IMF and EMF Call for Financial Solidarity for Turkish Metalworkers
Metalworkers around the world are called on to donate funds in support of 350 struggling Sinter Metal workers, fighting for reinstatement since December 2008.
TURKEY: The situation is growing dire for some 350 Sinter Metal workers in Turkey who have been fighting for their reinstatement since December 2008 after being fired for joining the union, Birlesik Metal-IS, an affiliate of the International Metalworkers' Federation and European Metalworkers' Federation.
Workers have persevered in front of the company gates for almost a year. Unemployment insurance and healthcare benefits have run out as of June, and many families have been forced to sell handicrafts and small goods to survive.
Their fight is symbolic of many trade union struggles in Turkey where workers attempting to organise a union all too often face retaliation through unjust dismissals, abuse and violence. Birlesik Metal-IS has made the Sinter Metal case a priority as it is the largest industrial dispute in Turkey's massive Dudulu Organised Industrial Zone in the last 20 years. A victory at Sinter Metal will be a victory for all workers in Turkey.
The IMF and EMF have both made donations to this important and strategic fight. Our financial assistance will help keep the struggle alive and provide some relief for basic living costs to the 350 Birlesik Metal-IS members out of work since December. To provide union members and labour activists the opportunity to contribute to this effort, the IMF has set up a Pay Pal account on the IMF website to accept small donations online. For larger donations (over $200 USD) please send it directly to Birlesik Metal-IS as Pay Pal administers a service charge.
Birlesik Metal-IS bank details:
SWIFT CODE: TCZBTR2A
IBAN NO: TR88000100 1794 516414335002
Ziraat Bankası
Dudullu Organize Sanayi Şb.
Ümit Aydın-Hasan Binek
Since launching a joint solidarity campaign in March 2009, the IMF and EMF has repeatedly called on Sinter Metal to immediately reinstate unjustly dismissed workers, stop violations of basic labour rights, and start negotiations with the union.
Click for Campaign information. [Nov 03, 2009 – Kristyne Peter]
Shop Stewards Discuss Communication Networks in Morocco
Shop stewards and trade union organizers from three TNCs operating in Morocco, ArcelorMittal, Leoni and Renault met in Casablanca for a two-day workshop on “Trade Union Communication and Networking”.
MOROCCO: On November 3 - 4 a two-day workshop on "Trade Union Communication and Networking" was held in Casablanca, organized by the IMF together with the SNTIMMEE-CDT as part of an ongoing project aimed at supporting the trade unions in Morocco and Tunisia in organizing workers at multinational companies.
Basic training on available tools of information and communication technologies was provided to the participants in view of the establishment of a permanent communication network among them. The creation of a permanent linkage and the systematic sharing of information are indispensable tools for effective workers' solidarity and trade union cooperation at national, regional and international level.
The programme of the meeting addressed communication needs in trade union work. It included an overview of trade union experiences in the use of electronic means for trade union action. Examples were provided of communication networks, on the use of Internet-related tools, and on the costs and technical implications of their use.
This initiative is targeting in particular the TNCs that are signatories to International Framework Agreements with the IMF in order to monitor their implementation. It is part of a broader programme implemented with the support of the ISCOD - UGT and with the participation of metalworkers' unions in Tunisia, Morocco, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
While providing a fruitful opportunity for shop floor union coordination at TNCs, the meeting highlighted the problem of inadequate representation of the female membership, even when women are predominant in the workforce. [Nov 04, 2009 – Alex Ivanou]
Global Campaign Against Vale Gaining Momentum
From Sweden to Korea, New Caledonia to Indonesia and Mozambique, IMF and ICEM affiliates around the world are calling on Vale to make a Fair Deal NOW and respect basic labour rights at all of its operations around the world.
GLOBAL: The United Steelworkers' (USW) global campaign to prevent Brazilian mining giant Vale S.A. from eroding working conditions and denying basic labour rights at its operations worldwide is gaining momentum with the assistance from the International Metalworkers' Federation, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions and LabourStart.
Members of the two global union federations have held a number of actions around the world targeting Vale business operations and investment. LabourStart, a web-based news service for the international trade union movement, launched an online letter writing campaign yesterday, with more than 1,000 letters sent to Vale CEO Roger Agnelli within hours. In coordination with the letter writing campaign, the IMF launched its global campaign webpage with information about the struggle in four languages.
IMF and ICEM affiliates are being asked to support the global campaign and send letters to Vale. 3500 USW members in Canada have been on strike since July 13 after refusing deep concessions from the Brazilian mining giant. The company has hired replacement workers to continue production during the strike.
On October 26, workers at Vale's largest Brazilian mine walked off the job in response to the company's proposal at the bargaining table. Vale workers in Brazil report the denial of basic labour rights, low wages and substandard health and safety conditions.
IMF and ICEM affiliates in October, with the help of the International Transport Workers' Federation, tracked a Vale copper shipment from Canada to Germany and on to Sweden. Union members held a protest at the port outside of Hamburg and in Sweden, met with board members of Vale customer Boliden AB which owns the Rönnskär copper smelter.
The global campaign is making an impact and has some Vale executives on the run. The company has twice cancelled its "Vale Day" at the New York Stock Exchange and in London respectively. More global actions are planned until a just resolution can be reached.
Click here for more information about the IMF and ICEM global campaign in support of USW and Brazilian Vale workers. [Nov 04, 2009 – Anita Gardner]
Bosch and Brembo Workers in India Make Gains
Strike ends at Bosch and Brembo plants in India, as regular workers and trainees make gains, however the re-employment of contract workers continues to be the subject of a legal struggle.
INDIA: After 85 days of united strike action by regular workers, trainees and contract workers at the Bosch and Brembo plants in Pune, India, an agreement was reached ending the strike.
The workers went on strike on July 18 demanding the implementation of pay rises stipulated in the 2007 collective bargaining agreement. Significantly the workers' demands also included equal pay for equal work with precariously employed workers, trainees and permanent workers in unity in the fight, which is led by the Bosch Chassis Systems Kamgar Sanghatana (Employees Union).
The strike at Bosch and Brembo was called off on October 10, after an agreement was reached between the union and management before the Commissioner of Labour on October 9. The terms of the agreement include:
- Ending of the strike,
- Continued legal process of abolishing the contract labour system,
- Immediate resolution of the lack of implementation of the collective agreement at Brembo,
- Mutual discussions to resolve the lack of implementation of the collective agreement at Bosch, and
- An assurance for a fair and without prejudice inquiry against the General Secretary and five union members.
Since this time, the managing director and three vice presidents at Bosch have resigned and the head of manufacturing was transferred to Delhi. In addition, all the workers at Brembo have been paid 50 per cent of the wages owed in arrears and are currently negotiating for the remaining 50 per cent. At Bosch wages for the third year have been paid and negotiations for the payment of arrears from the second year are continuing. Disciplinary charges against the General Secretary and five other workers are pending.
Unfortunately the contract workers remain unemployed and outside the factory gate awaiting a judgement from the Industrial Court. As the law regarding the absorption of contract labour as regular workers is very limited and narrow in scope the contract workers may result in losing their jobs as a result of this struggle.
The struggle at Bosch and Brembo is having an impact on the whole Pune industrial region, with workers reporting that all companies in the region are now strictly implementing the statutory provisions, such as minimum wages, retirement provisions, health insurance and overtime facilities.
"This strike was very significant in the region. For the first time we saw regular workers and contract labours fighting in unity. Unfortunately the union had to take a decision to return to work leaving the fate of the contract workers up to the courts," said IMF regional representative Sudharshan Rao. "Let us hope the leadership comes out with some solution through negotiations with the management in support of the contract labourers, since the process of abolition of contract labour is positioned strongly in the Industrial Courts," he added.
During this dispute, IMF affiliates in Italy, Germany and South Africa with members employed in Brembo and Bosch sent letters of support to the workers and spoke with their own local management about the case in India. In addition the Volkswagen Global Works' Council intervened via a VW plant in Pune that is supplied by the Bosch plant. [Nov 04, 2009 – Anita Gardner]
Global Labour Charter Signed with VW
VW Group Board of Management, International Metalworkers' Federation and VW Global Group Works Council sign Global Charter on Labour Relations.
GLOBAL: The International Metalworkers' Federation and the Volkswagen Group Board of Management signed a Global Charter on Labour Relations on October 29, setting out binding minimum standards for the entire Group in the area of the participation rights of employee representative bodies at the level of individual facilities.
The Global Charter on Labour Relations was signed at the meeting of the Global Group Works Council held at the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau, Germany. The Charter sets out the participation rights of employee representative bodies in the following areas: human resources and social matters, labour organization, remuneration systems, information and communication, initial and advanced training, occupational health and safety, controlling, and social and ecological sustainability.
The agreement distinguishes between three stages in participation, the right to receive information, consultation rights and codetermination. At the Group's locations, the Charter will be implemented on the basis of specific agreements reached between the managements and employee representatives of the plants concerned.
The Charter also provides for annual location symposia at which management and employee representatives are to discuss the development of the location within the relevant planning period and especially employment prospects.
In addition, the Charter also grants to global employee representative bodies the right to hold workforce meetings at least once per year. At these meetings, management is to inform the workforce on the economic situation, the development of the location and developments in the area of human resources and social matters.
The President of the International Metalworkers' Federation and President of IG Metall, Berthold Huber, stressed, "The Charter is to improve world-wide labour relations standards at all locations. The fact that employers and employee representatives are negotiating on the future of labour relations in these economically troubled times demonstrates the importance attached to these issues by both sides. The charter is an expression of the special culture of co-determination at Volkswagen, a co-determination culture that Volkswagen has made successful."
A copy of the Charter, in English and German, are published on the IMF website. The translations into further languages will follow. [Nov 04, 2009 – Anita Gardner]
Union Leaders Discuss Organizing and Labour Rights in Moscow
Union leaders and activists from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan discussed organizing and labour rights at IMF conference in Moscow.
RUSSIA: More than 40 union leaders and activists from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan attended an IMF conference called "New Action Programme 2009-13 and IMF affiliates' activities in CIS countries" on October 27-28 in Moscow. IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina and IMF Director for Non-Manual Workers, Research, South East Europe Anne-Marie Mureau took part in the event.
On the first day of the conference Jyrki Raina presented the new Action Programme and described the changes in IMF structure and staff. IMF Regional Representative Vadim Borisov announced the plan to fight agency labour in courts using Russian labour laws.
Delegates fully endorsed the Action Programme, but emphasized the need to discuss concrete ways through which it should be put in practice. Organizing and communications training, union networks in TNCs and control over the implementation of International Framework Agreements were among particular issues.
Union leaders discussed the two ways of fighting unfair treatment: court action and mass protests. The general consensus was that both ways were absolutely necessary. Jyrki Raina confirmed the essential importance of mass mobilizations.
Russian delegates were highly critical of government responses to the economic crisis. They highlighted the fact that due to inefficient government support the Russian car market was in a worse state than in many European countries.
Anne-Marie Mureau made a presentation on pension system reforms in Europe. Delegates made short comments on the situation in their countries.
On the second day Jyrki Raina talked about traditional forms and new strategies in organizing. He stressed the fact that unions must be active and fighting organizations, constantly recruiting new members.
Overall, the meeting was very rewarding both for the delegates from CIS countries and for IMF Head Office representatives. [Nov 04, 2009 – Ilya Matveev]
Labour Photo of the Year
Child labourer in the Bangladeshi shipbuilding industry the subject of the labour photo of the year.
GLOBAL: A Bangladeshi boy working in a shipbuilding factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh is the subject of the Labour Photo of the Year, announced November 2, 2009.
The photo features the destitute face of a young boy near a furnace in a shipbuilding factory. Taken by K M Asad, the photo profiles the plight of many young boys who are employed by shipbuilding and breaking factories as apprentices with no pay for the first few years. "They work in extreme conditions without safety tools like gloves, goggles, and other protective gears. In exchange, they learn the skills of the trade. But this costs them loss of health and education," writes Asad.
The desperate state of the shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh is the subject of a global campaign supported by the IMF calling on world leaders to do more to protect these workers, as reported here on the IMF website.
Nearly twice as many photos were submitted to this year's Labour Photo of the Year competition as compared with last year (189 vs 118) and 3,203 votes were cast to choose a winner from a shortlist of five photos.
The Labour Photo of the Year competition is run by LabourStart, - an online news service maintained by a global network of volunteers which aims to serve the international trade union movement by collecting and disseminating information and by assisting unions in campaigning.
Eric Lee, the founder of LabourStart, is one of the speakers participating in the IMF/EMF Communicators' Forum in Frankfurt on November 17 and 18. He will be speaking in a panel discussion on applications of new media.
At the Forum, participants will also be looking at union communications in the context of organizing, climate change and trade union campaigns. A copy of the draft programme is published on the IMF website. [Nov 03, 2009 – Anita Gardner]
Italian Unions Divided Over Agreement
Italian metalworkers divided over the signing of a national agreement.
ITALY: Metalworker unions in Italy are divided over the recent signing of a national agreement for the renewal of the national contract set to expire at the end of 2011.
The draft agreement, signed by IMF affiliates FIM-CISL and UILM-UIL on October 15, is now being discussed by workers at the local level and will be considered by the National Assembly of workers' representatives of FIM-CISL and UILM-UIL in Bergamo on November 6. A referendum by all FIM-CISL and UILM-UIL members is taking place from November 25 to 27, 2009.
The scope of the agreement includes minimum wage increases, income support fund, training, health and safety initiatives and new rules on collective bargaining, subcontracted labour and part-time work.
The agreement is not supported by IMF affiliate FIOM-CGIL, arguing that the agreement should be submitted to all workers who will be covered by the agreement.
The division between the unions stems from a disagreement on the rules for collective bargaining for a national agreement and on rules for the submission of the agreement reached with the employers to all the workers it will apply to.
As FIM General Secretary Giuseppe Farina explains in an interview with the press, this negotiation is being carried out under the new collective bargaining rules set by the agreement signed at the national level by the national trade union centres CISL and UIL and not by CGIL. It is the first time in Italy that a separate agreement provides the collective bargaining structure for workers.
FIM General Secretary Farina indicated that FIOM were encouraged to be part of the negotiation, but FIOM refused. FIOM states that before the signature, it requested a stop to the negotiations, with the aim of achieving mediation between the two platforms and to decide together the ballot among workers. Earlier, FIOM and 250,000 metalworkers went on strike in defence of maintaining a jointly negotiated national collective agreement, see previous IMF news item here. [Nov 03, 2009 – Anita Gardner]
PhD Scholarships at International Center for Development and Decent Work
November 15, 2009 is the deadline to apply for a PhD scholarship at the ICDD.
GLOBAL: The newly founded International Center for Development and Decent Work, which was established in cooperation with the Global Labour University and the International Labour Organization, is offering 20 PhD Scholarships.
ICDD is an interdisciplinary and international scientific network of excellence with the head office located at the University of Kassel, Germany and partner universities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The PhD school is organised around three research clusters:
- Sustainable Value Creation for Decent Work
- Instruments for Promoting Decent Work
- Strategies of Empowerment for Decent Work
The course will commence on March 1, 2010 and the deadline for applications is November 15, 2009.
Click here for details and an application form. [Nov 03, 2009 – Anita Gardner]
IMF to Mainstream Organizing Non-manual Workers
With continuous shift from manual to non-manual work, unions should look to organizing non-manual workers more effectively.
GERMANY: Around 50 union representatives from IMF affiliates in Australia, Europe, Japan, North America and Singapore met at IG Metall headquarters on October 29-30, 2009 to discuss organising tools and strategies for non-manual workers against the backdrop of the global crisis.
In a key note presentation on structural developments in the metal industry, Professor Volker Wittke from the University of Göttingen highlighted the continuous shift from manual to non-manual work taking place within industry driven by automation, technological innovation, the demand for new products and services, and globalization.
All these changes have a major impact on the composition of the workforce in core sectors of the metal industry, on skill requirements, work organisation and working conditions, in particular a significant increase in workload and work intensification. Although the crisis alone was not a sufficient reason for non-manual workers to join a union, Dr. Heiner Dribbusch from the Hans-Böckler Foundation pointed out that unions could take advantage of opportunities to demonstrate their relevance, their effectiveness and the benefits of collective action at this time.
Helga Schwitzer, IG Metall Executive Board, noted that this year 13,000 non-manual workers had joined IG Metall , representing a 2.4 per cent increase over the preceding year whereas overall membership had dropped by about one per cent. Representatives from other countries reported similar developments in their own organisations, arguing that these workers no longer felt immune from restructuring and cost-cutting plans and they were mobilising for the defence of their rights more and more.
The seminar was structured around four panel discussions: reaching out to young people; organising ICT workers and self-employed; organising engineers and professionals; and building solidarity between manual and non-manual workers. The presentations on organising strategies in various countries gave rise to lively discussions and an in-depth exchange of views and experience on the problems and challenges facing affiliates in organising non-manual workers.
The main points of the discussions, as summarised by IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina, provided some ideas about future work:
- Mainstream non-manual workers' issues in all IMF activities and union-building projects
- Update and build content to non-manual section on IMF web site
- Networking and promoting exchange of information, material and ideas
- Communications and visibility: articles on IMF web site, IMF NewsBriefs and Metal World
- Union rights: action on countries with legal restrictions on organising non-manual workers
Key topics highlighted by the meeting for ongoing exchange include:
- Innovative organising methods and cases
- Union rights
- Collective bargaining questions
- Communications and services
- Equal rights
- Young workers
Copies of presentations delivered at the meeting will be published on the IMF website. [Nov 03, 2009 – Anita Gardner]
