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Congress is the highest decision-making body of the IMF and all affiliates hold membership. Congress meets every four years to establish the priorities and actions of the IMF including the <a href="../index.cfm?c=20018&amp;ol=2">Rules</a> that we are governed by. Congress also elects the <a href="../index.cfm?n=732&amp;l=2">President</a> and <a href="index.cfm?n=676">General Secretary</a> and members of the <a href="index.cfm?n=677">Executive Committee</a><h3>IMF World Congress 2009</h3>The 32nd IMF Congress took place in May 2009 in Gothenburg, Sweden  and adopted a new Action Programme for 2009-2013 calling for secure jobs for a secure future in response to the global economic crisis. The Congress also elected a new President, Vice President and General Secretary of the IMF.<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="318"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../congress2009" title="32nd IMF World Congress 2009"><img src="" border="0" alt="Gothenburg, Sweden" width="317" height="61" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><h3>IMF World Congress 2005</h3>Held in Vienna, the Congress discussed the various ways in which international solidarity can advance workers' rights. Congress adopted changes to the IMF Rules, increasing the participation of women in IMF structures and updated the IMF Action Programme for 2005 to 2009.<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="318"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../congress2005/index.cfm?l=2" title="Congress"><img src="" border="0" alt="" width="318" height="57" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table><h3>IMF World Congress 2001</h3>The 30th IMF Congress was held in Sydney, Australia, when a new Action Programme was adopted for 2002-2005.

Congress

The IMF has affiliates in 100 countries. Click on any country below to learn about affiliated organisations.

IMF Affiliates

In 1957, the IMF opened an office in Tokyo for the Japanese metalworkers' unions. In 1960 the IMF opened its Latin America office, now in Montevideo, Uruguay.In 1966, the first meeting of the World Company Councils for the automobile industry was held in Detroit, USA. Today, Company Council meetings are held as the need arises. In 1969, the first IMF regional office opened in New Delhi, India. In 1982, two white South African affiliates were expelled. The IMF was fully committed to supporting the new independent trade unions in South Africa. This support was strengthened with the opening of a new IMF office in Johannesburg in 1984. In 1991, the IMF Central Committee decided to admit trade unions from Central and Eastern Europe as affiliates. In 1993, a 100-point Action Programme was adopted at the IMF Centenary Congress in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1998 the IMF opened a regional office for Southeast Asia in Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaIn 2001, the 30th IMF Congress was held in Sydney, Australia. A new Action Programme for 2002-2005 was adopted. In 2002, the IMF signed its first International Framework Agreement in the auto industry with Volkswagen. In 2005, the IMF Congress adopted changes to the IMF Rules, increasing the participation of women in IMF structures, and updating the Action Programme. In 2002-2003, the IMF and its affiliates successfully campaigned for the release of imprisoned Korean trade unionists.In 2006, the IMF launched an international solidarity campaign in support of the Mexican miners' union.

Milestones in IMF history

The International Metalworkers&#039; Federation is one of the largest and oldest Global Union Federations. The IMF was created in August 1893 when thirty members from metalworkers unions in eight countries met in a small hotel in Zurich with the aim of creating an International Bureau, thus founding the IMF. These early members laid the foundations for international cooperation between all metalworkers&#039; unions of the world.<h3>Organising workers</h3>Data collected by the Bureau at the time showed that social and economic conditions for metalworkers were extremely difficult. Working hours in Europe ranged from 11.5 to 15 hours a day and wages were very low. Only a small number of metalworkers were organised and the structure of unions at the national level was highly fragmented.From the beginning, solidarity between unions extended further than simply exchanging information and was focused on offering mutual support:<ul><li>Within the first three years, British metalworkers contributed 1,000 marks to the Solingen cutlery-makers out on a protracted strike.  </li><li>Swiss metalworkers contributed 100 Swiss francs to moulders engaged in a harsh struggle in Nuremberg. </li><li>German metalworkers later reciprocated in 1897 when British engineering workers were fighting for the eight-hour day and foundry workers in Denmark demanding higher wages were locked out. </li><li>Everywhere, especially in Germany, funds were raised, establishing a tradition of international solidarity that has significantly strengthened metalworkers&#039; unions to this day.</li></ul><h3>Eight hours work, leisure and sleep</h3>The early 1900&#039;s were characterised by rapid economic growth in international trade and investments. Metalworkers understood the important strategic role that the IMF could play in protecting human and trade union rights. In 1893 the first Congress wrote:<blockquote>&quot;Our endeavour must be to fulfil the slogan of the May Day celebrations: eight hours&#039; work, eight hours&#039; leisure, eight hours&#039; sleep.&quot;</blockquote> In 1904, the different unions, which now included representatives from 11 countries, decided to create the International Metalworkers&#039; Federation (IMF). <h3>The goals of the Federation have always been to:</h3><ul><li>encourage metalworkers&#039; organisations to co-operate on trade union matters; </li><li>support unionisation efforts in countries where trade unions are weak; and </li><li>establish guidelines for effectively implementing solidarity actions during labour disputes.</li></ul>

A tradition of solidarity

Welcome to the IMF, the International Metalworkers&#039; Federation. Our organisation represents the collective interests of 25 million metalworkers in more than 200 unions in 100 countries. The IMF is a federation of national unions - a union of unions - in the metal industry at world level. The IMF head office is in Geneva, Switzerland, where worldwide activities are coordinated with a network of regional offices. &#160;

About The IMF

GLOBAL: IBM Workers made redundant as a result of offshoring can now apply for jobs in the country the work has shifted to - but with the reduced wage and conditions of the low-cost nation. According to online reports, the Project Match program offers laid-off US and Canadian workers the opportunity to move to nations like India, Brazil and China to work on local terms and conditions.Employees who accepted the offer would need to work away from their home country on proportionally much lower wages, and would probably struggle to save enough to come home, according to Alliance@IBM, an organisation of the IMF - US affiliate CWA. &quot;If this trend spread to other sectors or industries it would even further undermine workers&#039; ability to maintain wages and conditions,&quot; said the IMF&#039;s director for the ICT industry, Robert Steiert. &quot;Jobs should always be retained in the nation where they were first located instead of being sacrificed for the sake of company profit.&quot;Project Match and other offshoring issues will be discussed at a joint meeting between the IMF and global union federation UNI later this year.

Reports that IBM will allow laid-off workers to apply for jobs that have been shifted to lower-cost countries are deeply concerning.

Computer giant pushes limits with new offshoring trend

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INDIA: More than 1300 workers went on indefinite strike on April 20 after management at Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL), located in Chennai, India, refused to negotiate contract demands with the Hyundai Motor India Employees&#039; Union (HMIEU). The company has taken a firm position that it will not negotiate with HMIEU, the sole registered union at the plant, and instead is pressing to enter into agreement with a company-appointed Works Committee. Workers downed tools after three rounds of mediation by the Deputy Labour Commissioner (DLC), during which HMIL expressed its refusal to negotiate with the union, failed to bring results. Hyundai Motor India, which employees some 3000 precarious workers, has a history of rights abuses in the plant. The company recently terminated the contracts of some 600 workers, some who had worked at the plant for almost 4 years, just prior to them receiving permanent status. Since July 2007, in response to the formation of the HMIEU, trade union leaders, members and supporters have suffered from dismissals, suspensions and transfers and workers have faced management&#039;s widespread use of threats, harassment and intimidation for joining a union. Currently 65 workers have been fired for their union activities and 34 more are in the process of being dismissed. Approximately 1200 permanent workers, out of a total of 1500 permanent employees, and a large number of precarious workers are supporting the strike.Among the charter of demands, workers are calling for:<ul><li>Union recognition and a collective bargaining agreement;</li><li>Equal treatment of all workers; </li><li>Reinstatement of all precarious workers fired as a result of the company&#039;s response to the economic crisis or those fired in an effort to deny them permanent status;</li><li>Reinstatement of union members and officers unfairly fired, transferred or suspended and the withdrawal of all charges pending against them.</li></ul>In March 2009, the International Hyundai-Kia Workers&#039; Network meeting hosted by the International Metalworkers&#039; Federation and the Korean Metal Workers&#039; Union passed a resolution in support of HMIEU efforts and calling for an end to violations of trade union rights at HMIL. To see resolution text, <a href="../main/files/09042709334884/Hyundai%20Kia%20Network%20Resolution%20MARCH%202009.pdf">click here</a>.

Workers at Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) have entered the fourth day of strike action in protest of gross trade union rights violations and the company's refusal to enter collective bargaining with the union.

Hyundai-Kia Network meeting resolution

Indian autoworkers strike Hyundai

GLOBAL: The International Metalworkers&#039; Federation contributed to a global workshop aimed at strengthening the capacity of trade unionists on the issues of Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and finding more effective ways to interact with governments on trade issues. The negotiations for NAMA and GATS are crucial for the employment situation and development strategies of developing countries. The NAMA proposal would affect future industrial development by reducing substantially the already limited policy space for governments and, in the case of GATS, the current commitments would severely limit the regulatory capacity of governments in many services areas. The workshop was aimed at assisting trade unionists in understanding the significance of these negotiations and proposals, to assess what is at stake for their countries and for workers, and to develop adequate strategies on how to promote and influence a beneficial outcome from the negotiations. The workshop brought together trade unionists from around twenty different countries (including IMF affiliates from Argentina, Bangladesh and South Africa and unions from Brazil, Barbados, Costa Rica, Colombia, Nigeria, Senegal, Philippines, India, Benin, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Ghana, Australia, Canada, France, Belgium and Italy), as well as some participants of the Global Union Federations, International Labour Organisation (ILO) staff, and non-governmental organisations based in Geneva. A wide variety of experts from World Trade Organisation missions based in Geneva, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), ILO, WTO, Third World Network, South Centre, Oxfam and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), shared information and experiences with the participants, both with an aim to increase knowledge on services and NAMA negotiations but also on the wider impacts of those negotiations on development, employment and decent work. The workshop took place from September 27 to 29, 2006 in Geneva, and was jointly organised by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Geneva Office with support of the Global Union Research Network (GURN) and Solidar.

Understanding the impact of trade agreements on development, employment and decent work and developing trade union capacity to influence the outcome of trade negotiations was the subject of the workshop.

IMF contributes to NAMA and GATS workshop

GLOBAL: In a week of coordinated action at unionised Toyota sites around the world, Toyota workers have been demanding reinstatement of 136 illegally fired workers as part of the IMF Toyota Philippines: Reinstate Them Now! campaign. Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation, the target of the global campaign, has refused to reinstate illegally dismissed workers, despite Supreme Court and International Labour Organisation (ILO) rulings in the workers' favour. In South Africa, a trade union delegation met with local management on June 28 and delivered a letter of protest calling on Toyota to reinstate the workers. The delegation included seven Toyota shop stewards, regional and national NUMSA leadership, IMF assistant general secretary Brian Fredricks, IMF Executive Committee member Fernando Lopes and IMF regional representatives Stephen Nhlapo and Arunasalam. In Australia, thousands of Toyota workers have signed a petition demanding the reinstatement of the workers circulated by AMWU delegates in the last week of June. The petition will be presented to management in the next few days. In Thailand and the UK, IMF affiliates TEAM and Amicus have sent letters to local Toyota management calling for the reinstatement of the workers. In Brazil, metalworkers will hold informational and solidarity meetings at two Toyota manufacturing plants in Sao Paula on June 29, disrupting production for at least one hour. The action in Brazil, led by IMF affiliate CNM-CUT, will also involve workers at a Toyota logistics and distribution centre in Guaíba, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. In the Philippines, dismissed workers held a protest on June 27 in front of the Japanese Embassy and Toyota Manila Bay, a Toyota dealership located near the embassy. "This week workers have warned Toyota that its anti-worker stance is damaging the image and reputation of the company and calls on management to resolve the dispute by reinstating the workers," said IMF assistant general secretary Brian Fredricks. Further actions are planned to take place at Toyota sites in various parts of the world in the coming weeks. For information about the IMF Toyota Philippines: Reinstate Them Now! campaign go to: <a href="../toyotaphilippines">www.imfmetal.org/toyotaphilippines</a>

In a coordinated campaign Toyota workers around the world call for the reinstatement of 136 illegally fired Toyota Philippines workers.

Toyota workers unite

Toyota Philippines global campaign

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