FINLAND: Three union organizations in Finland, the Metalworkers’ Union, the white collar workers’ union Pro and the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN, representing some 250,000 wage and salary earners in the metal industry, have agreed on common goals and pledged to act in unison during this current round of collective bargaining. It is the first time that the separate employee groups are combining forces in this way.

The unions aim for a one and a half year agreement with a two-stage pay rise. The first would mean an increase of 0.67 Euro per hour or 110 Euro per month. For employees in the higher pay bracket the rise would be at least 4 per cent.

The second pay rise would boost wages and salaries by 0.34 Euro per hour or 60 euro per month – an increase of 2 per cent at least.

"We seek common negotiation strength without talking about a union merger," says Riku Aalto, President of the Metalworkers’ Union.  "In case no negotiation result is reached the unions are prepared to defend their goals through joint actions."

This kind of cooperation during collective bargaining negotiations is a first for the unions involved. The quantitative and qualitative negotiation goals have been jointly prepared, and the administrative bodies of all the three unions have discussed the goals. Each union will individually negotiate their respective collective agreements.

The organizations have agreed to stick together in the event that they need to adjust their demands. Common qualitative demands concern more vacation time or time off for employees near retirement. All three organizations also have their own more specific proposals and demands.

In recent months, the employer association, the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries, has warned of companies facing serious economic difficulties in the near future. However, the trade union organizations consider the competitiveness of the metal industries good at the moment.

UNITED KINGDOM: Members of IMF UK affiliate Unite and the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working in Fujitsu agreed to take joint 24-hour strike action on September 19 in UK sites of the company.

The industrial action was announced after failure of the Fujitsu management to fulfil its previous pay agreements and a continued attack on union representatives. Attempts to resolve the disputes in Crewe and Manchester by negotiation have not been successful. The company is refusing to implement its commitments on pensions agreed last year in mediation and, despite the workers meeting or exceeding performance targets, is refusing to budge from its pay offer of between 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent – an offer which will do little to ease the financial burden on staff. It is also refusing to commit to adhering to an earlier agreement on redundancy and redeployment in respect of consultation and selection.

The company is at the same time undermining the unions by victimizing union representatives. Alan Jenney, a Unite representative who has worked for Fujitsu for 17 years, was dismissed without notice on July 11, in breach of his contract.

According to Unite, there are many other areas where the company is not willing to commit to honouring its agreements. These include consulting before taking decisions affecting employees and refraining from imposing decisions while negotiations are ongoing. Members of Unite voted by 85.6% for industrial action short of strike and by 56.4% for strike action. Unite has consistently sought to avoid the use of industrial action by utilising conciliation services, but the company’s reluctance to make any progress in negotiations forces the union to take this last resort.

RUSSIA: On August 27-28 the IMF and the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW) held a workshop for union activists from GM, Ford, Nissan, Faurecia, Toyota, Jura Corp. operations in Saint-Petersburg and the surrounding area.

Union building and daily union work was discussed, as well as the cases of employer pressure and strategies of recruiting new members.

The participants agreed that a union is first and foremost a group of people who choose to stand up for the oppressed, decide for themselves, defend each other. The strongest motivation for joining the union is the personal experience of collective workplace action. Thus the main question is, what kind of collective action the workers are ready for here and now.

Specific problems at various plants were also discussed, such as the changes in work schedule, shift to hourly rates, worsening of work and life conditions of workers.

Since February 2011 the IMF and the CAW have supported ITUA organizing efforts at a number of plants in Saint-Petersburg and the surrounding area, including Nissan, General Motors, Nokian Tires, Hyundai и Faurecia, aimed at establishing sufficient membership level for collective bargaining and signing CBAs to protect workers’ interests.

INDIA: Striking workers are calling for early settlement of the conflict at the car manufacturing plant MSIL. They also sought the regularisation of casual workers who have worked for more than four years, and increments. Suzuki Powertrain employs over 3,000 workers at its Manesar plant, where it manufactures diesel engines and transmissions for supply to MSI. Suzuki Castings has about 1,000 workers. Suzuki Motorcycles India employs 2,000 workers at its plant.

On September 13 the MSIL management announced that it hired around 100 permanent employees in a bid to replace those who refused to sign the good conduct bond. The company maintains its adamant position that it will not enter into any dialogue with workers. Workers have to sign the good conduct bond and only then they will be allowed inside the company premises. MSIL is continuing to recruit workers.  On the same day the company dismissed five more workers on charges of attack on three supervisors and a worker. It takes the total number of dismissed workers to 28 and 34 suspended.

On September 12 around 2500 MSIL workers and 50 students from the Jawaharlal Nehru University held a rally at the Haryana Governments Mini-secretariat at Gurgaon. They met Mr. V.K. Hooda, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Haryana and submitted their demands. Workers are willing to return to work if the following demands are met;

• Withdrawal of the ‘good conduct bond’
• Reinstatement of all dismissed and suspended workers and withdrawal of all  charge sheets
• Acceptance of the new union

In a related development on September 13, workers at the Manesar plant of auto component-maker Munjal Showa Ltd, too, resorted to strike, demanding regularisation of casual workers after five years of training and certain welfare measures. An agreement between the workers and management was reached on the evening of the same day.

GERMANY: The agreement covers 2,500 workers at factories of Bosch Solar Energy AC, Bosch Solar Wafers GmbH, and Bosch Solar Thin Film in the cities of Erfurt and Arnstadt. IG Metal Hesse and Thuringia Region representatives used the effective date of the three-year agreement to distribute leaflets to workers at other solar product manufacturers in central and eastern Germany highlighting details of the Bosch accord.

Those companies include Q-cells, Conergy, and Solon, to name just a few. It is the union’s hope that the Bosch accord will spur a national collective agreement in the solar manufacturing industry, a sector now encompassing 130,000 German workers.

Labour agreements in renewable energy industries, said IG Metall Regional Secretary Armin Schild, have been "a no man’s land. This agreement hopefully will become the standard throughout the industry."

Based on the union’s metal sector agreement, this first contract contains a bounty of benefits for workers of the three Bosch subsidiaries. Although it contains no set wage increases over the three years, workers will see their pay increase with regular bonuses, performance-based bonuses, and additional compensation for holiday and night-shift work.

The work week will be reduced with full pay from 40 to 38 hours in increments over the three-year term, and overtime work will either be paid in full or employees have the option to convert that overtime to paid time off. And apprentices completing training are assured of at least a one-year fixed-term period of employment.

The three Bosch worksites are relatively new in Thuringia, with Bosch Solar only opening the massive cell and panel plant in Arnstadt a year ago. The agreement is a trendsetting pact within Germany’s former eastern states and IG Metall deserves high accolades for achieving this milestone.

This ICEM release is also available on the ICEM Web-site: (http://www.icem.org)

BRAZIL: During the Communicators’ Forum organised by the IMF for Latin American and Caribbean affiliates, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, delegates visited TVT, a workers’ television channel.
TVT is the first trade union television channel in Brazil. It is an initiative of the union’s Society, Communication, Culture and Work Foundation (SCCT). The union is affiliated to the Confederación Nacional de Metalúrgicos, CNM-CUT.
The then president,  Lula da Silva, signed a decree granting the channel a licence in October 2009.
SCCT’s president, Valter Sanches, said that TVT’s role is to counteract the power of the media in Brazil, which does not give space to trade unions. TVT is a space for the country’s social movements, said Sanches.
He added that it is important to democratise information and give social movements and ordinary people the opportunity to express themselves. We should "give space to those who don’t have space in the traditional media", he said. 
The TVT team showed delegates round the installations, including the recording studios and the press room. Delegates congratulated the local union on the initiative.

Preparations begin the day before with a run through on some of the scenarios that may happen when the group arrives at the plant. The main message is that things can turn nasty and it’s important that everyone respects the law, avoids a conflict and has contact numbers in case of a problem. It’s a pretty large group of around 50 so no-one is quite sure how the company will react.

The following morning at 4:15am as we gather outside the hotel, it is pretty dark and cold but everywhere you look you can see the yellow USW logo being worn.  The plants about a 30 minute drive in Cranberry, and we gather in a car park behind the plant. The plan is for a few Alcoa employees that are already USW members at other sites to go first and then the rest of the group after. Legally the Alcoa employees should have the right to access the car park but it is not clear this will be the case. When we arrive security is already present along with the plant manager and others.

The management will not allow access to the car park so we stand around the outside the plant and leaflet the morning shift. One manager is intent on forcing us to stand on the public highway despite the heavy traffic passing by-he keeps saying if we put one foot on the company property he will call the police. A stand-off between us and security continues for a couple of hours as we hand out materials to as many workers as possible. One female worker walks over and explains that it is her last day.  She says there is a real buzz in the plant about the union being there but workers are afraid to be seen talking with us-she takes a hand- full of leaflets back with her. Once the shift change is over we return to the USW Headquarters but this will be the first off many visits for USW activists.

Liam O’Brien National Organizer at the Australian Workers Union, who participated at the Alcoa Global Unions meeting, explains "Union growth is the most important strategy in Alcoa, building density and visibility is our priority".

GLOBAL: The four-year renewal was made through a ceremony held September 6 in the Belgian capital with Umicore’s Marc Grynberg, Chief Executive Officer and Ignace de Ruijter, Senior Vice-President Human Resources as well as IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina and ICEM’s Kemal Özkan, Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs on behalf of General Secretary Manfred Warda. The agreement was also re-affirmed by the Belgian trade unions. 

The agreement covers six major chapters, namely Human Rights, Working Conditions, Environment, Implementation of Agreement, Monitoring, and Validity of Agreement. Under Human Rights, Umicore pledges to adhere to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, as well as adherence to ILO core labour standards. The latter specifically includes ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, and other Conventions regarding child labour, forced labour, and non-discrimination and equal opportunities practices. With the renewal, the parties re-confirmed their political decisiveness over their global level commitments within the framework of the agreement.

“We believe that this agreement offers benefits for all stakeholders. All parties have benefited from the constructive relationship fostered by the original agreement and we look forward to this continuing in the coming years” said IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina speaking on behalf of both global union federations.

“We are so proud of this international agreement with IMF and ICEM. This gives a big value in our policies towards the issues of sustainable development” said Umicore’s CEO Marc Grynberg. “This agreement supports Umicore’s global vision on social issues and reflects our diversity and international presence. It will help us in our journey towards sustainability and in being considered a great place to work” said Umicore’s Senior Vice-President for Human Resources, Ignace de Ruijter.

BRAZIL: An important debate on the role of communications in trade union activity was held at the Communicators’ Forum organised by the IMF, 8-9 September, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The meeting was attended by Jorge Almeida, IMF Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, Monica Veloso, President of the Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores Metalúrgicos (CNTM-FS), and Valter Sanches, of the Confederación Nacional Metalúrgicos (CNM-CUT), both affiliated to the IMF.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the communications departments of affiliates in Brazil as well as representatives of IMF affiliates in other Latin American countries: Asimra (Argentina), Fetramecol and Utrammicol (Colombia), FTC (Chile), Fenamepsicop (Peru) and Mexico.

Delegates reported on the information and communications work of their unions and IMF representatives outlined the federation’s current channels of communication and plans for the new global union federation in this area.
Valter Sanches opened the meeting by saying it was important for workers to have their own media, because national media is dominated by the elite, the government and employers. "The dominant media are like opposition parties to us", he said. Mónica Veloso said that unions must realise the potential of communications and "strengthen strategies, struggles and the communications media of each affiliate."

Delegates agreed the forum’s meetings were important for rising to the challenge of making their leaders aware of the importance of communications and their role in trade union action. Delegates also decided to establish a network to facilitate the exchange of information and to promote the use of communications in trade union action.

On the second day of the forum, a delegation visited a workers’ television channel (TVT) in Sao Bernardo do Campo. The TVT team showed delegates round the installations and studios and explained the way the channel works.

The IMF’s assessment is that the Communicators’ Forum promoted an enriching and professional debate, which opened further channels of communication and awakened union leaders’ interest in communications and information work. The IMF hopes that this will help to reduce the gap that exists between unions in the region regarding the use of the media and the way in which they communicate with their members.

SWAZILAND:  Actions from September 5^th to 9^th were held in several countries organised by labour and civil society expressing solidarity during the week. Their actions raised awareness of the plight of Swazi people that have suffered under years of political oppression with curbed rights, exacerbated by the increasingly desperate economic situation in the country.

In Swaziland, one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies, protests this week have been a resounding success with thousands of Swazi people taking to the streets in urban and rural centres throughout the small African nation.

Dispersing people to prevent protests forming in urban centres across Swaziland during the global week of action, proved more challenging for police than in the past. It seems that the Swazi people have overcome their fears of state reprisal, openly talking about democracy and coming out in great numbers to call for change.

The Swazi government’s reaction to the actions were not cowed by rising dissent in Swaziland or increasing condemnation by civil society in the international community. Police brutality has been rampant throughout the week, with reports of  beatings as well as the use of tear gas and rubber bullets and live ammunition, resulting in many injuries.

At least two South African trade unionists that had come to offer solidarity were deported, the Deputy President of the Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU), Zingiswa Losi, and COSATU Deputy International Secretary, Zanele Matebula. Losi was addressing a crowd in Siteki and was forcibly removed by police, detained and deported, whilst peaceful protestors at the action were subjected to beatings, tear gas and rubber bullets.

The global week of action was widely supported by labour in South Africa. Fuelling the support is the controversial South African loan to Swaziland of  R2.4 billion (about E240 million)  to bail out the Swazi government, which COSATU Secretary General, Zwelinzima Vavi, has called a mistake.

Whilst South Africa insists that the loan is meant to enable Swaziland to keep afloat and provide essential services such as health care and schooling, Swazi Finance Minister is reported to have said that R1 billion will be used to continue building a second international airport, an unnecessary vanity project with great saga and intrigue regarding corrupt tender deals. According to the Finance Minister only about R500 million would go to addressing social needs. There are also allegations that King Mswati will receive a huge commission for brokering the deal.

The loan has been met with much criticism. Some critics say that South Africa is acting in its own self interest as the economic collapse of Swaziland will result in a flood of refugees as experienced with Zimbabwe. Others have said that South Africa should be addressing its social needs and is not in a position to prioritise such a loan.

The South African Minister of Finance insists that the loan will be paid back, as instalments will be deducted from Southern African Customs Union (SACU) revenue paid quarterly by the South African Reserve Bank to the Swazi government.  Yet at the heart of the crisis in Swaziland is the drastic reduction in SACU revenue, in the past the Swazi government’s main source of income, which reduced by 60% last year and is expected to drop even more in the years to come. No doubt repayment of the loan will add further pressure to the economic situation in the long term.

The Swazi government has been out, hat in hand, to beg for loans which democracy campaigners are opposed to insisting that there should be no bailout until the Swazi government commits to political reform. Swaziland’s economic woes are rooted in a political crisis. Problems include chronic instability as a result of the illegitimacy of the ruling regime, poor political governance, the absence of any planning or accountability, poor economic monitoring and management and the institutionalisation of a cancerous corruption and parasitism. Without a radical rethink of priorities, and changes in how the economy is managed, social service delivery, desperately needed by the poor majority, will be virtually non-existent in the coming years.

Loans have been drafted by the World Bank and the African Development Bank that will prop up the country but the International Monetary Fund has been unable to provide the green light for these loans as insufficient progress has been made to their largely neoliberal reform requirements. Included in policy prescriptions is a requirement to drastically reduce public sector employment as the International Monetary Fund says that Swaziland cannot afford the wage bill and pension pay outs, requiring 7000 civil servant jobs to be shed and those remaining to take a pay cut. This has been met with much resistance from labour as it would see workers bearing the brunt of the country’s economic woes.

The International Monetary Fund reports that Swaziland has one of the largest in wage bills in Sub Saharan Africa but fails to rationalise this. As a small, poor country with the highest HIV prevalence in the world and a large number of orphaned and vulnerable children, one would expect that the wage bill would be disproportionately larger than that of a larger, even slightly better of country in the region. Public sector employment is vital to the survival of the Swazi people, in a country that has a high income dependency ratio and unemployment rate of over 40 percent.

The International Monetary Fund and other financial institutions fail to recognise that Swaziland is experiencing a revenue crisis not a spending one, despite the insatiable appetite of the Swazi royal elite for a lavish lifestyle and the government’s penchant for irresponsible vanity projects, which these institutions seem prepared to overlook anyway. The civil servants wage bill is proving to be a soft target for calls on the Swaziland government to reduce spending.

Civil servants are under attack. The International Monetary Fund call for reduction in the wage bill, through proposed salary cuts and forced early retirements, is mirrored as a key component of a pending US$80 million African Development Bank loan for budgetary support. The World Bank’s economist Jean van Houtt, before his visit to Swaziland in May 2011 targeted the wage bill saying that the government is now in a position where it will have to take "unilateral action" to force salary cuts.

Van Houtt is widely quoted as saying "We have said (to the Swazi government) if you need a little time to get your house in order you can re-peg at a different level", advice which is irresponsible and short sighted.  Swaziland’s currency, the lilangeni, is pegged at one-to-one with the South African rand. Devaluing the currency will erode real wages and further impoverish the Swazi people, more than 70% of which live on less than two dollars a day. Swaziland is heavily dependent on imported goods and devaluation of the currency will swiftly have a hyperinflationary effect with rising food and fuel costs. One of the conditions of the South African loan is that the Swazi currency remains pegged to the rand.  

In the meantime, the World Bank has already approved a US$26.9 million loan in January 2011 to shore up local government, run under the undemocratic and repressive Tinkhundla. The dismantling of the Tinhundla system is a key campaign demand, promoted in this week’s actions. In March 2011, the World Bank approved another, more palatable loan of US$20 million for the health sector, HIV/AIDS and TB, bolstered by an additional loan of US$19 million from the EU Commission.

Peddling neoliberalism in the bailouts for the feudalistic Swazi regime will stifle a much needed developmental agenda in Swaziland. International institutions and agencies and the South African government are perpetuating poor governance by offering loans to keep the country afloat in the short term with no long term plans in place to address the countries revenue crisis.   Long term proposals promote privatisation that will sell off revenue generating state assets, further impoverishing the nation. The bailouts will shackle future generations of the working class and the poor in Swaziland to chronic indebtedness and disable the future democratic government from meeting the developmental needs of the Swazi people.