CHINA: The IMF has informed the International Labour Organisation that it is joining the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in a formal complaint lodged on March 27 with the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association against the government of the People’s Republic of China for violations of the principles of freedom of association. During the month of March alone, in the provinces of Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Sichuan, there have been reports of authorities taking a number of repressive measures – such as threats, intimidation, intervention by security forces, beatings, detentions, arrests and other mistreatment – against leaders, elected representatives and members of independent workers’ organisations. The IMF is particularly concerned about the case of at least 5 independent workers’ representatives at the Ferro Alloy Factory in Liaoyang (the capital city of Liaoning Province, in northestern China) who were arrested last month and remain in detention. One of them, Yao Fuxin, is believed to have been severely mistreated, if not killed, by public security officials. Yao was arrested on March 17, several days after 10,000 retrenched workers, mostly from the ferro alloy plant, staged a mass demonstration in Liaoyang to demand a solution to the economic and social problems encountered by the laid-off workers. They also called for legal measures against the corrupt managers of the factory and that the Public Security Bureau refrain from arresting the workers’ freely elected representatives. The IMF has written to the ILO director-general, Juan Somavía, requesting him to intervene without delay with the Chinese government to clarify the situation of Yao Fuxin and all other detained workers’ representatives, with a view to obtaining their immediate release. In a letter to the country’s president, Jiang Zemin, the IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, expressed the IMF’s shock by the developments there and by the government’s attitude. “We urge you,” said Malentacchi, “to urgently issue instructions to the relevant departments of your Government in order that all detained workers’ representatives be immediately released … and that all intimidation, threats and other repressive measures against all independent workers’ activists be stopped at once and that the management of the companies and the local authorities involved be instructed to negotiate in good faith with the workers’ representatives concerning all of their legitimate claims.” The IMF has sent copies of the above-mentioned letters to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and to the National Committee of Chinese Machinery and Metallurgical Workers’ Union.

GLOBAL: The 3rd IMF-General Motors Action Group, which met recently in Toronto, Canada, underlined in particular the need for closer cooperation and improved communications in this time of far-reaching changes in the global auto industry. The current downturn is causing a new wave of corporate restructuring, to which GM is not immune. Areas representing priorities for information exchange via the IMF-GM Network concern:

• corporate restructuring and outsourcing announcements and implementation, including changes in production capacity, employment, and production- or work-organization; this includes joint ventures within or outside the GM Alliance (GM, Fiat, Fuji, Suzuki, and Isuzu);
• respect of worker and union rights in GM operations;
• negotiations, conflicts, and agreements with respect to the two above points.

Among other decisions of the IMF-GM Action Group, it is requesting the IMF to organise a worldwide network that will include the unions represented in this Action Group, the regional General Motors Committees, and any other organised GM operations that are not covered by these bodies. The IMF has also been asked to develop and implement an Internet-based instrument for information exchange among unions active in General Motors worldwide. In addition to information exchange, the Action Group will be submitting suggestions to the IMF Auto Department for common strategies vis-à-vis the global General Motors agenda.

NETHERLANDS: The IMF-affiliated FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Bedrijvenbond organised strikes in almost all Philips plants throughout the Netherlands on Thursday, March 28. The reason for this massive industrial action was the refusal of Philips – one of the world’s biggest electronics companies and Europe’s largest, with sales of EUR 32.3 billion (US$28.4 billion) in 2001 – to agree to union demands for a 3.5 per cent pay hike in the new 15-month collective agreement. This wage increase would be necessary to maintain consumer purchasing power, however management is not offering more than 2.5 per cent. The two trade unions say that while top management at Philips is earning big money from stock options and bonuses, it does not want to give a decent wage increase to the workers. The unions handed out pamphlets with messages about management’s behaviour at a Philips shareholder meeting in Amsterdam on the day of their strike action. Messages of solidarity can be sent by e-mail to the unions’ joint action center on: [email protected] with a copy to: [email protected] and to [email protected].

REPUBLIC OF KOREA: The then-president of the Korean Metal Workers’ Federation, Mun Sung-hyun, was jailed after he attended the IMF Congress in Sydney in November last year. After an extensive IMF campaign and an IMF-coordinated Action Day for trade unionists in South Korea, Mun was released yesterday, March 26 (see earlier article for more information). In a letter to IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi, the president of the Korean Metal Workers’ Federation (KMWF), Baek Soon-whan, thanks all IMF affiliates for the support they have given. The KMWF president writes that the Korean government was very afraid of the second IMF international action campaign that was under discussion within the IMF. “Lee Hye-ja, the wife of Mun Sung-hyun, said that when she got a phone call from a government official, she was told that the Korean government did not want to see another IMF international action in the future.” The full text of the letter can be accessed via the link above left.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Today (March 26), in Seoul, Mun Sung-hyun, former president of the Korean Metal Workers’ Federation (KMWF), was released from prison. Mun had been sentenced to another three years in jail, but the sentence has now been suspended for one and a half years. The IMF believes that the pressure put on the South Korean government with the IMF-coordinated campaign in favour of imprisoned South Korean trade unionists – which saw many of the IMF’s affiliates participating in a joint protest action on January 22 – has played an important role in Mun Sung-hyun being set free. Extending thanks from the IMF to all its affiliates for having helped in the promotion of international trade union solidarity on behalf of Mun, IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi stated: “This is indeed a day for celebration. But we must also bear in mind that the struggle for trade union rights in South Korea is far from over.” Dan Byung-ho, president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, is still serving a two-year prison term, and approximately 50 more Korean trade unionists remain in prison. See also the letter where KIMWF thanks for the support given through the International Metalworkers’ Federation (link above left).

NORWAY: The Norwegian metalworkers’ union Fellesforbundet, affiliated to the IMF at international level, reports that the bargaining process for a new collective agreement, which began on March 11 with the employers’ organisation, TBL, broke down on March 20. They will now go into mediation, which will begin on April 2. The current collective agreement for the Norwegian metal industry expires on March 31. Fellesforbundet’s main demands concern a real wage increase, collective pension schemes and general improvements in the collective agreement, especially with regard to the offshore sector. The employers have extensive demands, dealing particularly with flexibility. Should the mediation fail, Fellesforbundet has made it clear that its members are prepared to go out on strike in support of their claims.

GENEVA: One of the key issues on the agenda for discussion at the just-ended March meeting of the International Labour Office’s Governing Body was the situation of forced labour in Burma (Myanmar). Following an ILO mission to Burma this past February to investigate the continued use of forced labour in that country, and discussions held after that in Geneva between the ILO and a government delegation from Burma, an Understanding was reached between the government and ILO concerning the appointment of an ILO liaison officer in Burma. According to the ILO, “(1) the appointment of the liaison officer is seen as a first step towards the objective of an effective representation which should continue to be pursued; (2) the Understanding provides for this appointment to be made by June 2002 and contains essential parameters – in particular, that the functions of the Liaison Officer shall cover all activities relevant to the objective of ensuring the prompt and effective elimination of forced labour in Myanmar – that make this appointment possible, while leaving open the possibility to work out further details if needed.” As far back as 1998, an ILO Commission of Inquiry made formal Recommendations after finding that forced labour was “widespread and systematic” in this Southeast Asian nation. In June 2000, the International Labour Conference adopted a resolution aimed at obliging the Burmese regime to comply with ILO Convention No. 29 on Forced Labour (ratified by Burma in 1955). The government was allowed a six-month grace period to take the necessary action to stop this practice, but as there was no evidence that Burma had complied, the resolution under the never-before invoked Article 33 of the ILO Constitution, providing for a series of measures to be taken, went into effect on November 30, 2000. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the Global Unions Federations (GUFs), of which IMF is a member, have compiled and released a list of companies with business links to Burma. According to the trade unions, it is impossible to conduct any business relationship in Burma without directly or indirectly supporting the Burmese military dictatorship, and publicity could help convince these companies to pull out of Burma, thereby pressuring the country’s military junta to abolish the practice of forced labour.

USA: The IMF-affiliated United Auto Workers has charged in a press statement that 48 hours before a union election on March 20 at a Freightliner truck parts plant in Gastonia, North Carolina, Freightliner management at the highest levels reversed its previously neutral stance toward the vote. Freightliner LLC, the leading heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler. A spokesman for the union said that the company’s conduct during the last two days before the vote “not only violated both the law and neutrality protections that DaimlerChrysler agreed to and reaffirmed in writing, but also stole from these workers the union rights and recognition they deserve.” 322 workers voted in favour of UAW representation and 346 voted against. According to the UAW, workers at the Gastonia plant described how a top-level executive at Freightliner compelled the workers to attend meetings on company time and company premises at which he threatened them with loss of pay, benefits and jobs if the union were to be voted in. Additional group intimidation sessions were held less than 24 hours before voting was to begin, a flagrant violation of the National Labor Relations Act, which specifically prohibits such meetings within the 24 hours before voting begins. The UAW says that such behaviour by company executives can only have a bad impact on the union’s entire relationship with DaimlerChrysler and will demand it be held accountable for the actions of its managers.

BELARUS: Expressing deep concern about the situation in Belarus, both for the economy and the trade union movement, the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) is planning a nationwide protest action on March 28, 2002, and is appealing for international trade union solidarity support. Not only is there a decline in living standards in Belarus, but social guarantees are deteriorating as well. Authorities continue to increase pressure on the trade unions and interfere in their activities in an attempt to split and weaken the trade union movement, to financially strangulate and destroy the structure of sectoral trade unions, and the FTUB in general. Although the International Labour Organisation has called on the Belarus government to stop this discrimination against the trade unions, the government ignores the demands. There have been numerous worldwide trade union protests to the Belarus government. The March 28 protest organised by the FTUB, to which the IMF’s two Belarus affiliates are members, will include actions in the form of meetings, picketing, street marches in the capital of Minsk, in regional and district centres and other places in the country. In support of trade union colleagues in Belarus, the IMF would appeal to all affiliates to send letters of protests to:

• Alexandr Lukashenko
  President of the Republic of Belarus
  Ul. Karla Marksa, 38
  Minsk, Belarus
  Fax: +(375) 17 226 06 10
  
  
• Gennadii Novitskii
  Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus
  Ul. Sovetskaya, 11, Dom Pravitelstva
  Minsk, Belarus
  Fax: +(375) 17 222 66 65
  
  
• The House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus
  Fax: +(375) 17 227 37 84
  

with copies to:

• Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus
  E-mail: [email protected]
  Fax: +(375) 17 210 43 37; +(375) 17 223 90 62
  
  
• IMF in Geneva
  E-mail: [email protected]
  Fax: +(41) 22 308-5055

Update on April 5, 2002: For the protest action on March 28, government authorities only authorised picketing on one of the squares in Minsk. No meetings were allowed, and speeches were forbidden. The IMF’s two affiliates – the Automobile & Agricultural Machinery Workers’ Union and the Radio & Electronics Industry Workers’ Union – sent some members to picket and others attended a meeting in the building of the Belarus trade union federation. The IMF’s quarterly magazine “Metal World,” which is translated into Russian, was distributed to those participating in the picket and drew a great deal of interest.

GERMANY: Dismissing the employers’ offer in the current round of wage negotiations as unacceptable and provocative, the German metalworkers’ union IG Metall has announced it will start warning strikes on Monday, March 25, in the eastern German regions of Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin. The employers’ association for the metal industry, Gesamtmetall, has offered a 2 per cent pay increase for this year and another 2 per cent for 2003. IG Metall is demanding a 6.5 per cent wage increase. Warning strikes will start in western Germany on March 29. If there is no agreement between the union and employers by the third week of April, members will be balloted for a possible all-out strike in May.