BRAZIL: The Sao Paulo headquarters offices of the Brazilian trade union confederation CUT, the IMF affiliate CNM and other trade unions were ransacked by armed men during the night of February 1-2.
The men, claiming they were from the “federal police”, threatened and locked up the night security officer. A group of ten men armed with machine guns spent the rest of the night raiding the building. Working their way from the seventh floor down to ground level, they stole a number of safes and computers.
IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi, attending the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, labelled the incident as “horrible”. He said it was “part of a bigger picture, with political undertones. With the upcoming elections, political violence is increasing in Brazil. Trade union leaders receive threatening letters, politicians are murdered and trade unions harassed.”
Recently, two mayors belonging to the PT (Workers’ Party) have been killed. The PT is led by Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, a former metalworker and trade union leader.

THAILAND: On February 2, seven workers – all women – were crushed to death and 57 others injured when a concrete platform fell on them at an electronics factory in the Bang Pu industrial estate, in the province of Samut Prakan south of Bangkok. Two other workers have been reported missing and are presumed dead.
Some 500 workers, mostly women, were on duty at the Delta Electronics (Thailand) factory when the concrete platform – 30 centimeters thick, 4.5 meters wide and 90 meters in length – bearing 16 heavy-duty air-conditioners fell on a production line of about 120 workers.
The minister of industry, who inspected the site, said the platform was suspended from the factory roof with steel rods and could not bear the 10-tonne weight of the machines. Not a single pillar had been built to support the structure, despite its length. The platform was hooked on to the roof on one side with the factory’s wall on the other side. The minister said the company had not sought the necessary approval before putting up the platform. Each air-conditioner weighed about 600-700 kilograms.
Delta Electronics (Thailand) is a Thai-Taiwanese joint venture. It employs 13,000 workers at five factories in the Bang Pu industrial estate and a factory in the Wellgrow industrial estate in the province of Cha-choengsao east of Bangkok. The factories, which are operating around the clock, make electronic parts for computers and mobile phones.

GLOBAL: Why are trade unions present at the World Economic Forum in New York, by many labelled as a “club for capitalists”? Why are trade unions present at the “alternative” World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil?
These questions are answered by the Global Unions group (including the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the International Metalworkers’ Federation), in a joint statement.
“Global public debate, even if the participation in that debate is too limited, can be useful. The world cannot be neatly divided into those who are for globalisation and those who are against it,” they write.
The role of trade union organisations is to “advance and defend the interests of workers by building alliances with those who share our views, and through debate and argument with those who do not. That is the reason for our simultaneous presence in both of these forums.”
In a trade union seminar preceding the World Social Forum sessions, an assembly of 450 delegates adopted a statement calling for the immediate release of imprisoned trade unionists in South Korea.

GERMANY: Just-auto.com reports that the transnational company Delphi Automotive Systems has now closed its production facility in Bochum, Germany, in line with its March 2001 restructuring plans to close nine facilities, consolidate activities at 40 others and reduce its global workforce by 11,500.
The Bochum plant, which produced ignition cables and wiring assemblies for European carmakers, had 329 employees. The company has transferred the work from this plant to other factories in an effort to consolidate production capacity within existing manufacturing operations.
The U.S.-based Delphi deals in the manufacture of mobile electronics and transportation components and in systems technology.

EUROPE: A campaign called “Small Change for Little People” is giving an added boost to the Volkswagen Group Works Council’s hugely successful project in aid of street children called “An Hour for the Future.”
With the introduction in January 2002 of the euro in the 12 member countries of the European Monetary Union (EMU), an option about what to do with coins of the former currencies was suggested by the Volkswagen Euro Team: collect the money via their initiative “Small Change for Little People” and then donate this to “An Hour for the Future”.
The VW Group, which has approximately 200,000 employees in the EMU alone, has set up collection boxes at 22 production sites in all EMU member countries. The collection initiative also extends to company dealerships for the Audi, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen brands, as well as to Volkswagen subsidiaries and partner companies.

• Algeria: FNTMMEE handed over a protest letter.
• Bangladesh: Bangladesh Metal Workers’ Federation and Bangladesh Metal Workers’ League sent protest letters to the South Korean government. The two IMF affiliates also organised a protest meeting in Dhaka.
• Thailand : About 20 trade unionists from TEAM went to the South Korean Embassy and handed over a protest letter.
• Singapore : The IMF Singapore Council sent a letter of protest to the South Korean Embassy in Singapore.
• Finland: A protest letter for Kim Dae-jung was given to the South Korean ambassador in Helsinki.
• Baltic states: Three IMF affiliates from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania sent a protest letter to the Korean Embassy in Sweden.
• Hungary: VASAS presented a protest letter at the Embassy. Twenty trade unionists took part in the action.
• Serbia: A protest letter was sent.
• Switzerland: The Swiss IMF affiliate SMUV posted a protest letter to Kim Dae-jung.
• Mexico: IMF affiliates sent formal protest letters to the South Korean ambassador in Mexico.

COLOMBIA: As negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement between the employer and the trade union at the Cerro Matoso nickel mine in Colombia remain unsettled, a members’ assembly will decide on whether to strike or go to arbitration. The current negotiations concern an agreement on how to improve the standards of living of the company’s workers, including health, education, salaries and housing. The SINTRACERROMATOSO trade union now asks for “moral support” from trade unions at both national and international levels. Trade unionists who want to show solidarity with the Cerro Matoso workers can write to:

• the President of Cerro Matoso, Mr. Bert Nacken, fax no. +57 4 7723612
• the company’s negotiating commission, fax no. +57 4 7722391

The trade union’s negotiating commission can be reached by fax on +57 4 7722210 and by e-mail [email protected]. (For all numbers above: If you are situated in Colombia, omit 57, and dial 094 instead of an isolated 4.) Cerro Matoso, located in northern Colombia in the province of Córdoba, is – according to BHP Billiton – one of the world’s lowest-cost, major nickel producers.

SOUTH AFRICA/KOREA: The IMF-affiliated National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has threatened to boycott all South Korean exports to South Africa in order to bring an end to the repression of trade unionists in South Korea.
In a demonstration outside the South Korean Embassy in Pretoria on January 22 – the worldwide trade union action day for the release of all imprisoned trade unionists in South Korea – Numsa’s general secretary, Silumko Nondwangu, presented a letter addressed to the South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung, calling for the immediate release of all imprisoned trade unionists and adherence to the democratic process, workers’ rights and labour laws. “If they do not comply, we will ensure – in consultation with our government – that no South African buys their exports, like the Samsung products … Mr. Dae-jung has about a week to respond to these demands. If he refuses to do so, we will organise more campaigns, which will include boycotts of Korean goods.”
Another threat of boycott was reported from the IMF’s two metalworker affiliates in Kenya, the Amalgamated Union of Kenya Metalworkers and the Kenya Engineering Workers’ Union. They declared that failure of the South Korean government to immediately release imprisoned trade unionists and respect workers’ rights “will compel us to join hands with workers all over the world in calling for a worldwide boycott of the 2002 Football World Cup, scheduled to be co-hosted by South Korea.”

KOREA, REP: The proposed acquisition of Daewoo Motor Co. by the U.S. transnational carmaker General Motors remains unsettled. GM is still calling for a revision of the current collective bargaining contract for Daewoo workers, which the Daewoo workers’ trade union will not accept. The contract requires union support in the event of a sale of the automaker’s assets or layoffs.
In a meeting which took place this week between the Korean automaker and the union, the union insisted that it cannot accept the takeover deal unless there is job security for all Daewoo Motor workers and the collective agreement is maintained.
Other union demands are for 400 laid-off workers to be rehired by the end of the year and to be clearly informed of GM’s future development plans for Daewoo Motor.

BRAZIL: The CNM-CUT has informed the IMF of the worsening situation of violence affecting Brazil.
The Brazilian people, and especially the trade union CUT and members of Brazil’s Workers’ Party, were deeply shocked to learn of the kidnapping and assassination at the end of last week of Celso Daniel, a member of the Workers’ Party and mayor of Santo André, one of the largest cities in the state of Sao Paulo. Daniel was serving his third term as mayor and enjoyed the largest support among mayors in the whole of Brazil. This assassination follows on that of another mayor, Toninho, in the city of Campinas – also in the state of Sao Paulo – which occurred in September 2001. Toninho, too, was a member of the Workers’ Party.
Other mayors belonging to the Workers’ Party and CUT trade unionists are receiving an untold amount of threatening phone calls and letters nearly every day.
The CNM-CUT says that “we are living in a situation of terror in this country” which has been brought on by those who try to eliminate those who are fighting to defend the rights of the poorest in society and the workers. In Brazil, today, more than 40,000 people are being assassinated every year. 53 million Brazilians are excluded from society because they are living in a state of absolute poverty.
For all these reasons, the problem of violence in this country cannot only be a concern for the police, but must involve the politicians. The union says that the government is not implementing policies to invest in education, culture, and social issues.
The CNM-CUT has asked the IMF to inform all metalworkers worldwide as well as international institutions about the extremely serious situation in Brazil and requests protest letters be sent to the Brazilian government to adopt measures to put an end to this state of violence.