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Not surprisingly, the race to drive down labour costs has given rise to reports of widespread abuse of international labour standards, both in the CM companies themselves and further down the supply chain. Typical conditions include below subsistence wages, excessive working hours, forced overtime, temporary contracts, no job security, unsafe working conditions and degrading treatment. The practice of contracting out manufacturing and workforces enables major brand-name companies to distance themselves from the substandard working conditions experienced by the people manufacturing their products. But these companies are coming under increasing pressure to clean up the abuses in their supply chains. A series of high-profile consumer campaigns coupled with pressure from shareholders via responsible investment groups has increased awareness of the vulnerability of high profile brands to negative public perceptions of working conditions in their supply chains. Yet most companies respond only by encouraging, with differing levels of enthusiasm, their suppliers to abide by their own unilaterally developed codes of conduct. This company-driven CSR approach has proven inadequate both to raising standards and sustaining them. Workers have no involvement in monitoring or implementing labour standards as collective labour relations are virtually non-existent. Most significantly, there is no evidence of implementation of company codes successfully addressing breaches of freedom of association or promoting a climate that is less hostile to workers wanting to join a union. There are strong arguments in favour of taking an industry approach to improving labour rights including freedom of association. Supply chains are complex with a high degree of overlap - in many cases a range of brand name companies are supplied by the same factory.This makes it practically impossible for a single company to successfully implement its code of conduct in a factory supplying multiple companies. Accordingly, many of the major companies have joined the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), which has improving social and environmental conditions across the supply chain as a goal. Unfortunately, the industry code agreed by EICC members does not meet the ILO standard on freedom of association, nor does it include any right to bargain collectively.

Organizing electronics workers

Employment

Threats to workers' rights

Barriers to organizing

The way forward

The role of the ILO

Threats to workers&#039; rights

The ILO estimates total employment in the manufacture of electrical and electronic products worldwide at over 18 million. The majority of workers are highly concentrated in some 20 countries which together account for nearly 87 per cent of the world total. Employment growth this century has been led by China which in 2004 had a share of some 35 per cent of global employment. Conversely, between 1997 and 2004 employment in the United States declined by some 550,000 (30 per cent of the workforce), in Japan by 400,000 (20 per cent) and in Germany by 100,000 (14 per cent). Women's share of employment in the sector has risen from 38.7 per cent in 1997 to over 40 per cent with the share in different countries and industry branches ranging from five per cent to 87 per cent.In Europe and North America, new ICT jobs are primarily being created in the service parts of the sector, while in Asia employment is growing not only in lower wage production jobs, but in research and development and other highly skilled jobs. There is still a lot of movement in the sector, with a high rate of mergers, acquisitions and attendant plant closures.Up to 75 per cent of global electronics production has now been outsourced from brand-name companies such as Hewlett Packard, Dell and Apple, to contract manufacturers (CMs). At this level there is significant market concentration, with five major CMs producing electronic products for all the major brands: Hon Hai (Foxconn), Flextronics, Sanmina SCI, Jabil Circuit and Celestica.Despite being for the most part unknown to the general public, the largest CMs are themselves major multinational companies that have seen extraordinary growth. Flextronics increased its sales by a factor of ten between 1997 and 2005, while the largest CM, Hon Hai, employs over 486,000 workers, the majority of them in China. Its turnover for 2009 topped $56 billion.Some of the rapid changes that are occurring in the sector can be seen in the table on page 21, which compares revenues and profits of the leading technology companies in 2009 with 2007.A major element of the CM strategy to attract business from brand-name companies is to locate in countries where wage costs are lower: Flextronics claims to save its clients 75 per cent on labour costs. Consequently, the search for low cost manufacturing locations has led the CMs and other manufacturers away from North America and Western Europe, where there have been numerous plant closures and job losses, towards countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. In 2006, China overtook the European Union in hi-tech exports for the first time.

The persecution of unions in Russia gives little cause for optimism. Interference by the authorities in the activities of workers' organizations is becoming more frequent and systematic. A particularly ominous trend has emerged of treating the unions as &quot;extremist&quot; groups, involving not only the procurator's office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but even the intelligence agencies. In this period of a financial crisis the state has been reducing rather than extending the protection of workers and union activists. While the employers have been increasingly aggressive in pushing for &quot;flexible&quot; employment relationships and deregulation of the labour market, the lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, and the Constitutional Court have repealed the provision of the Labour Code requiring the consent of the union for the dismissal of its leaders. That was one of the last legislative guarantees against discrimination which actually worked in court; with its elimination the unions have essentially lost their last defense against arbitrary action by the employers.But even so, worker activists have not given up the struggle. First and foremost, they are conducting an active battle in the courts, sometimes winning substantial victories. There have been quite a few decisions in favour of reinstating workers illegally dismissed. Another important area of activity is solidarity campaigns. Activists of the ITUA and other unions have organized mailings of protest letters through websites; they have been holding meetings and pickets, sometimes involving large numbers of participants, such as in Togliatti, where the ITUA union &quot;Unity&quot; managed to turn out 3,000 people. Finally, international support is of tremendous importance. Two years ago the IMF began a global campaign of solidarity with ITUA activists who been victims of physical violence. The latest complaint by the All-Russian Confederation of Labour to the ILO was also supported by the IMF. Despite everything, the protest movement in Russia is growing. According to official data, the number of mass actions rose to 4,900 in the first quarter of this year from 1,269 for the same period in 2009, that is an increase of 400 per cent. All totaled, almost 1.8 million people participated in them. The authorities themselves admit that the role of the unions in this action was by no means the least important. &quot;We never give up&quot; is a phrase with which Alexei Etmanov often concludes his speeches and commentaries. May it serve as a guide for the action of all trade unions in Russia.

"We never give up"Persecution of unions in Russia today

Complaint to the International Labour Organization

From the present to the future

The IMF regards protection contracts and the impact they have on workers as a violation of the right to freedom of association as enshrined in International Labour Organization Convention 87, since there is no question here of a decision freely made. Although the system of protection contracts has also been criticized by many labour lawyers in Mexico itself, the Mexican government has made no serious attempt to abolish it and to properly implement the principles of ILO Convention 87. Challenging the status of protection contracts is a controversial issue in Mexico as they are supported by local and federal government authorities and many existing trade union organizations. Of the high number of protection agreements, most involve the three largest Mexican trade union federations. These unions use protection contracts to prevent other unions from forming or negotiating a collective contract, giving complicit support to wide-spread corruption of the official Mexican trade union system. The IMF has been following the situation in Mexico with concern for some time. In response to continuous complaints from workers, trade unions in the process of formation, existing trade unions and non-governmental and human rights organizations, the IMF decided to lodge a complaint with the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association.The complaint (ILO Case No. 2694) was lodged by the IMF President in February 2009 and outlines how the labour laws and the way they are interpreted in Mexico are in violation of ILO Convention 87, a convention which all member countries are obliged to respect and one that Mexico has specifically ratified.The complaint sets out how the system of protection contracts is used in Mexico to deny workers their right to freedom of association and cites several examples, including the situation at Johnson Controls. While the complaint was lodged last year and will take some time to be considered by the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association, the problems continue in Mexico, as can be seen from the case of workers at Johnson Controls in Puebla.Many workers seek and want change so that all Mexican workers can form genuine trade unions. Just like our colleagues in COT-JC, Carmen and Jorge, who continue to work on their own account, attend training courses and fight for reinstatement to their jobs and a change in the labour situation. It is hoped that more people like Carmen and Jorge will come forward to play their part in building a transparent and democratic trade union movement in Mexico.

Mexico: The fight for a representative union

Why are 90 per cent of collective agreements in Mexico considered "protection contracts"?

The international fight against protection contracts

Complaint to the ILO

Carmen is 49 and was born and lives in Teolocholco, Tlaxcala. She has eight children, five girls and three boys, all teenagers, who either work or study. She has been married 28 years and has a secondary school education. She worked at Johnson Controls in Puebla for 11 years. She was dismissed because she joined an organizing coalition (COT-JC), refused to accept the demands being made on her on the production line, where managers want workers to work three times harder without proper remuneration, and criticized the existing union. When she was dismissed, she could not go to the union for help because the union is a paper union that is backed by the labour authorities. Companies use these unions to ensure cheap labour and no &quot;labour problems&quot;. Carmen now survives on what she earns from a few casual jobs and continues to attend training courses on issues such as women's rights and labour rights. She also works at a small family shop and lives with some support provided by her husband.Jorge is 33. He also lives in Teolocholco, Tlaxcala. He is married with three boys, all teenagers who are at present studying. Jorge has a secondary school education. He was dismissed by Johnson Controls one and a half years ago for calling on the trade union that claims to represent him to protect the workers from company harassment and arbitrary decisions made by management. Carmen and Jorge explained that employees sign individual contracts. They are told there is a collective agreement but they are never able to find out anything about it, let alone being able to have an input into negotiations about the terms of the agreement. This union has no articles of association, at least none that its members are aware of, and it never holds general meetings for the workers, although it has held occasional meetings on certain production lines or in certain departments.The union has a health and safety committee, but this committee never meets. The workers have average pay increases of two per cent per year and, according to Jorge, were given 1,000 pesos (US$82.36) as &quot;profit sharing&quot;. Carmen says: &quot;How is it possible when Chicles Adams pays its workers 40,000-60,000 pesos (US$3,290 - US$4,950) for &quot;profit sharing&quot;?&quot; Workers are entitled to six days annual holiday but many never take them because they prefer to work on those days in order to increase their incomes, however little the pay is. They also work on the bank holidays and obligatory rest days (such as national holidays) stipulated by labour laws, for the same reason - to obtain a few more measly pesos. Employees are covered by social security but the dismissed workers are not. The company pays an end of year bonus equivalent to more or less 20 days pay.There are never any elections to elect union leaders. These leaders just present themselves and tell the workers they are in charge. The union at Johnson Controls is affiliated to the Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM). Johnson Controls workers do not know how trade unions are supposed to conduct themselves but they know they want to organize themselves in order to protect themselves from the whims of their employer. That is why they want to join a union of their own choice, the Mexican Miners' and Metalworkers' union (SNTMMSRM). However the company has begun to take steps to intimidate workers to stop them from joining the SNTMMSRM.According to the Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador A.C. (CAT), a labour support centre, workers at the company have been fighting for more than two years and learning about human and labour rights, in order to be able to exercise their right to freedom of association. The workers have formed an organizing coalition at the company (COT-JC). In 2007, some workers participated in the Comisión Revisora del Reparto de Utilidades (Profit Sharing Review Committee) and also demanded a new collective agreement but were dismissed without valid reason in June 2007. The company and the &quot;paper&quot; union in place have continued to harass workers since then and more workers have been dismissed.CAT has revealed that the company is currently doing well. Production has increased and hours of work have increased to almost two full shifts. Some departments have begun to work on Sundays. The plant is working at 90 per cent of capacity, partly to ensure supply of parts for the new Volkswagen A6 model. The first hundred seats, made from leather, vinyl and cloth, came off the production line on April 16. The production managers, Jorge Sambrano and Ignacio Betz called a meeting with workers to thank them for their efforts and to encourage them to work harder in order to achieve the target of 1,200 units per day by the beginning of January 2011. Current production is 800 seats per day for VW and 200 seats per day for Nissan. Sergio Beltrán, secretary of the SNTMMSRM, said he was taking the steps necessary for workers at Johnson Controls to join the SNTMMSRM and hoped to be able to talk to company management. He said it was important for the international union federations, including the IMF, to act as mediators and arrange a meeting with the company.

&quot;Paper&quot; trade unions with no meetings or articles of association

The seriousness of this issue has led to international concern and a number of organizations are working to stop this practice at both the national and international levels. The International Campaign Against Protection Contracts in Mexico was created in March 2007 and its members include Mexican institutions such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and international trade union organizations like the IMF.The campaign's main objectives are to identify, denounce and eradicate protection contracts. The campaign's basic argument is that such practices lead to the establishment of bogus labour relations, bogus trade union organization and bogus collective agreements, a system in which control is exercised by pseudo-trade union leaders and corrupt employers. Trade union legislation makes this possible and makes illegitimate acts legal.Protection contracts damage the trade union movement's credibility and have a negative impact on living conditions. With no real union to represent them, the workers at Johnson Controls have not been able to effectively defend their interests. Johnson Controls in Puebla employed 800 workers two years ago but now employs 600. Half the workforce is now contracted by an outside agency called One DIGIT. Women have to stand all the time while working because there are no chairs on which to rest, and the working day is more than ten hours. One year ago, the company stopped the so-called &quot;lunch box&quot; of food provided when working late and do not allow workers to make telephone calls during working time. One year ago, one vehicle turned over while transporting workers from shift three, including pregnant women. This accident was caused by driver fatigue.

MEXICO: The IMF Latin American and Caribbean Regional Conference was held on April 21-22 in Mexico City and was attended by representatives of affiliated trade unions in the region.The conference establishes the main challenges for the region, in accordance with the needs of affiliates and the IMF's Action Programme.The meeting was opened by the IMF general secretary, Jyrki Raina, and the general secretary of the Mexican Miners' Union, Napoleon Gómez Urrutia, who made his speech using video conferencing facilities.On the morning of the first day, Dr Arturo Alcalde made a presentation on the crisis, its impact on workers' rights and the Mexican labour relations system.Jyrki Raina examined the scope for trade union unity at the global level, among the GUFs and in the structures of affiliated organisations.Affiliates also discussed their respective situations with reference to the main IMF actions this year, including national unity; International Framework Agreements (how to include suppliers); unionize the non-unionized; unified criteria for outsourcing; and how to deal with transnational companies.The second day examined issues such as precarious work, climate change, networking, communications networks, gender, white-collar workers and international solidarity.On 23 April, a delegation from the Regional Conference will go to the offices of the Grupo Mexico company and present a declaration of solidarity with the struggle of Mexican miners, demand respect for the freedom of association and call for an end to hostilities against the workers and the national miners' union.

Affiliates analysed the current situation with reference to the IMF's main actions: progress towards unity with other Global Union Federations (GUFs); the impact of the crisis on the metalworking sector; and the activities and projects of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Office.

IMF Regional Conference: the main challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean

SWEDEN: IMF Swedish affiliates Unionen and Sveriges Ingenjörer  representing non-manual workers recently reached a central agreement with employers in the engineering sector.  The agreement, to be supplemented by local negotiations, is valid for 18 months and applies between April 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011.  It provides for a minimum of a 2.6 per cent wage increase - should local negotiations not result in higher wage gains - and is to be implemented in three steps: a 0.7 per cent wage increase on June 1, 2010, a 0.5 per cent increase over the next 12 months, and another 1.4 per cent increase on June 1, 2011.   The agreement further includes an additional 0.2 per cent increase taking into account skill development. The guaranteed wage increase amounts to a minimum SEK 294 (€30). The central agreement concluded in the mining, steel and metal sectors, also to be supplemented by local negotiations, provides for a minimum 3.2 per cent wage increase over a 22-month period, starting on April 1, 2010 with a guaranteed wage rise of SEK 359 (€36).  As in the engineering sector, an additional 0.2 per cent  per year is set aside for individual professional development.  Moreover &quot;parental wages&quot; are expanded by another month to total five months.  &quot;Parental wages&quot; are paid by employers and supplement parental allowances, so that these two compensations together represent about 90 per cent of the wage.  The negotiating parties also agreed on:<ul><li>Establishing a joint working group to analyse various ways and means of financing skill development, including possible changes in legislation;</li><li>Establishing a task group within the industry committee to advance equality issues;</li><li>Better information and training on rehabilitation and occupational health and safety;</li><li>Improving travelling time compensation.</li></ul>

In spite of the crisis, Swedish unions manage to secure wage gains for their members

New framework agreements in Sweden

MEXICO: Thousands of miners from section 271 of the miners' union in Michoacán, wearing red T-shirts and waving flags, assembled with their families around the monument to the memory of the two miners' leaders who died four years ago defending the freedom of association and trade union autonomy.Héctor Álvarez and Mario Alberto Castillo were killed on April 20, 2006, during the first bloody demonstration organised to defend the miners' union. IMF representatives participated in the ceremony at Lázaro Cárdenas. Jyrki Raina, IMF General Secretary, reiterated the international solidarity for Mexican miners and their leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.Speaking by telephone, Napoleón Gómez called for miners in the union to stay united and to increase the pressure to bring those responsible to justice. &quot;We respectfully demand that the National Human Rights Commission takes action so that those responsible are prosecuted and sentenced&quot;.Leaders representing the Canadian USW and the Honduran union FETRAMIMH  also attended. Jyrki Raina was interviewed by the local press, mainly about IMF denunciations to the ILO about violations of the freedom of association.

Jyrki Raina, IMF General Secretary, reiterates international solidarity for Mexican miners.

Tribute to the miners who died at Lázaro Cárdenas

GLOBAL: Unions play a crucial role in education and prevention of injury and ill health at the workplace. Unions take local and national action to press for government responsibility to create a framework for workers' health and foster public awareness of hazards. Unions the world over also take international action to make sure that your job does not kill you whether in the advanced, industrialized world or the developing world.  The March 31, 2010 death of 23 year old Jiyeon Park, she was the latest loss in a cluster of leukemia cases of workers who were employed at Samsung, has highlighted the urgent need to provide collective solutions to workplace exposure. The Korean Metal Workers' Union will hold a rally event this April 28 to grieve her death but also to combat the misperception that cancer is an individual problem and fight for recognition of occupational cancer.  This year, the IMF calls on its affiliates to take up the issue of occupational exposure, in particular, to increase awareness and mobilize to stop death and suffering from asbestos-related diseases.  As part of IMF and Building Workers' International cooperation in Asia to prevent asbestos related disease, IMF and BWI affiliates in Delhi will jointly mobilize workers for a day-long hunger strike to draw the central government's attention to the urgent need to ban the use of asbestos and ensure its safe disposal.  While many workers in the industrialized world have succeeded in bringing about a ban on asbestos, the production and distribution of asbestos has to the contrary been on the rise, in part owing to the massive export of asbestos to the developing world. In Australia unions will visit the Canadian embassy and call for an end to the production and distribution of asbestos.IMF calls on its affiliates to take action this April 28 and remember that when it comes to occupational disease, prevention is the only cure and union action makes all the difference, as &quot;Unions Make Work Safer&quot;.IMF affiliates taking action on April 28 are asked to inform IMF by sending an email to <a href="mailto:hchong@imfmetal.org">Hyewon Chong</a>.RESOURCES: <ul><li>Unions interested in pressing their government to develop a National Programme for the Elimination of Asbestos-Related Diseases (NPEAD) can download the ILO/WHO model NPEAD with sample National Asebestos Profile here.</li><li>Even the World Bank has issued a good practice guidance note forbidding the use of asbestos in WB funded projects; see guidance note <a href="../files/10042310395566/(WorldBank)AsbestosGuidanceNote_2009_5.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.</li><li>Download the ITUC leaflet explaining Workers' Memorial Day <a href="http://www.ituc-csi.org/28-april-2010-unions-make-work.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </li><li>See how workers around the world are remembering 28 April at the <a href="http://www.hazards.org/wmd/" target="_blank">Hazards' 28th April website</a>. </li><li>Join the<a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=170025585213&amp;ref=ts" target="_blank"> Workers' Memorial Day Facebook page</a>.</li></ul>

Under the global theme adopted by the Global Unions for 2010, "Unions Make Work Safer," metalworkers across the world commemorate the 15th international commemoration day for dead and injured workers this April 28.

RESOLUTION 02: on Asbestos

International Workers&#039; Memorial Day 2010: Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living!

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