AUSTRALIA: Data in an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey, released on March 30, shows that the number of union members in Australia has increased for the first time in over a decade. Union membership grew by 23,600 in the year 2000, compared to a decrease of 208,000 in 1999.
While the data shows a slight reduction in union density to 25 per cent due to the growth in overall job numbers, there is an increase in absolute and relative union numbers in growth industries such as health, tourism and accommodation.
Another ABS survey, released on March 29, indicates that more than a third of all workers in permanent jobs in Australia are union members, and that 27 per cent of all employees say they belong to a union.
Commenting on the data, the Australian Council of Trade Unions said the rise reflected the increased focus of unions on grassroots organisation, as well as a growing concern in the community that the anti-union approach of the present conservative government and some employers was damaging the fabric of Australian society.

SPAIN: Workers at Sintel and their trade unions — the FM/CC.OO. and the MCA-UGT — are involved in a difficult struggle to safeguard wages and jobs. The company, specialised in the installation of telephone lines, has not paid wages for eight months and has threatened its workforce with mass dismissals.
Two years ago, when the Spanish national telephone company, Telephonica, was privatised, it proceeded to divest itself of a number of companies, such as the service company Sintel. When Sintel was sold to exiled Cubans living in the U.S., Telephonica failed to stipulate necessary conditions which guarantee jobs and wage protection. According to the European Metalworkers’ Federation, Sintel’s current problems are neither economic nor industrial, but based on “political and unclear financial reasons”.
The workers and the unions are now putting their demands for job protection and payment of back wages to the government and Telephonica, which they hold as co-responsible for the situation. To draw attention to their claims, the 1,800 Sintel workers have built a campsite on the main thoroughfare of Madrid — Castellana Avenue, the city’s central financial district, where 1,500 have been living in tents for the last two months. In addition, approximately 450 women, who either work at Sintel or are wives of workers, have been residing inside Madrid Cathedral for the past month. Workers are holding daily demonstrations, and the population at large is supporting them, with up to 25,000 people participating in the major demonstrations.
The EMF says that the situation the Sintel workers are experiencing “is inadmissible within the actual European Union context, with theoretically clear democratic and social rights.” The Federation has called on the Spanish government to take action and push Telefonica to find a quick and positive solution.

GENEVA: The UN’s International Labour Organisation has called on the Belarus government to stop repressing trade unions, reports ICFTU Online. The call came in the form of a report by the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association, which was adopted on March 28 by the organisation’s Governing Body.
The report accuses Belarus of “numerous and varied attacks on trade union rights” and of “regular and systematic interference in trade union activities”. These constitute blatant breaches to the ILO Conventions on freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, both of which have been ratified by Belarus.
The Governing Body’s findings will be at the centre of a two-day trade union forum to be held in Minsk on April 5 and 6. The forum is being organised by the ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities in conjunction with the Belarus trade unions and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
Read more about the trade union situation in Belarus in the IMF’s No. 4, 2000, issue of METAL WORLD.

MALAYSIA: The bargaining dispute between the Electrical Industry Workers’ Union and the Matsushita Air-Conditioning Group of Companies has still not been resolved.
As reported on this website on March 2, negotiations to conclude the 9th Collective Agreement between the union and the company came to a halt when the company called a deadlock in the talks and, with unprecedented speed, the minister of human resources referred the dispute to the Industrial Court for arbitration. The minister’s move compelled the union to stop picketing.
During the negotiations, the main issue opposed by the union had been the company’s attempt to radically alter the conditions of employment for the more than 6,000 workers. Not only did the company try to change the shift system, but it threatened to withdraw checkoff, an unprecedented tactic in the up till now positive relationship of over 20-25 years between the EIWU and MACG.
On behalf of the International Metalworkers’ Federation, its Southeast Asia regional representative, P. Arunasalam, has written to the managing director of MACG in Malaysia to express the IMF’s growing concern over the prolonged dispute. The IMF believes that “the best solution to the pending dispute is one that is negotiated” and that the company should take the initiative to reconvene negotiations with the union, without any conditions, in the hope of reaching an amicable settlement.
The IMF’s Japanese affiliate, the IMF-JC, will raise the matter again with top Matsushita management in Japan through the Matsushita union there.

USA/KOREA REP: On behalf of the 1.3 million active and retired members of the United Auto Workers, the union’s president, Stephen Yokich, and vice-president and director of the UAW General Motors Department, Richard Shoemaker, have written a letter of support to the Korean Metal Workers’ Federation in their struggle to defend the jobs of workers at Daewoo Motor Company.
The UAW officials said that the police attack on workers at the Pupyong plant was “an outrageous display of the anti-union policies of the Korean government,” and they called for the release of all those arrested during the brutal police action and in the demonstrations which followed.
Daewoo workers, they stated, were being forced to accept an unfair share of the burden imposed by the company’s financial condition. “The fact that Daewoo’s former chairman is now a fugitive indicates where the blame for the bankruptcy status should be placed.” They said the Korean government should be doing what it could to promote the interests of Daewoo workers in light of its failure to apprehend the former chairman and the deficiencies of its own oversight of Daewoo’s financial condition.
“The UAW,” declared Yokich and Shoemaker, “believes that a fair solution to Daewoo’s current problems will not be found in eliminating jobs in order to facilitate acquisition by General Motors Corporation — a step we believe would be ill-advised. A solution that preserves jobs and permits the Korean economy to grow through increasing the economic wellbeing of Korean workers would be fair to Daewoo’s workforce and beneficial to all Korean workers. The UAW stands with the KMWF in demanding that workers must receive fair treatment from their employers and their government.”

CANADA: The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, representing 1,084 employees at an Ontario factory being closed by Visteon Canada, has announced an unprecedented closure package worth $128 million (US$81.6 million, C$1 = US$0.638) or an average of $118,000 per worker. The IAM said the package is believed to be the richest in Ontario history.
Visteon, a Ford Motor Company spinoff based in Dearborn, Michigan, announced in January it would shut down its electronic components factory in Markham, north of Toronto, in stages over the next 18 months to two years. It is the largest permanent plant closure in the current round of auto industry cutbacks.
Under the ratified settlement, any employee over the age of 55 will be eligible for full pension benefits with no minimum years of service requirement. Those with 25 years of service can retire with a full pension, plus $430 per month for up to five years to bridge them to the Canada Pension Plan, and with full health-care benefits.
The agreement also expands benefits for workers whose seniority would not otherwise qualify them for full pensions. The average age at the plant is 50, with an average of 20 years of service. Employees who do not qualify for the augmented pension benefits will be entitled to severance of three weeks’ pay for each year of service.
If the plant is sold, Visteon will ensure that employees who transfer to the successor company will retain severance eligibility or be paid a $10,000 bonus.
There are various other benefits, ranging from a $400 cash signing bonus to an employee assistance programme and up to $2,000 per employee to pay for tuition and training.
Visteon, spun off by Ford last year, lost US$87 million in the fourth quarter of 2000, down from a year-earlier profit of US$95 million. The company has temporarily laid off about 6,000 workers in the United States this year.
For additional information on the Visteon plant closure, visit the IAMAW Canada website on www.iamaw.ca

Source: CP (with files from the IAMAW Canada)
Note: All dollar figures, unless specified otherwise, are in Canadian dollars.

GERMANY: During the world’s largest trade fair and computer exhibition — CeBIT — which is being held in Hannover this week, IG Metall and IMF president Klaus Zwickel announced that the German metalworkers’ union will train its 2.7 million members to use the Internet.
Together with the Fujitsu Siemens Computers company, the union has set up a programme called “D-21”. This move comprises the offer of the use of a personal computer for IG Metall members, to be installed in their homes by Fujitsu Siemens Computers, plus an on-the-spot assistance programme, free entrance to the Internet, as well as free service and training.
The PCs are assembled in the company’s factory in Sömmerda, Germany, and will cost, together with the counselling and service package, DM 1,459 (US$666) for the standard version and DM 2,159 ($985) for the advanced model.
Zwickel stated that this initiative was the response of the union and the company to a constantly increasing demand for knowledge in the use of computers in all fields of work and in private life.
IG Metall and Fujitsu Siemens Computers have also agreed to pay 10 euros (US$9) for each computer sold under this programme to subsidise Internet cafés run by young members of IG Metall.

Yesterday you received a multiple, wrongly formatted IMF NewsBriefs No. 11. We are sorry. The problem – caused by the “upgrading” of our server – is being addressed, and we are confident to have a solution next week.
Again, excuse us for the irritation our undeliberate “spam” must have caused you.
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KOREA, REP./USA: A team of Korean trade union activists is planning a visit to the headquarters of General Motors Corp. in the U.S. at the end of March or early April to protest against the auto giant’s bid to take over the ailing South Korean carmaker Daewoo Motor Co.
The group — composed of seven trade unionists from the Hyundai, Daewoo and Kia Motors trade unions, the IMF-affiliated Korean Metal Workers’ Federation, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, and a laid-off Daewoo worker — says it will seek to discourage the automaker from the takeover bid.
The Korean unions fear that GM’s acquisition of Daewoo Motor will lead to mass layoffs. “GM is dragging its feet in the takeover negotiations, making unreasonable demands,” said Cho Kun-joong, a KMWF official. “In addition, GM’s condition is not good enough to acquire Daewoo, as the automaker is reportedly closing its European factories. It should drop the takeover bid for Daewoo.”
The Korean trade union officials want to find out if GM is demanding the closure of Daewoo Motor’s main assembly line in Pupyong, which was recommended by the Arthur Andersen multinational consulting firm. The Pupyong closure would mean an additional thousands of job cuts.
Daewoo Motor, formerly Korea’s No. 2 carmaker, but now third-largest, has been surviving under court receivership since it filed for bankruptcy in November 2000, with an estimated debt of at least US$10 billion.

AUSTRALIA: The announcement on March 19 that the mining company BHP Ltd will merge with the London-based metals multinational Billiton PLC has set off a round of strikes by steelworkers and coal miners in eastern Australia. The unions and workers are greatly concerned that the proposed A$57 billion (US$28 billion) deal will result in large-scale job losses.
Although BHP claims the contrary, the national secretary of the IMF-affiliated Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, Doug Cameron, said: “I’ve never seen a takeover or a merger yet without job losses or insecurity. The government should review its industry policy and call on major resource companies to maximise Australian input to benefit the metal manufacturing sector.”
BHP has said that in order to better concentrate its activities on minerals and petroleum, it would spin off its steel business, with a workforce of 12,000, by the end of 2002, thus ending its 86-year association with steel-making.
The merger will bring together the leading producer of iron ore and coal mining – BHP – with Billiton’s dominant role in aluminium and chrome production and create the world’s second-largest mining group.