MALAYSIA: A Taiwan-based company called Syarikat Wire Malaysia, located in Shah Alam, Malaysia, abruptly closed on August 1, 2001, without any prior notification to either the workers or their trade union, the IMF-affiliated Electrical Industry Workers’ Union (EIWU). When the 38 workers went to work as usual that morning, they discovered they were locked out. An unsigned, unstamped notice which was hanging on the padlocked gates stated the company would be closed for three months.
The EIWU has filed a case against the company – whose directors are mostly from Taiwan – with Malaysia’s Labour Office and the Industrial Relations Department. The union is also providing the workers with shelter and meals, and although some of the workers have found jobs, the EIWU has written to other companies within the sector asking them to employ those who are still jobless.
The workers, for their part, are making sure no one else will be able to enter the company’s premises either, or remove anything, as they have added their own padlock.

SOUTH AFRICA: With regard to the on-going major autoworkers’ strike in South Africa, a press release issued on August 22 by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa states that “after extensive deliberations and consultation, the special meeting of the National Executive Committee of Numsa has not endorsed the current revised settlement proposals from the Commission, Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).”
The union says it accepts the 9 per cent across the board wage increase as the basis for a future improved settlement. The autoworkers unanimously agree that the settlement should be further improved to 10 per cent.
Numsa will be reopening negotiations with the Automobile Manufacturing Employers Organisation (AMEO) to improve the wage offer and says the strike “will continue until all workers are consulted and a final decision is made.”
Additional disputes remaining unresolved are:
– a two-year wage agreement;
– “no further claim” clause (Numsa wants to take claims/demands at plant level and be able to strike for them);
– negotiation of additional categories of workers for level 5 (Numsa wants team leaders, specialists, clerks, spray painters, quality control workers to be categorised as level 5 workers).

MEXICO: The IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, has written today (August 23) to Francisco Bada, vice-president of Volkswagen, Mexico, to express the IMF’s extreme concern at developments at VW Mexico in Puebla, and in particular at comments made by the VW vice-president in the Mexican press that Volkswagen “had requested the federal government to nullify the strike [at the Puebla plant].” (TheNewsMexico.com – 8/20/2001)
“Almost exactly one year ago,” writes Malentacchi, “I unfortunately had cause to write to Mr. B. Leissner after a ruling by the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (CAB) that resulted from a similar request by VW. Under the present circumstances, I can do no better than to quote our earlier letter:
[“In our view, the CAB decision is blatant government interference in the collective bargaining process. Moreover, we believe that declaring a strike ‘inexistent’ and ordering the workers to end it within 24 hours on pain of dismissal is, in effect, a violation of the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
We are especially disappointed to learn that it was VW management, which sought this decision from the CAB. Frankly, we do not understand how this can be reconciled with what we thought was the VW policy of resolving collective bargaining issues through dialogue.
Instead of negotiating in good faith, you called on an outside agency, which has long been used to stifle legitimate worker and union demands, to declare the strike illegal…
Volkswagen’s participation in such legal manipulations is a great disappointment to us. Moreover, it is unlikely to lead to the results we all desire — a resolution of conflicts, a productive workplace and decent incomes for workers.
Consequently, I urge you to desist from this ill-considered move to undermine the VW union and to return to good faith negotiations to settle the outstanding issues.”]
In his letter of today to Mr. Bada, Malentacchi states that the IMF will not content itself with addressing annual protest letters to Volkswagen management concerning its attempts to declare strikes unlawful. “The ILO as well as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Corporations offer the possibility of redress in such situations. The latter are of particular interest because they allow us to submit complaints to national government contact points in Germany as well as Mexico. Knowing of the generally positive industrial relations at Volkswagen and its good public image, we would take such a step regretfully. Consequently, let me urge you to immediately withdraw the request for ‘nullification’ of the Puebla strike and negotiate all outstanding issues in good faith with the union.”

USA: Workers have petitioned the U.S. National Labor Relations Board for a supervised union election at Nissan Motor Company’s vehicle assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee. The petition seeks to organise 4,100 production and maintenance workers in the United Auto Workers’ union.
Although a UAW vote was defeated in 1989, workers at the 18-year-old Nissan plant, which employs over 5,700, are now confident that a majority supports the union. A typical comment on the election came from a rank-and-file worker who said that “we have listened to the company’s anti-union message for years. I bought it for a long time, but I’m not buying it anymore. I’ve seen too many workers injured and too many injured workers mistreated. We need a union.”
Should the UAW be victorious, it will mark a turning point in labour relations in the U.S. auto industry, where foreign-owned companies, carefully located in the mostly non-union southern and central states, have never been organised.

BRAZIL/SOUTH AFRICA: International solidarity with the striking autoworkers in South Africa has come from DaimlerChrsyler workers in Brazil. Speaking on behalf of the Works Council of the Sao Bernardo plant of DaimlerChrysler and the Metalworkers’ Union of the ABC – CNM/CUT, union official Valter Sanches has declared their support with the struggle of the South African autoworkers, which is now in its third week.
“It’s absolutely clear,” he writes, “that the transnational companies are just interested in maximising their profits despite the working conditions and quality of life of their employees. In Brazil, they behave the same way, paying much lower wages than in their countries of origin.”
When the Brazilian DaimlerChrysler workers learned that the company was putting pressure on the striking South African autoworkers by threatening to move its production elsewhere, they joined with the General Works Council of DaimlerChrysler Germany in making clear they would not accept an eventual transfer of production or anything else which could harm the struggle of the striking autoworkers in South Africa. The Sao Bernardo plant manufactures, as does DaimlerChrysler in South Africa, the Mercedes C-class car.
Sanches states that the Brazilian DaimlerChrysler workers are on standby for any needed solidarity action and that their position on this matter is being passed on to the company. “We don’t accept being played against each other,” he declared.

ZIMBABWE: The IMF was shocked to learn via its affiliate, the Zimbabwe Metalworkers’ Union (ZIMU), that during a sit-in at Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco Steel) when riot police chased thousands of striking workers from the premises with tear gas, the army began shooting at them. Two of the workers, Samuel Masivatsa and Never Daniels, were shot dead on the spot, and a third, J. Zimba, died later. At least six were injured by live ammunition.
The dispute began in July when collective bargaining negotiations between management and the Iron and Steel Workers’ Union, a ZIMU affiliate, concerning wages and benefits for the year 2001-2002, ended in deadlock. Thereupon the union filed a 14-day notice, as required by the Labour Relations Act, to take industrial action. After this two-week waiting period, a sit-in began on August 7 and the tragic shootings took place on August 8, the second day of the sit-in. It is said that the heavy-handedness of the government is due to the fact that it has an 89 per cent share in this mismanaged, loss-making company, where corruption is widespread and the general manager is a political appointee.
The Ministry of Labour finally resolved that Zisco workers should be awarded a 15 per cent cost-of-living adjustment backdated from January 2001, and workers returned to work on August 10.
The minimum monthly earnings to stay above the poverty line in Zimbabwe is Z$16,000 (US$289), however Zisco workers have been earning as little as Z$2,000 (US$36).

MEXICO: Strike action which began on August 18 at Volkswagen’s assembly plant in the central Mexican city of Puebla is continuing as management still refuses to make any reasonable offer of a wage increase to its 16,000 employees. The general secretary of the Volkswagen trade union, José Luis Rodriguez Salazar, says the union, which organises three-quarters of the workers at the plant, is demanding a pay hike of 21 per cent. The company has made no offer and government labour authorities have proposed a 5.5 per cent increase. VW workers currently earn a daily average of 272 pesos (US$29).
The chairman of the Volkswagen Group Global Works’ Council, Klaus Volkert, as well as its general secretary, Hans-Jürgen Uhl, have talked to company executives at VW’s head office in Wolfsburg, Germany, demanding that management at VW’s Mexican subsidiary make a new offer upon which an acceptable compromise can be found. Both Volkert and Uhl say it is urgent and necessary to resolve the conflict and end the strike quickly.
It is said that VW officials in Mexico are attempting to get judicial and government labour authorities to declare the strike illegal and thus force the workers back on the job.
The Puebla plant is the worldwide center for manufacture of the new VW Beetle model and also turns out Jettas and Golf convertibles. It has a daily production of 1,500 vehicles, 2,000 engines and 1,000 axle assemblies.

A few years ago the workers at Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois, USA, who were all members of the UAW, went out on a strike which lasted for more than one year. Their colleagues at Caterpillar in France, Belgium and South Africa also took strike action in support of their U.S. colleagues.
Over 20 years ago the ISTC in Britain took industrial action over their demands for British steelworkers. This strike lasted for 13 weeks during which the ISTC asked other unions in Europe, the USA and Japan to stop exporting steel to Great Britain in order to put pressure on British Steel.
The USWA in North America has conducted a number of international campaigns against TNCs with support from unions in many countries on all continents, and actions were subsequently undertaken in a number of countries in support of the USWA’s demands in the USA.
At present the South African autoworkers are on strike because the employers have refused to agree to a moderate wage increase to compensate for the rise in inflation. With negotiations still going on, the chief executive officer of DaimlerChrysler South Africa has stated that the company may shift its production back to Germany. This, of course, is nothing less than blackmail, but it did not work this time. The chairman of the Works Council at DaimlerChrysler in Germany immediately responded by saying that the workers in Germany would not accept any production transferred from South Africa because of the ongoing conflict.
This is a perfect example of international trade union solidarity in action.
Furthermore, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa has submitted a resolution to the upcoming IMF Congress in Sydney concerning the legitimacy of sympathy strikes which cross frontiers.
Solidarity across borders is the “raison d’être” of international trade unions.
How is it possible for a union in one country to go on strike in support of a legitimate struggle by people in another country?
Today there are a number of obstacles which will have to be removed.
First of all, the right to go on strike in support of unions in other countries will have to be internationally recognised. The Swedish LO has taken an international initiative aimed at achieving just this, and an appropriate Convention at the ILO must be discussed and passed. National legislation must also be adapted to make it possible for unions to declare sympathy strikes with legal actions which are taking place somewhere else. At the moment this is only possible in a few countries, notably in the Nordic countries.
Secondly, we have to be prepared so that we can quickly organise cross-border strike action wherever and whenever needed. This implies that we must be able to exchange information which is readable and understandable for the people involved.
Thirdly, we have to build up strong and efficient networks among all the unions represented in each of the transnational companies, that we will be able to coordinate internationally through the IMF and other international organisations.
This issue is extremely important and must become a central focus of our future trade union work.
Numsa’s initiative is most welcome.

GENEVA: Solidarity across borders is the “raison d’être” of international trade unions. In his opinion column published today, August 20, Marcello Malentacchi, general secretary of the International Metalworkers’ Federation, says that the central focus of future trade union work must be on how a union in one country can support a legitimate trade union struggle taking place in another country.
Although there are numerous obstables to such cross-frontier solidarity action, Malentacchi suggests ways they can be overcome. “This issue,” he says, “is extremely important.”
Read more on international trade union solidarity by accessing the IMF general secretary’s entire opinion column on the associated link.

CANADA: The United Steelworkers of America, representing 4,000 workers at Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, reports it has accepted the request of the company to enter early negotiations to amend the collective agreement, currently in effect until July 2002. With both parties agreeing that restructuring measures are necessary, the union says its objective in taking this extraordinary step is “to ensure the survival of Algoma Steel, on terms acceptable to our membership.”
The USWA insists that negotiations with the company must ensure any sacrifices made by Steelworker members be:
-equitable;
-fully recognised in the CCAA (Company Creditors Arrangement Act) Restructuring Plan;
-recoverable in the future;
-appropriate relative to contributions made by others involved in the restructuring process.
The steelmaker, which entered bankruptcy protection last April, was granted a protection order by the courts. However, as this will expire on August 24, the company plans to ask for an extension.
Employees own a 25 per cent share in Algoma Steel.