GENEVA/MEXICO: The International Labour Organization (ILO) urges the Mexican government to resolve its dispute with the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM) and considers the government has acted in a way that is incompatible with ILO Convention No. 87 on freedom of association.

The ILO released on March 26 the interim recommendations of its Committee of Freedom of Association to the Mexican government in response to a complaint on interference in union autonomy lodged by the SNTMMSRM and the International Metalworkers’ Federation in March 2006, ILO Case No. 2478.

The complaint documents how Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, the democratically elected general secretary of SNTMMSRM was forcefully removed from his position after speaking out against the Mexican government and mining company in response to a tragic mine accident in Pasta de Conchos that left 65 miners dead, many of them members of the union. The complaint also documents how the government illegally intervened in independent union activities, forced the dismissal of union leadership, seized union assets and made government appointments to union elected positions.

In subsequent submissions on Case No. 2478, the union and IMF has also documented ongoing interference and acts of violence by Grupo México and the Mexican government including using the national army and federal police to break strikes, kill workers and arrest union leaders fighting for safer working conditions in Grupo México-owned mines.

In its recommendations to the ILO Governing Body, the Committee on Freedom of Association states that it "considers that the labour authorities engaged in conduct that is incompatible with Article 3 of Convention No. 87, which established the right of workers to elect their representatives in full freedom."

"The Committee deplores the excessive length of the judicial procedures relating to various aspects of the case and the grave prejudice that this has caused to the complainant union" and "urges for a rapid conclusion of the judicial procedures."

The committee requests addition information from the government on several points and in particular on the question of the death of worker Reynaldo Hernández González, the use of force at the public security forces at the Cananea mine, continuing arrest warrants, freezing of union accounts, threats and acts of violence including the death and injury of trade unionists.

The Committee calls on all the parties concerned to continue to make efforts within the existing round of negotiations to resolve the collective dispute to which this case results.

A copy of the report is published on the ILO website under Mexico, Freedom of Association Cases, here: http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/newcountryframeE.htm

FINLAND:  In 2000 the company Fujitsu closed its factory in Espoo near Helsinki that was producing personal computers. The decision was taken without prior mandatory corporate consultation with workers’ representatives and therefore came in violation of the legislation regulating industrial relations. Ten years after the start of the legal process between eleven Finnish trade unions, including IMF affiliates Metallityöväen Liitto r.y. (Finnish Metalworkers’ Union) and Toimihenkilöunioni – TU (Union of Salaried Employees), representing 223 of the 450 dismissed workers and the company the court ruled in favour of workers who will get compensation for their unjust dismissals.

On March 8, 2010 the High Court of Finland gave its verdict according to which the company will have to pay six months of salaries and wages to the dismissed employees. The total compensation rises to 2.45 million euros plus the interests to be paid from May 2001. In addition Fujitsu has to pay all the costs of the legal process.

The decision is based on the interpretation of the directive on mass dismissals made by the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) and received by the Finnish High Court in September 2009. The ECJ states that Fujitsu should have consulted its factory employee representatives in Espoo before the final corporate-level decision was taken.

Most of the workers who will receive compensation are members of the Metallityöväen Liitto r.y. They are entitled to 1.44 million euros. The second largest share of the compensation goes to the members of the Toimihenkilöunioni – TU. They are set to receive over 0.49 million euros. Among the eleven unions there are affiliated members from all three Finnish union confederations SAK, STTK and Akava.

The unions believe that the High Court decision has set a precedent. Therefore, in the future they hope employers will consider carefully the cost of ignoring the legislation on cooperation and consultation in companies.

ZIMBABWE: A special Commission of Inquiry of the International Labour Organisation has, in its findings being presented to the ILO Governing Body this week, confirmed that the Zimbabwe’s government is responsible for serious violations of fundamental rights, in particular concerning freedom to organise trade unions and to collective bargaining, the right to strike, and protection of trade unionists from discrimination.

The International Metalworkers’ Federation joined calls from the International Trade Union Confederation on March 26 to keep up the pressure for the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights in Zimbabwe, following the release of the report.

For the first time in the history of the ILO, both trade unions and employer organizations have filed a complaint against a government, leading to the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry in 2008.  The Commission travelled to Zimbabwe and heard testimony from workers, as well as meeting government and employer representatives.

The COI report also details violations of other fundamental human rights against trade unionists, including freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, and the right to "security of the person". Many Zimbabwean trade unionists have been severely beaten by security forces and others acting at the behest of the regime over the past several years.

After the Commission of inquiry reported its findings to the ILO Governing Body, it was confirmed that Zimbabwe’s government is responsible for serious violations of fundamental rights, in particular concerning freedom to organize trade unions and to collective bargaining, the right to strike, and protection of trade unionists from discrimination.

The Commission issued seven recommendations that the government has to implement to ensure the full implementation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, and which could contribute to the process of national reconciliation.

Wages are set low by government and whilst labour laws exist, these are ineffectively enforced, all to attract foreign investment to this small mountain kingdom, surrounded on all sides by South Africa. Sector based minimum wages are determined annually by the Wage Advisory Board, a tripartite entity consisting of government, trade unions and employees. But worker representation is weak in Lesotho and minimum wages for workers in jobs that are considered lower skilled do not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family.

CBI, a subsidiary of South African JSE listed company Reunert, laid off workers and relocated to Lesotho in 2006 after NUMSA successfully fought in the Metal Engineering Industry Bargaining Council (MEIBC) to have the five-year exemption on minimum wage enjoyed by the  company cancelled. At the time, CBI workers such as Numsa shop stewards Mpai Mile and Mathabo Mokoena were struggling to live on R320 per week, even after 18 years of service. In 2002 CBI refused to pay weekly R674 rates concluded in the industry’s main agreement and threatened to relocate to Lesotho if it was not exempted from paying half of the agreed rates for five years in 2002. The council was forced to grant the exemption then fearing that 900 would lose their jobs.

This was not the first time CBI had relocated to seek reduced operating costs by paying low wages. In the apartheid era, the company set up factories in Qwa Qwa the artificially created homeland where the South African government provided lucrative wage subsidies and exempted companies from having to comply with wage rates set down by centralised bargaining arrangements.

Facing expiration of its exemption in 2007, CBI failed to secure further guarantees of exemption from MEIBC and so the company unilaterally moved is operations to Lesotho. NUMSA reports in 2006 that almost 300 out of the 900 staff complement reportedly lost their jobs when they refused to accept reduced wage offers of R168 a week in the new plant in Lesotho.

In February 2010, IMF Regional Secretary Steve Nhlapo and NUMSA International Officer, Hlokoza Motau went to Lesotho to meet with CBI workers and LECAWU, the union that has made the most progress in recruiting workers at CBI. LECAWU has traditionally organised in the textile and garment sector where it has gained much experience dealing with foreign employers and putting pressure locally and campaigning internationally on multinational companies to address poor working conditions and low wages. LECAWU was severely weakened by the collapse of the garment sector as investment pulled out of Lesotho once the preferential trade arrangement with the US under AGOA lost its lustre as quotas holding back textile and garment industries, particularly in Asia, under the 30 year Multifibre Agreement came to an end in January 2005.

IMF recognises the potential LECAWU has to represent CBI workers and does not see the need for a new sector specific union which would have relatively small membership and thus would likely be weak and ineffective. IMF has encouraged unions, especially those with small membership bases to work towards multi sectoral general unions, especially in countries with relatively small labour force. IMF will work with NUMSA, who has much to offer LECAWU with years of experience in dealing with the CBI. Together with the Lesotho union they will seek out ways to strengthen union efforts to organise CBI workers not only on wages but also on health and safety issues to ensure that the company does not get away with the exploitation of worker rights.

IMF has also been informed that two other electronics companies which one of them is Philips are also moving into Lesotho. Philips Electronics a Dutch Multinational also closed its operations in South Africa 5 years ago and they are now opening in Lesotho to take advantage of cheap wages and bad conditions of employment.

UNITE, with support from DFID, is implementing a three year capacity building project for trade unions in Malawi, Zambia and Swaziland. The project which is running until September 2011 aims at building the capacity of trade unions in the project countries with the ultimate objective of promoting equality and responding to HIV and AIDS in the workplace

One of the strategies adopted is to build a campaign around organising and recruitment of workers. Recently, from 15^th to 23^rd February 2010, UNITE organised three regional training workshops for Malawi Congress of Trade Unions’ affiliates with a focus on imparting essential skills for trade union capacity building. In total 81 organisers were trained. The idea is that the trained organisers will organise and recruit members as well as train other organisers as such building a strong membership base. Similar workshops were already implemented in Swaziland in November 2009 and in March 2010, similar workshops will be held in Zambia.

Kettie is eager to work with IMF affiliates and unions encouraged to take advantage of the expertise that Kettie brings to the region, especially in the area of HIV/AIDS. Request for her assistance can be sent to [email protected]

Cameroon union USTIC is a relatively new affiliate of IMF and much work needs to be done to develop capacity of the union on the shop floor to address worker needs by developing workplace structures that can build membership and address demands.

The aim of the IMF was to assist the union in developing an effective educational programme for the shop floor. The workshop developed training skills and provided training tools for successfully deliver training events.

Twenty participants attended from companies in Douala, Edea, Yaoundé and the West Regions. At the end of the workshop, each participant made a commitment to take action and deliver training on the shop floor.IMF trusts that this commitment will result in educational activities that will benefit workers, contributing to democratic structures at the shop floor and facilitating worker representation. 

GLOBAL: In a statement released by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) the international trade union movement calls on governments to adopt an aggressive agenda to ensure more robust growth and growth that delivers more jobs.

Trade unions state there can be no sustainable recovery in the economy until there is a recovery in jobs, particularly quality well-paying jobs.

Workers and their families are continuing to bear the brunt of an economic crisis for which they are not responsible. Since 2007, when the crisis broke, 34 million more women and men have become unemployed.

"Quality employment" must be at the heart of the recovery and a new jobs market that follows this crisis. In many countries, the de facto restriction of workers’ rights to organise and bargain collectively has exacerbated the effects of the crisis. At the same time, labour market deregulation dramatically increased the level of precarious work. Inadequate pay, job insecurity, vulnerability and fear have become the staples of working life for millions of workers, and especially women, across the world.

Given the situation, trade unions are demanding that G20 Governments must:

• Maintain fiscal stimulus and focus on job creation
• Strengthen social protection
• Provide support for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
• Support a Just Transition towards a low carbon economy
• Help build a sustainable labour market model
• Re-skill and upgrade the global workforce
• Deliver an effective social dimension to global policy implementation
• Upgrade social dialogue at national and international level
• Elaborate further the Charter for Sustainable Economic Activity

The G20 Employment and Labour Ministers meeting in Washington have a dual responsibility: they must first agree on aggressive action to create jobs and ensure that this is followed up by G20 Leaders; they must secondly ensure that the labour market emerging from this crisis delivers quality well-paying jobs. This includes ensuring that precariously employed workers – whose numbers are fast increasing in the G20 countries and beyond – have the full right to join a union and bargain collectively with their ultimate and effective employer.

ITUC and TUAC General Secretaries are requesting trade unions take action and submit the proposals set out in "Beating the Jobs Crisis" to their Labour Ministers prior to the G20 meeting. The statement (in English, Spanish, and French) can be accessed through the web links below and are also available on the IMF website.

Beating the Jobs Crisis:

http://www.tuac.org/en/public/e-docs/00/00/06/AD/telecharger.phtml?cle_doc_attach=2203

Combattre la crise de l’emploi:

http://www.tuac.org/en/public/e-docs/00/00/06/AD/telecharger.phtml?cle_doc_attach=2204

Superar la crisis del empleo:

http://www.tuac.org/en/public/e-docs/00/00/06/AD/telecharger.phtml?cle_doc_attach=2205

JAPAN: On its Unified Response Day on March 17, IMF-JC’s demands for pay rises in 2010 were accepted by most major Japanese manufacturers.

The agreements on wage rises come at a crucial moment in the IMF-JC’s 2010 Spring Offensive, the annual wage bargaining round with industry. IMF-JC’s Unified Response Day on March 17 began by receiving and aggregating the responses from management to the demands of 55 designated unions of workplaces working under the direction of industry-based unions.

Then the IMF-JC’s 6^th Strategic Committee Meeting confirmed the responses received so far and set the way forward for the continuing struggle in small and medium-sized unions that receive responses at a later date. IMF-JC General Secretary Hideyuki Wakamatsu and President Koichiro Nishihara then outlined the situation at a press conference.

"In response to the unions’ demands, the management side arrived at this Unified Response Day amidst continuing tough negotiations up to the finish, acknowledging the cooperation and efforts by union members toward improved company performance but asserting "the need to strengthen cost competitiveness through curbs on overall personnel costs"," said Wakamatsu.

Management responses to the unions’ demands included:

• All unions receiving responses were ensured regular pay raise amounts
• For bonuses, the overall responses indicated that efforts and cooperation by labour union members were considered.
• For increases in overtime pay rates, all working hours outside the prescribed working hours, including public holidays, will be included in the calculations. This will be a huge boost for future small and medium-sized union negotiations. However, overtime pay rate increases were not achieved.
• For increases in intra-company minimum wages (industry-based minimum wages) and expanded signing of minimum wage agreements, contributing to improvements for non-regular workers and fulfilling a certain role to society.
• For increases in compensation for work and transportation-related disasters, the unions made progress toward increasing levels for the metal industry as a whole.

According to press reports, wage rises will be implemented at most major Japanese manufacturers, including Toyota Motor Corp., Panasonic Corp., Sharp Corp., Sanyo Electric Co., Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Nippon Steel Corp. and Kobe Steel Ltd.

The IMF-JC has prioritized its 2010 Spring Offensive as an effort to boost the Japanese economy through "investment in people" that will maintain motivation and protect livelihoods. Its demands include:

• Fully ensuring the regular pay raise amount,
• Ensuring bonuses to protect livelihoods,
• Achieving work-life balance through shorter actual working hours and greater overtime pay rates,
• Greater signing of intra-company minimum wage agreements and increases in minimum wages; Increases in compensation for work and transportation-related disasters, and
• Enforcement of labour-management agreements to stabilize employment of non-regular workers and improve overall working conditions.

At the press conference on March 17, IMF-JC stated that as the metal industry was able to maintain its regular pay raise amount this will influence the forthcoming responses to small and medium-sized unions in the sector and will contribute to boosting wages for all workers. IMF-JC is also fulfilling its role as the metalworkers’ division of the national centre RENGO and its policy of "improving working conditions for all workers including non-regular workers."

MEXICO: Striking members of the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union of Mexico (SNTMMSRM) at the Cananea copper mine in Sonora, Mexico, blocked the federal highway between Cananea and Agua Prieta on March 16 and 17 demanding that the government step in to help broker a peaceful resolution.

The miners have been on strike since July 2007 over massive health and safety violations in the notoriously dangerous Grupo Mexico-owned mine.

Following a February 11 federal court decision giving Grupo Mexico permission to fire the striking workers and terminate the labor agreement, effectively eliminating the right to strike in Mexico, some 1,200 workers occupied the mine. The Mexican government has threatened to use armed force to gain control of Cananea, one of Grupo Mexico’s largest mines. Reports from Mexico indicate wives and children of the miners are also participating in the occupation.

News of the court decision and subsequent standoff has sparked international action on the part of the global labour movement. The International Metalworkers’ Federation and members of the United Steelworkers’ (USW) joined SNTMMSRM members at the mine in the days following the initial occupation and escalating tensions.

The IMF put out a call to action and affiliates from Indonesia to Brazil, and from all over Europe to Africa contacted their respective embassies urging the Mexican government to remove armed troops from the mine and seek a peaceful resolution to the struggle.  Meanwhile, affiliates also sent urgent appeals to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, based in Washington DC, requesting the Commission to immediately grant precautionary measures to block the removal of union members from the mine and prohibit the occupation of the mine by Mexican armed forces. Unfortunately, these requests were not granted.

The SNTMMSRM has filed a complaint with the Commission documenting human rights violations and political persecution union members face at the hands of the Mexican government and Grupo Mexico. In January 2009, representatives from the IMF, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM), United Auto Workers (UAW), USW, AFL-CIO, and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA-ITUC) met with members of the Commission urging immediate action on the complaint submitted by the SNTMMSRM.

Recently, the ITUC released a statement blasting the Mexican government for failing to uphold internationally recognized human and labour rights and called on President Calderon to withdraw troops from Cananea and assist in reaching a peaceful resolution.

Government interference in union affairs and gross labour rights abuses against SNTMMSRM members is the subject of an ongoing complaint submitted to the International Labour Organisation by the IMF in March 2006. This month members of the Committee on Freedom of Association discussed the complaint and will release their findings soon.

Join the effort to support Cananea miners and their families, click here.

BRUSSELS:  In the second half of March the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) launched a new three step campaign on organizing young people. The campaign represents a multi-tool approach and is aimed at making trade unions more attractive for young people from the perspective of global issues.

International issues are an integral part of trade union work. Research carried out in many countries has revealed that young people over the years show no less interest in these issues and want to be able to exercise influence at the global level. The campaign suggests that joining unions will enable young people to influence and change the world. Modern technology provides new ways to reach young people and that is why the ITUC campaign gathers different tools including streaming video, social networking, posters and websites, and a special campaign guide.

At the first stage of the campaign ITUC launched an animated video "Joe the dog tries to change the world" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvuOqCEU9U. In a humorous way, the video illustrates how you can have an influence on injustices in the world by adding your voice to many others in trade unions. The video is available is English, French and Spanish. The mobile, internet and full High Definition versions of the video can be ordered at the ITUC Press Department tel. +32 2 224 0204 or +32 476 621 018.To become Joe’s fan on Facebook please visit  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joe/10150138698745254?ref=mf

The next two steps of the campaign included the launch of a special interactive website also available in English, French and Spanish http://www.changetheworld-now.com/ and a set of posters illustrating in a satirical way the remorseless face of global capital and a youth blog http://youth.ituc-csi.org/.giving the ideas of what is being done for youth in different corners of the world.