AUSTRALIA: In a struggle which lasted two years, workers who resisted company pressure to sign individual contracts at BHP Billiton’s Pilbara iron ore operations in Western Australia have won a pay rise of 26 per cent. They will receive an immediate 14 per cent wage hike, another 6 per cent boost in 12 months, plus a 6 per cent increase in pension contributions.
The decision in this long-running case, which affects approximately 500 or half of BHP Billiton’s Pilbara iron ore workers, was handed down by Western Australia’s Industrial Relations Commission in Perth on November 2. It represents an important victory for these workers and for their collective bargaining rights, and has dealt a great blow to the conservative government of John Howard and its attempts to coerce workers into signing individual contracts.
A union spokesman for the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union in Western Australia said that the decision of the Industrial Relations Commission would probably bring an end to discrimination against award workers and also be a signal to employers that if they give pay rises to their employees on individual contracts, they could be forced to give the same wages to those who refuse individual contracts.

SYDNEY: After having already refused visa requests last week for two African delegates – from Ghana and Cameroon – to attend the International Metalworkers’ Federation 30th World Congress, to take place in Sydney November 11-15, the Australian government has turned down entry visas for four additional African union officials seeking to attend the IMF Congress. (Australian authorities have accepted to review the visa request for Ms Martha Hansen-Sackey of Ghana.) These delegates have been told they needed to apply for the visas three months in advance of attending the Congress.
Julius Roe, national president of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) and a delegate to the IMF Congress, said today that it is ridiculous and discriminatory to put a three-month limit on the application for visas to attend a union conference in Australia. “I am concerned that these delegates are being discriminated against by the Australian government on the basis that they are coming from Muslim African countries. The reality is, no business could operate with the imposition of having to give three months’ notice before travelling, and these delegates have ligitimate union business to conduct in our country,” added Roe.
“Delegates coming from Western and European countries have not experienced any difficulty in gaining entry visas to Australia. I am writing today to the Immigration Department in Sydney to demand an explanation for why these delegates have been denied entry,” Roe said.
The delegates who have been denied entry are:

• Daniel Ndoum, from Cameroon;
  
• Marc Nsi Engo, from Gabon;
  
• Kouadio N’Dri, from Ivory Coast;
  
• Mohamed Naceur Nisiri, from Tunisia;
  
• Mahamed Seddik Kordjani, from Algeria.
  

The IMF Congress will formulate a strategy to tackle the growing issue of economic globalisation, the main challenge facing the trade union movement worldwide.

AUSTRALIA/SWEDEN: Metalworker union representatives from Sweden are visiting co-workers at Electrolux plants in Australia to launch a campaign for global solutions to protecting jobs and workers’ rights in Australia and around the world. Vince Overton, state organiser for the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) says that over 50 per cent of jobs in the white goods industry have been lost in Australia over the last seven years. “The multinational company Electrolux is the only one left producing white goods here in Australia, in an industry where we have seen massive job losses due to fierce and unchecked international competition. To protect manufacturing jobs, we have to approach this growing global problem of job losses with global solutions,” stated Overton. He said that just as multinationals worked across borders, workers from around the world need to work together to protect jobs and workers’ rights.

MALAYSIA: In reply to the minister for human resources, Fong Chan Onn, who stated on October 30 that in-house unions for electronics workers in Malaysia were “adequate” and that his ministry was not in favour of the formation of a national electronics workers’ union, the Malaysian Council of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (MC-IMF) said that “in making a sweeping statement that workers in the electronics industry were among the best paid and their jobs most sought after, the minister is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public.”
For approximately 25 years now, the MC-IMF, with the full support of the International Metalworkers’ Federation, has been fighting for the right to establish a national union for workers in the electronics sector, but the government has barred this possibility and only authorises the formation of in-house unions, which so far represent just 5 per cent of the country’s 150,000 electronics workers — of whom 80 per cent are women. The MC-IMF’s general secretary, N. Gopalkishnam, insists that this system “is open to managerial abuse” and deprives workers in this sector of their right to the security of free collective bargaining. To add to this poor state of affairs, the current economic slowdown in the U.S. has presented a real danger of increasing layoffs in many electronics companies operating in Malaysia whose in-house unions have practically no possibility to protect their members.
Malaysia is a party to the International Labour Organisation Declaration on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted by the International Labour Conference in July 1998. Among the ILO’s core labour standards is its Convention No. 87 on the Right to Organise and Bargain Collectively. Thus, the Malaysian minister’s statement is in violation of this convention.
The MC-IMF groups the Electrical Industry Workers’ Union, Metal Industry Employees’ Union, National Union of Transport Equipment and Allied Industries Workers and the Union of Malayawata Steel Workers.

GERMANY: At its meeting in Dresden on October 17-18, the European Works Council of the Volkswagen group discussed the current developments in the automobile industry and their effects on Volkswagen and its subsidiaries.
Orders are expected to decrease and the question of distributing the orders to the different existing plants of Volkswagen will be the challenge for the future. “International trade union solidarity and cooperation within the workers’ representation bodies, which has been built up over the last years, must now prove its worth,” stated Klaus Volkert, the president of the VW EWC, at the meeting.
The Volkswagen EWC also passed a resolution which demands that governments – especially that of Germany – launch a bonus programme for offering incentives to replace older cars and order new, technically and environmentally more developed ones. In Germany alone, there are still over 6 million older cars without a catalytic converter.
Such a programme, which can easily be paid for out of tax income (VAT), could help smooth out the downturn of the economy.

GENEVA: The International Labour Organisation is organising a major forum on employment at its Geneva headquarters on November 1-3, 2001, with the key topic to be the state of the global labour market.
A press release issued by the ILO refers to a report prepared for this first global employment forum which calls on ILO member states to “reinforce the emphasis on achieving acceptable employment outcomes, even in turbulent times.” The ILO estimates that as many as 24 million job opportunities will be lost by the end of next year just because of the decline in economic growth, evident both before and after the tragic events of September 11.
Access the associated link for more information on this important meeting and to download the special report.

BRAZIL: The giant transnational automaker Volkswagen announced on October 23 that it might cut 3,000 jobs at its São Bernardo do Campo plant, near São Paulo. The company, which is Brazil’s biggest car manufacturer, warned that with the present decline in sales and the slowing economy, unions must accept management plans to cut salaries and working hours by 20 per cent or the layoffs will take place.
The union representing the VW workers, Sindicato dos Metalurgicos do ABC, a member of the IMF-affiliated National Confederation of Metalworkers (CNM/CUT), has said it is prepared to negotiate more flexibility in working hours but will not agree to pay cuts.
The São Bernardo do Campo plant, with 16,000 employees, is the German-based carmaker’s largest production facility in Brazil.
VW did not rule out similar measures for its plant in Taubate, which employs 7,000 workers. The company is also considering outsourcing some activities and introducing lower starting wages.
As of September 2001, vehicle sales in Brazil were down 22 per cent from a year earlier.

GENEVA: The International Metalworkers’ Federation is holding its 30th World Congress in Sydney, Australia, from November 11-15, 2001. Approximately 800 Congress delegates from 101 countries will come to Sydney to represent the 23 million metalworkers worldwide who are members of the IMF.
Congress discussions will focus on solidarity for metalworking jobs and sustainable growth, and how to deal with global challenges. Delegates will debate the new draft IMF Action Programme for 2002-2005, a follow-up to the previous four-year plan accepted by the San Francisco Congress, and adopt the necessary action and strategies which the IMF will undertake for the upcoming years. Among main points underlined in the draft 2002-2005 Action Programme are:

• the reform of international financial institutions to facilitate
  – employment creation,
  – creation of comprehensive social safety nets,
  – improved educational opportunities,
  – the elimination of child labour;
  
• a special tax on capital transactions aimed at speculation;
  
• the cancellation of external debt for poor countries.
  

Main speakers at the IMF Congress in addition to its president, Klaus Zwickel, and general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, will include Kim Beazley, leader of the Australia Labour Party; Bob Carr, the premier of New South Wales; Bill Jordan, general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; Jürgen Hoffmann, professor of political sociology at the Hamburg School of Economics and Politics and scientific advisor to the European Trade Union Institute; and Erik Reinert, head of research at the Oslo-based Norwegian Investor Forum.
The Congress will be considering 16 new requests from metalworkers’ unions for affiliation to the IMF.
On November 13, during a break in the IMF Congress, a rally to address trade union concerns on globalisation and in support of a fairer society is being organised by the IMF’s three Australian affiliates — the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, the Australian Workers’ Union and the Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union.

GERMANY: The first phase of the German IG Metall “Future Debate” (Zukunftdebatte) is over. The purpose has been to ask both members and non-members what they expect from the union.
The president of IG Metall, Klaus Zwickel, is satisfied with the response. “We have reached a participation level which is without precedent in German trade union history,” he says.
According to 78 per cent of the participants, the most important thing is the security of employment. 70 per cent say that the union has to do more in order to protect jobs and fight against unemployment.
Approximately two-thirds of the participants think the working time policy of IG Metall is correct and should be continued. Demand for shorter working time beyond the 35-hour week is not supported by the participants.
The report is a basis for further discussions in which politicians and scientists will be invited to join in. The aim is to achieve a strategy for the future work of the union, to be debated and approved by a congress in Leipzig in June next year.
Click on the associated link to read an interview with Klaus Zwickel on the future debate.

GENEVA: The International Labour Office is holding a series of meetings this week to assess the economic crisis in the aviation and tourist sectors following the terrorist attacks of September 11 in the United States. These sectors are particularly hard hit as they were already in a slump due to the global economic downturn. Since the attacks, there have been hundreds of thousands of layoffs worldwide, and it is expected that, in the long-term, the crisis for jobs and companies in this sector will worsen.
On October 25-26, the ILO will bring together government, employer and worker representatives to determine the situation for the tourism industry — where, due to security concerns, the ILO says it has already registered a decline of 5 to 20 per cent — and address ways to help ease the impact.
On October 29-30, independent and industry experts as well as representatives of airlines and unions will come to Geneva for the ILO’s “Think Tank Meeting on the Impact of the September 11 Events for Civil Aviation”. With some 200,000 jobs expected to disappear in the aviation sector, participants will analyse the industry and address possible strategies for a response to the crisis.
Earlier this month, the ILO’s director-general, Juan Somavia, travelled to Canada and the U.S. to urge the countries of the Americas to confront growing human insecurity in the workplace resulting from the global economic downturn and attacks on the U.S. The ILO director-general said that “unemployment, layoffs and lack of social protection have underpinned a deep human insecurity about the future.” Somavia believes the horrific events in the United States have given a new dimension to international policy coherence, and it is time for creative thinking and action to improve the outlook for workers everywhere.