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Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

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GLOBAL: Celebrating its tenth year of existence, the <a href="http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/index.php?cd_language=2" target="_blank">World Social Forum (WSF)</a>, will take place in 2010 in a permanent way all year-round with at least 27 regional, national and local events throughout the world during the year.Opening this process, the regional event &quot;Greater Porto Alegre 10 Years Social Forum&quot;, which is going to happen from January 25 to 29, 2010 in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, will have over 500 decentralized activities in the cities of Porto Alegre, Gravataí, Canoas, São Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo and Sapiranga.One of the main activities of the Greater Porto Alegre Social Forum is the international seminar &quot;10 Years Later: Challenges and proposals for another possible world&quot;, which aims to examine the new challenges of alter-globalist civil society and to design future directions to be followed by the WSF. It also aims to provide a more systematic reflection on what has been done thus far, including mistakes and successes. The WSF is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations can engage in a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies. Many trade unions affiliated to the International Metalworkers' Federation will take part in WSF activities throughout the year.The dates of the 2010 Porte Alegre event overlap with the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, taking place from January 27 to 31, 2010. The 40th anniversary of the WEF meeting will be held under the theme &quot;Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild&quot;, where organizers hope that the 2,500 leaders from over 90 countries representing business, government and civil society participating will show true &quot;corporate global citizenship&quot;. You can find the complete list of World Social Forum events and activities <a href="http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/dinamic.php?pagina=eventos%202010%20EN" target="_blank">here</a>. Go <a href="http://www.weforum.org/en/events/AnnualMeeting2010/index.htm" target="_blank">here</a> for more details on the World Economic Forum.&#160;

At a World Social Forum event in Porto Alegre in January 2010, civil society groups will seek alternatives to neo-liberal policies and reflect on ten years of work.

WSF celebrates ten years

CANADA: The Canadian Auto Workers' Union (CAW) is demanding that the federal government release the details of the agreement it made with Xstrata when it took over Falconbridge in 2006, to see if that deal is violated by Xstrata's plans to close its copper and zinc operations at Kidd Creek, near Timmins, Ontario.The Switzerland-based company's December 7, 2009 announcement of the closures has sparked a massive campaign by the CAW in an effort to save 500 of the union's members' jobs, another 170 Xstrata employees and 200 workers hired on contract. The CAW estimates additional 3,000 - 4,000 jobs will be lost in Timmins and surrounding communities due to the proposed closures.&quot;Canadians deserve to know exactly what was in that 2006 agreement,&quot; said CAW President Ken Lewenza.  The CAW will press for government action to reverse the closure decision, if indeed, as is expected, the 2006 deal required Xstrata to continue operating value-added facilities.In a letter to Xstrata CEO Mick Davis, International Metalworkers' Federation general secretary Jyrki Raina called on the company to &quot;postpone taking such drastic measures and allow for constructive dialogue between the CAW, Xstrata and community leaders in an effort to explore alternative long-term solutions that will prove beneficial to all parties.&quot;The CAW, workers, their families and community members held a rally on January 17 to show solidarity with the workers facing lay-off and activate the community in how they can take action against the closures. Rally participants were asked to contact their government representatives and explain how the lay-offs would impact their families and community.The CAW campaign titled &quot;Our Resources Stay Here&quot; is similar to the fight the United Steelworkers (USW) has launched against Brazilian-owned mining giant Vale in nearby Sudbury, Ontario. The CAW has supported USW Local 6500 on picket lines and with financial support in its current six-month strike against Vale Inco, and it has also joined USW in calling on the Canadian Parliament to enact legislation that would give transparency to deals made under the Investment Canada Act. For more information about the CAW's struggle against Xstrata, go to the union local's website at: <a href="http://www.caw599.ca/" target="_blank">http://www.caw599.ca/</a>

Canadian miners are protesting the Swiss mining company's plans to close its copper and zinc operations, calling on government to intervene.

IMF letter to Xstrata CEO in support of CAW

CAW fights proposed Xstrata plant closures

CHINA: In its urgent appeal for letters to be sent to Gold Peak, Good Electronics reports on calls for an inquiry into the violence used against workers by security guards at Power Pack, a Gold Peak subsidiary in Huizhou, China during a strike in December.Non-governmental Chinese labour groups, including Globalization Monitor and the Asia Monitor Resource Centre are also calling on Gold Peak to pay the full hospitalization costs of the workers injured by this violence and to compensate the workers sacked in relation to the incident.In December 2009 growing dissatisfaction with low wages at the plant resulted in a two-day strike, which turned sour when three workers were locked up and treated badly by the company's security guards. In the course of the strike, workers blocked the gates as well as the main road to the compound.Four employees of Power Pack were later summoned to the local police station to assist in an investigation into the road blockade. Among the four was Ms Wang Fengping, a 45-year old engineer employed with Gold Peak since 1995. Ms Wang suffers from severe kidney failure, caused by cadmium exposure while working for Gold Peak. Ms Wang was released after being questioned for more than 10 hours on account of her medical condition; the three other workers were kept in detention until January 2, 2010. Following the detention at the police station, Gold Peak has fired Ms Wang.These recent problems at Power Pack are set against the background of the unresolved issue of the compensation of Gold Peak workers who have been exposed to cadmium. Over the past years, hundreds of workers involved in the manufacturing of cadmium batteries have been diagnosed with cadmium poisoning or excessive cadmium levels in their urine. Till this date, the Gold Peak management and the workers have not been able to reach an agreement over diagnosis methodology and compensation packages.Gold Peak batteries are used in all types of toys and electronics products.Click here to join Good Electronics' urgent appeal to Gold Peak to improve its record: <a href="http://goodelectronics.org/urgent-appeals/letters/gold-peak/" target="_blank">http://goodelectronics.org/urgent-appeals/letters/gold-peak/</a>

Chinese battery producer Gold Peak Industrial Holding Ltd under fire by Chinese and international labour groups for failing to be a decent employer.

Cadmium poisoning at Chinese battery factory

Labour rights groups protest Gold Peak&#039;s performance

USA:  The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) and partners launched Ur Union of Unemployed - nicknamed UCubed - on January 15, 2010 to assist the more than 31 million jobless Americans. By registering on the website, UCubed connects the unemployed by postal code and then builds &quot;cubes&quot; of six people to end that sense of being all alone. UCubed aims to bring people together - the unemployed and underemployed alike - to build a community of jobs activists who will create local networks, support one another and help in the campaign for jobs.Inviting the unemployed to join, R. Thomas Buffenbarger, IAM International President explains why the Machinists have established UCubed.&quot;More than 35,000 members of our union have been laid off. Others are working fewer hours each week because their employers simply do not have orders to fill. And the real recovery, not the false one on Wall Street, still seems years away,&quot; said Buffenbarger.By creating UCubed, IAM hopes to ease the burden of being unemployed and organize job activists in the political campaign for the creation of jobs in all sectors of the U.S. economy.&quot;Everywhere we turn we see the personal devastation this Grave Recession has caused. And we hope UCubed provides a measure of relief - an end to the sense of being all alone, a chance to build something useful and unique, and an opportunity for the unemployed to change things for the better,&quot; said Buffenbarger.For more go to: <a href="http://www.unionofunemployed.com/">http://www.unionofunemployed.com/</a>

IAM and partners launch Ur Union of Unemployed - nicknamed UCubed - to assist the more than 31 million jobless Americans, see: <a href="http://www.unionofunemployed.com">www.unionofunemployed.com</a>

Organizing 31 million jobless Americans

The ILO estimates that the present financial crisis is likely to lead to the loss of some 20 million jobs worldwide and conservatively estimates that the number of working poor living on less than a dollar a day could rise by some 40 million, with those at two dollars a day rising by more than 100 million. Even now, before the full effect of this crisis is known, over one-third of the world's workforce is jobless or underemployed. The so-called modernisation of labour laws that governments and business interests are seeking to introduce is also part and parcel of the neo-liberal agenda and a direct attack on workers. Not only is there a rise in unemployment worldwide, but also employment creation increasingly comes at the expense of quality jobs.  More and more workers are finding the search for full-time, permanent employment a fruitless quest.  Precarious work is becoming the norm, spreading in all sectors of the economy including in professional groups.  Others find their jobs are outsourced, misclassified, and lack protection from existing labour laws. In many developing countries, workers have been squeezed out of regular employment into the so-called informal economy due to severe economic crises, widespread privatisation programmes, and the job destruction resulting from economic restructuring. The unregulated economy is expanding and a growing number of people struggle to survive on poverty level wages. Unemployment and poor living conditions spur migration within countries and across national boundaries, creating a multitude of tensions in many parts of the world.  Precariously employed workers face job insecurity and an uncertain future, low wages, limited or no access to social benefits, such as health or pension schemes, and increased health and safety risks at work. Precarious workers are also frequently denied rights at work, such as the right to join a union or bargain collectively. The rise of precarious employment is creating a two-tier workforce, which is undermining social cohesion and weakening trade unions.  This is part of a larger union-busting strategy used by employers in their well orchestrated anti-union campaigns.

Preface

3. GLOBAL SOLIDARITY IN ACTION

3.3 Defend and protect workers rights

1. OUR MISSION

2. THE WORLD TODAY

2.1 Profits over people

2.2 Unemployment and job insecurity

2.3 Unions under attack

2.4 Fundamental workers´ rights denied

2.5 Spreading influence of Transnational Corporations

2.6 World trade system in disarray

2.7 An unsustainable future

2.8 Alliances, resistance and opportunities

3.1 Build strong national trade unions

3.1.1 Organise the unorganised

3.1.2 Strive for trade union unity at the national level

3.1.3 Build unions through education, training and effective exchange of information

3.2 Strengthening collective bargaining

3.3.1 Fight for trade union rights

3.3.2 Fight for Equal Rights

3.3.3 Fight for safe workplaces

3.4 Build a counterweight to the power of transnational corporations

3.4.1 Strengthening union solidarity and cooperation across sectors and TNCs

3.4.2 Advance fundamental rights through International Framework Agreements

Financial capital has come to dominate productive capital. Short-term speculative investment has gained the upper hand at the expense of long-term investment in job creation, skills development, research and innovation, and sustainable development. The current food, fuel and financial crises, are neo-liberal policy failures, that have drastic consequences for working people and the poor, and that are now dragging the world economy into a severe recession. Over the past few years the globalisation of finance has taken on a new dimension with the proliferation of novel speculative products that escape monitoring and regulation. Speculative funds are fed by banks and institutional investors such as insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds. Some part of private equity assets also come from sovereign wealth funds with huge resources at their disposal, and with a deliberate lack of transparency as to their political and economic objectives, as well as to their practices and investment strategies.Never before has the influence of private equity and hedge funds on markets and enterprises been so strong.  Many of them are located in tax havens, which deals another blow to already declining public income from corporate taxation. The financial economy based on short-termism and high rates of return is increasingly disconnected from the real economy with devastating consequences for workers.Today, hardly any company is immune from takeover by private equity funds. In most cases, these funds take control of enterprises without any industrial plans, and for the sole objective of boosting share prices and extracting maximum returns over a short period. The potentially high short-term gains attract institutional investors, including pension funds. Thus workers who have put their retirement savings in these pension funds find themselves unwittingly involved in speculative finance that is destroying jobs. Many workers have already watched their savings dissolved by corporate scandals.    The instability of the world's financial markets is not just a problem due to a few speculators - the whole system requires new rules.

Since the IMF Congress in 2005, metalworkers and the whole trade union movement have been confronted with an increasingly hostile political, economic and social environment. Corporations have led globalisation to maximise the global reach and profits of their operations with the support of governments and international institutions by promoting neo-liberal policies, which feature deregulation of capital and labour markets, privatization of public services and assets, a reduction in employment growth in many regions, an erosion of social security systems and the frequent denial of worker and human rights.  Even today, a large proportion of the world's metalworkers do not enjoy the fundamental right to have a union.While the world economy has grown and created vast amounts of wealth, the divide between rich and poor has widened.  Ever more workers have been faced with deteriorating working and living conditions, job insecurity and an erosion of their rights. Capital has gained huge profits, while the purchasing power of most workers has fallen or at best stagnated.

All workers should enjoy equal rights irrespective of their sex, age, nationality, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or religion.  Yet metal industry employers in many countries, including highly industrialised ones, continue to discriminate with impunity against workers precisely on those grounds. The IMF will work with its affiliates to eliminate discrimination in the workplace in all its forms. Many workers throughout the world are subjected to discrimination that deprives them of their rights to freedom of association and collective bargain.  That is why IMF will focus its efforts on assisting affiliates to develop specific organising strategies, e.g. to improve unionisation rates among women, migrant and young workers, particularly in EPZs, where labour rights continue to be abused and trade unionism is repressed. There is a clear and urgent need for unions to assess whether new approaches must be adopted to meet the needs and aspirations of women, young people, and migrant workers -  groups that are underrepresented in metal unions, but that are entering the industry at an increasing rate.  Changes need to be made to union structures, cultures and practices that discourage such workers from becoming union members to ensure that equal rights are extended to all workers.According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, discrimination occurs if persons with disabilities cannot participate as fully-fledged members in society and if their human and workers' rights are violated.  In particular, with respect to elderly workers, many countries need to intensify their struggle against discrimination and social exclusion of older, disabled and health-impaired workers from the labour market and further training.Discrimination also means that women, migrant and young workers are over-represented in precarious employment. This reaches extreme levels in the case of migrant workers, particularly when dramatic poverty leaves them without protection against unprincipled and sometimes criminal organisations that exploit their vulnerability. The IMF will encourage affiliates to share strategies for making contact with and organising migrant workers, and improving their working conditions by including them in collective bargaining.The double burden of domestic work that is placed on women can force them into precarious employment situations, with adverse consequences for themselves, their families and communities.  The IMF will give priority to highlighting the disproportionate impact precarious work has on women workers and to encouraging measures to address it, focusing in particular on the gender pay gap and the gender segmentation that leads to women being denied access to better jobs.Women's representation at all levels of trade union organisation is still too low. Efforts by unions to organise women workers are hampered by structures that do not include women as leaders.  The IMF will continue to work with its affiliates to redress this imbalance and assist them to remove barriers to women's representation in their union structures and electoral processes. An emphasis will be put on the need to encourage greater participation by young workers in union structures. The IMF will:<ul><li>Assist its affiliates in leading the fight in the workplace against discrimination in all its forms;</li><li>Support organising activities of affiliates in EPZs and encourage the exchange of successful experiences between them;</li><li>Cooperate with ITUC and other GUFs, particularly International Textile, Garment &amp; Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF), in addressing the lack of union organisation  in EPZs;</li><li>Assist its affiliates in eliminating constraints that hinder persons with disabilities to get equal opportunities at the workplace.  The IMF will also support programs that focus on issues concerning people with disabilities in all trade union and ILO activities;</li><li>Assist affiliates to identify and remove barriers to women's equal participation and representation in their unions;</li><li>Monitor and report on the impact of precarious work on women, migrant and young workers including encouraging affiliates to do their own gender analysis of precarious work and to take action to reduce the double burden of domestic work on women;</li><li>Ensure that measures taken to improve conditions for precarious workers take particular account of the needs of women, migrant, and young workers;</li><li>Provide opportunities for affiliates to share experiences and strategies for making contact with and organising both internal and external migrant workers; and</li><li>Raise awareness of the difficulties faced by young people in finding secure employment with good pay and working conditions, and support efforts by affiliates to respond.</li></ul>

Achieving and strengthening collective bargaining is the core activity of trade unions and remains the best instrument for improving wages and conditions, regulating the relationship between employers and workers and solving problems at the workplace. Its impact goes beyond the workplace and affects the living conditions and development prospects of communities. Collective bargaining should be increasingly used as a tool for trade unions to engage with communities and promote the broader interests of workers as citizens and consumers.Over the past decade the trade union movement has been attacked by employers, governments and their allies who are determined to weaken collective bargaining, thereby weakening the union movement. In particular, employers are eager to eradicate national, sectoral, and sometimes even enterprise-wide collective bargaining. Using the threat of outsourcing production and services, they push for more flexibility and other concessions. New forms of employment and work practices are imposed on employees, increasing stress and insecurity. In developing countries, foreign investors in particular demand deregulation of labour law and other regulatory changes, which have negative impacts on the development opportunities for these countries.  The IMF will work with affiliates to ensure that collective agreements continue to provide a framework for intervening on all work issues including decent wages and working conditions, including working time, work organisation, pace of work and health and safety. In the long-term, and as companies increasingly operate globally, collective bargaining at the international level, while respecting the rights of national unions, must be the goal of the IMF.  As a first step, an information and coordination system should be established. To develop and strengthen global and national collective bargaining efforts, the IMF will:<ul><li>Develop ways to exchange information on collective bargaining that build on the experiences gained at the regional level in Europe and elsewhere;</li><li>Build commonality for bargaining among affiliates at the global level, e.g. by developing global union positions on issues such as precarious employment and training;</li><li>Conduct cross-border negotiations with TNC with the involvement of functioning global union networks and an IMF coordinator, based on clear case by case mandates from affiliates.  In order to have a framework of action for these cross-border negotiations, the IMF Executive Committee will develop IMF guidelines with the support of the Secretariat, which will also describe the roles of the IMF coordinators.  Not only may IFAs be negotiated, but also topics such as health and safety and training;  access to information and other issues of common interest; and</li><li>Assist affiliates in building collective bargaining capacity at the national level. </li></ul> IMF affiliates shall:<ul><li>Provide information on collective bargaining experiences to others; and</li><li>Strive to remove legal obstacles to collective bargaining at the national and sectoral level.</li></ul>

<h3 align="left">Training and Education</h3>Where appropriate, the IMF will cooperate with the ITUC, TUAC, the ILO and union-friendly partner organisations to organise and provide education and training aimed at building strong national unions. The IMF Secretariat, with advice from the Executive Committee and the Regions, will prioritise this work to best meet the Action Programme objectives. Where there is cooperation with donor organisations, the primacy of the IMF objectives and the independence of the IMF will always be maintained.Education and training for union building will include topics such as:<ul><li>Globalisation, the rise of corporate power and challenging neoliberalism;</li><li>Organising;</li><li>Collective bargaining policies and effective collective bargaining skills and structures;</li><li>Health and safety issues; </li><li>Equal rights;</li><li>Introduction of new technologies;</li><li>Skills development and life long learning;</li><li>Internal and external communication strategies;</li><li>Financial union management (including effective collection of membership dues and appropriate and transparent expenditures);</li><li>Implementation, monitoring and enforcement of IFAs; and</li><li>Other trade union topics that are of interest and concern.</li></ul>Consistent with the principles outlined above in sections 3.1.1 and 3.1.2, the IMF will provide resources for union building projects on the condition that they:<ul><li>Build organisations independent of employer and government control;</li><li>Enhance democracy within the organisation and encourage and enable members, particularly youth and women, to take part in the activities of the organisation. Projects should contribute to eliminating political, racial and gender discrimination;</li><li>Increase the capacity of the organisation to carry out its own core union activities, building self-reliance, particularly in the area of education;</li><li>Strengthen solidarity within the organisation, among unions in the country and/or region, and inside the IMF; and</li><li>Support independent trade unions confronting and fighting repressive governments.</li></ul><h3> Information</h3><ul><li>Information on the work of the IMF and its affiliates needs to be more systematically communicated. This information can help affiliates in the different regions to learn from one another and build up their strength.</li></ul><h3> The IMF will:</h3><ul><li>Work towards establishing a more effective internal information system, using the IMF website, newsletters, the quarterly journal and other means of communication. </li></ul><h3> IMF affiliates will:</h3><ul><li>Inform the secretariat about what type of information they are interested in; and,</li><li>Provide the IMF with information about their activities.</li></ul>

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