SOUTH AFRICA: On September 1, 2010  IMF affiliate National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA)  began a strike in the auto supplier industry. More than 50,000 workers are out on strike.

NUMSA has met with the employers and there is another meeting on September 1 to resolve the strike. "An immediate solution is not in sight because the sector is composed of conservative employers" said the NUMSA representative.

 NUMSA’s demands are as follows:

• 20 per cent wage increase across the board
• 20 RAND (2,70 US$) per hour minimum for the lowest paid worker
• Night-shift allowance of 20 per cent
• Afternoon shift allowance of 15 per cent
• Reduction of working hours to 40 hours per week without loss of pay
• Sunday work to be paid at double rate
• Six weeks paid maternity leave
• Prohibition and banning of labour brokers in the industry
• Removal of wage differentials between regions
• Four weeks severance pay without ceiling during retrenchments

Swaziland: The meeting took place in August at the end of a recent induction course for new SATU shop stewards in Manzini supported by NUMSA. The NUMSA delegation was led NUMSA second deputy president and IMF executive committee member, Comrade Christina Olivier and the SATU delegation was led by its President Comrade Elias Mabuza.

SATU has structures in place but further development is needed, especially of shop stewards, for these structures to function effectively. Under the so called ‘twining’ program, NUMSA will involve SATU in its regional activities in Mpumalanga, sharing resources and skills.

In addition to benefiting from educational programmes, SATU shop stewards will participate in an exchange programme to gain practical skills in organising. Capacity building will also be offered to SATU leadership in areas like administration and financial skills.  

Initiatives will also incorporate the exchange of experiences by both unions, as a learning tool and to foster better understanding of each other. SATU will also be able to observe NUMSA constitutional meetings and learn from the debating methods and problem solving techniques applied and NUMSA will also participate in SATU structural meetings.

The IMF will play an overall coordination role of the twining program. Whilst both unions will be working closely together, it must be noted that this is not a merger of SATU into NUMSA’s Mpumalanga regional structures. Both unions will remain independent with separate structures.

MEXICO: The Mexican Miners’ Union (SNTMMSRM) and local management reached an agreement on August 20, following violent attacks of union leaders and members at a Johnson Controls Interiors plant (Resurrección) in Puebla, Mexico which led to a four day protest strike and workers picketing outside the plant.

The agreement seeks to resolve the situation at the plant which resulted in unknown persons being given access to the Johnson Controls plant after midnight on August 16 threatening workers on the first shift and assaulting them with sticks and stones, leaving many injured.

Two of the members of the Executive Committee of the newly formed Section 308 of IMF-affiliated the Mexican Miners’ Union (SNTMMSRM), Cándido Barreucos and Vigilio Melendez, were beaten in a company office and were forced to sign letters of resignation under gunpoint.

The agreement reached on August 20 offers reinstatement to the two workers who were forced to resign, compensation to six workers who were injured and the company promises to examine the case of two of the local Johnson Controls supervisors who were present during the beating up of the two union leaders.

The Mexican Miners’ Union believes that the assailants were associated with the company-controlled "protection" union (the Confederacion de Organizaciones Sindicales, or COS) the union that was ejected after a three day strike by the workers in May of this year.  

The agreement reached on August 20 also sets out a timetable for the company to rescind the protection contract with COS by no later than August 27, 2010 such that Johnson Controls will formally recognize the Mexican Miners’ Unions as the representative of the workers.

Unions around the world, including the United Steel Workers and the United Auto Workers in the U.S. where the parent company is based, expressed outrage at the attack sending letters of protest to the company demanding the workers’ rights be recognized.

Welcoming the agreement, IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina said that while the agreement is a very positive development the IMF will continue to monitor the situation at the plant very closely.

"Given the problems the workers and their union of choice, the Mexican Miners’ Union, encountered after reaching the earlier agreement with Johnson Controls in May, IMF and metalworker unions around the world will continue to monitor this situation very closely to see that the August 27 deadline is met," said Jyrki.

"While it is right that Johnson Controls is reinstating the workers and investigating its supervisors that witnessed the attack, the IMF demands that all the perpetrators of the violence be properly investigated and prosecuted by the authorities in Mexico," he added.

"Getting rid of protection contracts and protection unions in Mexico is not an easy task given the vast scale of corruption in Mexico. However, IMF and its partners in Mexico and elsewhere will continue the struggle to ensure Mexican workers have the right to freedom of association," said Jyrki.

UKRAINE: A worker died at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Kryviy Rih on August 19 as the company and unions’ Global Joint Health and Safety Committee was meeting there. Just minutes before the fatality occurred, the committee heard about the real progress that is being made following visits by the committee to South Africa, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Romania and the Czech Republic.

This time Kryviy Rih was selected for a visit since it is one of the major sites of the group to which the committee had not paid a visit yet.  The meeting was attended by representatives of IMF, EMF and USW as well ArcelorMittal health and safety specialists from Luxemburg, Brazil, Germany, UK, Czech Republic, the U.S. and the Netherlands.  The intention of the visit was to identify areas of best practice that other sites could learn from and also to identify areas for improvement where progress can be made faster in Kryviy Rih. 

"Sadly, despite progress and a reduction in fatalities since signing the global agreement the number of workers killed or injured in the company remains unacceptable," said Rob Johnston, IMF Executive Director for Industrial and Trans National Policies.

"The global committee welcomed the opportunity to visit Kryviy Rih and to meet with the local management and unions. The overall impression is that both the local union and management are already working together to make improvements but the speed of change needs to increase. The future of the plant is not in the past but will depend in the way it adapts to the future. That means the union and management working together to develop a joint strategy that attracts the investment and technology for the future," he said.

The Global Joint Health and Safety Committee is a consequence of the Agreement signed between ArcelorMittal, IMF, EMF and USW to work together to improve health and safety within the company. The committee is composed of trade union and management representatives and it supervises the implementation of this agreement in the whole ArcelorMittal group and brings support to make progress swiftly.

Meanwhile, in Morocco three workers working for SOMRAPE subcontracted by ArcelorMittal died this week, two on August 22 and the third from the injuries he sustained in the same incident on August 24.

CZECH REPUBLIC: The International Metalworkers’ Federation and the European Metalworkers’ Federation sent a letter of solidarity on August 26 to OS KOVO and its 1,400 members facing job losses at a Delphi plant in the Czech Republic.

Delphi has announced it will close the plant in Česká Lípa, Czech Republic by May 2011, which will see all 1,400 workers out of a job. According to management, production will be transferred from the Czech Republic to Romania.

Delphi started producing auto part cables in Česká Lípa in 2003 and was one of the biggest employers in the region. The number of employees and sales gradually reduced and by 2008 there were only around 3,000 employees at the plant. Redundancies continued and today there are 1,400 employees left who are now also facing the sack by May 2011 in a region with an unemployment rate of 12 per cent and a ratio of 11 unemployed people per each available job.

In response to the announced closure a protest meeting was organized by the OS KOVO Company Trade Union Organization in Česká Lípa on August 23, where workers called for higher severance pay exceeding the legal minimum.

Negotiations with management for improved severance pay have so far been unsuccessful, and OS KOVO is calling for letters of solidarity. A copy of the IMF and EMF letter is published here.

Solidarity letters should be sent to OS KOVO International Department:

Dana Sakařová:  [email protected]

Lucie Studničná:  [email protected]

KOREA: According to the report received from the IMF affiliate Korean Metalworkers’ Union (KMWU) on August 9, 2010, following a KMWU appeal the Seoul High Court decided to reduce sentence of imprisonment for Mr. Han Sang-kyun, the former Chairman of the KMWU Ssangyong Motor Company Union from four years to three years.

Take action! Send your letter,  demand to release all jailed Ssangyong strikers immediately!

The court also freed other 21 trade unionists imprisoned under the same case. However, they are all released under three or four year stay of execution to their sentences, which in practice means they are treated like convicted criminals. If arrested during this period they will have to serve out the full term of their court sentences, inevitably resulting in severe restrictions of their union activities.

Mr. Kwon Sun-man, a KMWU vice president, will be released in October while, KMWU executive member Mr. Kim Hyuk, is still serving a 3 year sentence.

One year ago IMF reported on the 77 day strike of KMWU Ssangyong Motor members started after the company in violation of the existing collective agreement ordered mass dismissals without notifying the union. Later that year in August Ssangyong Motor management broke off negotiations and demanded riot police to storm the plant’s paint shop where workers held a sit-in strike since May 2009.

The inhumane treatment and assault on 700 autoworkers holding a sit-in strike at Ssangyong Motor has shocked the world inciting outcry from Amnesty International, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and international unions who held protests at Ssangyong dealerships and Korean embassies around the globe.

NEW ZEALAND: Thousands of workers participated in the rallies organized by the IMF affiliate Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU) on August 21 and 22. The rallies took place in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, the four main cities of New Zealand.

The rallies are part of a nationwide union campaign ‘Fairness at Work’ opposing the Government 90 day ‘fire at will’ law. According to the union the suggested changes in the labour legislation weaken workers’ rights and deprive workers from fair treatment at work. Currently the law is applied to companies with less than 20 employees and the government wants to extend the provision to all.

EPMU argues that unemployment has rocketed up to 18,000 people in the three months since the law was enacted on small and medium sized enterprises and opposes the Government suggestion to extend the law to all workers.

The union believes the security of employment and protection from unfair dismissal are a fundamental right for every worker. The current system works and offers those protections in a low cost process. Trial periods are permitted under the current system. However the proposed changes will legislate for unfair dismissal with no right of appeal or redress.

More details can be seen at ‘Fairness at Work’ campaign website.

SOUTH AFRICA: On Friday 20 August, 2010, NUMSA and AMEO signed an agreement to increase wages by 10 per cent in 2010, and nine per cent or consumer price index, whichever is the greater, in 2011 and 2012. NUMSA had been demanding a pay rise of 15 per cent across the board, compared to an earlier offer of seven per cent tabled by AMEO.

The settlement also included an agreement to stop using labour brokers by January 2011, extend medical, pension and other benefits to short-term employees, includes a 10 per cent allowance for carbon dioxide welders and spray painters at personal wage rates, and the extension of benefits to short-term contract staff.

The agreement is with the AMEO, representing all seven car manufacturing firms, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen, and also two truck and bus manufacturing companies, Nissan Diesel and MAN Truck and Bus. The impact of the eight day strike is reported in the press to have resulted in a loss of production of 17,000 cars. Workers returned to their jobs on August 23, 2010.

A copy of the Heads of Agreement signed by NUMSA and AMEO is published on the IMF website here.

CHILE: The IMF, through its Latin American and Caribbean Regional Office, has been closely following the events that have in the last few days provoked such anguish and desperation among miners and throughout the country, as rescue teams have sought to locate and rescue the miners trapped in the San José mine since a tunnel collapsed on August 5.

On Sunday, August 22, it was confirmed that the 33 workers are still alive, 700 meters below the surface.

Through its affiliates, the IMF conveyed its solidarity to the workers in the San José mine. A statement said the IMF values the way that "the Chilean government, the administration and the rescue groups have shown their humanity and solidarity by wanting to rescue the miners, have not spared any efforts to bring them out alive and are doing everything they can to try to rescue them as quickly as possible. We know that accidents of these proportions do not always result in sufficiently vigorous rescue operations and that mines are closed leaving workers trapped, as occurred on February 19, 2006 when 65 Mexican workers at the Pasta de Conchos mine owned by Grupo Mexico were trapped after an explosion that prevented the workers from leaving the mine. The bodies of those workers are still in the mine. Their families and the IMF have on many occasions called for their bodies to be recovered."

The National Council of IMF affiliates in Chile (Federación de Trabajadores del Cobre, Consfetema, Constramet y Huachipato) says the accident indicates that the authorities and the companies are not conducting enough inspections of mining installations.

The IMF says that accidents such as the one at the San José mine show the dangers of mining work, the precarious nature of working conditions and the lack of preventive safety and protection measures. Since 2007, our affiliates in Chile have increased their calls on the Chilean government to ratify the International Labour Organization Convention 176, on Safety and Health in Mines. This year, on April 28, as part of World Health and Safety at Work Day, the IMF Council in Chile once again requested the government to ratify ILO Convention 176.

The IMF does not understand why Chile, as a mining country, has not ratified the convention. It hopes that, in the context of this accident, mining companies will never again risk workers’ lives, that they take appropriate steps to make the mining industry safe, that the authorities intensify inspections and the government ratifies ILO Convention 176.

 ARGENTINA: An IMF Development Meeting on Trade Union Networks and IFAs was held on August 18-19, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to discuss how to develop this area of trade union activity.

Delegates from ASIMRA and UOM, Argentina; CNTM-FS and CMN-CUT, Brazil; SITIMM, Mexico and IG Metall, Germany attended the meeting.

Delegates shared their experiences in building trade union networks and IFAs and discussed the main problems arising from implementation in an intense debate that identified new challenges.

Delegates discussed how to build trade union networks in companies that have IFAs, decided on methods to identify the supply chains of transnational companies, nominated a contact person for each organisation (ASIMRA, UOM, CNTM, CMN, SITIMM) and decided to map the supply chains of the main transnational companies in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

The meeting appointed Manuel Campos, on assignment from IG Metall, to help build trade union networks and coordinate the activities listed above, under the supervision of IMF’s Regional Office.