English

Español

Français

Aerospace

Automotive

Base metals

Chemical, pharmaceutical and bio-science

Energy

Glass, cement, ceramic and associated industries

ICT, electrical and electronics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and DGOJP

Pulp and paper

Rubber

Shipbuilding and shipbreaking

Textile, garment, shoes, leather and textile services

Sectors

Action Plan 2025-2029

Action on textile and garment industry

Clean up shipbreaking

Ratify ILO C176

United for a just future - time to pay up!

Disinvest from Myanmar

Campaigns

Global Framework Agreements

Union building

White-collar workers

Health & safety

Industry 4.0

Women

Youth

LGBTQI+

Gender, equality, diversity and inclusion (GEDI)

Just Transition

Organizing with industriALL

What we do

Affiliates

Statutes

Elected Officials

Executive Committee

Geneva head office

South East Asia

Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus

Latin America and the Caribbean

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Regional offices

About us

Global worker No1 2022

Global worker No2 2022

Publications

Resources

Press

Precarious work is the biggest threat to wages and working conditions that workers face today. Workers in temporary, casual and contract jobs have fewer rights and are less likely to become members of a trade union.  Throughout the world, women are increasingly finding that their only employment options are through precarious work, in jobs which are insecure, temporary and give no rights to social security, pensions and other conditions. Women's overrepresentation in precarious work means that they have fewer possibilities to obtain regular, ongoing employment. This is as true in the metal sector as it is in other areas of the economy.Women are already disadvantaged in employment, receiving significantly lower wages for the same work and being systematically denied access to promotions and better paying jobs simply because they are women.  Because of this ongoing discrimination, women are more likely to end up in precarious work. But forcing women into precarious work is not in anyone's interests, not those of women themselves, nor those of the families and communities that they support. We all know that it still women that shoulder the primary responsibility for raising children, caring for the elderly and providing other community services that keep society functioning. When women's only access to employment is via precarious jobs, the impacts are necessarily felt by those that depend on them.Numerous studies have shown that improving the economic situation of women is a key factor in reducing poverty worldwide. For this to work, women need to have access to well-paid, secure jobs that give them the capacity to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Regular jobs with a steady income help give women the kind of autonomy and economic empowerment that enable them to take decisions about their lives - whether to get married, when to have children - decisions that help shape societies. According to the ILO*, good jobs give women control over income and resources, ensuring they have a greater say in family decision-making, including fertility decisions. Women become less dependent on their children for security in their old age or in adverse economic conditions and families are more likely to see the value in educating girls.Precarious jobs, on the other hand, confine women to continuing insecurity, which in many cases discourages them from participating in the labour market, leading to increased poverty for them and their families. Precarious employment prevents women from making long-term plans for their families' future. Financial commitments like signing a housing lease, taking out a bank loan, or even sending children to school are impossible without some form of income security. Precarious work really does equate to precarious lives.This International Women's Day, IMF is working to raise awareness of the broader impacts of precarious work on all our lives, in order to strengthen our actions against it.

How women's precarious work impacts on families and communities

Travail précaire = vies précaires (Français)

Precarious work = Precarious lives

Lavoro precario = vite precarie (Italiano)

El trabajo precario significa vida precaria (Espanol)

GENEVA: In a statement issued today to mark International Women&#039;s Day, IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi makes the link between women&#039;s overrepresentation in precarious work and negative impacts on families and communities.Calling attention to continuing discrimination against women that forces them into substandard employment, Malentacchi states that &quot;Throughout the world, women are increasingly finding that their only employment options are through precarious work, in jobs which are insecure, temporary and give no rights to social security, pensions and other conditions.&quot;He goes on to point out that women continue to be discriminated against in employment, receiving lower wages for the same work and being denied access to promotions. This same discrimination results in women being pushed into the most precarious jobs with the worst pay and conditions.But it is not just women themselves that suffer the consequences of their precarious work.  As Malentacchi observes, &quot;We all know that it is women who are primarily relied on for raising children, caring for the elderly and providing other community services that keep society functioning. When women&#039;s only access to employment is via precarious jobs, the impacts are necessarily felt by those that depend on them.&quot;As part of its continuing actions against precarious work, IMF is working to raise awareness of the broader impacts of precarious employment on families, communities and society in general. On March 18 in Frankfurt, a joint IMF-EMF meeting will take place on the theme &quot;Precarious work = Precarious lives: how women&#039;s precarious employment impacts on families and communities&quot;. The meeting will provide a first opportunity for unions to share experiences of the broader impacts of women&#039;s precarious work and to develop strategies to address these issues through their union campaigns against precarious work.This theme will be taken up again at the next IMF Women&#039;s Conference to be held in Gothenburg on May 22 in conjunction with the IMF Congress.

In honour of International Women's Day, affiliates of the IMF and EMF will meet to discuss how women's precarious employment impacts on families and communities.

IMF highlights societal impacts of women&#039;s precarious work

GENEVA: The International Labour Organisation Bureau for Workers&#039; Activities ACTRAV encourages trade unionists to apply for a new masters program on labour and globalisation launched by Global Labour University in 2009. The trade unionists from all over the globe are invited to participate in four courses, which will take place in Brazil, Germany, India and South Africa.  The deadline for applications for courses organised in Germany and India is April 1, 2009. Unionists who want to enroll to the courses in Brazil and South Africa should submit applications before September 1, 2009.The courses are given in English. Detailed information about the programs and the application forms are  available at <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/">http://www.global-labour-university.org/</a>. The Bureau for Workers&#039; Activities and its project partners will award a limited number of scholarships to applicants from developing and transition economies. Applicants need to have the endorsement of a trade union to apply for a scholarship.  Applications for scholarship should be sent to the Global Labour University. Contact details are available at the GLU <a href="http://www.global-labour-university.org/">site</a>.

Global Labour University invites trade unionists of the world to participate in a special masters program on labour and globalisation.

GLU launches new international programs on labour and globalisation

INDONESIA: A company manager has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for discriminating against union members in a court case brought by the Federation of Indonesian Metalworkers Union (FSPMI).Fathoni Prawata, local manager of electronic component manufacturer PT Kim Jim Pasuruan (KJI), was imprisoned after being found guilty of a number of union-busting tactics including unfair dismissal of union members. KJI is a subsidiary of Japanese company King Jim Co Ltd. According to FSPMI President Said Iqbal this is the first time Indonesian courts have found management personnel guilty of violating ILO Convention 98 and Indonesian labour law 21 and sentenced them appropriately. FSPMI lodged the court case after Prawata unfairly dismissed FSPMI members and refused to pay wages, bonuses and leave to workers who demonstrated during negotiations for a collective agreement.The case sets an important precedent. FSPMI hopes the decision can assist other unions to take similar action and serve as a disincentive for other anti-worker employers. FSPMI is an affiliate of the IMF.

An Indonesian union has won a historic case against a company manager found guilty of violating local and international labour regulations.

Indonesian company manager imprisoned for union-busting

NUMSA leadership has never shied away from criticizing South Africa democratic government led by African National Congress (ANC), the ruling majority party, and Irvin is no different. He believes some of the ANC's strategic decisions were erroneous. While he does not deny the victory the democratic breakthrough represents, Irvin believes ANC government needs to take responsibility for South Africa's growing inequality and the fact that infrastructure, education, water resources and health systems remain unfairly distributed across the societies of South Africa.In 1995 South Africa was granted membership in the World Trade Organization, and according to Irvin it cost South Africans many jobs as liberalization of trade destroyed industries. &quot;Under the ANC government, exchange control was removed with the hope that the capital will come and make investments. Instead the capital took money from the country and invested it in stock exchange speculations and no real investment happened in productive sectors of the economy,&quot; says Irvin.The fall of apartheid removed legal differences between the rights enjoyed by white and black South Africans, but &quot;access to those rights for people is determined by their economic position in our society,&quot; says Irvin.As South Africa grapples with the impact of the global financial crisis, Irvin is also critical of the double standards of government and business and their &quot;casino&quot; attitude to the economy. For years NUMSA has been calling for nationalisation in the interest of South African people, to no avail. However, now when the banks are in crisis, government and business have been willing to nationalise debts. Meanwhile profits remain private. Opposing this approach and calling for new solutions will be a priority for NUMSA under Irvin's leadership, along with other long-standing campaigns including opposition to the spread of precarious jobs and the AIDS pandemic. Maintaining continuity following recent changes with NUMSA is also important to Irvin. He points out that the new leadership elected at the recent National Congress are all long time NUMSA members and officials. Emphasising statements made at Congress, Irvin says, &quot;our responsibility is that our union should stay united and consolidated.&quot;<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19222&amp;mwId=19189">&lt;&lt; back</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

Profile of Irvin Jim Download pdf file with illustrations >>

Confronting the legacy of apartheid remains vital for South African workers

-------------------------------------------------------------------------Text and photo / Alex IvanouIn 1991, on only his second day at work, Irvin Jim&#039;s fellow workers at Firestone Tyres nominated him as their union representative. Irvin laughs as he recounts the shock of company management when a general meeting was called to elect the young rubber worker. Aged only 23, Irvin turned down the nomination that day but within three months had taken on the role of shop steward, and was well on the path to becoming one of South Africa&#039;s most senior trade unionists. In October 2008, Irvin was elected General Secretary at the Congress of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). Despite his smiling manner, Irvin immediately conveys the impression of a person who has his own views and convictions and is ready to defend them. Irvin&#039;s rapid ascension within the union was assisted by the skills he gained as a student activist in South Africa&#039;s youth movement in the late 1980&#039;s. Following the fall of the apartheid regime in 1994, Irvin became the NUMSA regional chairperson for the Eastern Cape region. He was at that time the youngest member of the NUMSA Central Committee and remained Regional Secretary until his election to the leadership role last year.The fight against the apartheid regime has been a central theme for both Irvin and the union he now heads. NUMSA was formed in 1987 as a result of a merger between four unions to unite different sectors into a single metalworkers&#039; union. The IMF played a key role in the creation of the union and continues to work closely with NUMSA, which represents southern Africa at IMF Executive committee meetings. &quot;Politically and economically we&#039;ve been a very fortunate country, a country that succeeded to win solidarity with the people of the globe,&quot; says Irvin. &quot;The biggest challenge now is to ensure that the very same globe appreciates that the legacy of apartheid has not been dealt with.&quot;<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19224&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

The new leader of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa brings a long history of activism to combat old and new challenges.

Organizing women and bringing them into leadership positions is central to the IMF Action Program. In 2005, the Congress voted to expand the Executive to 25 seats; six are reserved for women and are to be equally distributed among the regions. The plan also set a 20 percent target for women's participation in the Central Committee and Congress, and called for holding a Women's Conference in conjunction with the Congress. Regional structures such as the Latin American Gender Council, East Asian Women's Committee and the Macedonian Women's Section have been set up. In Brazil and the Dominican Republic, the increasing role of women is changing union cultures. The ILO recently recognized the Canadian Auto Workers' (CAW) historic struggle for gender equality. In some cases, progress is directly linked to the crucial task of organizing more women. Women are the predominant workers in EPZs the world over, and in Indonesia, the IMF affiliates' success in EPZ organizing are largely due to strong advances in bringing women into leadership positions.Global labor at a turning pointRight now, the world is mired in the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As the IMF repeatedly underlined, neo-liberalism was a disaster waiting to happen. Deregulation, privatization, weakening of social safety nets, neglect of public investment, and hostility to worker and human rights by many national governments, the Bretton Woods institutions, and the World Trade Organization (WTO), led to the stagnation of living standards for the popular classes and enormous riches for a few. The basic elements of the crisis were growing indebtedness and unregulated financial speculation in a now global financial market. The current crisis is a disaster for the world's poor and working people. Declining production, even when mergers and bankruptcies can be avoided, will bring unemployment and loss of incomes to billions of workers. Union membership is bound to decline in the short run and will have to be rebuilt.Nevertheless, there is a bright side to the debacle. For decades, unions swam against the stream, but now the failure of neo-liberalism is obvious to all but those who will not learn. Leaders of banks and industries - the former cheer-leaders for neo-liberal &quot;reforms&quot; - now beg for government hand-outs. Deficit spending is advocated even by conservative experts and public ownership is on the rise. This is a great opportunity for the IMF, international labor, and its progressive allies. Although the current crisis is economic, its roots are political. Discredited policies can be reversed by a new push for respect of core labor standards not only nationally but in world trade, by demanding the rebuilding of social safety nets, stricter environmental safeguards (including a switch to clean energies), re-regulation of finance and industries, and effective economic intervention by government that will counteract depression even as it improves infrastructures and promotes sustainable industries and services. The future IMF must seize this opportunity and meet these challenges.<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19220&amp;mwId=19189">&lt;&lt; back</a></td><td> </td><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19215&amp;mwId=19189">beginning</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

Download the pdf file of the special report with illustrations >>

IMF - The last twenty years

In Latin America, unions began to see the fruits of their decades-long struggle against dictatorships. Together with political and civil society allies, unions ultimately succeeded in electing progressive governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela. At its 1989 Congress, the IMF had 19 regional affiliates, but none in the economically powerful Brazil and only three medium-sized organizations in Mexico. By 2005, the IMF counted 35 metalworking unions, including the two largest in Brazil, and seven significant unions in Mexico including the powerful mine workers (SNTMMSRM). This positive turn in Mexico was largely due to an increase in IMF activities after 2000. Nevertheless, much work remains to be done there - a conservative government and a majority corporatist union movement still inhibit the formation of independent unions.The Asia-Pacific Region saw strong economic development during the last twenty years. For unions, particularly metalworkers, there were some important successes. There were affiliations in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal, but most notably, the large metalworkers' organization in Korea (KMWF, now KMWU) and important unions in Indonesia (FSPMI and Lomenik-SBSI) joined the IMF. In 2000 the IMF expelled the Thai union and assisted in the formation of a new independent union called TEAM. Through workshops organised annually since 2003 for the then Vietnam National Union of Industrial Workers (VNUIW) the IMF has consolidated its relationships with the successor organisation, the Vietnam National Union of Workers in Industry and Trade (VUIT), which has recently applied for affiliation to the IMF.The IMF's engagement with China began with a 1994 fact-finding mission which was followed by a high-level mission to China in 2000 and 2006. After a long process of discussions, a small meeting with the Chinese Machinery, Metallurgical and Building Materials Workers' Union (CMMBMWU) was organised at the beginning of January 2009 and a joint workshop on collective bargaining has been planned for April 2009. Nevertheless, these gains cannot obscure the enormous obstacles that independent unionism faces in Asia, including China. However, the IMF is committed for the long term, and persevering efforts are necessary to make further progress in the future. In India, independent unionism is relatively weak in the private sector, and a number of important unions linked to Communist parties are not yet prepared to follow their counterparts in Europe and the former Soviet Block and join, or at least work with, the IMF. In cooperation with its affiliates, the IMF has launched a number of projects, which include union-building among shipbreaking workers and targeted educational activities. The IMF is also working with Indian unions to advance organising in fast growing sectors such as steel and automotive industries. Nevertheless, strengthening and uniting metalworker unions in this rapidly developing part of the world remains one of the key challenges confronting the IMF.<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19216&amp;mwId=19189">&lt;&lt; back</a></td><td> </td><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19215&amp;mwId=19189">beginning</a></td><td> </td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19218&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

IMF - the last twenty years

Post Cold War Union BuildingUnder new leadership, the IMF immediately addressed these challenges. By December 1990, a &quot;Plan of Action&quot; identified Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary as key transition countries and focused on preparing them for the role independent unions play in democratic market-based societies. In 1991, seminars were held in the target countries as well as Romania and Bulgaria, and in December the first IMF conference in Eastern Europe took place in Brno, Czekoslovakia on the issue of migration. Starting that year, millions of metalworkers in Central Europe began to join the IMF, and by the time of the centenary congress in 1993, metalworking unions from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania were IMF members. The Slovenian metalworkers became members that same year. By 1997, IMF affiliates in this region by-and-large took over responsibilities for their own programs. The first IMF office opened in Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest in 1997 and efforts turned to South-eastern Europe, where the rebuilding of cooperative relations after years of war and ethnic conflicts was a priority. Affiliations, mostly in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, soon followed. IMF attention then turned to the former Soviet Republics and the Baltic states. Plans for a Project Office in Moscow were developed and implemented over several years. A new milestone was passed with the affiliation of unions in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine in 1999. In 2001, the IMF Executive was enlarged to include a representative from Central and Eastern Europe. By 2004, the 12 regional affiliates the IMF counted in 2001 had grown to 19, including a first affiliation from Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan). Since 1989, strong metalworking unions have been built throughout the former Soviet Bloc, but many challenges remain. Entrenched regimes still regard independent unions with hostility, particularly in Belarus, where the Lukashenko dictatorship tries to crush them. Economic difficulties persist in many countries, and even where there has been some progress, metalworkers' gains are sure to be threatened by the deepening economic crisis that began in 2008.Eastern and Central Europe was not the only world region where the IMF and the movements it had assisted, progressed. In South Africa, combined international and domestic pressures forced the apartheid state to release Nelson Mandela, who was elected to lead the country in 1994. South African metalworkers were already well represented in the IMF in 1989, particularly by the huge NUMSA, but in the rest of Africa, there were only 13 affiliates and none in Mozambique, Angola or Nigeria. That number grew by 2005. Excluding South Africa, there were 24 affiliates in Africa, including important unions in Mozambique and Angola as well as countries on the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, despite this membership growth and a few bright spots, there was no significant economic development in post-colonial Africa.<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19215&amp;mwId=19189">&lt;&lt; back</a></td><td> </td><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19215&amp;mwId=19189">beginning</a></td><td> </td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19217&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

The details of the national collective contract are key to recruitment. With shrinking membership figures, it will be more difficult to maintain the collective contract, Inga-Lill points out adding, &quot;for that reason we must explain what a collective contract is. Many young people think that pay and overtime compensation and other working conditions are determined by law and not through negotiations between the unions and employers' organizations. &quot;The more workplaces lack members, the more difficult it is to defend conditions. For that reason there is a clear connection between membership and the ability to defend working conditions.&quot; Back to Snap-On in Bollnäs where Stefan Halvarsson, chairman of the IF Metall branch, is not satisfied that almost all metalworkers at the plant are in the union. He also participates in the union's organizing and recruiting project. &quot;We travel around to workplaces, and many people think it's fun when we come. They are happy to see us. Often it's a matter of showing yourself. And listening. We also get an opportunity to explain why we're here. We can inform people about the value of being in the union,&quot; Stefan says. The Swedish trade union movement is confronted with new challenges. For Stefan it is self-evident that the fate of the Swedish trade union movement is part of the global movement. He is chairman of the Snap-On company's European Works Council and through it he has close contacts with other European unions. Stefan is also participating in the start-up of a union project with the metalworkers' union in Namibia. &quot;International cooperation has been becoming even more important. Bollnäs and our plant are a part of the world - that has become ever more obvious in recent years, says Stefan. &quot;It is important to organize more people, both here in Sweden and around the world.&quot;<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19213&amp;mwId=19189">&lt;&lt; back</a></td><td> </td><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19197&amp;mwId=19189">beginning</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

Feature: Download pdf file with illustrations >>

Swedish Unions revive recruitment efforts

Archive

About IndustriALL

Follow us

Contact us