‘We need to put our heads and hearts together’

ARGENTINA (UOM)

Fact: In 1975 they had 500,000 unionized workers. In 2001 there were 120,000; there are now 200,000.

Julio Enrique Rodriguez, organizing secretary: “After our country’s 2001 economic crisis, the use of temporary workers began. We intend to lower the ratio of temps to full-time workers, and our goal is for all workers to be full time.”

Gonazalo Placido Mendez Valverde, delegate, Internal Commission: “Our most serious problem at the national level is third-party employment for maintenance, transportation and cleaning workers. With those members, bargaining is done only at the national level, not between a particular company or plant, so it is much more general.”

SWEDEN (IF METALL)

Fact: There is 100 percent union membership in Sweden’s auto industry.

Veli-Pekka Saikkala, director, Bargaining Department: “When a company like GM says, ‘Here are five plants and we’re going to close one,’ it becomes a sort of beauty contest in which the ugliest plant — the least desirable one in terms of our workers — wins. We’re not going to be in this beauty contest.”

UNITED KINGDOM (Transport and General Workers Union)

Fact: U.S. union-busting firms are brought to the UK to stop organizing campaigns.

Des Quinn, regional industrial organizer: “We have massive competition from outsourcing like in the United States. We must focus and learn the lessons of other people and how they’ve dealt with that problem.”

THAILAND (TAW)

Fact: This nation is dubbed the “Detroit of the East.”

Somsak Sukyod, president, Ford and Mazda Thailand Workers Union: “In Thailand it is easy to form a union, but it’s often not sustainable. There are lots of government loopholes.”

FRANCE (FTM-CGT)

Fact: The legal workweek is 35 hours, but most work many more hours with no overtime.

David Meyer, economist: “The right to strike in France is a constitutional law, but the new president (conservative Nicolas Sarkozy) wants to change this. We call him ‘the little Bush’ after your president, George W.”

Brazil (CNM-CUT)

Fact: They have about 1 million members in all branches of metal working.

Valter Sanches, organizing secretary: “In the last four years, there is a new momentum in organizing because employment has grown in Brazil. Now we have a chance to grow our membership as well, and we can be on the offensive instead of on the defensive.”

SOUTH KOREA (KMWU)

Fact: The Korean Metal Workers Union has 150,000 members representing the automotive, shipbuilding, steel and electronics industries.

Hye-won Chong, international director: “We’re all interlinked, and a lot of times transnational companies think globally by shifting production. We need to put our heads and hearts together so that workers won’t be the losers in this.”