Secretariat Report 2011 (pdf) - International Metalworkers' Federation

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Secretariat Report for the Central Committee of the IMF A further meeting of the Aerospace Steering Committee was held in June 2011 in conjunction with the Paris Air Show. IMF organized for affiliates to visit the Air Show and held a meeting the following day to enable participants to reflect on their experiences and consider how to utilize them to further the IMF’s work. Presentations were made at the meeting by three French research organizations on the current state of the industry. Progress with developing trade union networks in aerospace multinationals was discussed. Due to the success of this event, participants concluded that it would be worthwhile to again organize trade union activities at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK in 2012. An information sheet on the work of the IMF Aerospace Department was produced (in electronic form) for the use of affiliates with their members. 8.4 ICT, Electrical and Electronics The IMF conference on ‘Organising, Trade Union Rights and Sustainability’ took place in April 2010 in Singapore. Delegates determined that unions need to continue to develop specific strategies to organize different groups of workers, including women, young people, non-manual workers and precarious workers. In a special session dealing with sustainability issues, presentations were made on health and safety, climate change and the developing challenge of dealing with e- waste. The President of the ACFTU electronics sector union (the first time that an ACFTU representative has attended an IMF sectoral meeting) informed delegates that the Chinese unions consider it their duty to urge multinational companies to recognize labour regulations, to organize workers in MNCs and to strictly enforce Chinese labour standards. Priorities for the sector are based on those identified at the conference including: • Supporting organising and union building, particularly in the Asia-Pacific electronics production countries of Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines • Organising in industrialised countries and spreading good examples of organising non-manual workers, women, young people and migrant workers • Ensuring rapid responses to rights violations • Cooperating with NGOs to create public pressure on governments, companies and investors, and continued participation in the GoodElectronics network • Taking action against precarious work, including supporting action in selected countries and EPZs • Working further on health and safety, climate change and e-waste • Developing trade union networks in TNCs and supply chains to exchange information, develop joint initiatives and platforms, organise unorganised plants and take joint action • Identifying potential candidates for International Framework Agreements. Activities to develop trade union networks took place in Siemens, IBM, Nokia and Philips. Following FES supported meetings in Munich and in India in 2009, the unions representing workers at different Siemens plants in India successfully registered the Siemens Employees Federation and IMF facilitated a meeting of the new Federation in November 2010. A world wide Siemens meeting is scheduled to take place in early 2012 in Germany. - 22 -
Secretariat Report for the Central Committee of the IMF A joint meeting was held with UNI in May 2011 to launch the IBM Global Union Alliance. This was followed by a global day of action in IBM which was well supported by both IMF and UNI affiliates. In 2010, attempts to establish unions at Foxconn and BYD companies in Chennai, India were met with fierce resistance from the companies including arrests, dismissals and lockouts. Since both companies are major suppliers to Nokia, IMF together with the Finnish unions initiated discussions with Nokia on how to provide training in worker rights to management and workers in supplier companies in Chennai, with the aim of increasing unionization and building stronger unions in the region. A strategy has been agreed which commenced in September 2011 with training workers in the Nokia plant itself. It is hoped that Nokia will be able to persuade its suppliers to also participate in the program. In January 2011, a significant victory was achieved in Malaysia when the newly registered Electronics Industry Workers' Union (Southern Region) successfully campaigned to secure union rights at ST Microelectronics in Muar, Malaysia. For more than 30 years, electronics workers in Malaysia had been banned from forming trade unions, but in 2010 after many years of union pressure, the government finally decided to permit regional electronics unions to exist. Four such unions were registered and IMF is continuing to work with these new unions to build their capacity to organize electronics workers in Malaysia. 8.5 Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is an extremely heterogeneous and diversified sector with many subsectors such as machine tools, mining and construction equipment, agricultural machinery, lifting and handling equipment, power transmission engineering, etc.. Companies in this sector often act as suppliers to other industries, e.g. automotive and aerospace. In addition, mechanical engineering plays a major role as a developer and provider of new technologies for renewable energies and environment-friendly products. The large number of SMEs in mechanical engineering and the presence of a highly-skilled workforce make union organizing anything but easy. As part of the IMF strategy on trade union networks, a Caterpillar meeting took place in April 2010 in Grenoble, France. It was attended by about 70 union representatives from seven countries. Delegates discussed social policy and human resource management at Caterpillar worldwide against the background of the crisis which led to the dismissal of some 20,000 permanent employees within the Group in addition to the workers on short-term contracts who were the first to lose their jobs. In particular the delegates stressed the lack of communication with management and its anti-union policy. Irrespective of national differences, the existence of common problems and objectives showed the need to strengthen the links and join forces to advance fundamental workers' rights at Caterpillar and improve employment and working conditions. As an outcome of the meeting, the participants agreed to create a Caterpillar trade union network aimed at promoting the exchange of information and developing joint action in support of workers’ rights. The delegates also agreed to establish links with Caterpillar workers in other countries which were not represented at the meeting, such as Brazil. A drafting group composed of representatives from the various regions was set up to develop guidelines for the network. Moreover a letter was sent to the CEO in Peoria, Illinois, demanding that dialogue be initiated between management and the IMF Caterpillar trade union network. - 23 -
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Secretariat Report 2011 (pdf) - International Metalworkers' Federation

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