5 August, 2009The committee is asking for a meeting with the company to discuss plant closures and union participation in safety policy at the global level.
GLOBAL: On 27, 28 and 29 July, copies of a letter from the IMF's Gerdau Group Global Committee to André Gerdau, rejecting plant closures and asking for a meeting to discuss the company's safety policy, were distributed at all Gerdau plants.
The committee first proposed a global agreement on health and safety in 2008. It has rejected Gerdau's unilateral policy and proposed that the company should discuss and agree its safety policy with the unions. The committee believes the unions can play an important role in improving working conditions.
In December last year and June 2009, the committee wrote to the company stating its concern over the effects of the world financial crisis on the company's plants and proposing direct contact with the company to discuss the situation of workers. However, Gerdau preferred to hold discussions with local unions and not the world committee.
In light of recent events that have effected Gerdau employees in the form of plant closures in the United States and Colombia, job losses in Peru and Spain and the dismantling of unions, the committee is asking for a meeting with the company to discuss measures taken to deal with the crisis; their impact on workers and communities and the prospects for the future; union participation in developing the company's health and safety policy at the global level; alternatives for resolving the SIDELPA- Yumbo situation; and recognition of the of the Gerdau Group Global Committee.
Finally, the Gerdau Group Global Committee said that as Gerdau is a global company and aspires to a leadership role, it must develop modern and advanced industrial relations policies with unions, for example, by recognising the Gerdau Group Global Committee and establishing International Framework Agreements.