MOZAMBIQUE/SOUTH AFRICA: Today (October 3), after only several hours of strike action at Mozal, a Billiton aluminium plant near Maputo, the 700 striking workers — members of the IMF-affiliated SINTIME trade union – were formally dismissed by the company, which used police and dogs to evict the workers from the premises. The dispute began over workers’ demands for:

• the right to proper collective bargaining,
• the right to strike,
• improved working conditions,
• better wages,
• an end to discrimination.

In an attempt to break the strike, Mozal tried various strategies. On October 2, the company accused the senior shop steward of intimidating workers and then had him arrested and detained by police for four hours. It also recruited 150 white workers in South Africa to be used as scab labour. The company issued the letters of dismissal without any previous ultimatum.
In view of this situation, the IMF’s regional office, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and SINTIME are coordinating solidarity action by workers in all plants owned by Billiton in South Africa. Numsa will try to set up a meeting with top Billiton management and along with the IMF is sending protest letters to the company. From October 4, all workers from different Billiton plants will begin picket action to put pressure on management. A southern African Billiton meeting is being set up by the IMF’s regional office for October 6.
The IMF would ask its affiliates, particularly those organising in Billiton plants, to raise this issue with Billiton management. Protest letters can be addressed as follows:

• Mohammed Seedat, Vice-President
  BHP Billiton, Southern Africa
  Fax: (27/35) 908-8160
  
• Mike Salamon, Executive Director
  BHP Billiton Plc
  London WC2N 5HA
  Fax: (44/207) 747-3900
  
• K. Ngquta, Managing Director
  Industrial Development Corporation
  Fax: (27/11) 269-3113
  

We would also request messages of solidarity be sent to the striking Billiton workers, via the SINTIME union, on:
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: (258/1) 421-671 or 422-141.

USA: IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, has written to Nissan management in Smyrna, Tennessee, to “correct the record” following a management memorandum to all employees at the Smyrna plant which tries to dissuade the workers from voting in favour of the United Auto Workers’ union. A union election is taking place on October 3, and the UAW hopes to win the necessary 50 per cent plus 1 of the votes in order to be recognised as the Nissan workers’ representative.
To begin with, says Malentacchi in his letter of September 27 to Nissan manager Greg Pinson, “I was shocked at the misrepresentations [in the memo] dealing with unions at Nissan plants in foreign countries. At a time when America and the entire world should be pulling together to cope with recent tragic events, Nissan management’s hostile attack on one of America’s great unions is appalling.” The IMF general secretary reminds Pinson that Nissan assembly workers in most countries around the world are represented by unions, which includes Japan, France, Great Britain, South Africa, Thailand, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan, and a number of others. “This should prove, beyond any doubt,” writes Malentacchi, “that Nissan management can function quite effectively in a union environment. I have met with Nissan workers in each of these countries and it’s clear that they view union representation as the key to winning better wages, working conditions, and job security.”
Secondly, the IMF general secretary states his amazement at the blatant, false claim in the Nissan memo that “the socialist governments of Britain and France require large plants to have unions.” The facts are:

• British labour law does NOT require large or small plants to have unions. If 50% plus one of the workers choose to join the union, then recognition is granted automatically. Or, if 10% of the workers join a union, then a representation election can occur. The union must win both a majority in the ballot and get “yes” votes from at least 40% of those eligible to vote. It was during the time the Conservative Party of Margaret Thatcher was in power, not the socialists, that the Amalgamated Engineering Union came to represent the British Nissan workers.
  
• In France, neither large nor small plants are required to have unions. Indeed, no French worker can be required to join a union. But at Renault, the French automaker that owns Nissan, many workers belong because unions have proven very effective in negotiating improvements for autoworkers. France does require many companies to have Works Councils, which perform valuable consultative functions but legally do not bargain for the workers.
  

As a third point, Malentacchi refers to Pinson’s argument that in Europe workers have the protection of laws that provide for vacations and paid time off, health insurance, and other benefits that are not negotiated. “This,” says Malentacchi, “is the one issue on which you are correct. But here you’re making an argument IN FAVOR of voting for the UAW. Because America doesn’t provide for such benefits through law, the company is free to provide only those it chooses — RATHER than those negotiated by workers through their union.
“Fourthly, you have seriously misrepresented the nature of unions in Japan. They are organised on a company basis, including Nissan, but those enterprise unions then all affiliate to the Japanese Auto Workers (JAW) union confederation. The Nissan union and the JAW to which it belongs both have a very close and positive relationship with the UAW. As an international trade union leader, I have seen firsthand the high level of respect enjoyed by the UAW by both U.S. and foreign-based companies with which it cooperates. The UAW has been extraordinarily effective at representing its members, but time and time again it has done so by working effectively with company management to advance mutual interests.”

PERU/SWITZERLAND: The management of Iscaycruz, the zinc mining complex in Peru and a subsidiary of the Swiss-based natural resources group Glencore International, has refused to negotiate with the elected leaders of the company’s trade union and, as part of its union-busting strategy, dismissed two union leaders and suspended without pay a number of other trade union activists.
The IMF’s general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, has written letters to Glencore International, to the mining company and to Peru’s minister of labour calling on them to reinstate Tomas Castro Oré, Edwin Espinosa Melendrez, Nicolas Cano Richard Arture, Jesus Vasquez Ampuero, Rafael Prado Velarde, Melgar Trinidad Marcos, and any other workers dismissed for their trade union activities. In addition, Malentacchi called on the management of Iscaycruz to provide full compensation for any loss of pay or other benefits. He urged the company to accept the right of employees to belong to a trade union and to begin negotiations for a new collective agreement as soon as possible.
Peru has ratified all core conventions of the International Labour Organisation, which of course cover the rights to freedom of association and to organise and bargain collectively.
Glencore International has worldwide activity in the mining, smelting, refining, processing and trading of metals and minerals, energy and agricultural products.

PAKISTAN: The IMF-affiliated All Pakistan Federation of Trade Unions has sent out a press statement by the umbrella labour group Pakistan Workers’ Confederation (PWC) in which the PWC’s leaders, attending a meeting called by Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad on September 24, expressed their solidarity with the government’s policy and stance regarding the fight against terrorism. The delegation, led by the PWC president, Gul Rehman, and general secretary, Khurshid Ahmad, included representatives from all four provinces in Pakistan.
President Musharraf explained to the trade union leaders the situation concerning the U.S. and Afghanistan and the challenges facing Pakistan, following which the labour representatives stated they would extend their “full support in favour of the government’s stance on the issue and pledged to contribute their bit in motivating the working class to safeguard the country’s interests.”
During the meeting, the trade union officials reminded the president of the promise he made at a tripartite conference held on July 30 this year to raise the minimum wage for workers and urged the government to get this enforced. They also pressed for the implementation of the labour package announced during this same conference by the federal labour minister.

CANADA: General Motors, the world’s largest carmaker, says that the decision to end car assembly in Quebec follows falling demand over several years for the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird models produced there.
According to GM, 90 per cent of the workforce at the St. Therese facility would be eligible for early retirement.

FRANCE: On September 25, several potential buyers submitted offers to take over the financially-troubled French electrical household appliance company Moulinex, which forms part of the Moulinex-Brandt group. As for Brandt, a memorandum of understanding is presently being finalised with its creditor banks.
The IMF’s French affiliate FGMM-CFDT (Fédération Générale des Mines et de la Métallurgie) says it is working with the unions at both Moulinex and Brandt to set demands with regard to safeguarding jobs and production in this sector. They stress the importance of rapidly restarting production at Moulinex-Brandt plants which have been temporarily shutdown.
In April of this year, Moulinex-Brandt announced major restructuring plans, with 4,000 job cuts worldwide, of which 1,500 were in France.

USA: Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s largest microprocessor manufacturer after Intel, is to cut 2,300 jobs and close two plants in an attempt to reduce costs. In a press release issued on September 25, the company says that approximately 1,000 jobs would be eliminated by closing two fabrication plants in Austin, Texas, with the remaining reductions to result from the realignment and restructuring of “back-end activities” in Malaysia.
The plant closures and job cuts, to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2002, are expected to save the company about US$125 million annually.

GERMANY/GENEVA/GLOBAL: In a Declaration of Intent signed by the Volkswagen Group Board of Management, the Volkswagen Group World Works Council and the International Metalworkers’ Federation, the three parties agree they “will prepare a common statement on social standards and cooperation between employee representatives and the Group executive management by the end of this year. The subject of this statement will be based on the prevailing core labour standards of the International Labour Organisation and international Volkswagen human resources philosophy which includes the cooperative settlement of conflicts. It will serve as the basic principle of Volkswagen’s corporate philosophy.
“Safeguarding the future of Volkswagen and its workforce will take place in a spirit of the cooperative settlement of conflicts and social commitment, and will be based on economic and technological competitiveness.
“Volkswagen and its employees will join forces in facing the challenges of globalisation. Together they will harness opportunities to promote corporate and employment success as well as competitiveness, and restrict possible risks.
“The resolution will be adopted on the occasion of the meeting of the Volkswagen Group World Works Council which will take place in the first half of 2002.”

Malaysia’s human resources minister, Fong Chan Onn, has once more made clear that the policy of his government will remain the same as over the last 25 years. Thus Malaysia’s 150,000 electronics workers, mostly female, will not be able to organise in the trade union of their choice.
The Malaysian government’s imposition of a ban on a national union is a blatant violation of international conventions and shows the government’s disregard for International Labour Organisation decisions and opinions which have been expressed every time the case has been raised in its Committee on Freedom of Association.
The IMF and its affiliated unions in Malaysia have been conducting a hard fight against the way in which the government is treating the workers in this country and will continue to contest it. We are especially disappointed, after all the contacts and discussions we have held with Malaysian labour ministers in the past, that the results have not been fruitful. On the contrary, it looks as if we are back to Square One.
So it is time that we, within the International Metalworkers’ Federation, together with our allies in the Global Unions and their affiliates in Malaysia, plan for strong action which will bring this more than 20-year-old issue to an end. The IMF has suggested that:

• a national federation of electronics workers be formed, regardless of what the government says;
• we start recruiting workers in electronics companies, especially those operating in the export processing zones, into this national federation;
• we start training programmes for these workers on organising, collective bargaining, and health & safety.

The IMF has already allocated funds for this project and can expand the budget if necessary. Furthermore, we will again bring the case before the ILO, to ask the international community to once more condemn the Malaysian government for its anti-democratic behaviour. The trade unions within Malaysia must also proceed in a coordinated manner and speak with one voice.
The IMF is set to continue the struggle and we will never give up.

GENEVA: In his opinion column published today, September 25, 2001, Marcello Malentacchi, the general secretary of the International Metalworkers’ Federation, says the IMF intends to renew the struggle to help establish a national trade union for electronics workers in Malaysia.
For over 20 years the Malaysian government has shown its disregard for its workers and for decisions made by the International Labour Organisation in cases brought against the Malaysian government regarding internationally-accepted ILO conventions on Freedom of Association and the Right to Organise. But now, says Malentacchi, it is time to “plan for strong action which will bring this more than 20-year-old issue to an end.”
Read the IMF general secretary’s opinion column for background on this struggle and what the IMF proposes in order to establish a national union for electronics workers.