English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2025-2029

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

USA: Some 95,000 U.S. hourly workers at Ford Motor Co. will again benefit from profit-sharing as the company has announced a modest return to profitability for the year 2002. Ford will give checks worth an average of $160 in profit-sharing to each of its hourly employees on March 12.

Under provisions in the United Auto Workers' contracts with the Big Three automakers, which hinge on their corporate U.S. profits, the companies are required to pay profit-sharing bonuses to their production workers. However, hit by an industry-wide downturn in 2001, none of the three paid out profit-sharing in 2002, for the first time in over a decade. Ford, for example, suffered a $5.45 billion loss for 2001.

General Motors has also announced it will distribute profit-sharing checks, which will average $940, to 130,000 U.S. hourly workers for 2002, as well as the Chrysler Group, which is expected to pay anywhere from $500 to $1,000 to its over 65,000 UAW employees.

After the 2001 downturn in the U.S. auto industry, the results for 2002 will allow for bonuses again.

Profit-sharing at Big Three

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

Finally, the Italian government, led by its incompetent ministers of industry and labour, has openly shown that Big Capital is the only sector of society that it wants to represent.

8,100 Fiat workers in all plants in Italy will not have a job to go to on Monday, December 9, and 2,400 of these workers will never get it back again. 5,700 will be on technical unemployment insurance without any guarantee to go back to work.

The deal signed by Fiat and the Berlusconi government is the final act to the dismantling of the Italian auto industry.

Instead of taking this opportunity to relaunch an extensive industrial project based on production of automobiles that would have benefited people in both the south and north of Italy, the government and the company have preferred to send positive signals to the shareholders by implementing a ruthless programme that will throw thousands of workers and their families into poverty.

We shouldn't forget that Fiat, being a very important conglomerate, has dictated industrial policy in Italy. In the past, Fiat received enormous amounts of funds from the Italian government and from European regional funds to set up plants in the south of Italy. Now the funds are finished, which is why Fiat is no longer interested.

For the first time ever, an agreement which concerns workers has been reached by a company and the government without the trade unions. The government's claim that trade unions were consulted is a lie.

What happened was that Fiat and the government first reached an agreement as to how to use the funds from unemployment insurance and than submitted the same to the unions. 

All three unions together and in unison rejected the proposal and protested against the way this important issue has been dealt with.

Today, December 6, when the workers at all Fiat plants are on strike, we at the IMF want to express our solidarity with the workers of Fiat and let them know that we support their struggle.

The tragedy at Fiat

Meetings between leaders of countries are necessary and useful, if they do not aim at replacing international organisations that have been set up for global governance.

Once again it is time for the "Big" economic powers to meet and decide how to rule the entire world. The place for the event is Evian, France (just 30 kilometers outside Geneva).

This time, Bush, Koizumi, Chirac, Blair and the others have decided to spend one day to "consult" some of the other countries. That is why Algeria, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa and Switzerland have been invited.

To make the event look even more legitimate, the UN, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the WTO have also be included for the consultations. The ILO, the organisation with the best democratic structure, has not been invited, and we know from past experience that workers' rights don't interest the "Big".

The criteria used to select the countries and organisations to be in Evian are a secret and will probably remain so. Furthermore, the G-8 has no rules. It meets and decides the agenda without any kind of democratic process or transparency.

Undoubtedly, there are things absent from this meeting's agenda which should be discussed but within the framework of the UN and under the chairmanship of its secretary-general, such as:
<ul>
<li>how to write off the well over US$2,000 billion external debt of developing countries;
<li>how to introduce a special tax on speculative financial transactions;
<li>how to create jobs for the more than 200 million jobless;
<li>how to reform international financial institutions and make them democratic and transparent.
</ul>
These fundamental issues need to be debated if the powerful leaders are serious about solving the problems which are afflicting most of the world's population.

G-8 Summit is useless&lt;br&gt;for the poor

CANADA: Reacting to the decision announced on May 22 by DaimlerChrysler to drop plans for a new assembly plant for pickup trucks in Windsor, Ontario, the head of the Canadian Auto Workers union, Buzz Hargrove, expressed anger and deep disappointment. 

In a press statement released by the CAW, the union's president said that the new plant could have been a "major decision to reverse the downward trend of auto, the most important industry in the country," but he blamed the federal and provincial governments for not doing enough to make sure the plant became a reality.

Although the automaker said the project for the Windsor plant would not be economically viable, the union believes the two issues standing in the way of implementing the investment agreement, which had been reached during bargaining in the fall of 2002, are lack of federal and provincial government support, and the rising value of the Canadian dollar.

The CAW president has written to Canada's prime minister, Jean Chrétien, to urge him to convene a meeting of the key stakeholders in the project for the Windsor plant, in order to consider the economic hurdles to the project and work together to see if the obstacles can be overcome.

Windsor is just across the border from Detroit, USA. According to the Detroit News and just-auto.com, the Chrysler group is trying to cut costs and boost revenues at a time when U.S. car and truck demand is down 4 per cent so far this year, and its own sales reduced 7.2 per cent.

Canadian auto union is deeply disappointed and blames the government.

News item on CAW-DC bargaining agreement

DaimlerChrysler drops plan for new plant

USA: The IMF-affiliated IUE-CWA reports that, on May 19, the first union proposal was made in national negotiations as the 14-member Coordinated Bargaining Committee of General Electric unions opened bargaining with General Electric in New York City. 

The IUE-CWA president, Edward Fire, who also chairs the CBC, proposed that GE reinstate two workers who were fired at the GE-owned Johnson Technology for their organizing activity. The National Labor Relations Board has issued charges in both cases. Saying that this issue had to be dealt with and resolved in these negotiations, Fire said that "at its core, General Electric has always been and remains, anti-union." 

Fire and IUE-CWA/GE Conference Board chairman, Art Smith, outlined the major issues in the negotiations. Key among them are pension increases and job security. Fire called for "substantial" pension improvements for current and future retirees, as well as improvements in health care with no cost shifting.

"There will be no givebacks in the new IUE-CWA GE three-year contract," Fire stated. "If General Electric continues to insist that IUE-CWA members accept the massive concessions in health care cost shifting GE has talked about, our members are prepared, and will strike."

The 14-member CBC unions open national negotiations with General Electric.

Archive

About IndustriALL

Follow us

Contact us