27 September, 2010IMF to renew its focus on building global trade union strength in Mechanical Engineering sector through building union networks in relevant TNCs and in three sub-sectors.
GLOBAL: At a meeting in Brussels last week, the International Metalworkers' Federation and its affiliates committed to giving renewed impetus to global trade union work in the Mechanical Engineering sector including holding a global conference on the subject in 2011.
At the working group meeting on September 23, the participants assessed the situation in mechanical engineering in light of the financial crisis and defined priorities for the sector as part of the implementation of the IMF Action Programme.
Given that Mechanical Engineering is not a uniform sector, the participants recommended to focus on three sub-sectors:
- Construction equipment and machines
- Agricultural implements
- Machine tools
Although Mechanical Engineering is characterized by a large number of Small- to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), often acting as suppliers to industries as diverse as automotive, aerospace, transportation or food, there are also a few TNCs in this sector that could be targeted for networking, in addition to Caterpillar. These include, for example, Case New Holland (CNH), John Deere and Komatsu. Therefore there is need for a two-tier approach, building networks at the company and the sub-sectoral levels.
The participants identified a number of key issues that should be addressed in future IMF work: precarious work, training (Mechanical Engineering employs a large number of skilled workers), health and safety, green technologies and organizing/union-building. The IMF and European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF) also committed to work together to advance workers' rights in this sector.
Participants included representatives from IG Metall, UAW, FO-Metaux and FGMM-CFDT, UNIA, Unite, PRO-GE, IMF-JC/JAM and the EMF.