MERCOSUR: Metalworkers’ unions of the South Cone participating in the IMF seminar on "Trade, Employment and Development" held in Buenos Aires on July 21-22, 2010 reaffirm the importance of the Mercosur regional integration process and the need for metalworkers to play a leading role in it.

In a statement adopted at the end of the meeting the participating unions affirmed their commitment against a Mercosur market of asymmetries and inequalities, and for one of productive complementarity.

In this perspective two strategic priorities were identified:

• The structural changes in the labour market due to the shift to precarious forms of employment conditions and in conjunction with the global crisis, and
• The neoliberal productive restructuring and the need for a mapping of the production chains.

Concrete objectives and activities to be implemented include:

• The establishment of an observatory to monitor the variety of forms of precarious work, supported by an ad hoc working group, and
• Goals for common action at regional level such as:

1. shorter working time without wage reduction
2. recognition of vocational training curricula and certifications in the region
3. regional minimum industrial wage
4. ratification of ILO Conventions
5. strategic coordination of demands

Initiatives in the short term shall include the establishment of a network for systematic information with the identification of a contact person in each organization, and of an electronic forum.

A budget will be defined for each organization to contribute in support of the above strategy.

Finally the participants affirmed the need to play a more prominent role in the regional integration process in the redefinition of the Mercosur "sub-group 10" in close collaboration with the CCSCS (Southern Cone Union Centres Coordinated), the TUCA and other GUFs.

ITALY: Workers at the Indesit Group across Italy are taking strike action on July 23, demanding the company reconsider plant closures and properly negotiate with unions, IMF affiliates FIOM-CGIL, FIM-CISL and UILM-UIL.

On June 9 the Indesit company board announced its decision to close two of its Italian factories at Brembate, Bergamo and Refrontolo, Treviso and relocate the production to Caserta and Fabriano with a three year investment plan worth 120 million Euros. The decision will dramatically impact on 500 workers and their families in Bergamo and Treviso.

Earlier the company formerly known as Merloni Elettrodomestici S.p.A, committed "to practice a socially correct behaviour and to comply with international social standards" when it signed an International Framework Agreement in 2001 with the IMF and its Italian affiliates. The full text of the agreement is available on the IMF website here.

In a bid to influence the company’s decision, 430 workers from Brembate plant supported by the IMF Italian affiliates FIOM-CGIL, FIM-CISL and UILM-UIL organized a strike and a permanent sit-in on June 11. Despite another national-wide four hour strike within Indesit on June 17 the company confirmed its decision to close two plants at the annual coordination meeting with national trade unions in Ancona.

Despite further discussions with the company on June 28 and July 9 in Rome, Indesit is still refusing to look for possible alternatives at the sites. FIOM-CGIL, FIM-CISL and UILM-UIL have called for the joint strike action in protest of the plant closures and the company’s inaction on protecting jobs.

BANGLADESH: "’Shipbreaking Act coming soon’ to protect workers rights", is the news headline in the national press in Bangladesh, quoting Industries Minister, Dilip Baruac, after an International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) delegation met with him on July 18 to discuss improving working conditions and rights in the shipbreaking industry.

The IMF delegation also met with the Labour Minister, Eng. Khandker Mosharraf Hossein, on the same day to highlight the serious concern of international trade unions about the intolerable working conditions in the shipbreaking yards in Chittagong and the lack of inspection mechanisms imposed on the shipbreaking owners.

Reference was made to the recent death of six workers in a shipbreaking yard, two of whom were burned alive. The unacceptable rate of fatalities and  life-crippling work accidents due to a complete lack of protective measures and lack of compliance with international guidelines have earned the shipbreaking yards the name of "death trap".

During the meetings with the government Ministers, IMF stressed the need to defend shipbreaking workers’ rights to organize without being threatened or immediately dismissed by the shipbreaking owners and subcontractors, since Bangladesh has also ratified International Labour Organization Conventions 87 and 98 on the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Both Ministers indicated that they are aware of the situation and are working towards a law to protect workers’ rights.

The IMF delegation, which included IMF affiliates in Bangladesh and the IMF affiliate for shipbreaking workers in India, assured them that IMF and the international trade union movement will be closely following the government’s initiatives.  As the IMF delegation said, "If shipbreaking is seriously considered to be one of the  industrial driving forces in Bangladesh, the Government must demonstrate its political will to enforce workers’ rights so that shipbreaking can become the pride of Bangladesh, instead of being the shame of Bangladesh."

Earlier, the IMF delegation visited shipbreaking yards in Chittagong with their affiliates and held a two day workshop with the participation of workers from the shipbreaking yards, journalists and Arun Kanti Das, Assistant Director of Labour in Chittagong in order for the IMF to get a clearer picture of the situation in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Occupational Safety Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE) was also invited and made a presentation on their work in the area of building awareness about the shipbreaking workers’ rights. The IMF affiliate in India, which has organised the first shipbreaking workers’ union in South Asia, shared their valuable experience and expertise with the Bangladeshi affiliates.

The IMF regional office will now follow up with IMF affiliates to draw up a proposal to organize the shipbreaking workers in Bangladesh.

ITALY: A four-hour strike, organized by IMF affiliate FIOM-CGIL, was held on July 16 at the Fiat Group in Italy in response to the unfair dismissal of four workers.

A young professional white collar worker was dismissed from the Mirafiori plant in Turin because he circulated through the internal company email a letter of Tychy Polish workers expressing solidarity with the struggle of workers at the Fiat plant in Pomigliano d’Arco, Naples.

In Melfi, two delegates and one member of FIOM were dismissed by Sergio Marchionne, CEO of the Fiat Group, on the grounds the workers put obstacles to working in the plant during a strike against the intensification of work.

In protest of the dismissals, FIOM-CGIL called for the four hour strike across the Fiat Group on July 16 and announced it will contest the dismissals in court.

The workers’ actions and subsequent strike came at a time when Fiat asked its workers to make heavy concessions in return for investing 700 million Euros in the Pomigliano d’Arco plant and shifting production of its best-selling Panda model from a factory in Tychy, Poland to Pomigliano.

Pomigliano employs 5,000 workers and produced 35,000 cars last year, is one of five Fiat factories in Italy and produces models for the company’s Alfa Romeo brand.

Unions in Italy were divided in their response to the company’s proposal, with four agreeing, but the largest metalworkers’ union, FIOM-CGIL, refusing to sign and denouncing the proposal as "blackmail". FIOM-CGIL argues that Fiat’s demands, including possible sanctions against absenteeism and strikers, broke the existing collective agreement and are unconstitutional.

Fiat, the largest private sector employer in the country, threatened to close the plant in Pomigliano d’Arco, situated near Naples in the economically depressed southern region of Italy, if the workers did not accept the deal.

In a ballot of the workforce at the Pomigliano plant on June 22, only 62 per cent of 4,642 workers who voted supported Fiat’s proposal to increase productivity through a six day working week and restricting strikes and limiting existing benefits such as sick days.

Speaking about the dismissal of the four workers, Maurizio Landini, FIOM-CGIL General Secretary, declared that, "Fiat has passed from blackmail – as it was on Pomigliano plant workers, obliging them to accept its conditions including preventing strikes, a constitutional right – to the retaliation and intimidation of workers."

THAILAND: Trade union leaders from four countries met from July 13 to 15 to discuss a strategic plan for the International Metalworkers’ Federation in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Participants in the meeting adopted a strategic plan that aims to strengthen the trade union movement across the four vitally important countries and to build solidarity locally, regionally and at the global level. The plan is based on three golden rules:

1. Non-competition amongst affiliates (respect)

2. Long term must strengthen the IMF

3. Build co-operation and solidarity amongst affiliates /Globally/Regionally/Locally

The seminar began with an evaluation of the IMF’s work in the region since its Congress in Vienna in 2005. The evaluation showed that IMF  increased its activities in union building and organizing in the region. Yet in the majority of countries, despite organizing new members, this had yet to translate into a growth in IMF affiliation.  In fact, in the majority of cases the level of affiliation had come down. However, participants believed that the IMF Action Programme had been widely integrated into the national approaches in the majority of the unions in the four countries.

A positive example on the IMF’s equal rights work, which is part of the Action Programme, was provided by Darmawati Anwar of FSPMI Indonesia who stated, "The role of the IMF has been great, and the women workers of FSPMI have become stronger in bargaining power. Women also constitute 30 per cent of officials in all levels of the union now under the constitution of the union."

Participants also shared information on organizing strategies and discuss how to build future sustainable approaches. Despite each country having a different culture and each union having a different history some synergies emerged among the four countries. One such example was the low wages paid to workers in the four countries, which in turn meant that unions set very low levels of dues payments.  Charlee Loysong of TEAM Thailand confirmed this saying that, "Unions due in TEAM are based on a percentage of salary." The minimum wage in Thailand is 206 Baht per day or 7.60CHF. The meeting heard that the commitment and role of enterprise-based unions also had an impact on dues collection and the ability to strengthen national structures.

Representatives of the IMF’s executive committee members in the region (Australia, Indonesia, and Japan) provided an overview of the different approaches and structures within the development of their own unions. In addition, Terry Pye of Unite the Union in the United Kingdom explained the process of how many unions had merged to form Unite, Europe’s largest union, despite many different cultures. Following the presentations a discussion on developing sustainable union structures took place. The outcome contained in the strategic plan was that the four countries needed to develop a more sophisticated approach to measuring and quantifying the sustainability of their structures.

At the conclusion of the seminar and after adoption of the strategic plan, Arunasalam IMF Region Representative stated, "This seminar is the start of a journey towards a new era of strengthening trust in the region and a strong motivator for taking action towards a stronger union presence in these vitally important countries."  He added "A new approach will allow us to strengthen our skills in building strong independent unions."

If you wish to receive a copy of the different presentations on organizing, please email your request to  Amandine Iwachow. .

CROATIA: Unions in Croatia submitted over 800,000 signatures to the Speaker of the Parliament on July 14 in a  petition calling for a referendum on labour law amendments.

In late May the Croatian Government proposed changes to the Labour Code, which was recently amended and harmonized to European Union standards. The changes in the latest proposed amendments would make it easier for employers to cancel collective agreements.

The Government’s proposal has faced strong resistance of all five trade union confederations in Croatia, which have jointly organized a petition for a referendum on the amendments. With 813,016 signatures gathered, the petition has by far surpassed the legal requirement of 10 per cent of registered voters to initiate the referendum.

Before deciding to submit the signatures to Parliament, Croatian trade unions sent a letter to the Government asking it accept the collected signatures as proof of a successfully carried out referendum and withdraw the proposed amendments to the labour legislation and include social partners in any future plans to make amendments.

As the Government did not respond to the trade union proposal, the signatures were submitted to Parliament Speaker, Luka Bebić on July 14, 2010.  It is expected that the verification of signatures will take at least one month.

PAKISTAN: Shipbreaking workers in the Gadani yards in the Les Bella District of the Balochistan province of Pakistan went on strike from July 5 to 7 after the employers reneged an earlier promise to improve the conditions in the yards and continued to deny basic rights to the workers. The strike was unanimously decided by all present at a general meeting that an indefinite strike be called from July 5 until the following demands were met:

• 100 per cent increase in wages
• Registration with social security and old age benefits institutes
• Medical dispensary and ambulance at each ship breaking yard 
• Clean drinking water and canteen at each yard
• Appointment letter for every worker
• End of contract labour (JAMADARY) system
• Workers’ residential colony
• Recognition of the Gadani Ship Breaking Democratic Workers’ Union (GSBDWU), which was deregistered by the Labour Commissioner
• Occupational safety measures at work place
• End of police harassment against workers

In response to the strike, the employers agreed to start negotiations with the union and the district court in Les Bella issued orders ending the strike and posted a hearing on July 21, 2010. The workers immediately reported back to work and are in negoiations, however they contest that the district court has no jurisdiction in labour matters as it is not a civil or criminal matter.

Earlier, on June 16, 2010 some 15,000 shipbreaking workers in the Gadani shipbreaking yard went on a two-day strike in protest of the accumulating injustices of appalling working conditions, low wages and difficult working hours.

The workers belonged to the Gadani Ship Breaking Democratic Workers’ Union, which was deregistered by the Labour Commissioner a move which the union is contesting in court. Meanwhile, the shipbreaking workers have formed the Progressive Workers’ Union of Gadani Ship Breaking.

The Gadani shipbreaking employers, with the help of local police and the Anti-Terrorist Task Force (ATTF), arrested the Progressive Workers Union of Gadani Ship Breaking President Bashir Mehmood Dani and the other office bearers of the union when the first strike began on June 16. Workers went to the police station and staged a demonstration on the same day, securing the release of the arrested trade union leaders and, in the presence of the police, reached an agreement with the employers to negotiate with the union.

Gadani shipbreaking owners had agreed to meet the workers demands by June 30, 2010 in return for the union calling off its strike on June 17, which was originally scheduled from June 16 to June 30. The owners’ subsequent refusal to abide by the agreement and their underhand attempts to demoralize the union through physical threats and intimidation has only served to strengthen the resolve of the workers.

AUSTRALIA: The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Cancer Council Australia convened a national summit on June 29, 2010 calling for coordinated national action on asbestos removal.

In a national declaration the summit called on the Australian Federal Government to establish a National Asbestos Authority and to ensure the removal of all asbestos from public and private buildings by 2030.

Asbestos still lurks in the bathrooms, kitchens, roofs and garages of two out of every three Australian homes built between 1945 and 1980, an estimated one million homes, and is still present in many schools, public buildings and workplaces.

Australia has the unenviable record of having the highest incidence of asbestos related diseases in the world, and it’s estimated that up to 18,000 Australians are likely to die from mesothelioma by 2020.

AMWU National President, Paul Bastian, said the aim of the summit is to call for the establishment of an independent national authority on asbestos to work across all jurisdictions.

"The problem is compounded by poor community awareness and a disjointed approach from national, state and local governments," explained Paul Bastian.

"We call on the Federal Government to urgently address this issue by creating a dedicated National Asbestos Unit. This unit would act as an information hub and coordinate national action on asbestos removal and education."

Unions secured a ban on the use of asbestos in Australian workplaces in 2003 and now seek to protect future generations of people who live in homes, go to schools, play sport and work in asbestos-riddled environments.

Meanwhile, the Ministers of Health of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador and Peru adopted a declaration calling for the ban of asbestos mining and use.

At their XXVIII meeting on June 9, 2010, the Health Ministers of the Mercosur and associated states, "Expressed the commitment of their Ministries to take steps, involving other competent areas of their governments, to develop and effectively implement national policies that advance the prohibition of the import, mining, production and trade of asbestos and products containing asbestos, in all the countries of Mercosur and associated States in which a ban has not yet been established."

SOUTH AFRICA: GLU’s masters programme on labour, development, economic policy and globalization aims at building trade union capacity for engaging in policy proposals that improve the lives of working people and society at large in the context of sustainable development.

GLU cooperates with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), providing a unique opportunity for students to engage with a labour organization in a country where organized labour decisively contributed to the end of apartheid and where social movement unionism is a cornerstone of democracy and social dialogue.

GLU is a network of universities, international and national trade unions, civil society organizations and the International Labour Organization (ILO) that provides postgraduate qualification programmes for trade unionists, labour activists and experts. This global collaboration offers students a wide range of academic and practical expertise.

Trade unionists interested in participating in the 2011 course should apply before July 31, 2010. The courses are taught in English. More detailed information of the programme and the application form are available at http://www.global-labour-university.org/  

The Bureau for Workers’ Activities of the ILO and its project partners will award a limited number of scholarships to applicants from developing and transition economies. Applicants need to have the endorsement of a trade union to apply for a scholarship.

CANADA: With a 75 per cent ratification vote announced late on July 8, Canadian nickel mining and processing workers represented by United Steelworkers (USW) Locals 6500 and 6200 in Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ontario, ended a 360-day strike against Vale SA.

Those terms were pieced together in high-level mediation from June 19-22 in Toronto. But final accord still eluded both sides due to differences in setting forth a just process through arbitration of Vale’s unilateral sacking of nine strikers. Over July 3 and 4, through the insistence of Ontario Provincial Labour Minister Peter Fonseca, a process was established, opening the way for the July 7 and 8 contract vote.

The contract acceptance in Ontario thus closes a chapter to one of Canada’s most acrimonious labour disputes, a dispute that saw mining and other unions from around the world galvanize behind the USW in efforts to preserve previously negotiated wage and work terms. The IMF and International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM)  helped coordinate the global campaign.

In a joint statement, IMF and ICEM General Secretaries Jyrki Raina and Manfred Warda said, "The perseverance and character of USW members in Ontario and Labrador is what trade unions everywhere will remember about this strike. Their fight became our fight and thus they laid the building blocks on how to wage a coordinated global campaign."

Highlights of the new collective agreement, which runs until May 31, 2015, include:

•        Across-the-board, hourly wage increases with cost-of-living increases each of the five years. Thus, bringing the wage hike to between 2.25 USD and 2.50 USD an hour over the life of the agreement.

•        Improvements to the existing Defined Benefit Pension Plan increasing to 41,400 USD per year, with cost-of-living indexing for life, along with life-time health care benefits.

•        A Defined Contribution Pension Plan for new hires that provides for Company contributions equal to eight per cent of employees’ regular basic earnings. As well, employees will be able to make additional contributions ranging from two per cent to six per cent of regular earnings, with matching contributions from the Company subject to certain limits. The new plan also will include Long Term Disability coverage for employees.

•       As a result of sustained, hard-fought negotiations, the nickel bonus program will allow employees to earn up to 15,000 USD annually in addition to regular earnings.

In the USW’s statement announcing the ratification, District Six Director Wayne Fraser said, "Our members have spoken and I believe everyone respects the decisions they have made in extremely difficult circumstances."