4 March, 2014At the annual SKF world union committee (WUC) meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, around 30 workforce representatives from SKF, representing more than 48,000 workers worldwide, discussed the fight against precarious work, and SKF care and flexibility regulations in order to protect jobs within SKF group.
On 7 – 9 October, the delegates and observers from 16 countries met in Gothenburg. On the first day, the meeting was dedicated to joint discussions between management and trade union representatives. Delegates discussed with today's CEO, Tom Johnstone (who will leave at the end of the year), his designated successor, Alrik Danielsson and several other representatives from the management. "CARE", the SKF specific approach towards sustainability, was one of the major issues, as well as different forms of flexibility in order to meet the needs of a rapidly changing market.
To raise their voice against any form of abusive working conditions delegates adopted a resolution against precarious work, Then followed a short manifestation in order to demonstrate their solidarity with workers all over the world, struggling for decent work and against precarious working conditions.
On the second day, delegates discussed among themselves. First issue was, as previous years, reports from the different countries. The report from the Ukrainian delegation was especially touching, and delegates from all over the world announced their solidarity. With respect to the flexibility issue, an intense discussion took place. Delegates made clear that this is not only a question of working time flexibility. But still, working time flexibility is an issue almost all over the world. Several delegations introduced their respective working time flexibility systems in order to facilitate a common understanding about chances and risks of different models and approaches.
At the end of the day, delegates came back to the issue of precarious work, guided by an intervention from IndustriALL and several other comments. Participants agreed that the fight against precarious work is and will remain an issue for the entire trade union movement.
As one delegate stated:
Caring for decent working conditions for our brothers and sisters who are today employed in a precarious form, means caring for our own working conditions in the future, no matter where we are. Global capital seeks cheap labour, we strive jointly for decent work.
On the last day, delegates visited the SKF Gothenburg plant and learned the latest developments in SKF with regard to technological developments and future products and production systems. On the last evening delegates met in the Gothenburg SKF trade union clubhouse and had a joint dinner, hosted by the IF Metall/SKF union board. Next year’s meeting will probably be held in Germany.