed that “our interest is not in a long-term strike, but to reach a quick, acceptable collective wage agreement.” Messages of solidarity with IG Metall’s strike are beginning to pour in from IMF affiliates worldwide.

AUSTRALIA: A 12-day strike in South Australia at Walkers Exhaust, a unit of the U.S. auto parts transnational Tenneco Automotive, came to an end on May 1 when workers overwhelmingly accepted a settlement reached between their union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, and the company. The dispute, which saw Australia’s car production come to a standstill, was resolved when Walkers agreed to establish a A$4 million (US$2.15 million) bank guarantee to protect all long service leave entitlements for workers at the company. Commenting on its victory, the AMWU said in a press statement that the outcome at Walkers was overall “a significant win for members” and that the union was “determined to continue its push to protect workers’ entitlements,” whether by bank guarantee or trust fund. During the strike at the exhaust components plant, car production was halted at GM Holden, Ford and Toyota, with Mitsubishi still managing to build cars, but without exhausts.

GERMANY: IG Metall members in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg will begin strike action on Monday, May 6. Following the collapse of collective wage talks on April 19 – with the employers’ last wage offer at 3.3 per cent, and IG Metall demanding a minimum increase of 4 per cent – the German metalworkers’ union issued a strike ballot on April 25, which saw 90 per cent of its members in Baden-Württemberg and over 85 per cent in Berlin-Brandenburg endorse the union’s call for industrial action. This result far exceeded the minimum 75 per cent approval rate required by IG Metall statutes. The Executive Board of the 2.7 million-strong IMF German affiliate has now given its final go-ahead and in a press conference today (May 2), IG Metall’s president, Klaus Zwickel, reported that strike action would start in Baden-Württemberg on May 6, and the dates for Berlin-Brandenburg would be specified later on. The union will use a so-called “flexi” strike pattern, which will involve as many workers and companies as possible in the region. The individual strike targets, to be chosen by IG Metall at short notice, will be limited to one day at a time, with the daily work stoppages moving on to other companies on following days. Some companies will be hit more than once. Such a flexible tactic will make it more difficult for the employers to carry out their threats of a lockout. “Our goal is to reach an acceptable collective wage agreement as soon as possible,” stressed Zwickel. With these one-day interruptions in production, IG Metall’s vice-president, Jürgen Peters, says that “we hit the companies in a neuralgic spot – the efficient flow of production.” He warned the employers about arbitrarily locking out workers and said that the “strike is a citizen’s right; the lockout is the misuse of power.”

May Day is our day, the workers’ day. It is the day when the supreme ideals of democracy, freedom, solidarity and justice must be at the top of all speeches. These ideals are indivisible and must be applied in all countries and to all people. The entire world is going through very difficult times. And, as many times in the past when war, dictatorship or natural catastrophes hit a country, a region or a continent, this causes waves of migration. But even more fundamentally, the continuing underdevelopment of many parts of the world forces many people to seek an escape from poverty by leaving their homes. It is simply an essential part of the human constitution that we do not want to suffer. Whether slow or hurried migration, this inevitably creates a reaction from people already living in the countries and areas to which the migration is directed. This is the beginning of the problem. When people start moving from one country to another, this sometimes creates opportunities to organise illegal activities, to the benefit of criminals – Mafia, drug barons, traffickers of all kinds. At this very moment, populist and irresponsible movements such as the National Front in France, Lega Nord in Italy, the Freedom Party in Austria, the Danish People’s Party in Denmark, etc. take advantage of a social problem and turn it into nationalistic demagogy. The typical approach is to blame all immigrants for illegal activities carried out by the very smallest fraction. “Every immigrant should be sent home,” the xenophobes claim. Or “the foreigners are criminals, and they steal our jobs.” Or “cultures shouldn’t mix.” And so on. You’ve all heard the arguments. Nevertheless, all these arguments are wrong and fundamentally stupid. First of all because we and our cultures are enriched by the people who bring them to us, but also because the solutions the racists propose only detract from the real problem, that economic underdevelopment of huge parts of the globe continues and even grows. This is the root we must attack. If one looks back at the history of mankind, we will discover that every single existing subject is a result of a mixture. I challenge anybody who does not agree with that. The Romans mixed with the Greeks and Arabs, who mixed with the Persians, who mixed with the Indians, who mixed with the Chinese – and this is an ongoing process. Mixing of cultures and traditions is in fact a condition for development and not an obstacle, as racists and xenophobes want us to believe. In my job, I meet every day with people who have their origins in different countries. I do not know a single country where one nationality exclusively makes up the total workforce. Many trade union leaders, in most countries, have their roots somewhere outside the country in which they live and work. I know Jewish and Muslim trade unionists working together in the USA. Black and white in Brazil. Arabs and French in France, Indians and English in Great Britain, Turks, Greeks and Germans in Germany, Maghreb, Italians and Spaniards in Italy and Spain, Finns, Serbians and Swedes in Sweden. All these represent great assets for the whole trade union movement of the world. Being a migrant worker myself, I have always found my place in the trade union because it has given me the opportunity to integrate into a society which might have excluded me otherwise. The trade union is an important link which can play a great role in a modern society to unite people, with all their differences and particularities. It can do this because it represents the fundamental ideals of democracy, freedom, solidarity and justice. Make May Day into a big manifestation against racism and xenophobia.

GENEVA: In his special message for May Day 2002, the IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, in his latest Opinion Column encourages workers to make May Day into a big manifestation against racism and xenophobia. “It is the day,” said Malentacchi, “when the supreme ideals of democracy, freedom, solidarity and justice must be at the top of all speeches. These ideals are indivisible and must be applied in all countries and to all people.” The IMF general secretary refers in his statement to populist and irresponsible movements such as the National Front in France, Lega Nord in Italy, the Freedom Party in Austria, the Danish People’s Party in Denmark, which are presently trying to take advantage of social problems and turn them into nationalistic demagogy. The full text of Malentacchi’s May Day remarks can be read in his Opinion Column on this website. Click on the associated link, top left.

TURKEY: The IMF has written a letter of protest to the shipbuilding company Yonca, in Tuzla/Istanbul, strongly urging the employer to respect the right of Limter-Is, the trade union organising workers at the company, to bargaining collectively for its members. Last Friday, April 26, following Yonca’s refusal for several years to recognise the union’s right to organise and collectively bargain for its members, the union decided to take strike action. Limter-Is, an affiliate of the DISK trade union confederation, organises workers in the private sector of Turkey’s shipbuilding industry, mainly in Tuzla/Istanbul, the country’s biggest industrial zone for shipbuilding, where trade union rights are widely violated. In 1999, after the union had received authorisation from the Ministry of Labour for bargaining rights at Yonca, the company nevertheless refused to bargain with the union and even dismissed 8 workers. Yonca applied to the courts to annul the Labour Ministry’s decision, but in September 2001, the courts upheld the union’s right to bargain for its members. Instead of accepting the court’s decision, the company fired 30 workers who were requesting a collective agreement. The union reports that an additional organising struggle developed in 2000 with another privately-owned shipbuilding company in Tuzla, Turkter, where the employer dismissed 140 workers because they wanted collective representation. The two main shipbuilding zones in Turkey – Tuzla and Aliaga (in Izmir) – are also a center for the informal economy. Although the Tuzla shipyards employ about 10,000 workers, only 10 per cent of these workers are registered. The others have no social protection. Also, health and safety conditions in the shipyards are extremely hazardous and the employers are well organised in their attempts to keep the trade unions out. In solidarity support with the Limter-Is struggle, the IMF would ask its affiliates to send protest messages to the employer: Mr. Sakir Yilmaztürk
Yonca Teknik Yatirim A.S.
Tersaneler Cad. G. 50 Sokak No. 3
Tuzla/Istanbul
Turkey
Fax: (90-216) 392-9969 and to the Union of Shipbuilding Industries: Gemi Insaat Sanayicileri Birligi
Tersaneler Cad. No. 24
Tuzla/Istanbul
Turkey
Fax: (90-216) 446-0684 with copies to the IMF, and to the unions: DISK
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: (90-212) 234-2075 Limter-Is
Fax: (90-216) 446-7546