The main theme of the IMF’s World Congress next month in Sydney, Australia, is manufacturing, sustainable growth and solidarity.
Manufacturing, I believe, will remain central to the economy of a country.
Globalisation today, which is synonymous with deregulation and liberalisation, has actually led to a greater concentration of power in the hands of a few transnational companies (TNCs), rather than being an instrument for the creation and equal distribution of decent jobs and wealth throughout the world.
Instead of focusing on creating employment, TNCs transfer manufacturing jobs from one country to another, to save on costs and pay higher dividends to shareholders. These jobs are shifted to places where the violation of human and trade union rights is endemic and regulations for environmental protection are very poor or non-existent. If the globalisation process continues along this same path, confrontation will be inevitable and will result in growing social turmoil.
A post-industrial society can exist only if it manages to produce and distribute in a fair manner useful products and services for the entire world population. Manufacturing needs capital, natural resources and a skilled, educated workforce. Eradicating poverty and misery implies that all these resources are used in a planned, coordinated, fair and efficient way – which is not the case today.
Sustainable growth is indispensable for the development of the manufacturing industry. It requires new thinking and an alternative to the present economic models, and the trade union movement has indicated how this can be made possible at a worldwide level. In 1994, the International Metalworkers’ Federation discussed and published its first alternative economic programme.
But, now, we must go further and indicate the direction we want to take, and solidarity is our response to globalisation. In the IMF’s new Action Programme, which will be discussed by the Congress in Sydney, we underline three major strategies:

• a special tax on capital transactions aimed at speculation (the Tobin tax);
  
• a reform of international financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, forcing them to endorse economic policies based on:
  – employment creation,
  – creation of comprehensive social safety nets,
  – improvement of educational opportunities, with special emphasis on girls,
  – elimination of child labour;
  
• cancellation of the external debt for poor countries.
  

In Sydney, the metalworkers will also demonstrate their determination to create a better world, with their participation in a rally organised by the IMF’s Australian affiliates on Tuesday, November 13, which has this as its slogan.
The world we want is a world of peace, democracy and respect for human and trade union rights. These values are the prerequisite for all economic and social development; they are not negotiable. We have fought for them throughout the entire history of our trade union movement, and we are prepared to continue this fight anywhere and everywhere in the world.

GENEVA: Manufacturing, sustainable growth and solidarity will be the main theme of the International Metalworkers’ Federation 30th World Congress, next month in Sydney.
Although manufacturing will remain central to a country’s economy, writes the IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, in his new opinion column, globalisation has led today to the increased concentration of power of a few transnational companies, which don’t hesitate to transfer manufacturing jobs from one country to the next in order to cut costs and please their shareholders. This process, if left unchecked, will bring more confrontation and growing social unrest.
If the manufacturing industry is to develop, sustainable growth will be essential. The IMF’s new Action Programme, to be discussed at the Sydney Congress, has fixed three major strategies as its response to globalisation and the need for economic and social progress.
Go to the associated link to read the entire opinion column.

IRELAND: The IMF’s affiliate in Ireland, the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union (SIPTU), is aiming to keep the national airline — Aer Lingus — viable and in public ownership. At the union’s recent National Delegate Conference, an emergency motion was passed calling for urgent financial assistance from the Irish government to ensure the survival of Aer Lingus and opposing any attempts to privatise the airline.
A top union official said that “a choice must be made between the compelling arguments for the maintenance of a national airline in an island country, and the ruthless demands of the global market place where the pre-occupation with the bottom line disregards economic development, social and regional requirements and dismisses the interests of the workers who built it.”

SOUTH AFRICA: Approximately 5,000 workers at the chrome alloys company Samancor, a subsidiary of BHP Billiton, are taking strike action today (October 10) in support of their demand for a 15 per cent wage increase. The industrial action will hit the company’s sites at Ferrometals-Witbank, Ferrochrome Middelburg, Tubatse Ferrochrome and Pallmet Ferrochrome.
The Samancor workers are represented by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, affiliated at global level to the International Metalworkers’ Federation.

GLOBAL: The yearly survey of trade union rights violations by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) reports 209 trade unionists killed or “disappeared” – an increase of 50 per cent over last year’s figure, about 8,500 arrested, 3,000 more injured, over 100,000 harassed and nearly 20,000 dismissed because of their trade union activities.
According to the survey, which this year covers a record 140 countries, 27 more than in 1999, the trade union rights situation is the most disturbing in Colombia, Guatemala, Venezuela, Costa Rica, China, South Korea, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Belarus and the Gulf States.
Colombia is still the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists.
To read the complete report or to search for information concerning a particular country, click on the associated link. The report exists in English, German, French and Spanish.

BRAZIL: According to a Reuters news report published yesterday (October 8), car assembly workers in Sao Paulo — the hub of the Brazilian auto industry, with 70 per cent of the country’s production — have launched a campaign of staggered strikes over wages in an attempt to disrupt auto production at plants owned by some of the leading global car manufacturers.
The IMF’s metalworker affiliates in Brazil said that as many as 100,000 workers began the work stoppages to strategically target certain plants during several hours each. The first strike took place at a plant belonging to Volkswagen, which is Brazil’s No. 1 carmaker.
Similar strikes in the past have hit Fiat, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors and other manufacturers.
Brazil is Latin America’s biggest carmaker.

FRANCE: All trade unions representing workers at bankrupt Moulinex-Brandt – including the IMF-affiliated metalworkers’ unions FGMM-CFDT and FO Metal – joined to organise a rally taking place today, October 5, in Paris. The march will proceed to the Matignon offices of the French prime minister. Thousands of employees of the electrical appliance group are expected to participate, as well as a delegation from another French appliance maker, Seb, which has submitted a partial takeover offer, to rescue Moulinex.
The unions want the government to intervene to protect the financially-troubled company and are demanding that negotiations begin immediately with all parties concerned to determine an industrial plan to safeguards jobs, know-how and the company’s future.
Moulinex is the third largest household appliance manufacturer in Europe. The industry is plagued by overcapacity and very strong foreign competition.

PORTUGAL: The IMF’s Portuguese affiliate SIMA — Sindicato das Industrias Metalúrgicas e Afins — reports that workers at Robert Bosch-Breaks-Alferrarede, in Abrantes, will take strike action on October 8, 2001. SIMA says that management not only remains intransigent over demands which the union considers important, such as negotiations for professional carriers, promotion based on merit, health insurance, and better wages, but has not offered any proposals of its own and shows no interest in having a meaningful dialogue with the union.
As a consequence of the company’s negative stand, SIMA is calling for a massive work stoppage of all 400 workers at the plant, from 00:00 to 24:00 on October 8.

KOREA, REP: The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has reported that, contrary to earlier promises made by government authorities, its president, Dan Byung-ho, was not released from Seoul Prison on October 3 and will be held indefinitely. He had been arrested again on August 2 of this year for leading a KCTU campaign of strikes and demonstrations in June.
He was originally released from prison in August 1999 as part of a general presidential amnesty, having two months and four days remaining of his sentence, but he was reincarcerated this August following a government promise that if Dan served out the remainder of the suspended sentence, this would end months of hostilities between the KCTU and the government.
This promise resulted from a deal made with prominent Catholic leader Fr. Kim Seung-hoon, who mediated between the KCTU and the government while the KCTU leadership was conducting a sit-in protest at Seoul’s Myongdong Cathedral. The government accepted to ease up on arrests and legal action of KCTU activists and leadership if Dan voluntarily turned himself in. There was a clear understanding, states the KCTU, that there would be no further legal action against Dan as the KCTU president.
It has become known, however, that on September 28 the office of the prosecutor decided to lay fresh charges against Dan and obtained a warrant to hold him in detention for investigation and trial. Key government officials then denied there had ever been an agreement, and a high-level meeting on September 29 at the presidential palace arrived at the decision to keep Dan in prison.
The IMF calls urgently on all its affiliates to protest against the Korean government for its betrayal of confidence and the continued detention of Dan Byung-ho. Letters of protest can be addressed to:

• Kim Dae-jung
  President of the Republic of Korea
  Fax: (82/2) 770-0253
• Korean Embassy in your country.
  

USA: Workers at the Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, have rejected union representation by the United Auto Workers. Of the 4,589 votes cast, 1,486 were in favour of the union, and 3,103 against.
In a news release issued immediately after the vote count, the UAW president, Steve Yokich, called the loss of the election at Nissan a “setback for Nissan workers… The fact remains that in the global economy, Nissan workers still need and deserve the seat at the decision-making table that only a union can provide.”
Bob King, who heads the UAW Organising Department, described how before the election Nissan workers were shown an in-plant video message stating that workers should not even talk to UAW supporters. “The company also conducted extensive illegal surveillance of Nissan workers who were engaged in leafleting and other pro-union activities in and around the plant,” said King. “Furthermore, Nissan workers who were perceived by the company as undecided were forced to attend compulsory meetings, often repeatedly, where they were barraged with distorted, misleading and just plain wrong information about the UAW. Every Nissan technician was subjected on a daily basis to company disinformation about everything from Nissan’s relationship with unions in other countries to the basics of Nissan benefits and company policies.”
The IMF’s general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, travelled to Smyrna to support the organising effort.