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Last year, IMF affiliates in Africa recommended that special attention be given to the Chinese presence in various countries of Africa, with regard in particular to the impact of its fast growing trade and investments on development and on workers' life. In response, IMF held a workshop in June 2007 bringing together African affiliates, trade experts and IMF secretariat and regional staff to discuss the impact of Chinese trade and investment in Southern Africa. The workshop provided metalworkers unions, especially those in Southern Africa with an opportunity to learn from others, including trade unionists from Asia and Latin America, about the reality of China's expansion  and discuss the fast growing Chinese presence in Africa and its impact on employment, workers' rights and development. The meeting served as an opportunity for trade union leaders in the region to share their experiences and better understand an increasingly complex situation of foreign investments and trade that have direct repercussions on the working and living conditions of their members. Main themes were the evolution of the Chinese presence in Africa; comparing trade union experiences of the growing protagonism of China in different areas of the world; Chinese companies in SADC countries; regional integration processes and South/South relations; Chinese loans to African countries. Presentation was also made by the Southern Africa Clothing and Textile Workers Union on their experience with Chinese investment in the clothing and textile sector. The comparison of trade union experiences in different sectors and countries proved very interesting and useful. The discussions built on the participants' concrete experiences and remained focused on the repercussions on workers jobs, employment conditions and  organising even when more abstract issues of macro-economic policies were addressed by the speakers. The question of violations of fundamental human, workers and trade union rights in China and by Chinese investors abroad emerged as a major concern in all discussions. The interests and the development model that are clearly visible behind the various forms of Chinese presence in Africa were the subject of much of the debate throughout the programme. Participants worked on building a trade union response to Chinese trade and investment that included national strategies for quality employment, renewed South-South and North-South solidarity and regional and international metalworkers' campaign actions. The strategic importance of regional co-operation was addressed and the need for trade unions to play an active role in it was stressed. Participants also agreed that the presence and influence of China in Africa needs to be kept under scrutiny and trade unions must interact with governments and have a say on the conditions for foreign investments as well as on their governments' policies with regard to loans and aid and development projects. However the key and primary responsibility for IMF affiliates is at the national level, where their action must focus on the employment and working conditions at Chinese companies. Unions should ensure that workers employed by Chinese or other foreign investors are organised, in particular where jobs are precarious and laws are not respected. &nbsp;

Working Together...IMF Workshop On Chinese Trade And Investment In Africa

Although contact and trade between China and Africa dates back to the 15th century and indirect trade some 3000 years, China has not played the same role of dominance and destruction in Africa as the traditional colonial powers. China's modern engagement begins after the 1949 revolution. During the cold war period China supported Africa's liberation movements the impact of which however was undermined by the destructive effects of the cold war on Africa and rivalry between China and the Soviet Union in their dealings with the continent. Chinese involvement in Africa has been relatively limited for the past few decades during the time of domination of the Washington Consensus. This is changing. Most agree that this renewed engagement in Africa is driven by China's economic needs for raw materials to fuel industrialization and markets. In this way it has similarities to the European scramble for Africa in the 19th Century and subsequent colonial and neo colonial periods and is quite different from China's previous engagement which tended to be more ideological. If China's motivation for engagement with Africa is now similar to that of the West, what are the likely direct and indirect impacts into the future and how different will these be from what Africa has come to be used to from the West? The indirect impact of China's growth, and India's for that matter, has already been significant for Africa. China has grown by 9% per year for the last 10 years. China's need for raw materials is indeed very large. China alone was responsible for 40% of the global increase in oil demand between 2000 and 2004. As a number of observers have commented, the change in foreign engagement by China is quite visible at the point at which China became a net oil importer towards the beginning of the decade. Africa has certainly started to gain indirectly from the growth of China and India's economies and markets. As these economies demand huge quantities of raw materials the price of these commodities has gone up. Africa as a supplier of raw materials has benefited. According to the African Economic Outlook Sub-Saharan Africa's real GDP (i.e. after inflation) increased by an average of 4.4% in 2001-04, 5.5% in 2005 and is expected to increase further in 2006/7, as compared with 2.6% between 1998 and 2000. But growth has not been equal, with the same publication pointing out that oil exporting countries faired better than other countries. The other caution is that whilst there has been significant economic growth this has been slow to impact on social indicators. Opinions on the potential impact of more direct forms of Sino-African engagement are quite divided. One argument says, it is a bad thing that will lead to erosion of rights and a swamping of Chinese goods and labour into Africa taking African opportunities for local industrial development and jobs. This opinion is explained by deputy chairman of the South African Institute of International Affairs Moletisi Mbeki in 2005, saying, "Africa sells raw materials to China and China sells manufactured products to Africa. This is a dangerous equation that reproduces Africa's old relationship with colonial powers. The equation is not sustainable for a number of reasons. First Africa needs to preserve its natural resources to use in the future for its own industrialisation. Secondly China's export strategy is contributing to the de-industrialisation of some middle-income countries." Others feel that China presents a new development model for Africa. This view tends to see China as a salvation for Africa in terms of infrastructure development and relatively condition free loans to cash strapped African Governments still labouring under years of failed policy interventions of the international finance institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and many western donors and their agencies. Whilst China's growth in influence clearly is beginning to provide an alternative to the Washington consensus, that has achieved nothing but deepening poverty and misery in Africa, there are also some cautions being sounded here.   One such caution states that the undemocratic nature of China which is still enjoying significant growth would serve as a support for undemocratic regimes in Africa who are able to argue that democracy is not a precursor for development. Zimbabwe's Look East campaign a case in point, Sudan another questionable engagement. It of course depends on whether you define development in terms of social indicators or GDP. Liberal democracy is not a human development precursor, as Cuba has repeatedly demonstrated and neither is it a guarantee against human and labour rights abuses. Other commentators have pointed to the fact that China's non interference (respect of sovereignty policy) in effect interferes very deeply on the side of ruling elites in divided societies. As such some have argued that India as another rapidly emerging giant, with stronger democratic tendencies also provides alternate models which should be examined. Another caution in regard to the Chinese model as applied to Africa lies in China itself. Stephen Marks in African Perspectives of China in Africa refers to "Even official sources in China and abroad are aware of the social costs of China's free-market great leap forward. Members of the legislature have warned of the country's impending employment crisis and the World Bank has confirmed that China's poor are getting poorer. As for the environment, no less a figure than Pan Yue, deputy director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration, sparked controversy with a recent essay On Socialist Ecological Civilisation when he openly charged that: 'The economic and environmental inequalities caused by a flawed understanding of growth and political achievement, held by some officials, have gone against the basic aims of socialism and abandoned the achievements of Chinese socialism.' The march of neo-liberalism within China and its impact on the Chinese people has advanced hand-in-hand with China's growing imperialist role abroad." The unemployment crisis he refers to as reported in China's daily on line is 34.5 million people new entrants to the labour market between 2006-2010. To balance this impression, bear in mind China's economically active population is around 760 million, approximately half of whom are agriculturally based, while the total population is 1.3 billion, again about half of whom are agriculturally based. China measures unemployment in urban areas. Unemployment in urban areas has increased from 3.1% in 1999 to 4.2% in 2005. Dorothy Guerrero makes a similar point arguing, "China is now the world's fourth-largest economy and many developing countries envy its record of economic progress. However, China's phenomenal growth is producing a big misconception in that it is viewed as a big winner of globalisation. Although it is true that market reforms and China's opening to the global economy gave millions of people there an increased standard of living, more Chinese people are suffering the consequences of its rapid transition to a market-based economy. The majority of the Chinese people are not too concerned about when China will become the world's largest economy. Rather, they are asking, 'When will the benefits of China's rise to superpower status start to affect our lives positively?" Another argument that has been raised is the human and labour rights abuses commonly associated with Chinese investment. The reality is whilst the track record of many of these companies is appalling it is probably in terms of global impact quite small in comparison to the violations committed all over the world by western MNCs. While some companies have reformed their public image in fear of loosing market share or investment this has largely meant the use of subcontracted supply chains where the pressure around production targets and delivery guarantees the abuse of worker and social rights in any event. The corporations then cynically deny responsibility. Similarly China increasingly makes noises about improving human and labour rights issues as they become more integrated global players. On the eve of the First Africa summit the state council, China's cabinet, issued 'Nine Principles' to 'Encourage and Standardise Enterprises' Overseas Investment'. The principles require Chinese companies operating overseas to 'abide by local laws, bid contracts on the basis of transparency and equality, protect the labour rights of local employees, protect the environment, implement corporate responsibilities and so on'. As state backed companies from china begin to brand and become global players they too will become more sensitive publicly to these issues as result of market influences. In both instances though, the system that drives these superficial changes is itself brutal, quite literally inhuman, always answering to the logic of competition and increasing returns. In time there will be little to distinguish these investment forms save perhaps the tendency for China to want to export labour along with investment and development initiatives. There is also a position that the west has never done as well as the economies developing in the east in providing goods cheap enough for Africans to buy. Bicycles, blankets etc. The West has however dumped huge quantities of used clothes, used cars, used parts, used machinery, used computers and the list goes on, on Africa. All have made these commodities more accessible to people, still allowing a tidy profit off of the waste of these societies. Against these two sets of goods, cheap consumer goods from the vast and often super exploitative factories of the east and the scraps of the societies of the west, African industrial development has not progressed. People must buy these cheap things as they have no jobs to buy anything else whilst the price of the things we really need; houses electricity, water and health care go up and become more unreachable. People live in debt to buy the few consumer items they can and in the mean time the social fabric of communities is constantly broken down by competition for scarce jobs and resources. The rolling back of public service provision has only aggravated this situation.   Whilst there are clear similarities to be found in the motives, practices and potential impacts of Chinese and Western contemporary engagement with Africa the introduction of an alternate power centre (for trade and development engagements) and rising commodity prices certainly presents some significant strategic opportunities for Africa. The stranglehold International Finance Institutions and economic imperialist nations have had on economic policy for over two decades is being challenged. More capital should be available as well as technical cooperation. Increased prices mean a stronger bargaining position in trade terms as well. Achieving positive social benefits from this window of opportunity will however very much depend on Africa's ruling elite making decisions and taking actions that serve the people and not those of their own pockets and/or egos or the interests of the traditional and emerging global economic dynasties. Internal trade and development must play a central role in spreading the benefits across countries in Africa to avoid these opportunities simply creating new enclaves of wealth and power in an otherwise sea of poverty and destitution. Civil society in Africa has an historical role to play in ensuring this.

China In Africa

CANADA: Some 3,000 people crowded into the Sudbury, Ontario, ice hockey arena on September 19 and enthusiastically greeted global trade union leaders in what was billed as an &quot;International and Community Rally in Support of Sudbury's Strikers&quot;. International union leaders, including IMF general secretary Jyrki Raina, Manfred Warda, general secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), Sharan Burrow, president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, joined others to tell striking miners of the United Steelworkers (USW) that their nine-week strike against Vale has gained worldwide attention, and brought trade union pressure on Vale in all its global operations. The strike started on 13 July after USW Locals 6500 in Sudbury and Local 6200 in Port Colborne, joined in a common labour contract, gave the world's number two nickel producer a ten-week extension back in May. But instead of reaching agreement, based on Vale's vast profit margins despite the global downturn, managers of nickel entity Vale-Inco pressed ahead with concession-ridden proposals that would deflate the livelihoods of 3,500 workers and their families in Sudbury and in Port Colborne. Those concessionary proposals, still on the table, include retirement reductions, a two-tiered pension scheme, steep downgrades to a production bonus, and loss of value in cost-of-living adjustments. As well, Vale-Inco is seeking greater flexibility on outsourcing, standing as a serious affront to job security. On August 1, 450 workers of USW Local 9508 in Voiseys Bay, Labrador, struck. Saturday's rally by the USW was to show strikers - as well as the rest of Canada and the world's mining industry - that global labour will stand together to prevent a prosperous metal-mining house from boosting its profit sheet at the expense of workers.More coverage on the strike can be found at <a href="http://www.fairdealnow.ca/">http://www.fairdealnow.ca/</a>.

Canadian Nickel Strikers Receive Support from Labour Leaders from Around the World

Support striking workers at Vale in Canada

Global support to Vale workers in Canada

L'affiliata polacca NSZZ „Solidarność&quot; ha tradotto l'opuscolo in lingua polacca e lo distribuirà a tutta l'organizzazione durante la settimana di azione.<a href="../files/09100109463610005/PW_Poland.pdf">Potete scaricare l'opuscolo polacco in file pdf</a>

POLONIA

CSI-ITUC, ICEM. ITGLWF e FISMI sindacati globali saranno in Turchia giovedì 1° ottobre per incontrare il Ministro del lavoro e degli affari sociali della Turchia, Ömer Dincer ad Ankara.Venerdì 2 ottobre, alle 11.00, la delegazione del sindacato globale terrà una conferenza stampa sul lavoro precario in Turchia.Birlesik Metal-IsBirlesik Metal Is sta organizzando un'azione di solidarietà per la sera del 3 ottobre, che metteranno in relazione con la lotta del Sinter Metal. Inoltre proietteranno il film della FISM e distribuiranno l'opuscolo ed il manifesto della FISM in lingua turca.

TURCHIA

ITUC, ICEM. ITGLWF &amp; IMFDie globalen Gewerkschaften treffen sich am Donnerstag, dem 1. Oktober, in Ankara mit dem Minister für Arbeit und Soziales, Herrn Ömer Dincer.Am Freitag, dem 2. Oktober, wird die globale Gewerkschaftsdelegation um 11.00 Uhr eine Pressekonferenz zum Thema prekäre Beschäftigung in der Türkei durchführen.Birlesik Metal-IsDie Gewerkschaft Birlesik Metal bereitet für den Abend des 3. Oktober eine Solidaritätsveranstaltung vor, die an den Kampf bei Sinter Metall gekoppelt ist. Auf der Veranstaltung sollen der IMB-Film vorgeführt und die IMB-Broschüren und Poster in türkischer Sprache verteilt werden.

TURKEI

GERMANY: In the fourth round of collective negotations a new collective agreement for the 95,000 Volkswagen employees in the plants of the Volkswagen AG (Wolfsburg / Hanover / Emden / Brunswick / Salzgitter and Kassel) was reached and signed.According to this agreement the employees receive a 4.2 per cent wage increase from January 2010. In addition a single payment of 710 Euros was agreed. 510 Euro will be paid out in October 2009 and the rest of 200 Euros in February 2010.Starting in 2011 a productivity bonus of around 100 Euros will be introduced.The program for part-time work for people approaching retirement will be continued. Also the apprenticeship program and the takeover of the apprentices are agreed.The duration of the agreement is 18 months.

Agreement includes 4.2 per cent wage increase and a 710 Euro single payment.

New collective agreement for Volkswagen AG, Germany

SIERSIER intende allestire una riunione speciale di apertura del suo Comitato Centrale, alla quale saranno invitati tutti i media, dedicata all'azione globale contro il lavoro precario. Inoltre, SIER pubblicherà un numero speciale del suo giornale informativo, con in prima pagina il logo del precariato. Si prevede inoltre di organizzare un seminario congiunto con la nuova dirigenza della GSM Nezavisnost il 1° e 2 ottobre, in parte dedicato alla tematica del lavoro precario.

MACEDONIA

SIERSIER kommer att anordna ett öppet möte i sin centralkommitté, till vilket alla medier bjuds in, om den globala aktionen mot otryggt arbete. Dessutom kommer SIER att ge ut ett specialnummer av sin tidskrift med märket för otryggt arbete på första sidan. Det finns också en idé om ett gemensamt seminarium med den nya ledningen för GSM Nezavisnost den 1-2 oktober, då man bland annat skall ta upp frågan om otryggt arbete.

MAKEDONIEN

CHILE: Thirty national and regional leaders of IMF trade union affiliates in Chile participated in a debate on the impact of trade agreements on Chile as part of a series of seminars and workshops organised by the Trade Union Strengthening Project that IMF has organised with its affiliates in the country.The workshop on free trade agreements analysed the consequences and impact of free trade on employment and labour rights. This is part of an ongoing debate among IMF affiliates in the region and workshops on this issue were previously organised in Argentina and Brazil. The workshop discussed the results of a study conducted by the research unit CENDA (Centro de Estudios Nacionales de Desarrollo Alternativo) and the Instituto Observatorio Social in Brazil, with additional contributions by the IMF and its Chilean affiliates.The study highlighted the open nature of the Chilean economy with regard to trade and the movement of capital. This means the country is not protected and the multiplicity of agreements signed by Chile (approximately 30 free trade agreements) means that it does not change the situation very much if it concedes new access facilities. The study emphasises that Chile lacks a strategy for regional integration.More specifically, metalworking has been one of the sectors most affected by the opening up of the economy during the last decade because it was mainly focused on trade in Latin America and production for the internal market. The free trade agreements signed by Chile with the United States and Asian countries, resulted in unequal competition between imports and national production and promoted the outsourcing of the workforce.There has been a massive increase in subcontracting.  In 2006, the number of metalworking companies  subcontracting work had risen to 53.3%, although trade union data indicates that as many as two-thirds of workers are employed by subcontractors. Subcontracting has resulted in a high incidence of outsourcing and this casualisation of the workforce has led to poorer health and safety and working conditions. Subcontracting is also a major cause of division among workers.Carla Coletti, IMF International Officer, said the workshop had provided an opportunity for an in-depth debate and &quot;recommendations for action were made to promote a detailed analysis of the issues, disseminate information to workers, progress the debate among IMF affiliates in Chile and mobilise workers to focus on the country's strategic development on the basis of an exchange of experience with metalworking unions from other countries, particularly the South, within a framework of solidarity between metalworkers at national, regional and global levels.&quot;* For more information, see the section on <a href="../index.cfm?c=20260&amp;l=2" target="_blank">Trade, Employment and Development</a>. The study will be available on our website within a few days.

The workshop on Free Trade Agreements analysed the consequences and impact of free trade on employment and labour rights. The IMF also organised workshops on this issue in Argentina and Brazil.

Impact of FTAs on Chile