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<img style="margin-right: 5px" src="" alt="IFAs" title="IFAs" width="89" height="89" align="left" />How do you protect workers rights where legislation is inadequate? How can you ensure respect for the ILO Core Labour Standards in all facilities of a transnational company? And how do you protect the interests of workers where unions are weak or non-existent? International Framework Agreements (IFAs) are a relatively recent tool but one now widely used by the IMF and other Global Union Federations to lay down the rules of conduct for transnational companies. Since they are negotiated on a global level and require the participation of trade unions, International Framework Agreements are an ideal instrument for dealing with the issues raised by globalisation. This is why the International Metalworkers Federation is dedicated to pursuing IFAs in all transnational companies where our affiliates have members. The future direction of International Framework Agreements (IFAs) was the subject of discussion at a world conference in 2006. The recommendations arising from the conference and subsequently adopted by the IMF Executive Committee can be found <a href="../index.cfm?c=14787">here</a>.

In depth: IFAs

List of all IFAs concluded by the Global Union Federations

Indesit (previously Merloni)

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&#1056;&#1091;&#1089;&#1089;&#1082;&#1080;&#1081;

Srpski

The power of Framework Agreements

A &quot;Declaration on Social Rights and Industrial Relationships at Volkswagen&quot; was signed in June 2002, by Volkswagen management, the IMF and the Volkswagen Global Works' Council (GWC). The Declaration states that the principles of the <a href="index.cfm?n=47&amp;l=2&amp;c=7799">ILO Core Labour Standards</a> will be assured within Volkswagen. The VW Declaration deals with the freedom of association, collective bargaining, prohibition of child work and forced labour and non-discrimination, as well as remuneration, health and safety and working time. Company management will report to the GWC and its Steering Committee, and in cases of reported violations, one of the two will become active and discuss ways to solve the problems. The IMF's coordinator for the VW Global Works' Council is involved in this discussion and will bring in the position of the IMF and its affiliated unions. The agreement is applicable to the entire Volkswagen group - Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Rolls-Royce Bentley, Lamborghini, Auto-Europa.

List of Volkswagen plants and brands

English (pdf)

German (pdf)

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Czech (pdf)

IFA: Volkswagen

SAN DIEGO: At its recently concluded meeting in San Diego, California, USA, the IMF Executive Committee approved the proposed programme of activities for 2003. Amongst others, the Executive discussed the following issues:
<ul>
<li>International Framework Agreements: In order to lay down rules of conduct for transnational companies, the IMF, as a major focus in the years to come, will pursue International Framework Agreements, negotiated between trade unions at a global level and company management. 
<li>Women's representation: The percentage of women members in the IMF is not reflected at any level of its structures, either formal or informal. For example, the IMF Executive Committee has never included a woman. The Executive therefore decided that:
<ul><li>The IMF shall reestablish a Women's Committee. 
<li>An IMF Women's Conference will be held in conjunction with IMF Congresses.
<li>Affiliates shall target a 20 per cent participation by women at the IMF Central Committee meeting in 2003 and the Congress in 2005.
<li>Steps must be taken to ensure that the IMF Executive includes a substantial number of women. How this will be done must be discussed at the next meeting of the Executive, and as there might be implications for the IMF Rules, probably also at the next IMF Congress.</ul>
<li>Belarus: The Executive issued a declaration appealing for support for the IMF's Belarus affiliates (see separate article). Moreover, since the Congress of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) is in effect controlled by the repressive government of Lukashenko, the IMF recommends all IMF affiliates to urge their respective trade union confederations not to have any contact with the FTUB.

The IMF will organise a seminar about trade union rights in Belarus in the first half of next year.</ul>

The core issues of the IMF are, of course, organising the unorganised, international solidarity, and dealing with transnational corporations. Within this context a programme of activities was decided, including:
<ul>
<li>seminars on International Framework Agreements;
<li>a conference on ICT companies;
<li>regional conferences on export processing zones;
<li>an organising programme in Mexico;
<li>projects on training trainers in Russia and Ukraine;
<li>a seminar on organising non-manual workers.
</ul>
The IMF also welcomes three new affiliates, adding to the more than 200 in the federation:<ul>
<li>Limter-Is (Turkey), shipbuilding &amp; ship repairing sector, 1,112 members;
<li>International Union of Elevator Constructors (USA/Canada), engineering sector, 27,000 members;
<li>International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (USA/Canada), shipbuilding sector, 1,250 members (there are other sectors not affiliated to the IMF).
</ul>

The IMF Executive Committee discussed International Framework Agreements, women's representation and Belarus.

Rights violations continue in Belarus

Framework agreements in focus at IMF Executive

Last week the Executive Committee of the International Metalworkers' Federation visited the maquiladoras in Mexico.
Of course there was no question of visiting a plant. As trade unionists, we had been denied access. Instead, we went to meet the workers where they live, in the so-called "residential areas". 

We met mostly women. Not because they stay at home and do not work, but because they work 12-hour-long nightshifts. Yes, 12 hours for four nights and "only" six hours the fifth night - altogether 54 night hours per week.

All of those whom we talked to had come to Tijuana from southern Mexico, where living and working conditions are even worse than in the maquila districts of the north. The transnational companies in the maquilas know that, and this is the reason they can continue to exploit workers.

With a weekly salary of about US$50, workers have lots of difficulty just to survive... and this is supposed to be one of the richest regions in Mexico. Most of the workers and their families live in wooden shanties, providing poor and fragile shelter. There's no electricity, no running water.

Drinking water is only available from the shops at a relatively high price, and people must spend a disproportionate amount of their wages just to buy it. Drinking water is a basic human right that should be provided to everyone on this Earth by the community.

The people in the communities around the maquilas are also exposed to an array of environmental hazards. An abandoned battery plant with tons of visible residue from lead, nickel and cadmium contaminates the small river that runs through the community at the bottom of the hill.

And there is no union to protect them... only "protection contracts" signed by transnational companies and the mafia, which collects dues without the workers knowing it.

It hurts to see kids jumping and playing in this environment.

They are not waiting for Santa Claus. They are waiting for social justice and an opportunity to make a living.

They dream of earning money to buy the things their parents are producing and which are exported to other countries to make other people happy.

Merry Christmas to everybody.

Season&#039;s greetings from Tijuana to Wall Street and all the other&lt;br&gt;stock exchanges

BELARUS: During its meeting last week in San Diego, California, the IMF Executive Committee issued a strong statement (full text on associate link) in support of the IMF's two Belarus affiliates, the Automobile &amp; Agricultural Machinery Workers' Union (AAM) and the Radio &amp; Electronics Industry Workers' Union (REI). The two unions are fighting to safeguard the independent trade union movement in Belarus.

Since September 2002, when the Congress of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) elected Leonid Kozik as its new president, the situation for the country's independent trade unions has been steadily worsening. The election of Kozik, the former deputy head of Belarus President Lukashenko's Administration and unknown in the trade union movement, was achieved through blatant violations of internationally accepted trade union rights and any kind of conventions or principles of the International Labour Organisation.

A real campaign is in action in Belarus aimed at removing from office the presidents of the AAM and REI, Aliaksandr Bukhvostau and Gennadi Fedynitch. State authorities, management of companies and the state-run mass media are putting intense pressure on the two unions and actively harassing and persecuting the trade union leaders and those who support them. 

The IMF is appealing to all its members to support the Belarus affiliates by sending protests to the Belarus authorities, as well as letters to their own governments to urge them to influence the leadership of Belarus to stop the violations of workers' rights.

Letters for Belarus government authorities can be addressed to: 
<ul>
<li>A.G. Lukashenko 
President of the Republic of Belarus 
Administration of the President of Belarus 
Fax: ++375/17 2260610 
E-mail (from president's official website): www.president.gov.by/eng/president/

<li>Council of Ministers 
Fax: ++375/17 2226665</ul>

Kindly send copies to: 
<ul>
<li>AAM 
Fax: ++375/17 2238160 
E-mail: acmbel2@mail.belpak.by
<li>REI 
Fax: ++375/17 2844187 
E-mail: prof2001@mail.ru

<li>IMF 
Fax: ++41/22 3085055 
E-mail: info@imfmetal.org 
</ul>

The IMF Executive has issued a declaration appealing for support for the IMF's Belarus affiliates.

IMF Executive Committee Declaration

Background on trade union situation in Belarus

BRAZIL: The Brazilian metalworkers' union CNM-CUT and the Italian metalworkers' federation FIM-CISL, both affiliated to the International Metalworkers' Federation, met in mid-December in Belém, the capital of the northern Brazilian state of Para, in the Amazon region, to launch "Criança 2000", a project to fight against child labour.

In the last two years, the Italian union, in the framework of the IMF's international campaign against child labour, has been running a national campaign in Italy - with seminars and meetings in local unions and plants - to collect funds in support of the project in Brazil, and during which 300 million lira (US$150,000) have been contributed so far. Also, the CNM president, Heriberto Della Bella Navarro - known as "Guiba" - visited Italy last year to discuss and present the project to union activists.

Fighting child labour implies a holistic and integrated approach focused on the family. Three hundred families will be helped, with children going back to school and parents finding jobs in small community projects. The local administration of Belém still operates some projects, such as alphabetisation, educational training, sport activities, cooperative work, etc., and "Criança 2000" will be working in this integrated net. 

"The role of the union in society is not only to represent and defend workers, and to establish rules for international framework agreements, but also to fight poverty and exclusion in cooperation with civil society forces, in well-designed projects," remarked Toni Ferigo, on behalf of IMF. The importance of continuing such cooperation was also stressed by the leadership of the Italian and Brazilian metalworkers' unions.

Italian and Brazilian metalworkers' unions join forces to fight against child labour.

Launch of &quot;CrianÇa 2000&quot;

USA: The IMF has welcomed the news from its affiliate, the United Steelworkers of America, that AK Steel is ending a three-year lockout of over 600 workers at its Mansfield, Ohio plant. The struggle began in September 1999 when the company, refusing the USWA's offer for workers to remain on the job during contract negotiations, locked out 620 union members and has run the mill with replacement workers ever since.

Leo Gerard, USWA president, said it was "a tragedy that this company took three years to realize it needs the skilled and experienced work of our members to operate its Mansfield facility. The triumph for our members is that their solidarity ultimately brought about this return to work."

The union will urge AK Steel to recall USWA members as rapidly as possible and expects an orderly return to work that "respects the rights of our members in the contract that they have accepted and ratified." In September of this year, USWA negotiators, in a good faith effort to end the lockout, accepted a comprehensive contract proposal from AK Steel. Although it was overwhelmingly ratified by union members, the company then refused to execute the agreement.

The United Steelworkers of America have greeted this decision as a "triumph" of their members' solidarity.

Background on AK Steel lockout

AK Steel ends 3-year lockout

May Day is our day, the workers' day. 

It is the day when the supreme ideals of democracy, freedom, solidarity and justice must be at the top of all speeches. These ideals are indivisible and must be applied in all countries and to all people.

The entire world is going through very difficult times. And, as many times in the past when war, dictatorship or natural catastrophes hit a country, a region or a continent, this causes waves of migration. But even more fundamentally, the continuing underdevelopment of many parts of the world forces many people to seek an escape from poverty by leaving their homes. It is simply an essential part of the human constitution that we do not want to suffer.

Whether slow or hurried migration, this inevitably creates a reaction from people already living in the countries and areas to which the migration is directed.

This is the beginning of the problem. When people start moving from one country to another, this sometimes creates opportunities to organise illegal activities, to the benefit of criminals - Mafia, drug barons, traffickers of all kinds.

At this very moment, populist and irresponsible movements such as the National Front in France, Lega Nord in Italy, the Freedom Party in Austria, the Danish People's Party in Denmark, etc. take advantage of a social problem and turn it into nationalistic demagogy. The typical approach is to blame all immigrants for illegal activities carried out by the very smallest fraction.

"Every immigrant should be sent home," the xenophobes claim. Or "the foreigners are criminals, and they steal our jobs." Or "cultures shouldn't mix." And so on. You've all heard the arguments.

Nevertheless, all these arguments are wrong and fundamentally stupid.

First of all because we and our cultures are enriched by the people who bring them to us, but also because the solutions the racists propose only detract from the real problem, that economic underdevelopment of huge parts of the globe continues and even grows. This is the root we must attack.

If one looks back at the history of mankind, we will discover that every single existing subject is a result of a mixture. I challenge anybody who does not agree with that. The Romans mixed with the Greeks and Arabs, who mixed with the Persians, who mixed with the Indians, who mixed with the Chinese - and this is an ongoing process. Mixing of cultures and traditions is in fact a condition for development and not an obstacle, as racists and xenophobes want us to believe.

In my job, I meet every day with people who have their origins in different countries. I do not know a single country where one nationality exclusively makes up the total workforce.

Many trade union leaders, in most countries, have their roots somewhere outside the country in which they live and work. I know Jewish and Muslim trade unionists working together in the USA. Black and white in Brazil. Arabs and French in France, Indians and English in Great Britain, Turks, Greeks and Germans in Germany, Maghreb, Italians and Spaniards in Italy and Spain, Finns, Serbians and Swedes in Sweden. All these represent great assets for the whole trade union movement of the world. 

Being a migrant worker myself, I have always found my place in the trade union because it has given me the opportunity to integrate into a society which might have excluded me otherwise. The trade union is an important link which can play a great role in a modern society to unite people, with all their differences and particularities. It can do this because it represents the fundamental ideals of democracy, freedom, solidarity and justice.

Make May Day into a big manifestation against racism and xenophobia.

Demonstrate against racism and xenophobia

The colour of a government does not necessarily mean that the unions have to fight harder to defend their members. But when a government, regardless of its political inclination, tries to take away fundamental rights which have been recognised and introduced into labour legislation, after decades of hard struggle, there can only be a fight.

Ever since Silvio Berlusconi took over the responsibility of governing Italy, which is one of the largest economies in the world, he has been attacking the trade unions.

Berlusconi's first government fell after only 8 months, in December 1994, when he tried to change the pension system for workers. The reaction of the unions was strong, and they brought more than one million people onto the streets of Rome in protest.

This time, the government is trying to deny workers their right to be reinstated in their jobs following unjustified dismissals. The fight is about Article 18 of the Labour Law (statuto dei lavoratori). The Italian government, apart from being misinformed about the legislation in other European countries, is also bluntly lying. But lies are not unusual for Berlusconi and his government. They claim that abolishing Article 18 means bringing Italian legislation in line with the rest of Europe.

Nothing could be more wrong. Berlusconi should ask his Minister of Labour to have a closer look at Article 30 of the Charter of Rights adopted by the European Union in Nice just a year and a half ago.

In most countries, if a court finds a worker has been dismissed for unjustified reasons, the court itself can decide to reinstate him/her without any interruption of the employment. This means that one keeps all the benefits he/she has so far acquired. 

Why is this so important?

Because a worker who loses his/her job should not just receive financial compensation. If you lose your job because of discrimination for say political, religious or ethnic reasons, or because the employer just wanted you out, then the employer should not just buy his way out.

One cannot buy human dignity, even if his name is Berlusconi.

The three Italian trade union centres - the CGIL, CISL and UIL - have together declared a general strike for April 16. It goes without saying that the global unions should massively support the Italians in their struggle for the defense of workers' rights.

Their struggle is ours.

Viva i lavoratori italiani.

The Italian workers are fighting for all of us

GENEVA: In his support of the Italian unions' general strike, Marcello Malentacchi, the general secretary of the IMF, writes in his latest opinion column that when a government - no matter which way it leans - attempts to get rid of basic rights introduced into labour legislation, there is going to be a fight. 

The government of Silvio Berlusconi wants to scrap Article 18 of the hard-won 30-year-old labour law (the Workers' Statute), which protects workers who have been dismissed from their jobs without just cause. Although the center-right government claims it wants to bring Italian legislation in line with the rest of Europe, Malentacchi suggests they take "a closer look at Article 30 of the European Union's Charter of Rights."

The struggle of the Italian unions "is ours", says the IMF general secretary. Go to the associated link to read the full text of his opinion.

The IMF general secretary says the government of Silvio Berlusconi is not telling the truth in its attempt to change Italian labour legislation.

Marcello Malentacchi's opinion column

&quot;Italian unions are fighting for all workers&quot;

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