USA: Due to declining sales and financial losses, Ford Motor Co. has announced that to cut down on expenses it is cancelling its programme to give personal computers to its employees.
In February 2000, the company had stated its intention to put a personal computer, printer and access to Internet in the homes of all its 350,000 employees worldwide. Between the spring of 2000 and May of this year, some 166,000 personal computers and printers were distributed.
According to Bloomberg News, Ford’s U.S. vehicle sales dropped by 11 per cent this year through September, which was double the industry-wide decline. The company has now reported third-quarter losses of US$692 million. Demand has fallen from a high in 2000 due to the slowdown in the U.S. economy.

MOZAMBIQUE: On October 3, 2001, the IMF reported on a serious situation at Billiton’s Mozal aluminium plant near Maputo, where 700 workers — members of the IMF-affiliated SINTIME trade union — were immediately fired by the company when they started strike action and then chased from the premises by police and dogs.
Previously, the Mozal management had coerced its workers to accept a “no-strike” clause in their collective agreement as a condition for the recognition of their trade union. When SINTIME sought to negotiate an increase in wages and other benefits, the company not only refused their modest demands, but even to discuss them.
On October 19, when the Mozal union committee met with the minister of labour and minister of industry and business, the trade unionists were told that if the workers wanted to be reemployed at the smelter, they would first have to face a disciplinary hearing. Although the SINTIME tried to negotiate against such a procedure and the likelihood of victimisation, the combined intimidation from the company and government resulted in half of the striking workers returning to the plant. During the disciplinary hearings, these workers are being pressured to sign a statement declaring they “observed an illegal strike”.
The IMF has written protest letters to the president of Mozambique, Joaquím Chissano, and other top government officials, and to Billiton management at local, regional and international headquarters level, reminding them that the “no-strike” clause in Mozal’s collective agreement is in contravention of the core International Labour Organisation Conventions No. 87 on the Right to Freedom of Association and No. 98 on the Right to Collective Bargaining, which the government of Mozambique has ratified and is required to uphold in order to protect the rights of workers. The IMF warns that it will, if necessary, “seek to utilise all avenues, including those provided by certain international bodies, to protect the fundamental rights of its members to trade union membership and collective representation, including the right to take industrial action.”

FRANCE: In a press release issued yesterday, October 22, the metalworkers’ union FGMM-CFDT, affiliated at global level to the IMF, reported that a French commercial court in Nanterre has approved the rescue takeover bid of household appliance maker Moulinex by another well-known French appliance maker, SEB. The union says that even if this decision keeps Moulinex from going bankrupt, thousands of jobs will disappear, carrying serious consequences not only for the region of Lower Normandy but for thousands of jobs beyond the French borders.
“Employees, jobs and the region are paying a high price for errors in strategy and management,” declared the union, “mistakes which have been accentuated by the position taken by political decision makers at local and national level, whose action did not secure the future.” All possible means must be put in place, insists the union, to ensure jobs for all those concerned who will not be included in the SEB takeover, whether at Moulinex, its subcontractors or suppliers.

BRAZIL: The metalworkers’ union for the São Paulo region, Sindicato dos Metalurgicos do ABC, reports that car assembly workers have accepted a new two-year collective contract with Volkswagen, Ford, Scania, Toyota and DaimlerChrysler, and have ended the staggered strike action they began on October 8 in defense of their wage claims.
The companies have agreed to pay a retroactive wage hike of 7.75 per cent to compensate for the increase in cost of living over the past year, and if car production reaches 1.065 million vehicles, or an increase of 40,000 units over the year 2000, there will be an additional 2 per cent real wage increase. The new contract, covering approximately 42,000 car assembly workers, also includes renewed fringe benefits for the next two-year period.
The union’s president, Luiz Marinho, told the Reuters news agency that “given the current circumstances, the signing of an agreement valid for two years is extremely positive for the workers and for the Brazilian economy.” Brazil’s auto sales have fallen both on the domestic and export markets due to the present economic downturn.
Represented by another union and thus not included in this agreement, workers at the São Paulo plants of General Motors are expected to be offered a similar deal.
Brazil is Latin America’s biggest auto manufacturer, and 70 per cent of the country’s car production is concentrated in São Paulo.

GERMANY/GENEVA: Delegates from the USA, Canada, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Mexico met on October 16 in Cologne, Germany, to discuss auto industry developments and their impact on Ford’s global operations. One of the principal challenges is that transnational auto producers, such as Ford, expand their activities around the world through investment, mergers, acquisitions and alliances, but the development of global union structures to facilitate effective information exchange and cooperation has not kept pace.
The working group adopted the following recommendations:

• An IMF-Ford World Steering Group (WSG) should be formed and meet in 2002.
  
• The WSG should include union representatives from all world regions with automotive operations which are majority-owned by Ford.
  
• An internet/fax-based communications network for union representatives, including a webpage, will be set up within the Ford Alliance.
• The WSG’s priorities should include:
  – ensuring solidarity support in collective bargaining struggles;
  – promoting effective information exchange and cooperation, especially in collective bargaining and union-building;
  – working towards the implementation of a Code of Conduct in Ford;
  – assisting in union-building and organising projects within the Ford Alliance’s global operations.
  

KOREA, REP: The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has published an updated report of imprisoned trade unionists in the Republic of Korea. So far in 2001, a total of 218 trade union activists have been arrested and sent to jail, of whom 67 are still in prison.
The report documents the number of activists who were sent to jail under past regimes, going back to 1988, and compares these numbers with the arrests made by the present government of Kim Dae-jung.
The KCTU points out that, in 2001, the main legal provision used for arresting trade unionists is “obstruction of business”. Over half of those arrested, charged and imprisoned this year were dealt with under this provision, and the government is stepping up the use of this so-called violation to criminalise and punish trade unions and their leaders, despite ILO recommendations and many international trade union complaints. Use of “obstruction of business” is mostly related to the strike actions taken by unions opposed to the government’s massive, unilateral restructuring measures.
The full report, which can be accessed on the KCTU website, gives all the facts and figures about these arrests, as well as a list of names of both those who have been detained and are awaiting trial and those who are serving a prison sentence.
The KCTU is appealing for international solidarity support for the release of these trade unionists, among whom is the confederation’s president, Dan Byung-ho. Access the associated link to visit the special webpage for the campaign to free the KCTU president.

USA: On October 15, 2001, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, the second-largest integrated steel manufacturer in the U.S., announced it had filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11, stating it “could not overcome the injury caused by record levels of unfairly traded steel imports and the slowing economy that have severely reduced prices, shipments and production.” Thus, Bethlehem becomes the twenty-sixth American steel company to go into bankruptcy since 1998.
In a press statement released by the IMF-affiliated United Steelworkers of America immediately following Bethlehem’s announcement, the union’s president, Leo Gerard, declared that this bankruptcy “should make it clear beyond all doubt that the government’s continued failure to provide relief to the steel industry is destroying an industry that is a cornerstone of America’s security.”
According to the USWA, over 27,000 U.S. steelworkers have lost their jobs since 1998, of which over 14,000 were lost this year, and an additional 15,000 jobs are now at risk at Bethlehem, as well as the benefits of 130,000 retirees and their dependents. Moreover, 45,000 jobs are threatened in companies which depend for their business on Bethlehem.
Gerard is urging three critical measures be taken to prevent the complete collapse of the American steel industry:

• Congress must pass a $1 billion annual package to ensure coverage of health care benefits for the steel industry’s 600,000 retirees and their dependents, 130,000 of whom have been put at risk because of the Bethlehem bankruptcy.
  
• Once the International Trade Commission rules on the injury phase of the Section 201 trade petition, strong remedies should be recommended to the White House and immediately implemented by the president.
  
• Congress should immediately increase to $5 billion the loan guarantees available under the Emergency Steel Loan Guarantee programme.
  

USA: On Saturday, October 13, members of the IMF-affiliated International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers approved by an overwhelming majority a 35-month collective contract with the airplane maker Cessna. According to IAM negotiators, it is one of the best contracts in the light aerospace industry in the last three years.
Union bargaining priorities were for general wage increases, job security, health care and pension benefits. Achieved in the settlement are provisions for:

• a 4.25 per cent general wage increase in the first year, 4 per cent in the second year, and 3.25 per cent in the final year;
  
• free medical insurance and a paid prescription card with which the employee pays only $3 for generic and $5 for name-brand drugs;
  
• increased sick leave for overtime work, Sunday overtime to be voluntary and the overhaul of the grievance procedure to ensure workers get a quicker, fairer hearing;
  
• improvement of shift differential by 33 per cent and longevity pay by 29 per cent;
  
• increase in retirement by 24 per cent to $41 per year of service, by the end of the contract;
  
• an employee laid off as a direct result of subcontracting to receive 4 weeks’ pay, with a continuation of his/her health insurance until the end of the month following the layoff;
  
• employees to become full partners with the company in determining how work should be performed in their shop;
  
• employees to be paid to attend mechanics school and can move into more highly-paid, highly-skilled areas of the plant.
  

AUSTRALIA: Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors, has agreed to pay a 17.7 per cent wage increase over the next three years and thus end a dispute which saw strike action at the company for the first time in 10 years. The company’s car assembly workers, who are earning an average weekly wage of $A631 (US$324) will receive an additional $A111 (US$57) over the life of the agreement.
Workers, who had aimed for a minimum 20 per cent rise in wages, voted to accept Holden’s pay offer because, as a spokesman for the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union said, “workers felt that due to market uncertainty, it would be prudent to accept what was on offer.” Export orders from the Middle East have been sharply cut back since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA, and a drop in domestic demand has been predicted for the remainder of this year and for 2002. The company plans to stabilise its car production at 590 vehicles a day.
The settlement comes several days after Holden reported it would not be introducing a third shift at the end of this year – part of its long-term plans to reach annual production of 180,000 cars – and would not do so until there is global peace in the war on terrorism. A third shift would provide another 400 to 500 new jobs.
Workers will receive 6 per cent backdated to August 2001, 5 per cent in August 2002, 4.5 per cent in 2003 and 1.13 per cent in 2004.
News at other automakers in Australia is that Mitsubishi workers will be accepting a pay increase of approximately 15 per cent over the next 33 months and Ford workers have already agreed to a 15.25 per cent increase. When negotiations at Toyota Australia begin in a few weeks’ time, unions indicate they will seek at least as much as workers were granted at Holden.
Source: just-auto.com

BRAZIL: After six days of industrial action in Sao Paulo’s auto industry, which began on October 8, the metalworkers’ union Sindicato dos Metalurgicos do ABC has accepted to suspend the walkouts after carmakers agreed to return to the bargaining table and resume wage talks. The companies involved are the local units of Volkswagen, Ford, Scania, Toyota and DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes Benz.
Car assembly workers are demanding an immediate pay increase of 7 per cent, representing the cost-of-living increase over the last 12 months, and the auto companies, which originally said they would only go as far as 5 per cent, are now indicating they might go beyond that figure.
A spokesman for the IMF-affiliated National Confederation of Metalworkers (CNM/CUT) has said that the rotating work stoppages would continue, however, at the region’s autoparts plants, where employers are offering less than 5 per cent.
The Sindicato dos Metalurgicos do ABC is a member of the CNM/CUT and one of Brazil’s most powerful trade unions.