The conference was attended by 13 individuals from the IMF-JC, including President Nishihara and other industry-based union leaders, and around 50 individuals from IMF affiliated organizations in the Asia Pacific region. From the IMF headquarters, General Secretary Jyrki Raina and Assistant General Secretary Hiroshi Kamada attended along with representatives from regional offices.
| Keynote Presentation: "IMF Action Program" by General Secretary Jyrki Raina |
First IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina gave a presentation titled "Priority Items for 2010 Activities in the IMF Action Program," in which he explained the items for special priority among 2010 activities following the IMF Action Program. Among the priority items, he mentioned (1) organizing unorganized workers, (2) building strong national unions, (3) stronger collective bargaining, (4) building counterbalance in multinationals, (5) precarious work, (6) equal opportunity, (7) safe workplaces, and (8) sustainable trade, development and employment. He then brought up efforts that should be urgent issues in 2010 activities.
As for the urgent issues: (1) To overcome the crisis, he indicated the need for public support of unemployment measures and IMF, ICEM and ITGLWF joint effort in shining the spotlight on unemployment at the G20; (2) In building labor union networks, he touched on company-based councils and global worker councils, and stated that networks should be prioritized in major corporations and efforts should be made to build labor union networks throughout Japanese companies, primarily in the automobile industry; (3) Labor union rights and international campaigns should focus on Mexico, Turkey, Russia, Korea, and the Philippines; and he explained efforts in the areas of (4) unstable work, (5) sustainable trade, development and employment, and (6) climate change.
Regarding the statement on the IMF-ICEM-ITGCLWF merger, he explained the process and reported on the relationships with regional organizations and domestic organizations in different countries, as well as the schedule for future deliberations.
For the first topic, reports were given on the current situation and challenges in the Asia Pacific region by Sudharshan Rao from the IMF South Asia Office (South Asia), P. Arunasalam of the IMF Southeast Asia and the Pacific Office (Southeast Asia), Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) National President Paul Bastian (The Pacific), and IMF-JC General Secretary Hideyuki Wakamatsu (East Asia).
For the second topic, IMF Assistant General Secretary Hiroshi Kamada reported on the IMF's efforts thus far toward precarious work, focusing on the Global Action Day against Precarious Work. He also stated the need for having not a unified event like the Global Action Day, but efforts by each organization in specific activities, legal revisions, and collective bargaining to overcome precarious work, and called for a survey on this matter.
For the third topic, IMF-JC General Secretary Hideyuki Wakamatsu raised the issue of international efforts toward climate change, explaining and introducing IMF-JC's efforts. After a question and answer session the first day's meeting was finished.
| 「Building Labor Union Networks and Strengthening Solidarity and Organization Efforts」 |
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| Panel Discussion |
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| IMF-JC participants |
On the second day, the meeting resumed at 9:00 a.m. First, participants heard reports from representatives from Japan, India, Singapore, and Vietnam on the efforts toward "building labor union networks in multinationals". Then representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan gave reports on efforts toward "promoting swift solidarity movements and organization". Following these reports, a panel discussion was held with the theme of "Network-building, Organization, and Solidarity." The panel was coordinated by IMF-JC advisor Seigo Kojima and comprised of IMF-JC President Nishihara along with the other IMF Executive Committee members and representatives for the Asia Pacific region, and commented upon by IMF General Secretary Jyrki Raina. The panel discussions focused on the need for labor union networks in multinational corporations, international cooperation and solidarity for organization and resolving labor-management disputes, and the importance of labor-management communication and the efforts to create an environment toward this end to prevent labor-management disputes. It was indicated that for establishing labor union networks, strong efforts by each country's labor unions are needed in addition to efforts by the unions of the headquarters. As for the venue for the 4th Asian Metalworkers' Liaison Conference, participants heard a statement from a representative of the Federation of Korean Metalworkers' Trade Unions (FKMTU), which had taken part in the meeting, expressing its wish to host the next meeting. Participants agreed to hold the next meeting in Seoul, and this meeting was brought to a close.
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