SOUTH AFRICA/GERMANY: Following newspaper and radio interviews in which Christopher Kopke, chief executive officer of DaimlerChrysler South Africa, threatened a transfer of production of C-class cars to the company’s Sindelfingen and Bremen plants in Germany, the chairman of DaimlerChrysler’s General Works Council, Erich Klemm, declared that DaimlerChrysler workers in Germany and their Works Council representatives will not be willing to accept transfer of production from any plant on a legal strike.
The auto strike, organised by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and involving DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Nissan, Toyota, Delta/General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen, began on August 6 and is now well into its second week. The auto companies are still sticking to their offer of a 7.5 per cent wage hike, against the union’s proposal of 12 per cent.
In a letter to Numsa’s general secretary, Silumko Nondwangu, the chairman of the DaimlerChrysler General Works Council states categorically his condemnation of “the attempt of DaimlerChrysler South Africa to threaten a production transfer in order to influence legal collective bargaining conflicts.” In addition to refusing a production transfer, Klemm declared that they would not accept overtime either, to compensate production losses due to such a strike. “We demand,” said Klemm, “that the representatives of DaimlerChrysler South Africa use their influence to bring the employers’ delegation back to the bargaining table to reach an acceptable compromise to solve the conflict.”
The IMF has urged all its affiliated organisations, representing 23 million metalworkers worldwide, to show solidarity with the striking South African autoworkers.

SOUTH AFRICA: The auto strike organised by the IMF-affiliated National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, which began on August 6, has now entered its second week (see August 6 IMF website news item or NewsBriefs No. 27). Despite endless negotiations, the companies involved — BMW, Nissan, Toyota, Delta/General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen — are still sticking to their offer of a 7.5 per cent wage hike, against the union’s proposal of 12 per cent.

Background to Numsa demand

The union says its demand for increased wages and decent working conditions is against the background of an industry which is presently doing quite well in South Africa. Output in the motor vehicle, parts and accessories industry has risen by 13 per cent, labour productivity is up 14.3 per cent, unit labour costs fell by 11.8 per cent and exports increased by over 38 per cent.
The Numsa claim would bring the minimum monthly wage to approximately R3,658 (US$440) and is modest in that most workers in the auto industry cannot afford decent health care, housing and education for their children, plus they are supporting their extended families who are bearing the brunt of the present unemployment in South Africa. The majority of the workers in the industry are living in shacks and the wages can only cover basic amenities, while auto executives have paid themselves what they call international wages, ranging from a yearly R6 million (US$725,270) to R10 million (US$1.2 million).
Numsa says that the refusal of the auto employers to grant a decent wage is a perpetuation of the apartheid culture of over-reliance on low wages and failure to invest in human development, which has caused enormous social problems in South Africa.

How we can all help

The IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, is calling on all IMF affiliates to support our South African colleagues by acting on the following Numsa proposals:

1) Trade unions organised in the above-mentioned companies can approach management of their companies and raise their disapproval over the intransigence of the employers to settle the strike.

2) Affiliates, workers and union officials can send protest messages using the e-mail or fax of the company executives mentioned below.

3) Solidarity messages can be sent to Numsa’s head office by e-mail to: [email protected] or by fax: (27/11) 833-6330.

The e-mail messages referred to under (2) should be sent to the following:

1. Volkswagen South Africa
– Mr. Maergner, Chief Executive Officer: [email protected]
– Mr. B. Smith, Human Resources Director: [email protected]
Fax: (27/41) 994-5506, 994-5464

2. Ford Motor Company South Africa
– Mr. M. Oliveira, Chief Executive Officer: [email protected]
– Mr. D. Seiler, Human Resources Director: [email protected]
– Mr. L. Bird, Deputy Managing Director: [email protected]
– Mr. T. Kok, Plant Production Director: [email protected]
– Mr. C. Shearer, Port Elizabeth Engine Plant Director: [email protected]
Fax: (27/12) 842-3141

3. Nissan South Africa
– Mr. S. Sadao, Managing Director: [email protected]
Fax: (27/12) 529-6839

4. BMW
– Mr. Ian Robertson, Chief Executive: [email protected]
– Mr. Anthony Harfield, Human Resources Director: [email protected]
Fax: (27/12) 541-2813

5. Delta/General Motors
– Mr. W. Van Wyk, Human Resources Director: [email protected]
Fax: (27/41) 403-2927

6. DaimlerChrysler
– Mr. G. Butschek, Human Resources Director: [email protected]
Fax: (27/43) 706-2801

7. Toyota
– Mr. H. Gazendam, Human Resources Director: [email protected]
Fax: (27/11) 444-8253

SWITZERLAND: The Swiss metalworkers’ union SMUV has criticised in an open letter to the chief executive officer of ABB, Jörgen Centerman, the announcement of a massive job cut of 12,000 employees, or about 8 per cent of the company’s current workforce worldwide.
SMUV especially expressed its disgust that the announcement appeared in the media without any information or even prior consultation with the workforce of ABB, its representatives in the works councils and the trade unions, either at national or international level. Even the so-called country coordinator for ABB Switzerland was unable to provide additional information to what was published in the press.
SMUV sees this not only as a violation of Swiss and European legal provisions but also an affront to ABB employees. After having declared in several meetings his willingness for a closer and more trustful cooperation with the European Works Council, ABB’s CEO has now, in a few weeks, gambled away the confidence which could have been built up.
In addition to costs to the company of at least US$500 million, the announced job cuts are not only an expression of a policy without a concept, but also a weakening of the company’s position in the marketplace and its competitive ability. It becomes obvious, states the SMUV, that there is no basic company strategy behind the decision, only the intention to please the shareholders, stock markets and bank analysts.
SMUV is demanding that:
– the announcement of job cuts be withdrawn;
– the employees and their representative bodies and unions be immediately and fully informed of the situation;
– in future ABB accept its obligation to inform the necessary workers’ representative bodies before going public;
– the company guarantee the involvement of ABB employees, workers’ representations and unions in realising current and future ABB projects.
In closing its letter, the SMUV says the onus is now on Jörgen Centerman to build up renewed confidence and trust with ABB’s employees. Without this, the company will not thrive and only uncertainty and demotivation of the workforce will increase.

That is what some managers would like you to believe, but what they are really worried about is that you would be in a stronger position to present your case. Undoubtedly, workers and their employer have a number of things in common but their interest are not identical. When differences arise, management generally prefers to deal with isolated individuals than with employees that can count on the expertise and support of an organization that knows how to deal with employers – that way they have a built-in advantage.

In fact, there are very few strikes in well-organized sectors. Unfortunately, sometimes employers believe that they need not share the gains of productivity, or insist on restructuring a company at the employees expense. In such cases, and after consulting their members, unions may strike. But this is a last resort, because union members expect real benefits for the dues they pay, and conflicts and strikes entail risks. Whenever unions can satisfy their members wishes by rational discussion with employers they do so. The overwhelming majority of bargaining is peacefully concluded.

Well, it is true that most of the ICT industrial branches are somewhat younger than some traditional metalworking industries, but that does not mean that unions have no experience with the type of issues ICT workers are confronted with. Much of ICT hardware production has long been relatively well organized by unions.
And the types of occupations, which are so prevalent in the new ICT businesses – technicians, programmers, engineers, etc. – are also found in many parts of traditional metalworking enterprises – especially now that ICT is penetrating virtually all industrial products and processes. In many countries these workers have long been represented by trade unions, which consequently have a lot of experience in dealing with their concerns.

Basic workplace issues in offices and on the plant floor are becoming increasingly similar.

• The introduction of ICT emphasizes mental skills even in production work, and simplifies certain kinds of traditional mental work.
• Training and retraining is increasingly important.
• Enterprise restructuring is making jobs less secure and eliminates some entirely.
• Pressures to perform and stress-related injuries are increasing.
• The quality of products and services, professional ethics, and personal integrity may also come under pressure.

Such issues are experienced and dealt with somewhat differently depending on whether they arise on the shopfloor or in an office, in older electronics plants or new technology start-up companies. But no matter where they occur, the individuals concerned can use the knowledge and expertise of an organizations that has specialized in dealing with these issues.

Distribution of resources is another issue of critical concern to employees. How much salary for the CEO? Should enterprise earnings go primarily for high salaries, profit sharing, etc. or should they be invested, including in training and a healthy workplace environment. These are critical issues of enterprise strategy and personal welfare that should not be subject to unilateral management decision making.

In all of these areas, unions provide can provide advice and assistance to individuals as well as achieving solutions through collective negotiations. So, when it comes to securing wages, working condition and job-security, and to ensuring the quality of output as well as respect for the knowledge and integrity of employees, unions can provide the decisive advantage.

Some older industrial giants such as General Electric, Siemens, Philips, Matsushita, and NEC are also part of the ICT sector. Then there is a host of companies like Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies, and Nortel Networks, that are not exactly household names, but have become important infrastructure providers for telecommunications and the Internet. Finally, a whole new group of “contract manufacturers” — companies that produced components and finished goods for major original equipment makers (OEMs) — have appeared, including SCI Systems, Flextronics and Solectron. A number of OEMs now simply market many of the products (e.g. mobile telephones, computer peripherals) which are produced by “contract manufacturers”. A listing of the 50 largest companies involved in ICT, ranked by annual sales, and showing employment and market capitalization can be found below. Bear in mind that such lists reflect the companies’ status at one point in time — the financial year 2000 for almost all of the companies on the list — which means that, in the fast-changing ICT industry, developments that occurred in 2001 are not reflected.

Company	Country	Turnover 1999 year $m	Market Capital $m
General Electric	US	110,832.00	474,955.70
IBM -International Business Machines	US	81,667.00	201,014.20
Hitachi	Jap	77,232.80	54,613.60
Matsushita Electric Ind.	Jap	73,967.70	58,008.40
SONY	Jap	65,782.00	123,252.00
Siemens	Ger	62,056.30	73,734.00
Toshiba	Jap	51,320.60	25,492.80
Fujitsu	Jap	50,759.90	89,245.60
NEC Corp.	Jap	46,078.10	40,443.90
Hewlett-Packard	US	42,370.00	108,563.00
Compaq Computer	US	38,525.00	48,662.50
Lucent Technologies	US	38,303.00	237,667.90
Mitsubishi Electric	Jap	36,732.10	14,364.40
Philips	Net	31,413.60	46,511.40
Motorola	US	29,398.00	97,775.20
ABB	Swi	26,488.00	35,487.20
Intel	US	26,273.00	277,095.80
Canon	Jap	25,387.40	34,595.60
Ericsson	Swe	22,043.20	129,559.40
Alcatel	Fra	21,925.50	45,600.30
Microsoft	US	19,747.00	586,196.50
Xerox	US	19,449.00	15,319.90
Nortel Networks	Can	18,649.00	129,205.00
Dell Computer	US	18,243.00	119,600.50
Samsung Electronics	S Korea	17,892.40	40,780.20
Sharp Corp.	Jap	16,899.40	28,794.40
Electronic Data Systems	US	16,891.00	29,365.00
Emerson Electric	US	14,269.50	24,517.10
Ricoh	Jap	13,805.80	13,799.10
Nokia	Fin	13,743.50	208,077.40
Cisco Systems	US	12,154.00	348,964.50
Sun Microsystems	US	11,726.30	125,344.60
Texas Instruments	US	9,468.00	80,439.20
Oracle	US	8,827.30	151,922.40
Gateway	US	8,645.60	19,941.70
Matsushita Com. Ind.	Jap	8,627.00	49,819.90
Solectron	US	8,391.40	25,577.20
Agilent Technologies	US	8,331.00	29,634.50
Schneider Electric	Fra	7,860.70	12,662.40
Computer Sciences	US	7,660.00	15,499.30
Kyocera Corp.	Jap	7,022.20	45,142.80
NTT Data	Jap	6,875.30	63,817.90
TDK	Jap	6,547.10	19,329.20
Marconi	UK	6,202.30	45,762.90
Apple Computer	US	6,134.00	16,635.30
3Com	US	5,772.10	15,747.90
General Motors Cl H	US	5,560.30	13,209.70
Automatic Data Processing	US	5,540.10	32,773.80
Computer Associates Intl	US	5,253.00	36,989.70
First Data	US	5,117.60	19,905.70
Source: Selected from the Global FT500, May 2000.

SOUTH AFRICA: Five-thousand workers employed at Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation began strike action on August 7 following their rejection of management’s latest offer of an 8 per cent wage rise. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa is demanding the following for its members at the steelmaker:
– 15 per cent wage hike;
– 500 rand (US$61) risk allowance;
– 60 per cent subsidy for medical aid;
– 200 rand (US$24) increase in housing subsidy;
– overtime payment as per the Basic Conditions of Employment Act;
– 20 days of leave for shop stewards to attend union activities.
With production halted at Highveld, the pressure on South Africa’s second biggest steel company is great to find a way out of the impasse; however, says Numsa, “we hope this will translate into real action by putting a revised settlement package. If this is not the case, the strike will continue for an unspecified period.”
Highveld makes steel vanadium products, ferro-alloys, carbonaceous products and metal containers and closures, and produces ore from its own mine. In 2000, the company manufactured 1 million tonnes of carbon steel, compared to 5.2 million tonnes at its larger rival in South Africa, Iscor, which managed to avoid a strike only the week before when it offered wage increases above inflation.

ITALY: In a press statement issued on July 26 by the Italian metal union FIOM-CGIL, the federation describes and comments on the events which took place on Saturday, July 21, in Genoa.
To mark the conclusion of the Genoa Social Forum, which was organised on the occasion of the G-8 Summit and in which the FIOM participated, the union – along with thousands of metalworkers – joined a huge, peaceful demonstration. The FIOM said it had decided to take part in the Social Forum because:
– the different actors in the Genoa Social Forum have explicitly chosen non-violence as a fundamental principle;
– it reopens a large democratic process based on self-responsibility and collective engagement;
– it is important to be inside the process of discussion and exchange which are prioritising globalisation issues, as these issues are determining the political and social life of Italy and the entire world;
– the relationship and dialogue with this movement offers a more general exchange with the upcoming generations.
The participants in the demonstration of July 21 first witnessed peaceful protest at its highest level in a democracy which guarantees individual and collective expression. They then watched as groups used to provocate the crowd and ill-prepared security forces turned extremely violent against the peaceful demonstrators. The police did nothing either to stop the provocateurs, or to protect the peaceful demonstrators.
The FIOM points out the grave responsibility of the institutions in command of the security forces, to begin with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Chief of Police. The extreme confusion and acts of violence and abuse, with mass arrests and the suspension of individual guarantees and rights, are documented and cannot be contested, and those who are responsible must be held accountable if constitutional guarantees and the State of Law are to be protected. The peaceful demonstration on July 24, which filled the streets of Italy’s most important cities, was a clear reply from the people that they refuse any attempt to infringe on their freedoms and democracy.
The FIOM has also declared its firm commitment to the guarantee of peaceful demonstration, whether as participant or organiser. And there is no doubt, says the union, that the questions raised concerning globalisation need an international trade union dimension. It is urgent to accelerate the thought process and decisions for reform.

AUSTRALIA: The campaign to secure workers’ entitlements with a special insurance scheme in case of company collapse has received a big boost from Tristar Steering and Suspension. After two weeks of strike action at the company, the auto parts manufacturer has agreed to contribute about A$600,000 (US$307,707) over two years to protect the A$17 million (US$8.7 million) in entitlements accumulated by its 350 workers.
Tristar also agreed to a 10 per cent pay rise for its workers over the next two years, which was a 2 per cent increase on its previous offer, and workers returned to their jobs on the afternoon of August 8.
The deal was hailed as a victory by the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union and the Australian Workers’ Union, both affiliated to the IMF, and means that more than 10,000 workers laid off at the Holden, Ford and Mitsubishi plants will get back to work on August 10. Car assembly is expected to resume next week. Lost production at car plants and in the automotive parts industry has been estimated at more than A$100 million (US$51 million) over the past week.
AMWU national assistant secretary Dave Oliver remarked that while the unions did not gain acceptance of Manusafe, a union trust fund, they did lay the groundwork for a successful campaign over the trust fund. “Tristar has opted for a short-term and costly fix,” he said. “Manusafe is a less expensive and a more long-term option … and we will be pursuing that.” And AWU national secretary Bill Shorten pointed out that the deal showed the federal government that the debate over protecting workers’ entitlements was no longer about its appropriateness, “but how it should operate.”
The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sharan Burrow, congratulated the unions for achieving total protection for workers’ money and called on the government to legislate for a comprehensive, employer-funded scheme.
Source: The Age

AUSTRALIA: Australia is currently seeing a number of industrial disputes over the failure of employers and the government to protect worker entitlements. Some 350 workers at Tristar Steering and Suspension Australia have been on strike for two weeks to protect their rights to such entitlements as long-service leave and superannuation should the company collapse.
In order to secure workers’ entitlements, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union and other industry unions have set up a trust fund called Manusafe to which employers are being asked to contribute at the rate of 1.5 per cent of their payroll. If an employee leaves, the employer pays his or her entitlements and claims reimbursement from Manusafe. If an employer goes broke, the trust fund would pay employees their accumulated entitlements.
Although on August 6, 2001, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission ordered Tristar workers back on the job by today (August 7) in an attempt to keep losses from mounting in the country’s automotive industry, talks between the company and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union are still continuing in an effort to meet the workers’ demands.
The strike has shut down three of the country’s four carmakers — units of General Motors, Ford and Mitsubishi — due to shortage of steering parts for their assemblies.