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The IMF also engages TNC's through its sectoral activities. These have a long history in the IMF, but there have been innovations in recent years: more emphasis has been placed on regional activities, and World Union Committees have been established in SKF, Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz. Although the latter are financed by the enterprises, the IMF is represented and there is a well-defined representational structure, as well as regular schedules of meetings. Although, the IMF continues to organize its own World Company Councils, it also works at building smaller Action Groups in the auto and steel sectors. These bodies meet more frequently than the Councils to ensure improved international information exchange and cooperation. IMF activities on TNCs continue to make efforts to balance and coordinate company and sector level approaches at the global and regional levels. For example, the World Auto Council also includes meetings of TNC networks.Another growing area of the IMF's work is solidarity and union building campaigns. These range from the IMF encouraging affiliates to write protest letters to full-scale global campaigns. Campaigns are often triggered by countries or enterprises that violate internationally recognized workers' rights. South Korea, for example, emerged from military rule in the late 1980's, but the struggle for union recognition, the freeing of frequently imprisoned labor leaders, and new labor laws that are based on international standards continues. Since 1989, the IMF and its affiliates have organized several international days of action and lodged complaints to the ILO. Belarus, Turkey and Malaysia have also been repeated targets of IMF solidarity activities. In Indonesia, the IMF expelled its Suharto era affiliate and supported a new independent union (FSPMI) as well as Lomenik-SBSI. Starting in 2006, the IMF was involved in a major campaign in support of its Mexican mining affiliate, SNTMMSRM. The government had attacked SNTMMSRM, removed its legally elected general secretary, and pursued him with fraudulent charges, forcing him to flee the country. Since its launch, the IMF's international campaign with the strong support of its affiliates, continues to fight for union autonomy in Mexico and continues to support the efforts of the miners' union to win justice and fight political persecution. But governments are not the only culprits. TNCs frequently use substandard labor legislation or corrupt officials to violate workers' rights and suppress unions. The IMF has had to campaign against Honda Prospect Motor in Indonesia, and Toyota in the Philippines. In other cases, IMF affiliates took the lead in launching activities, examples are the fight for decent contracts and union recognition at the Brazil based steel maker Gerdau, the campaign to get the Australian manufacturer of asbestos products, James Hardie, to compensate asbestos victims, and the current fight against Australian hearing device manufacturer, Cochlear's, union busting campaign. The IMF-website, launched in 1999, has been a key tool in virtually all of these campaigns. <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19219&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=19221&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

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

IMF - the last twenty years

Text / Peter Unterweger Photos / IMF archives -------------------------------------------------------------------------------A new era dawns1989 was an eventful year. The participant list of the IMF Congress in June of that year gave some clues to the events transforming the world. Trini Leung, who had been present at the Tiananmen Square demonstrations only 14 days earlier, addressed the Congress. Moses Mayekiso, General Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), had recently been freed by the apartheid authorities after 3 years of detention and ultimate acquittal. Apartheid was tottering, and its rulers were turning to compromise. Popular pressures inside the Soviet block were building. Years of Gorbachev&#039;s reforms had loosened the grip of the Communist elites on satellite states and the Soviet republics. In Poland, Solidarnosc successfully concluded talks with the Communist authorities in April 1989, and won the subsequent elections by a landslide. On August 23, the Hungarian government opened its border with Austria, and more than 13,000 East German &quot;tourists&quot; escaped to the West. Demonstrations began in East Germany, and by November 9th the East German government was forced to permit unrestricted visits to the West. Euphoric crowds scaled the Berlin Wall from both sides and began to dismantle it.Aside from these momentous developments, there were still other trends changing the world. Dictatorships were on the decline, and by its long-time support for metalworkers in South Africa, Latin America, Poland, and Korea, the IMF had made important contributions. The elections of Thatcher and Reagan had signalled the start of a right-wing backlash against the welfare state and workers&#039; gains that reverberated far beyond the United Kingdom and the USA. Under GATT, world trade liberalization continued. Eventually, even social democratic parties adopted parts of the neo-liberal programme. For the IMF, an important new chapter began in 1989. Since its founding in 1893, there had been only seven IMF Secretaries or General Secretaries, and in 1989 a new GS, Marcello Malentacchi, was unanimously elected. The challenges confronting the IMF and its new leadership were large: <ul><li>Millions of metalworkers in the former Soviet block needed assistance even as the struggle for democracy in South Africa, Korea, Latin America and a number of other countries still required support.</li><li>Anti-social political and economic trends on the national and global levels had to be resisted.</li><li>New ways of dealing with the growing power of trans-national corporations (TNCs) had to be found. </li></ul><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=19216&amp;mwId=19189">forward&gt;&gt;</a> </td></tr></tbody></table>

The IMF has witnessed important growth and change 
over the last twenty years, and has shaped the course of international trade unionism in the developed and developing world alike. This work is critical to meet the economic and political challenges of today.

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>

Meeting recruitment challengesTraditionally the rate of organization has been higher among blue-collar workers than among white-collar workers and engineers. That remains the case in the manufacturing industries. But over the last 15 years the level of union membership, both for blue- and white-collar workers, has fallen from 85 to 71 per cent. The big drop in membership came right after the conservative government came to power in the autumn of 2006. The level of organization remains significantly higher in the manufacturing industries than for the rest of the economy. That goes for both blue- and white-collar workers. In Sweden, 82 per cent of blue-collar workers in manufacturing and 72 per cent of white-collar workers belong to a union. IF Metall has one of the highest rates of organization of all the union confederations, close to 92 per cent. But that rate is falling. &quot;We sat back and relaxed, and thought everything was going well, despite the fact that the decline began ten or fifteen years ago,&quot; says Inga-Lill Samuelsson, a representative at IF Metall's branch in Gothenburg. Inga-Lill is also the project leader for the union's drive to organize and recruit more members. The organising project will run for two years and began in 2008. 22,726 new members were recruited last year. But at the same time, many people have left the union. Hence overall membership in IF Metall has declined. According to the union, one in two members who left IF Metall left due to finding a new job and for that reason moved to another union. Every fourth person left the union after ceasing to pay membership dues. <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19210&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><td> </td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19213&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

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Swedish Unions revive recruitment efforts

During the crisis autumn of 2008, the loss in members slowed down. The economic crisis has had the effect that more people are joining the union. Inga-Lill Samuelsson thinks the project has so far yielded good results. &quot;But it's hard to say how many of the approximately 23,000 new members joined thanks to our efforts or because of the crisis.&quot; The union's 52 branches are responsible for their own recruiting. Each branch can request economic support from the union for its recruiting efforts. &quot;The branches have done a good job. Many have conducted training to attract more members, and to attract members who will stay in the organization,&quot; says Inga-Lill. &quot;Our elected officials need to be strengthened through training and to receive tips on debating and reporting.&quot;At first the project was aimed at the smallest enterprises. This is because the degree of organization in them is usually lower than in big enterprises where unions often have their own branches with outreach activities. At the smaller workplaces the union is therefore less often seen. &quot;The important thing is that the individual be asked: 'will you join?' Someone has to ask the question. Then many do join,&quot; Inga-Lill says. That applies both for finding new sustainable work methods and rediscovering tried and true forms of work, says Inga-Lill. &quot;We have to explain that we are stronger if more people join.&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=19212&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><td> </td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19214&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>

White-collar organisingSnap-On in Bollnäs is a traditional industrial factory where workers directly involved in production constitute the majority of employees. A bit further south, about an hour's drive from Stockholm is ABB, one of the world's leading high-tech companies and one which is increasingly dominated by white-collar workers and engineers.Of the 3,500 white-collar workers, 1,300 are organized in Unionen (a merger of the industrial employees' union Sif and the commercial employees' union HTF). When the government made the unemployment funds more expensive, Unionen lost members.&quot;Many older members left,&quot; recalls Krista Loiske, Unionen's branch chairman for ABB in Västerås. &quot;They thought their jobs were secure and that they could afford to be outside the union.&quot; &quot;It has become increasingly difficult to recruit,&quot; Krista says. &quot;It used to go without saying that people would stick up for each other. But society has been getting more and more individualized, and we are often confronted with the question: 'Why should I join, what do I stand to gain from the union?'&quot; Last autumn the crisis came. And that was when many people's attitude toward the union changed, says Krista. &quot;The loss of members stopped, and more people began to join. It was as if the crisis served as a warning that people have to stick together. Which is really the whole point of the union.&quot; That is precisely the point that Unionen's activists constantly try to make when they meet newly hired people, when they report on their activity, when they offer coffee and show themselves among the employees. The effect of the crisis in reversing the downward trend of membership figures has also been seen at the national level in Unionen. From September to October 2008 the number of members began to rise. <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19199&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><td> </td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19208&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

&quot;We had already begun to commit ourselves to membership recruitment,&quot; says Kjell Johnson, who is in charge of long-term development work in Unionen. &quot;And then, I think that Unionen's image may also have attracted new members. With the merger, the new union is perceived as a stronger and more attractive force.&quot; At ABB there are many engineers. Most of them belong to Sveriges Ingenjörer (the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers). At the ABB Corporate Research centre, union recruitment work has been quite successful. Out of 180 engineers, about 150 belong to Sveriges Ingenjörer. &quot;We don't seek out individuals to try to recruit them [into the union]. We don't believe in that model,&quot; says Shiva Sander-Tavallaey, the union representative for Sveriges Ingenjörer at ABB Corporate Research. &quot;For us the important thing is to show that we are attractive and accessible. We have to show that members can benefit from union membership.&quot;Shiva explains that the union gets good cooperation from the company. Whenever the company has an introductory meeting for new employees, the union is given an opportunity to present its work for 15-30 minutes. &quot;That is an opportunity that my union colleagues succeeded in achieving some 30-40 years ago. Over time it has become part of the corporate culture. The company is positive toward the union,&quot; says Shiva.The union activity of ABB engineers is adapted to the company. According to Shiva, &quot;ABB has an 'activity clock' to which we adapt. We make our own union 'activity clock' so our members can get the most from their union membership.&quot;Before management meets with members to discuss salary, the union makes sure that material is available to equip members before individual meetings. To help them, the union has a local database where members can obtain current pay statistics.&quot;There they can see where their salaries stand in relation to the average for comparable groups, taking into account experience and educational background,&quot; Shiva explains. <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19207&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><td> </td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19210&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

Members not only have access to the local database, but also to a national database for Sveriges Ingenjörer throughout the country. &quot;The database is highly valued by our members and strongly contributes to our attractiveness as a union. Quite simply, they get a lot for their membership,&quot; she adds. The database also contains information on current union activities at ABB Corporate Research. The board of directors regularly publishes information on its activity, and all meeting minutes are also available. Hence, all members receive an electronic newsletter from the engineers' corporate department in all units throughout Sweden. All totalled, Sveriges Ingenjörer has some 2,000 engineers at ABB in various locations around the country. &quot;We know that the newsletter is very popular. It is a way of providing important information to members on, for example, equality and pay issues. It is also a way of getting members from various parts of the country to feel involved and to feel united,&quot; Shiva says. ABB is a global, knowledge-intensive group in the power and automation technology sector and employs people all over the world. Many engineers come to Sweden and to Västerås from elsewhere. The international character of the ABB Corporate Research Center, where some 30 countries are represented among the 180 engineers, is very much evidence. &quot;That doesn't mean that everyone with a foreign background comes directly from another country. Many were raised in Sweden,&quot; says Shiva. &quot;But more and more of them do come directly from another country. Just last year some ten foreign engineers were newly recruited at the ABB Corporate Research Center.&quot; These foreign engineers often choose to join Sveriges Ingenjörer at ABB.&quot;The response has been very positive. We have gained a lot of new members,&quot; Shiva adds. The level of organization among engineers at ABB is significantly higher than the national average. In Sweden as a whole, it is estimated that just over half - 54 per cent - of graduate engineers are members of Sveriges Ingenjörer. The total number of members is 120,000, which represents an increase of 3 per cent during the last year. <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19208&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><td> </td><td align="center" valign="middle"><a href="../main/index.cfm?n=103&amp;l=2&amp;c=19212&amp;mwId=19189">forward &gt;&gt;</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Text / HARALD GATU Photos / LARS HALVARSSONIn Sweden most people belong to a union and the level of organisation is among the highest in the world. But joining a union is no longer taken for granted. The proportion of union members is declining, forcing unions to make an effort to recruit new members. Stefan Halvarsson is 38 years old and president of the IF Metall union at one of the American Snap-On factories in Sweden. All workers, except one, are organized in the union. &quot;They used to come and ask to become members, now we need to motivate them to join,&quot; he says.A few hours' drive north of Stockholm lies Bollnäs, a small town in an idyllic setting of vast forests and beautiful lakes. The American firm Snap-On has a plant here that makes handsaws. There are 137 workers at the plant, and all but one are union members. The fact that so many people are members does not mean that the union can relax and expect that every employee will spontaneously join. &quot;No, it's not so simple,&quot; says Stefan Halvarsson. &quot;Not any longer. It used to be that people spontaneously came and asked to join. Now we have to seek people out and argue for our cause. They want to know what the union can do for them.&quot;Halvarsson is 38 years old, a bowling fan, and has worked at the plant for 14 years. Prior to that he worked in healthcare, and he believes that the healthcare job involving contact with people has made it easier for him to engage in union work. &quot;Being a union activist means working with people, building relationships and trust,&quot; Stefan says.After a few years at the plant, he was asked if he wanted to undertake a union assignment. He said yes. Today Stefan is the chairman of IF Metall's branch for the company. &quot;We must always explain why one should join the union. And first and foremost, the union must always be visible. The union must be present among its members.&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=19198&amp;mwId=19189">forward&gt;&gt;</a> </td></tr></tbody></table>

In Sweden most people belong to a union and the level of organisation is among the highest in the world. But joining a union is no longer taken for granted. The proportion of union members is declining, forcing unions to make an effort to recruit new members.

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