MALAYSIA: Four newly formed electronics unions in Malaysia met with IMF representatives on July 21 to develop a strategy to assist in organizing and build strong unions in this largely unorganised sector.

The Malaysian government banned the formation of any national unions in the electronics sector nearly four decades ago. It was in 1974 when IMF affiliate, the Electrical Industry Workers’ Union, attempted to organise an American electronics company called Monsanto Electronics and this attempt failed not due to the workers rejecting the union but due to the company’s threat of shifting production to other locations and the government succumbing to such threats. Since this time a ban on formation of unions in the electronics sector was imposed on the workers and ran a course of almost four decades. The IMF together with the Malaysian affiliates mounted several campaigns against the Malaysian government since then but did not succeed in lifting this ban.

In mid 2009 the Malaysian government allowed the formation of regional unions in the electronics sector thus allowing more than 250,000 workers from this sector to be unionized.  Arising from this four regional unions and one union to cater for the executive staff in electronics companies have been formed. Three of the four regional unions were registered and one is pending registration. 

At the meeting IMF Assistant General Secretary Fernando Lopes stressed the importance of organizing the workers in this sector. Lopes said that workers in this sector need to be protected and it could only be done through the union. He also assured the participants of IMF assistance in organizing and union capacity building so that these unions could play an active and meaningful role in representing these workers who are often exploited.

Bruno Perieira, General Secretary of the Electronics Industry Employees’ Union (Western Region) highlighted the plight and suffering of the workers in this industrial sector and sort active IMF involvement to organize the workers. He also highlighted that many TNCs in this sector are rushing to form company controlled in-house unions so as to obstruct organsing by the four newly-formed regional unions. This view was also shared by all the other regional unions.

IMF Regional Representative Arunasalam said that this is a new opening and certainly the IMF will work with the regional unions in collaboration with the Malaysian IMF affiliates and the MTUC to ensure that the workers are organised. He also assured the unions of IMF support if companies resort to union busting.

PAKISTAN: Shipbreaking workers Karam Hussain and Sadam Hussain were killed in an industrial accident on July 30 at shipbreaking yard no. 86 in Gadani, Pakistan. Six workers were also severely burnt. No ambulances were available to take the victims to the hospital, so workers arranged for a loading truck.

A demonstration was organized on August 1 by the Democratic Workers’ Union affiliated to the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) of Pakistan. A large number of workers from different yards in Gadani attended the demonstration, carrying red flags, banners and placards with slogans in support of their demands.

The union’s demands include:

• Compensation to the families of the deceased and injured workers
• Social security
• Locating hospitals nearby shipbreaking yards
• Availability of an ambulance around the clock
• Safe working conditions
• Provision of drinking water
• Canteen
• Right to form a union
• Appealing to the chief of justice to intervene for curbing lawlessness at the shipbreaking yards.

Bashir Mehoodani, President of the Shipbreaking Democratic Workers’ Union, Nasir Mansoor, Deputy General Secretary, NTUF, Mukhtiar Raho, General Secretary, Labour Party, Pakistan and Mohammed Rafiq of NTUF addressed the demonstration. The leaders said that since the beginning of 2010 there have been 20 deaths in the shipbreaking yards and 300 injuries, but not a single case has been registered with the police because of the close relationship between ship owners and the authorities.

SOUTH KOREA: The Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) signed a new wage agreement with Hyundai Motor’s management on July 28, which includes a 4.87 per cent increase on base wages.

The signing ceremony was held after 58.14 per cent of the 45,000 members voted on July 23 to accept the deal. The agreement includes:

• 79,000 KRW (US$66.80) or 4.87 per cent increase in basic pay for next year
• Bonus payments of 5 million KRW and 300 per cent of the monthly salary
• 30 Hyundai Motor shares per employee

The agreement was reached in Ulsan at the company’s largest plant located 414 kilometers south of Seoul. Hyundai Motor is the largest automaker in South Korea.

INDONESIA: Thousands of workers led by the Social Security Revision Committee (SSRC), which is organized by a coalition of Indonesian unions, took to the streets in Jakarta on July 29 and demonstrated in front of Indonesia’s Parliament House demanding revision of the social security system and health insurance.

The noisy flag, placard and banner waving demonstrators chanted slogans, sang solidarity songs and made speeches from atop a lorry to attract the attention of legislators who were meeting in Parliament. Under the watchful eyes of the police and security personnel and under the burning sun the workers fearlessly continued the demonstration that began at 9am.

The demand of union movement is to revise the present social security system, which is state controlled and enterprise based. The Social Security Revision Committee was formed by the union movement in Indonesia and is headed by Said Iqbal who is also the President of IMF affiliate the Federasi Serikat Pekerja Metal Indonesia (FSPMI).

According to Iqbal, the Indonesian trade union movement is pushing for the revision of the entire social security system and funds collected from workers and employers should be held by a trust body and not by state controlled companies. The present system, called Jamsostek, covers only a limited segment of the workforce. Workers are short changed and when they retire as they are left with very minimal amount of funds. He said that it is better to have a pension system that covers the entire formal sector workforce. In addition they are also demanding health insurance coverage for the whole population.

According to Iqbal, this is the third consecutive day the workers are demonstrating. In the morning of the protest on July 29 a strong memorandum was handed over to parliament.

Outside the parliament gate a scuffle broke out between security forces and the demonstrators when the workers burnt tires and set a bonfire. However, timely intervention by the FSPMI leaders saved the day and arrest of the demonstrators was prevented.

Previously, the SSRC also filed court cases against the Indonesian President and four senior Ministers on the social security matter. Twice the case was called up for hearing, however only the Ministers turned up and not the President. On August 2, 2010 the court will resume hearing and it is expected that the Indonesian President will appear in the court. "This would certainly be an historic event," said Iqbal.

SOUTH KOREA: In a major victory for precarious workers and the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, the country’s Supreme Court ruled on July 22 in favour of Mr Choi a worker at Hyundai Motors, who was dismissed in February 2005 for union-related activities while working for an in-house subcontractor at Hyundai’s Ulsan factory since 2002.

The Supreme Court ruled that Choi was not a subcontracted worker but an illegal dispatch worker who must be regarded as a directly employed worker by Hyundai the day after he worked more than two consecutive years at the plant.

Choi filed an application for remedy to the Labor Relations Commission (LRC) and an administrative lawsuit when he was fired in 2005. He insisted that it was an unfair dismissal and that Hyundai Motors, instead of the subcontracting company, was the real employer. However, the LRC and lower courts ruled against his argument that in-house subcontracting is in fact dispatch labour. In addition, the lower courts ruled, the Dispatch Worker Act cannot apply to Choi since dispatch work was prohibited in the manufacturing industry in 2005.

However, the Supreme Court ruled that he was a worker illegally dispatched to the Hyundai Motors rather than a subcontracted worker in that he was under the direct human resource management of Hyundai Motors after being employed by one of its subcontracting companies. In addition, it ruled again, illegal dispatch work should be under the application of the clause of the assumed ‘direct employment’ to serve the purpose of the Dispatch Worker Act. So, the Supreme Court sent back the case to the lower court to retry the lawsuit filed by Choi based on the judgment of the Supreme Court.

This decision on the status of an illegal dispatch worker has broad ramifications in South Korea where companies in the manufacturing sector routinely use in-house subcontractors to create a false employer. In these cases of illegal dispatch, the so-called "subcontracted" or irregular workers work inside the principal employers’ facilities alongside the permanent, regular employees of the principle employer, using the expendable materials, tools and machinery belonging to the principal employer, under the instruction and subordination of the principal employer to produce products sold by the principal employer but are paid less than 50 to 60 per cent of the wages of direct employees.

At a press conference on July 26, the Korean Metal Workers’ Federation welcomed the court’s decision and announced, "The ruling puts a brake on discrimination and extortion by employers of irregular workers."

KMWU also stated that it will request all the employers currently hiring illegal dispatch workers, including Hyundai Motors, to a special round of collective bargaining and will proceed with a series of class action lawsuits in defence of the rights of other illegally dismissed workers.

The use of disguised employment relationships at Hyundai and elsewhere is also the subject of a complaint before the Committee on Freedom of Association of the International Labour Organization, lodged in 2006 by the KMWU, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the IMF.

The complaint is against the Korean government for neglecting to protect and facilitating violation of irregular workers’ rights to freedom of association, collective bargaining and collective action, in breach of ILO Conventions 87 and 98. The complaint, case number 2602, details a series of violations at Hyundai Motors plants in Ulsan, Asan and Jeonju and at Hynix/Magnachip, Kiryung Electronics and KM&I.

In its reports on the complaint, released in November 2009 and July 2008, the ILO calls on the Korean government to implement real labour law reform to remove barriers for precarious workers seeking to join a union or collectively bargain.

The IMF will continue to support KMWU in exerting pressure upon the Korean government on outstanding issues of labour law reform and to bring the country’s labour laws inline with international standards.

MEXICO:  The Mexican Miners and Metal Workers’ Union (SNTMMRM – Mexican Miners’ Union) and the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union (SME) met this week for the first time in an effort to form a strong trade union front in Mexico, starting with sending a caravan to Cananea tomorrow in solidarity with the third anniversary of the mineworkers’ strike that began on July 30, 2007.

The trade union front also includes a broad alliance of other independent trade unions, the families and widows of the deceased workers at the Pasta de Conchos mine and the mothers and fathers of the Guardería ABC in Sonora, Mexico.

Following the Mexican presidential election in 2006 of Felipe Calderón, the attack on workers’ rights in Mexico has escalated sharply, especially against independent unions that have taken a strong stand against its attempts to pursue the neo-liberal policies of privatization and labor law reform such as the Mexican Miners’ Union and SME.

In October 2009, President Calderón ordered 6,000 federal police to seize the power plants operated by members of the SME, while simultaneously liquidating the second largest state-owned Light and Power Company (Luz y Fuerza del Centro), and firing a workforce of around 44,000 employees. Five days earlier, the government refused to accord legal recognition to the democratically elected president of SME, Martín Esparza, although this should have been a routine matter.

In what appears to be a breakthrough, the SME lifted its hunger strike on July 23 after they agreed with the Interior Ministry to hold high level talks, which commenced on July 26. This followed a court ruling earlier in the month that while the government had the right to liquidate the company the SME is the legitimate representative of the workers and it may continue to represent those workers before government courts, labour boards and other agencies

In 2007, IMF affiliate the Mexican Miners’ Union launched a strike and occupied the Grupo Mexico mine in Cananea to protest 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 three-year old strike at Grupo Mexico’s Cananea mine. The court’s decision threatens to effectively eliminate the right to strike in Mexico. It also set the stage for the government’s recent invasion of Cananea, dislodging the striking workers, attacking them in their local union headquarters and closing it down.

The attacks on the Mexican Miners’ Union in Cananea are part of a systematic campaign by the government against the Mexican Miners’ Union, which include the continued persecution of its general secretary Napoleon Gomez. As explained in a protest letter written by the United Steelworkers to the Mexican Secretary of Labor, on July 8, 2010 the courts once again dismissed all charges filed against Gomez by state prosecutors and there are now no outstanding charges against him.

GLOBAL: With the next World Summit on Climate Change approaching, a new International Policy Analysis was released by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in July. The author, Michael T. Clark, explores three fundamental approaches to financing green and sustainable energy policies.

At the next World Summit on Climate Change, which will take place from November 29 to December 10 in Cancun, Mexico, the international community once again faces the challenge to reach an internationally binding agreement on climate protection.

One of the main controversial issues remains the question of which funding mechanisms for the mitigation and adaptation of climate change will allow for a fair balance of interests between industrial and emerging countries as well as developing countries and how can these be managed in a transparent manner.

The FES paper, Governance Challenges in Financing Green and Sustainable Energy Policies, was written in the context of a series of international expert roundtables on energy and climate policy organized by FES. The publication is based on the results of a conference in Washington and aims to promote dialogue between industrial, emerging and developing countries and to contribute to finding common ground in the international energy and climate policy.

Find a copy of the paper at: http://www.fes.de/cgi-bin/gbv.cgi?id=07315&ty=pdf

COLOMBIA: An international delegation of politicians, trade unionists and NGOs visited Colombia from July 20 to 24 to maintain the pressure for improved human and trade union rights in the world’s most dangerous country for trade unionists. During the past 24 years, 2,800 unionists have been murdered, this year already 32 have been killed.

IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina participated in the mission to see how the IMF could contribute to efforts on improving conditions for trade unions to operate and to see whether the country’s newly-elected President would offer any new hope.

The mission was organized by Justice for Colombia, an organization set up by British trade unions. The delegation, consisting of trade union leaders and members of the European Parliament and UK parliament, met with senior government figures in Colombia, including President-elect Juan Manuel Santos, future Vice President Angelino Garzón and future Foreign Minister María Angela Holguín who will be taking office on August 7, 2010.

Speaking about the mission, Jyrki Raina said, "President-elect Santos gave strong commitments on improving human and labour rights, including the creation of an inter-institutional body and dialogue with trade unions and civil society organizations. We will be watching closely to see what happens after his inauguration."

Raina also noted that current negotiations for free trade agreements with the U.S. and the EU offered some opportunities for putting pressure on the Colombian government for improvements.

While in Colombia the delegation went to Macarena and visited a mass grave of between 450 to 2,000 assassinated people, which is currently being dug up to identify the corpses. The delegation also met with other victims and family members of murdered activists and trade unionists, and with political prisoners.

INDIA: One shipbreaking worker was killed and five others were injured at an Alang shipbreaking yard in the state of Gjarat after a fire broke out on Saturday, July 24, 2010.

The accident occurred at about 11:30am at Alang shipbreaking yard plot No. 78/79 when workers were cutting a scrap piece of steel with a gas cutter near a ship’s engine room. Shamshaulla Shaikh (Kallu), aged 27, died on the spot. Five other workmen were injured, out of which two were admitted to the hospital in Bhavnagar and three are in the hospital in Alang.

Although not members of IMF affiliate the Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers’ Association (ASSRGWA), union vice president Ram Patel immediately rushed to the site to assist the workers. He, along with other colleagues, coordinated with the fire and police authorities. The union has also demanded the statutory legal dues to the family member of the deceased worker.

NEW ZEALAND: Nearly 2,000 engineering and manufacturing workers will have pay increases above inflation and an extra holiday in 2011 after the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) members voted to ratify the Metals and Manufacturing multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) on July 23, 2010.

The new Metals and Manufacturing multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) ratified by EPMU members, provides for a three per cent increase on all printed wages and allowances this year, followed by a three per cent increase next year, and a one-off holiday to acknowledge that, for the first time, Anzac Day holiday will fall on the same day as the Easter Monday holiday in 2011.

"The trend-setting Metals agreement is now set to grow, with EPMU members at other sites organizing to join its coverage. If small to medium enterprises can offer a three per cent pay rise and an extra day of holiday then there’s no reason why larger, more profitable employers can’t do better," said Andrew Little, EPMU national secretary.

The Metals and Manufacturing MECA is the EPMU’s largest multi-employer collective agreement, representing nearly 2,000 workers at 120 firms.