COLOMBIA: In Cali, Colombia the first court date in which Gerdau will try to remove the supraseniority of Edward Portilla was held on February 15, 2011. Portilla is one of two labour leaders that oppose the closing of the Sidelpa plant and refused to resign or accept a generous severance payout. If Gerdau is successful, the company will be able to fire Portilla and will be one step closer to finalize the closing of the plant.

Meanwhile in Duitama, Colombia after Gerdau announced more than18 months ago it would  close the Duitama plant, it has now confirmed the plant will reopen. When the closure was first announced the workers took over the plant to keep it open. IMF affiliate Utrammicol and Gerdau agreed that workers will continue going to the plant until the issue was resolved; they would get paid wages but no work was to be performed. For more than 18 months these workers went to the plant, sat in the cafeteria and waited. The frustration and insecurity increased their stress to the point that was already affecting their health and family life. Last week Gerdau announced that the plant will be reopened. Details will be confirmed but the struggle of these workers has reached a successful end.

GLOBAL: Actions around the world have begun, marking the Global Days of Action for trade union rights in Mexico, February 14-19. Support the campaign now by writing to the Mexican government through the LabourStart campaign here.

Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), kicked off six days of actions in Australia at the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) National Conference today, February 15, 2011.

"The Mexican government must end its campaign of political persecution against independent and democratic unions in Mexico," said Raina, speaking to the assembly of over 500 unionists gathered in Queensland.

On February 14, an international trade union delegation met with the Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Mr. Gomez Camacho, to deliver the demands of the global campaign. Some 60 labour activists turned out.

Manfred Warda, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) General Secretary, Fernando Lopes, Assistant General Secretary of the IMF, and Adriana Rosenzvaig, SCORE Director at UNI, met inside with the Ambassador while a demonstration continued outside the Mission.

Warda said the one-hour-and-twenty-minute meeting proved that Camacho had been briefed on the manifestation’s purpose. "The only issue he was not familiar with is protection contracts in Mexico," said Warda. "We had to explain how these contracts infringe on genuine trade union rights."

Rallies and meetings with Mexican Ambassadors will be conducted simultaneously in over 30 countries this week, in a coordinated effort by unions affiliated to the ICEM, IMF, UNI Global Union, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The global actions coincide with the fifth anniversary of the deaths of 65 miners at the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster in Mexico on February 19, 2006.

In Mexico itself, unions held a press conference on February 14 and will be holding various actions across the country throughout the week to highlight the systematic abuse of trade union rights by the Mexican government.

For actions taken around the world, click here.

For campaign materials, click here.

GERMANY:  On February 8, IMF German affiliate IG Metall reached an agreement on 3.2 per cent pay rise for workers of the largest European car maker Volkswagen. The agreement is valid for 16 months from February 2011 through May 2012.

The agreement covers 100,000 VW employees in Western Germany and sets a new post crisis benchmark for other unions fighting for improvement of their members’ working and living conditions.

The initial demands from IG Metall were six per cent hike and a 12 – month contract. Last month VW offered only 2.9 percent increment in base salaries starting from June 1, plus a 300 Euro one-time payment for the period from February to May under a 23-month agreement.

In 2011 VW announced its plans of increase sales by five per cent after record 2010 deliveries of 7.14 million vehicles.

“VW tried to keep the underlying pay increase below three per cent at all costs,” IG Metall’s chief negotiator Hartmut Meine said at a press conference in Hanover, Germany. “But eventually they accepted the need to grant workers a share in VW’s good economic development.”

Last November VW announced of its plans to invest 51.6 billion Euros in the automotive business through 2015. The company aims to create 50,000 jobs globally by 2015, about 10 per cent of the new positions will appear in Germany, the second-biggest market for VW, after China.

GLOBAL: On February 19, 2006 an explosion at Grupo México’s Pasta de Conchos coal mine in the northern state of Coahuila resulted in the deaths of 65 miners.
Almost five years later, the bodies of 63 of the 65 miners that died at Pasta de Conchos remain buried and the Mexican government has failed to investigate or prosecute those responsible. Their widows and families have never been properly compensated.
Since 2006 the Mexican government has escalated its illegal and violent attacks on the Mexican Miners’ Union (SNTMMSRM/Los Mineros), the union that demanded justice for the "industrial homicide" at Pasta de Conchos and the recovery of the miners’ bodies.
The Mexican government has systematically and repeatedly violated Mexican law and international standards in an attempt to crush the Mexican Miners’ Union.
The Mexican Miners’ Union is not alone. The few other genuinely independent trade unions seeking to improve the lives of Mexican workers have also found themselves increasingly under fire.
The continued violations of the right to freedom of association by the Mexican government must stop.
The IMF, ICEM, ITF and UNI are calling on affiliates to take action from February 14 until and as close as possible to the fifth anniversary of the Pasta de Conchos tragedy on February 19.
Join us in calling on the Mexican government to:
1. Hold employer and government officials accountable for the Pasta de Conchos mine explosion that killed 65 miners on February 19, 2006.
2. Abolish systemic violations of workers’ freedom of association, including employer-dominated "protection contracts" and interference in union elections.
3. End the use of force-by the state or private parties-to repress workers’ legitimate demands for democratic unions, better wages and working conditions, and good health and safety conditions.
4. End the campaign of political persecution against the Mexican Miner’s Union and the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union.
To support these demands we ask that your union to:

· Demonstrate at and meetings with the Mexican embassy or consulate in your country to deliver a letter of protest to the Mexican government;

· Meet with and briefing politicians in your own country who  may have some influence on the Mexican government through international negotiations on trade or human rights;

· Seek meetings with investors and clients of these Mexican companies to outline the violation of fundamental rights; and

· Hold press conferences, stage media events and/or sending letters to editors to bring public awareness to the situation in Mexico.

Send details on your actions to: [email protected]
In the forthcoming weeks additional background information, leaflets, protest materials and press kits will be made available on the IMF website at: www.imfmetal.org/mexico2011

MEXICO: On the eve of global days of action demanding trade union rights in Mexico, LabourStart has launched an Act NOW campaign here where you can send a letter directly to President Caldéron demanding trade union rights in Mexico.

Calling for trade union rights in Mexico, the international trade union movement is holding various actions including rallies, meetings with Mexican ambassadors, and letter and mass email communication in at least 30 countries around the world from February 14 to 19, 2011.

The date coincides with the fifth anniversary of the deaths of 65 miners at the Pasta de Conchos mine disaster in Mexico on February 19, 2006.

Trade unions in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Korea, Kosovo, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the U.S. are calling on the Mexican government to respect trade union rights in a series of actions from February 14 to 19, 2011.

In Mexico itself, the independent trade union movement will be holding various actions across the country throughout the week to highlight the systematic abuse of trade union rights by the Mexican government.

The actions are to support independent unions including the Mexican Miners’ Union (SNTMMSRM), the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union (SME), the UNTyPP union representing workers in Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company PEMEX, the National Union of General Tyre Workers of Mexico (SNTGTM) and the Union of the Autonomous University of Mexico’s Workers (SUTUACM), as well as the Mexican Telephone Workers’ Union (STRM), Authentic Workers’ Front (FAT) and up to thirty other unions affiliated to the National Union of Workers (UNT) who have all faced violent attacks, intimidation and repression of trade union rights.

For additional information about trade union rights violations in Mexico and this Mexico campaign please see: www.imfmetal.org/mexico2011

To send a letter through the LabourStart Act Now Mexico Campaign go to: http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=863

Unions in Mexico also plan to deliver the letters gathered through LabourStart to the Mexican government as part of the actions taking place next week – so don’t delay in signing up!

JAPAN: Fortyone delegates representing the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) met on February 8-9 in Tokyo. This was the third meeting of a joint task force set up by the decision-making bodies of the three global union federations.

The task force was mandated by IMF’s Executive Committee in June 2010 to look at the political project, structures, finances, and a possible timeline for uniting 50 million workers represented by the three organizations into one global union federation.

Task force members from five continents confirmed the rationale of creating a united voice of the industrial workers of the world, and a strong counter-power to major transnational corporations. Unions want to underline the role of manufacturing industry as the locomotive of national economies and as a creator of good quality jobs with decent working conditions and trade union rights.

The task force heard the reports from the working groups on statutes and finances, and discussed in detail the decision-making, regional and sectoral structures of a possible new global union federation. The task force decided to meet again on May 5 in Frankfurt, Germany, to finalise a proposal to the Executive Committees of the three organizations.

The process will also be discussed at IMF’s regional conferences this year. If an acceptable result for the world’s metalworkers is achieved, IMF’s Central Committee on December 7-8 may decide to convene an extraordinary Congress in 2012. Similar decisions are expected from ICEM’s and ITGLWF’s decision-making bodies.

INDIA: In the light of the overwhelming evidence that chrysotile asbestos is deadly and cannot be safely used, Indian trade unionists called on the Quebec government authorities, in a meeting held on February 4 in the sidelines of Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2011, to act in an honourable manner by stopping serving the asbestos industry and put human health and human life ahead of political interests and financial profits.

Highlighting the call for an end to the use of all forms of asbestos and asbestos containing materials by international institutions namely World Health Organisation (WHO), International Social Security Association (ISSA), and International Labour Organization (ILO) and 55 countries’ worldwide ban on the use of chrysotile asbestos, trade unionists argued that Quebec government should not allow its land to be used for mining a potentially hazardous material.

In response to Quebec officials’ argument that 400 odd miners working in asbestos mines want the government to keep the mines open, trade unionists argued that it is very much possible for such a developed economy like Canada to find alternative jobs for asbestos miners to protect miners’ health as well as the well being of millions of people in Asia. During the discussions they also underscored the ironical fact that all of the asbestos produced by the Jeffrey mine would be shipped to Asia and none would be used in Quebec.

In a memorandum to Clément Gignac, Québec Minister of Economic Development, trade unionists noted unanimous, strong advice of Quebec and Canadian government medical authorities and all the other leading medical associations on the deadly nature of asbestos and zero per cent success rate in practicing "safe use" requirements.

Indian trade unionists from All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) and Global unions India office representatives from Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) and civil society representatives urged Quebec Assistant Deputy Minister Jean Seguin, Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade not to finance and reopen the Jeffrey mine and stop promoting and exporting asbestos in Asia. During the meeting Canadian authorities promised that they will convey the concerns to the government.

It is significant to note World Health Organisation’s (WHO) estimate that more than 107,000 people die worldwide each year from asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis resulting from exposure to chrysotile asbestos.

BANGLADESH: The subsequent hearing in the High Court on February 6, on the issue of fatal explosion that killed four workers and injured many in Bangladesh Shipbreaking yard on January 18, the Court directed the Chittagong Port Authority to submit an investigation report by March 6. The Court also directed the Department of Environment to submit a report on whether the ship had taken the environment clearance certificate.

On January 18, 2011, four workers died and another suffered critical burns in a huge explosion at Mak Corporation shipbreaking yard in Sitakunda, Chittagong, Bangladesh.

The High Court bench rebuked the Officer-in-Charge of Sitakunda Police Station for lodging general diary in connection with the killing of the four workers and Abul Kasem, owner of the MAC International shipbreaking yard for violation of the courts earlier ban on breaking ships. The court kept the two standing for several hours during the hearing and rejected their prayers for exemption of personal appearance.

During the earlier hearing on January 27, also the High Court kept Abul Kashem, owner of Mak International Corporation, standing in the courtroom for around five hours on charge of contempt of court. The next hearing on the issue will take place on March 6.

General Secretary of the Bangladesh Metalworkers’ Federation, Nazrul Islam Khan called upon the government to punish the culprits who are continuously violating the laws and order of the High Court. He also addressed the Trade Union Forum of Shipbreaking workers formed by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) at Chittagong.

SWEDEN: On December 13, 2010, IF Metall and Electrolux signed a new International Framework Agreement (IFA).

Linked to the Electrolux Code of Conduct, the IFA references all the ILO core labour standards including Convention 87 on freedom of association and Convention 98 on the right to bargain collectively. Implementation of and compliance with the IFA will be discussed once a year with the employee representatives of the Electrolux Board of Directors in Sweden. In addition, representatives of Swedish confederations LO and PTK will participate in the committee monitoring compliance with the IFA and the company’s code of conduct.

In addition to the IFA, the parties made a separate agreement which commits the company to not organize or finance company or ‘yellow’ unions, to not implement or support any union busting activities and to not adopt any initiatives capable of discouraging workers from forming authentic unions.

Speaking on behalf of IF Metall, Erik Andersson said that the union was particularly pleased with the separate agreement as an important complement to the IFA. He said, "with this IFA and the separate agreement, we will strengthen trade union organization at all Electrolux plants throughout the world. Now, with IMF assistance, we will proceed to build union networks."

MEXICO. In a further step of international solidarity with Johnson Controls workers in Mexico, the International Metalworkers’ Federation joined with the Mexican social rights group ProDESC and the AFL-CIO in writing to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, requesting it urgently demand and ensure that that the Mexican authorities conduct an unbiased and thorough investigation into recent attacks on the Centre for Workers Support (CAT).

In the letter to the Commission, published here, the IMF also called for a system of protective and precautionary security for all employees of CAT. The Executive Director and several members of the Center for Worker Support (CAT), an organization that has been assisting in the organizing of workers at Johnson Controls in Puebla, Mexico, received threats on their life and security on January 14, 2011, following a series of earlier threats.

In response, IMF and its affiliates the Mexican Miners’ Union (SNTMMSRM), Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), United Steelworkers (USW), United Auto Workers (UAW) sent a letter to the U.S. Vice President of Johnson Controls Inc on January 28, 2011 demanding the company also take action and put pressure on local government officials in Puebla to investigate the attacks and provide protection for those receiving death threats.

A global network of unions with membership in Johnson Controls is regularly meeting and looking at way to extend solidarity to the workers in Mexico. These unions are also actively supporting the global days of action demanding trade union rights in Mexico from February 14 to 19 and have produced a flyer for this occasion.