SOUTH AFRICA: Declaring the four-week strike in the tire and rubber industry a “resounding victory,” the IMF-affiliated National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa reports that some 6,000 workers are returning to their jobs as of today, September 18.
The industry-wide settlement provides workers with:
– a 3-year wage agreement;
– a guaranteed 8 per cent wage increase across the board this year;
– in the second and third year, the consumer price index plus 1 per cent;
– the benchmark against which all wages are set increased to R36.15 (US$4.18);
– 10 per cent spreads within grades and 10 per cent differentials between grades.
Numsa says it is very pleased that “workers were focused and not confused by the employers’ tactic to demotivate some of the legitimate union demands… We always maintained that workers are not a cost to the industry but add value to the economy… The strike could have long ended if the talks were based on fairness, transparency and proper vision.”

MALAYSIA: The Electrical Industry Workers’ Union, an IMF affiliate representing over 30,000 workers in the electrical and electronics industry in Malaysia, has filed an official complaint for harassment against a police officer in Shah Alam. When EIWU members were staging a peaceful picket outside the M/S Federal Power Sdn Bhd on September 10, in Shah Alam, the police officer in question ordered the union and its members to immediately stop picketing, despite the fact that it was legally in accordance with provisions in Malaysian labour law, i.e. the Industrial Relations Act 1967 and the Trade Union Act 1959.
The union’s decision to strike was made when collective bargaining negotiations with M/S Federal Power for the 8th collective agreement reached a deadlock over management’s refusal to improve conditions of employment at the plant.
In a letter to the regional chief of police, the EIWU general secretary, Vejaragavan Gopal, states that “peaceful picketing is a fundamental and legitimate right of workers. To order the picket to stop or by applying any form of harassment from your side amounts to a serious violation of workers’ and trade union rights.”

BRAZIL: DaimlerChrysler workers and their trade union in Campo Largo, Paraná, have said they will organise resistance to the closure of the Chrysler plant, which was announced recently by the transnational carmaker. There are 250 workplaces at the Campo Largo plant, in southern Brazil.
DaimlerChrysler, the world’s fifth largest automotive manufacturer, said the decision to close the plant was part of its US$4 billion turnaround plan, including 26,000 job cuts worldwide. The company also claimed it would return the government subsidies it had received to build the plant, said to be somewhere between $39 million to $47 million.
The Campo Largo Chrysler plant produced the Dodge pickup for both the domestic and export markets. It seems, however, that a combination of energy rationing and rising interest rates has led to a sharp cut in growth in Brazil and to most automakers there temporarily suspending production in July and August of this year.

USA: With a new tentative agreement reached on changes to its 1996 contract with Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, the United Steelworkers of America says a first step has been taken to save the bankrupt company. In a press release issued on September 13, the union’s president, Leo Gerard, states that the tentative agreement “represents our union doing more than its fair share in stabilizing Wheeling-Pitt. Now it’s crucial that the federal government provide help through emergency steel loan guarantees and for the company’s other stakeholders to participate as well.”
The proposed modified labour agreement would maintain all of the company’s current steel operations, as well as health care benefits for its present and future retirees. It would also provide employees with 20 per cent ownership in Wheeling-Pitt when it emerges from bankruptcy. The agreement proposes that workers, both union and non-union, take a temporary cut in wages, and scheduled wage increases will be delayed but not eliminated. Some hourly workers will be laid off, but a proportional number of salaried personnel will also be laid off.
The pension plan has been significantly improved with a “30-and-out” provision making it possible for workers with 30 years of service to retire with full pensions, and workers will be able to participate in a new profit-sharing plan once the company becomes solvent. There will be tougher restrictions on the company’s use of outside contractors and significant union input in decisions affecting the future of the company.
The ratification vote by the members will be tallied on September 29.

Dear Colleagues,
I was shocked and horrified at the scale of the premeditated and cowardly attack that resulted in the death of so many U.S. citizens, who were simply going about their normal everyday business, by the orchestrated highjacking of four civil aircraft and their deliberate destruction, by an, as yet, unknown terrorist organisation.
Consequently, I have written, on behalf of the IMF’s 23 million members, to the IMF’s seven affiliates in the USA, conveying our heartfelt condolences and expressing our grave concern at the extent of the loss of human life and wanton destruction caused by these premeditated acts of violence.
It is evident that such concerted actions required considerable logistical organisation in respect of the planning and timing required to carry them out, and the IMF supports all necessary actions to discover and subsequently punish all of those who were responsible and involved in this most heinous of crimes.
The IMF condemns all acts of terrorism, which do not resolve any problems but only serve to make them worse by hardening and entrenching the views and beliefs of the various parties, and I would ask you to send strong messages of support and solidarity to all of our affiliates in the USA.
In solidarity and amity,
Yours fraternally,
Marcello Malentacchi
General Secretary

IMF affiliates in the USA:

IUE-CWA INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA – UAW Headquarters in Detroit UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA – USWA Washington Office UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA – USWA Headquarters in Pittsburgh SHEET METAL WORKERS’ INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE & AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA – UAW International Affairs Department in Washington INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOILERMAKERS, IRON SHIPBUILDERS, BLACKSMITHS, FORGERS AND HELPERS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS – IAM COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA – CWA

KOREA, REP: IMF editors and press officers, currently attending the 12th IMF Editors’ Meeting in Seoul from September 7-10, heard today (September 10) appeals for solidarity support from both IMF-affiliated organisations in Korea – the Korean Metal Workers’ Federation (KMWF) and the Federation of Korean Metalworkers’ Trade Unions (FKMTU).
On a visit to the vast plant site of Hynix Semiconductor in Icheon, south of the capital, the Hynix trade union, which is a member of the FKMTU, described to the group the worsening working conditions and job insecurity that workers there are facing due to the economic crisis and downturn. The transnational company, formerly known as Hyundai Electronics and presently one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, is experiencing serious financial problems, with excessive loans and accumulated debts. Due to restructuring, approximately 6,845 workers of a total workforce of 22,000 have been made redundant at the Icheon plant in the last seven months, although they were found jobs in other operations of the company.
The FKMTU and its umbrella organisation, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, have requested intervention from the AFL-CIO in the U.S. in the form of pressure on the U.S. government, which is said to have attempted to influence decisions of credit banks there regarding Hynix. In a letter to the U.S. labour group, the unions said that “all should worry about the side effects in an intertwined global economy. The bankruptcy of such a company can have a domino effect on others and in a certain sense on the whole structure of the global economy.” The Hynix union and the FKMTU are pushing for further education and training for workers made redundant.
The IMF delegation, representing 40 editors and press officers from 13 countries, then travelled to Inchon, west of Seoul, to the Daewoo Motor plant in Pupyong, the scene of militant trade union activity over the last years due to the growing number of layoffs there (out of a former workforce of 18,000 at the Pupyong plant, only 7,000 remain) and to the struggle of the Daewoo Motor Workers’ Union and the KMWF against the proposed takeover by General Motors of the bankrupt carmaker.
Hired security guards and police prevented the journalists from entering the premises of the plant, but after a visit to the office of the 12,000-member DMWU (also surrounded by police and hired thugs), the delegation proceeded to the nearby Sangok Cathedral, where eight leaders of the union have taken refuge since February of this year, when police issued arrest warrants for them.
The union’s president, Kim Il-sup, who is among those taking sanctuary in the church, says that Korea is being “financially and politically submissive by selling Daewoo Motor to General Motors. We’re protesting against neo-liberalism, and we need global trade union solidarity support in this struggle. What we want is to go back to work.” In the courtyard of the church, the IMF delegation joined a mass meeting of several hundred laid-off Daewoo workers, to give them messages of support and solidarity as well as promises to spread the word about their struggle.
On Friday, September 7, the IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, visited the Seoul prison where the president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Dan Byung-ho, is still being incarcerated since his most recent arrest for trade union activities, at the end of July. The KCTU president expressed his appreciation to Malentacchi for the many protest letters written by IMF affiliates on his behalf and said he was very moved to have such strong international support. He will be released on October 3, but may face more charges in the near future (see the associated link for an interview with Dan Byung-ho in the IMF’s magazine Metal World).
A prison visit was also made in Inchon, by an international representative of the U.S. United Auto Workers’ union, John Christensen, to two Daewoo union members who were arrested during the violent police crackdown on the union in April, which resulted in serious injury to a number of trade unionists who were participating in a rally near Daewoo’s Pupyong plant. The IMF meeting participants were shown a video tape of this police charge on peaceful marchers, which left everyone in the group stunned by the display of irresponsible and violent behaviour of the police.

INDONESIA: On Tuesday, August 28, seven suspects charged with attacking striking workers at PT Kadera during a peaceful protest on March 29 of this year were put on trial. The prosecutor accused the thugs, plus hundreds of others, of throwing a bomb at the workers and beating them with wooden sticks, iron clubs and machetes. Two workers died and dozens were wounded.
The prosecutor said that the deputy manager of PT Kadera had hired the thugs and paid them 25 million Indonesian rupiahs (US$2,762) to carry out the attack. He has been named as a suspect, but his case is still being processed at the prosecutor’s office. The question being asked is: When will the mastermind of this terrible tragedy be put on trial?
The PT Kadera workers had staged a peaceful sit-in at the plant to demand a wage increase, improved working conditions and the withdrawal of suspension and dismissal penalties. Although the deputy manager had promised a meeting with the workers, what ensued instead was the vicious attack.
PT Kadera, located in the East Jakarta industrial zone, is owned by 90 per cent Japanese interest and produces car seats.
A statement concerning the attack at PT Kadera was issued by the 10th IMF Asia-Pacific Regional Conference during its meeting in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, in April and can be accessed on the associated link.

SOUTH AFRICA: The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa has asked its members in the car manufacturing industry to consider participating in a sympathy strike in a show of support with striking workers in the tire and rubber industry. The industrial action in the tire and rubber sector, organised by Numsa, is well into its second week, and efforts to resolve an impasse between the union and the association of tire and rubber employers have failed.
Although the Automobile Employers’ Association claims that the strike in the tire and rubber sector will not affect the car manufacturing industry in the short term, Numsa states that it already is. “If the situation is not solved in three weeks’ time, car manufacturers will have to source tires overseas,” said Numsa spokesman Dumisa Ntuli, who called on carmakers to put pressure on the tire and rubber manufacturers.
Numsa is demanding a 10 per cent wage hike for the tire and rubber workers, but employers have limited their offer to 7.5 per cent.

MEXICO: On September 5, Volkswagen management and Mexican union leaders reached a wage deal to end the 19-day strike at VW’s plant in Puebla. After a marathon negotiating session, the two sides struck an accord that gave the workers a 10.2 per cent wage hike.
It also includes an increase in food-coupon benefits equivalent to 3.5 per cent of salary, and a further 1 per cent hike for assistance in buying school supplies for workers’ children. This means a 14.7 per cent increase in the overall package for the workers.
“The deal has been struck,” union leader José Luis Rodriguez told Reuters, adding that VW agreed to pay 50 per cent of the wages the workers lost during the strike.
The VW Mexico plant has 16,000 workers, 12,300 of whom are unionised. Last week, workers overwhelmingly rejected the automaker’s offer of an 8.5 per cent wage hike plus increased benefits.

INDONESIA: Speaking on August 30 at the 2nd Congress of the SPMI (Federation of Indonesian Metalworkers) in Bandung, the general secretary of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), Marcello Malentacchi, referred to the multiple problems facing the country as it makes its transition from an authoritarian regime to that of a democratically-elected government. Working people from not only Indonesia but the entire region continue to suffer from the aftermath of the Asian monetary and economic crisis, and the so-called rescue packages agreed between the International Monetary Fund and the former regime will lead to perpetual economic dependence, said Malentacchi. “The IMF has at all times been critical of the Bretton Woods institutions for some of the major global problems of today,” he stated.
Millions of Indonesians have lost their jobs, with the ensuing social and civil unrest which is now so evident. Mass demonstrations and strikes are taking place against a background of employers exploiting low-cost labour and the unemployment situation and threatening to relocate production to China, where labour costs are even cheaper.
Under these circumstances, insists the IMF general secretary, the trade union movement should play a pro-active role, as its struggle is for social justice. “The trade union movement should consolidate and unite to face these challenges,” he said. “We must act fearlessly to defend workers’ and trade union rights.”
More than 43 national trade union centers have been formed since the Indonesian government ratified ILO Convention No. 87 on freedom of association and the right to organise, in 1998. During the previous Suharto regime, only one national trade union center legally existed. Malentacchi says that the trade union movement in Indonesia must unify and defend workers’ rights with one voice.
Indonesia has ratified all core ILO Conventions, however labour laws need to be changed in order to meet the requirements of these conventions. Malentacchi urged the SPMI to campaign for such changes and said he hoped to see the SPMI emerge as one of the largest single unions in Southeast Asia.