SOUTH AFRICA: Numsa, representing 70,000 garage, workshops, dealerships and components workers nationally, says workers are paying the price for the capitalist global economic crisis through short-time and temporary lay-offs and the use of labour brokers in the workplace, while facing rising costs in basic goods and services.

Unable to reach an agreement with employers after a prolonged four months of negotiations, workers went on strike on September 1, 2010. According to Numsa’s national spokesperson, Castro Ngobese, "Our strike has been taking place amidst high levels of intimidation, provocation, threats of dismissals and torture of our members… Already thousands of our members will be appearing in various courts across the country to defend their just and noble cause of fighting for a living wage."

When the union returned to the negotiation table, Numsa stood firm on three principles: there should be no downward variation on the existing industry agreement, the new agreement should not be less favourable than the current one and guaranteed wage increases must be achieved.

Negotiating parties also agreed to concrete first steps towards phasing out labour brokers in the industry and agreed to establish an industry policy forum to deal with the future viability and sustainability of the motor industry.

All outstanding substantive matters have been referred to a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) managed process with the exception of those pertaining to the fuel retailers sector.  Numsa will address poor working conditions and poverty wages in the fuel retailers sector through a tripartite structure set up to deal with these matters.

For a more detailed account of the strike and negotiations, see the statement from Numsa on the IMF website here.

JAPAN: IMF affiliate IMF-JC re-elected Koichiro Nishihara as president and Hideyuki Wakamatsu as general secretary at its 49th Annual Convention on September 7 in Tokyo. For the first time, two women representatives were elected to the Japanese Council’s executive committee.

The Convention’s 230 delegates adopted a new Action Program 2011-2012, which seeks to improve the living standards and working environment of metalworkers. The program emphasizes the need for sustainable industrial policies, cutting-edge technologies and education to revitalize the manufacturing industries as an engine for growth.

Special attention is paid on improving the conditions of precarious or non-regular workers, who account for a third of the workforce in Japan. According to government statistics, non-regular workers earn about 50 per cent of the annual income of regular workers in manufacturing industries.

The Action Program makes a strong commitment to the work of IMF and to developing links with metalworkers’ unions in the Asia-Pacific region and in other parts of the world. IMF-JC pledges to foster healthy labour-management relations in Japanese corporations abroad.

IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina addressed the Convention and held a teach-in session on on trade union networks in transnational corporations. IMF-JC decided to continue examining suitable forms of coordination of networks in selected Japanese corporations.

On September 9, the Confederation of Japanese Automobile Workers (JAW) re-elected Koichiro Nishihara as president and Yasunobu Aihara as general secretary. President Nishihara told the 580 delegates that JAW had set the target of organising 26,000 non-regular workers in the automotive industries, and stopping the growth of precarious employment.

Nishihara spoke about the need to guaranteee workers’ rights in free trade agreements. He pledged JAW’s solidarity with unions in other countries and support to solving problems in Japanese automotive companies abroad.

NORWAY: The heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), along with other leaders, called on September 13 during the Oslo Conference for a broad international commitment to a jobs-focused policy response to the global economic downturn.

"When growth is not fair, it becomes unsustainable," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia at the conference. "This has been the overriding lesson of the crisis. High levels of employment creation should be a key macroeconomic objective alongside low inflation and sustainable budgets."

Commenting on the outcome, ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow, who led a delegation of labour leaders at the conference, called on the ILO and the International Monetary Fund to follow through on the promise to work together more closely in favour of a job-centred recovery by quickly undertaking action in specific areas that were dominant topics at the conference.

"The ILO should be fully integrated into the G20’s Mutual Assessment Process, for example, such that national policies are analyzed and recommendations made for supporting progressive taxation, quality public services, expanded collective bargaining and improved workers’ protection, including respect for core labour standards.  Among other things, it is important that wage increases keep up with productivity rises, so as to stop the decline in the share of income going to labour," said Burrow.

The ILO estimates that unemployment is up by more than 30 million worldwide since 2007. The increase in unemployment in advanced economies has been particularly severe, but the crisis also has hit emerging market and developing economies.

 The International Monetary Fund and ILO agreed at the conference to work together on policy development in two specific areas:

– Explore the concept of a social protection floor for people living in poverty and in vulnerable situations, within the context of a medium- to long-term framework of sustainable macroeconomic policies and strategies for development, and

– Focus on policies to promote employment-creating growth.

The two institutions agreed to continue and deepen their cooperation in support of the G20 and its Mutual Assessment Process aimed at ensuring strong, sustained and balanced global growth. The Oslo Conference website is: http://www.osloconference2010.org/.

GLOBAL: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned in an official position statement on September 6 that industry lobbyists pushing asbestos around the world must not claim to have ILO support.

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said the ILO statement provides welcome support for the global union campaign to see a ban on asbestos worldwide and a just transition to safer, better jobs for displaced asbestos workers.

"ILO has confirmed that it wants to see the elimination of asbestos use worldwide, full stop," she said.

"Coming on the heels of calls for a global ban on asbestos use from major scientific, medical and occupational health groups, this sounds the death knoll for the deadly fibre and a fatal blow for the asbestos pushers."

The ILO statement comes at a time the asbestos industry is pressing hard for an expansion of chrysotile (white) asbestos production and sales. All forms of asbestos except for chrysotile are already prohibited worldwide.

Industry lobby group the Chrysotile Institute, which takes a lead in the global promotion of asbestos exports, routinely cites ILO documents and claims they are supportive of its case for continued asbestos use.

Concerned at the industry’s repeated misuse of ILO’s name, the Geneva-based body issued the position statement which highlights the UN agency’s commitment to "promoting the elimination of the future use of all forms of asbestos and asbestos-containing materials."

The issue has caused renewed controversy in recent months, as the Chrysotile Institute has been trying to secure government and private funds to dramatically expand asbestos production in Quebec, Canada.

Sharan Burrow said the ILO position statement could have "life-saving consequences, in reinforcing the union case for total asbestos ban."

At the ITUC’s June 2010 global congress in Vancouver, delegates agreed to press for "a total world ban on the use and commercialization of asbestos, in which regard Congress, meeting in Canada, makes a special appeal to the Canadian government to join a total world ban on asbestos."

That did not mean consigning asbestos workers to the scrap heap, however. According to Sharan Burrow, "Bringing an end to asbestos use is crucial, but only one part of the equation. That’s why ITUC is pursuing a policy of just transition, replacing damaging and deadly jobs with safer alternatives.

"We don’t want to see asbestos workers jobless, we want to see them in good, union jobs that don’t kill them. Asbestos is a dying industry – we need to consign it to history and move instead to decent, green jobs where you work, not die, for a living."

For more information see www.hazards.org at: http://www.hazards.org/greenjobs/blog/2010/09/14/ilo-sounds-the-%E2%80%98death-knoll-for-asbestos%E2%80%99/

BRAZIL: Thirteen thousand workers from carmakers in Sao Bernardo do Campo attended meetings, protests and strikes on September 13 as part of partial warning actions called by the ABC Metalworkers’ Union, affiliated to CNM/CUT, in support of their demands for a nine per cent wage increase.

The autoworkers are seeking a similar agreement as reached by 210,000 workers in other metal sectors on September 4, including a wage increase of nine per cent. With inflation running at 4.29 per cent, the nine per cent increase represented a real increase of 4.52 per cent, the largest real increase in the last ten years.

The auto workers’ protest actions shut down production from 5:15am to 10am, at various times at each factory. Over 6,000 workers at Volkswagen delayed entry to attend the meeting in the morning.

At Ford, the first shift (4,500 workers) did not enter at 6:00am, instead they waited for the arrival of the non-manual workers at 8:00am, and only came to work at 9:00am.

Already at the Mercedes-Benz plant, 2,500 employees participated in the assembly and demonstrations, which began at 5:00am and only returned to work at 10:00am.

The metalworkers in the auto sector in the industrial region known as ABC are in a state of strike since Saturday, by unanimous decision of the workers’ assembly held by the union where the companies’ offer of a seven per cent salary increase was rejected.

On Monday, at 1:00 pm, the union delivered to Sinfavea (the employers’ representative organization for the carmakers) notice of the strike action. The notice reports that after 48 hours, all 40,000 workers may go on to hold an indefinite general strike  in Sao Bernardo, Taubaté, Sao Carlos and Tatuí.

MEXICO: IMF has received reports overnight that early on the morning of September 8 approximately 600 scabs and Federal Police in plainclothes attacked the striking Mexican Miners’ Union (SNTMMSRM) members at the Cananea copper mine owned by Grupo Mexico.

The violence is reported to have begun on September 7, around 3:30 pm, when a group of about 300 people in civilian clothes came to the mine facilities and began attacking the striking Mexican Miners’ Union members with sticks and stones. The workers were guarding the No. 2 gate of the mine under the provisional suspension granted to them by the Ninth District Court on August 12, 2010 to avoid being evicted from their workplace. The striking miners retreated to shelter within the Union hall where the attacks recommenced in the early hours of September 8.

It is understood that the company was able to take control of the main gate of the mine away from the union and that police raided the union hall in Cananea, beating and arresting a large number of union members. An earlier report of a person dying in the clashes is now thought to be untrue, however several people have sustained injuries. A bus and five trucks loaded with Federal Police has since arrived in Cananea.

More than 800 workers, accompanied by their families and residents of the town, reoccupied the mine installations in August after Ninth District Judge in the State of Sonora ruled on August 12 that the three-year strike organised by the union remains valid despite the forcible removal of striking workers by federal police on June 6, 2010.

During these most recent acts of violence perpetrated against the Mexican Miners’ Union, elements of the Federal and State Security Secretariats, who remained on the premises of the mine since June 6, were present and allowed the violence against the striking miners.

Reports also indicate that on September 8 elements of the Sonora State Police illegally and arbitrarily arrested 30 striking miners of the Union.  Their whereabouts and the charges against them are unknown, confirming that they were arrested without a warrant.

The workers started to strike and occupied the Grupo Mexico mine in Cananea on July 30, 2007 protesting the company’s refusal to remedy extreme safety hazards. In February 2010, a Mexican appellate court gave the green light to the Calderón government to terminate 1,200 miners and to break the strike, effectively eliminate the right to strike in Mexico, and setting the stage for the government’s invasion of the mine on June 6, 2010.

The Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PRODESC), part of a network of organizations providing solidarity support to the Mexican Miners’ Union, including the International Metalworkers’ Federation, has sent out an urgent action appeal to write immediately asking:

1. That immediate measures be taken to ensure the safety and physical and psychological integrity of the striking miners of Section 65 of SNTMMSSRM and their families, in accordance with the highest standards of human rights;

2. That the Sonora State Police immediately present the 30 striking miners of Section 65 of SNTMMSSRM who are still being detained to the competent authority;

3. That a prompt and thorough investigation be conducted, in accordance with the highest international standards of human rights, concerning the events of September 7 and 8, 2010 in Cananea, Sonora;

4. That in terms of the international obligations assumed by the Mexican State, the striking miners of Section 65 of SNTMMSSRM and their families be guaranteed access to a rapid, easy, convenient and effective remedy for protection of their human rights; and

5. That the right of access to justice be fully guaranteed, with fairness and expeditiously.

Please send communications to:

Lic. Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa. Presidente Constitucional de la República Mexicana Residencia Oficial de los Pinos, Casa Miguel Alemán, Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850, México DF. Tel: +52 55 27891100; Fax: +52 55 50934900. E-mail: [email protected]

Secretario General de Gobernación. Lic. José Francisco Blake Mora. Bucareli 99, 1er. piso, Col. Juárez, Delegación Cuauhtémoc, México D.F., C.P. 06600, México, FAX +52 (55) 5093 34 14. Email: [email protected]

Licenciado Arturo Chávez Chávez, Procuraduría General de la República, Paseo de la Reforma nº 211-213, Piso 16, Col. Cuauhtémoc, Del. Cuauhtémoc, México D.F., C.P. 06500, Fax: +52 55 53 46 09 08; + 52 55 27 89 11 13 (si responde una voz, digan: "tono de fax, por favor"), Correo Electrónico: [email protected] / [email protected]

Lic. Javier Lozano Alarcón, Secretario de Trabajo y Previsión Social Periférico Sur No. 4271, Col. Fuentes del Pedregal, Tlalpan 14149, México D.F Conmutador 3000-2100 Correo: [email protected]

Dr. Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos Fax +52 (55) 5681 7199, [email protected]

Lic. Guillermo Padres Elias, Gobernador del Estado de Sonora, Palacio de Gobierno, Planta Alta, Dr. Paliza y Comonfort, C.P 83260 Hermosillo, Sonora. Fax: +52 662-2120001, tel: +52 662210051

Lic. Ernesto Munro Palacio, Secretario de Seguridad Pública, ROSALES Y PASEO DEL CANAL S/N A UN COSTADO DE LA PGJE, Hermosillo, Sonora. Teléfono(s): 662 259-57-01

LIC. ABEL MURRIETA GUTIERREZ Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales Zamora 169 despacho 2B Colonia Condesa, C.P. 06140, México D.F. Tel. 5212 2229 Tel. y Fax 5212 2230

Procurador General de Justicia Rosales y Paseo del Canal Módulo Norte, Planta Alta Col. Centro C.P. 83000 Hermosillo, Sonora. Lada sin Costo 01-800-000-74-53 E-mail procurador@pgjeson Teléfono(s): (662) 259-48-00 ext 14000, 259-48-03, 259-48-04

Send copies to:

Oficina de la Alta Comisionada de Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos en México, Alberto Brunori Representante de la Alta Comisionada en México Fax +52 (55) 5061 6358; [email protected]

Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos Sr. Santiago Cantón Secretario Ejecutivo de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos Fax +1 (202) 458 3992 [email protected]

Sra. Navanethem Pillay, Alta Comisionada de Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos Fax +41 22 917 9000 [email protected]

Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales A.C., Zamora 169 despacho 2-B, Colonia Condesa, C.P. 06140 México, D. F. Tel. (55) 5212-2229 Tel y fax. (55) 5212-2230 [email protected]

SWAZILAND: A peaceful pro-democracy march was disrupted by police forces in the Swaziland capital, Mbabane on September 8. The marchers tried to hand a letter to the Minister of Labour, but police disrupted the protest and arrested four activists who were released afterwards.

The trade unionists and pro-democracy supporters were meeting to plan the marches, the first of which took place in Manzini on September 7, but police forces disrupted the preparatory meeting in Manzini on September 6, arresting 50 labour and pro-democracy activists and journalists.

IMF executive committee member and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) deputy president Christine Oliver was among those arrested and deported, and Frank Mncina general secretary of Swaziland Amalgamated Trade Union (SATU) and IMF affiliate was arrested and released with a warning.

On September 7, police raided the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), confiscating pamphlets and placards that had been prepared for the demonstration and arrested and deported at least nine members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU). On the same day, the People’s United Democratic Movement President Mario Masuki was also arrested and put under house arrest.

The IMF has written to Swaziland Prime Minister Dlamini condemning the blocking of peaceful assembly and demonstrations, arrest of labour and pro-democracy activists and the police raid of the SFTU headquarters.

"The extreme action of mobilizing police forces to raid the headquarter offices of a trade union confederation, the SFTU, along with the arrests, police blocking delivery of a petition, and house arrest of prominent public figures can only by deplored by the world," writes IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina.

A copy of the IMF letter is published on the IMF website. IMF calls on its affiliates to send similar letters to Prime Minister Dlamini, copied to King Mswati.

To read a first hand account of the arrests and deportations on September 6, go to the IMF Africa news page here.

GLOBAL: A joint conference of the International Labour Organization and International Monetary Fund on "Challenges of Growth, Employment and Social Cohesion" will take place on September 13 in Oslo, Norway.

The one-day conference will bring together political, labour and business leaders, as well as leading academics. Lead speakers include President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia; Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece; Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of Spain; Finance Minister Christine Lagarde of France; U.K. Secretary of State for Labour Iain Duncan Smith; and International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and ILO Director General Juan Somavia will chair the conference.

The debates at the conference will be based on the paper assessing the outlook for employment in the wake of the global financial crisis recently released by the International Monetary Fund and the International Labour Organization, saying that the world faces major challenges in creating enough quality jobs to sustain growth and development.

The conference paper available on the ILO website is intended to promote debate, with an online discussion forum simultaneously being launched on the conference website (http://www.osloconference2010forum.org/).

"The Great Recession has created a painful legacy of unemployment," Mr. Strauss-Kahn said, "and this devastation threatens the livelihood, security, and dignity of millions of people across the world. The international community must rise to meet this challenge. Now is the time for our collective action."

"We are now seeing signs of a fragile recovery, but for millions of people and enterprises around the world the crisis is far from over," Mr Somavia said. "A jobs-centered growth strategy should be our number one priority. Otherwise, the economic recovery may take years to reach those who need it most, or it may not reach them at all. We must connect our policies with people’s legitimate aspirations for a fair chance at a decent job."

Additional information is available on the ILO website here.

SPAIN: A 28-year-old subcontracted metalworker called Aitor died after being trapped at chest level between one car and a casting piece on September 5 at the Sidenor Gerdau plant in Basauri, Spain. The operator, who had previously worked for two years in Sidenor, returned as a subcontractor to the plant in February this year.

Sidenor’s workers at Basauri, Reinosa (Cantabria), Villalba (Madrid), Barcelona, Legutiano and Azkoitia plants gathered on September 7 in a show of solidarity with the deceased worker. They demanded that the company change riskier positions in its protocol systems.

Francisco Antunez, coordinator of IMF-affiliated UGT at the Sidenor Gerdau group said through a statement that unfortunately a worker has fallen and demanded the company show "a greater commitment to ensure stable employment". The union also called for a "review and update of all security measures, especially in the jobs most at risk."

Workers and management will hold a meeting in the coming days. The committee will ask the management to improve safety systems and end the "possible existence" for a similar situation to occur again.

The committee believes that increasing the order book can create permanent employment. Sidenor Gerdau, specializing in special steel and large forgings, has three production sites in Spain, with a workforce of 2,250 employees.

The International Metalworkers’ Federation wrote to the company condemning the workplace fatality stating, "since the creation of the Gerdau Global Workers’ Committee in 2006 the IMF has repeatedly proposed to establish a global dialogue with Gerdau to take measures aimed at improving health and safety working conditions at Gerdau’s plants."

The Gerdau Global Workers’ Committee is organizing actions from September 10 at all Gerdau worksites to remember the dead. The next Gerdau Global Workers’ Committee is taking place on October 5 to 7, 2010 in Spain.

GERMANY: After expiry of the current agreement on August 31, negotiations with the steel industry employers started on September 6, 2010 in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, where IMF affiliate IG Metall put forward demands for a six per cent wage increase for 85,000 workers employed in the sector.

Setting a new benchmark in the negotiations, the union also wants the wages negotiated within the new agreement to cover all workers employed directly by the companies and indirectly through the labour agencies. The move will secure equal treatment to approximately 3,000 casual employees in the steel industry and prevent companies from using labour brokers to economise on workers’ wages.

In addition, considering the demographic situation in the country, IG Metall recommends the new agreement reduces working time for senior employees aged 60 and more.

The union believes the demands are realistic since the sector over last three months operates with 2.2 per cent higher output in comparison to previous year, clearly leaving downturn times of the economic crisis behind.

Earlier, during the two years prior to the crisis, IG Metall managed to bargain a 5.2 per cent increase for its members in the steel industry, followed by frozen wages in 2009 and a moderate two per cent increase in 2010. Now with the industry showing clear signs of recovery the union believes workers deserve an increase in their earnings.

The employers declared the industry so far does not operate at the level of pre-crisis times and argue the temporary workers are covered by their own collective agreements.

IG Metall is preparing to back their demands with industrial actions.