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29 November, 2010Taking time out of his busy schedule the IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina visited four companies in East Africa to discuss with workers but also to see for himself the challenges workers are facing in the workplaces and listened to their proposal about how best IMF can contribute to their well being.
The visits took place on November 23 and 25 in Kenya and the November 26 in Tanzania. In Kenya the general secretary was accompanied by two IMF executive committee members, Christine Olivier and Mario Tindi. The companies he visited are:
- General Motors in Kenya with about 400 workers where the company is involved assembling most Izuzu pickups and other cars,
- Mabati Rolling, which produces iron roof sheets and other steel products,
- Sameer Africa, which produces car tyres and supplies east Africa, and
- In Tanzania he visited MMI Industries a company which produces Iron Rods from scrap steel.
Some of the issues raised by workers during the visits are health and safety especially in Tanzania and the need to organize non-manual workers especially in Kenya. Management in Kenya raised the issue of China and cheap products from China destroying the local market
After the visit the leadership of all unions praised the IMF by saying it has been a long time since any general secretary of IMF visited factories in their region