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UE District 2 President Attends Brazilian Metalworkers' Congress

Peter Knowlton,
UE District 2 President

The largest Brazilian metalworkers union, Confederacao Nacional dos Metalurgicos (CNM) held its 6th Congress from July 2-4 outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Over 350 delegates from throughout Brazil came to debate policy and continue their fight to improve the lives of metalworkers and for national labor reforms. I was there, as part of the international delegation, to represent the UE. There were were 27 other international delegates from their respective metalworker union's from Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Mozambique, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, and two of us from the US, including a union brother and Steelworker Local 1365 member from Allegheney Rodney (Metals), New Bedford MA. He'd been in Brazil for 2 months as part of a 3 month worker-to-worker exchange the CNM has with the US Steelworkers.

A focus of this CNM 6th Congress was the important role played by women members and leaders in the CNM and as leaders of the community and Brazilian society. The focus was on the need to struggle against the violence, degradation, and inequality of women in the home and the workplace. Gaining equal pay for equal work for women in the metal trades is a big issue for the CNM as women make only 60% of the average men's earnings. The first day I got there was the day before the Congress opened and there was a day long seminar for women in the CNM from the Amazon basin in the north to the Porte Alegre region in the south discussing how to build leadership amongst women metalworkers and bring more women's leadership into their union. They are doing it as a part of a broad cross border educational and organizational effort with the Canadian Autoworkers Union (CAW). On the 2nd day of the Congress there was a short play which highlighted the discrimination women face at home and the need for men to take more responsibility and affirmatively confront that discrimination. The CNM constitution lays out that 30% of their national executive board has to be women. If one of those seats is not filled by a woman the seat stays empty.

The CNM is part of the CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores), the national confederation of the independent rank and file democratic union movement in Brazil. CUT is the equivalent (structurally not politically) of the AFL-CIO. It is the largest confederation representing over 22 million workers - or 8 million more than the AFL-CIO - and Brazil has 60 million less workers than the US. The CGT is the next largest confederation representing around 10 million workers.

The set up within the labor movement of Brazil is completely different from the US - but not unlike the rest of the world. Their labor laws which were established in the mid-1940's set out sectors for labor organizations. There is a public sector, a metalworking sector, a shipbuilding sector, a mining sector, a healthcare sector, etc. Each of these sectors has unions that are only in that sector and represent different "tendencies" within the labor movement. The CNM is the union that comes out of the tradition that is more democratic, rank and file and independent. The other largest metalworkers union, Forca Sindical, is more of a business type union.

The President of Brazil, Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, "Lula", comes out of the metalworkers union which led the strikes and resistance to the dictatorship in the 1970's and a huge 2 day general strike in the late 1989 to defeat governmental wage freezes that had 70% participation of all Brazilian workers!. He was elected president 18 months ago and the Partido Trabalhadores (PT- Workers Party) that he helped found in the 1970's has been in a coalition government over the same time. The biggest obstacle they face is "expectations". There was a consistent message during the Congress from the CNM leadership, and activists, that Brazilian workers cannot expect short term solutions to problems that have been created by previous governments neglect of workers and the poor.

Since there is no legal structure for grievance procedures so the CNM relies on handling shop problems through shop floor actions and strikes. Temporary workers, sub-contracting, and speed up are huge issues in Brazil's metal working industries. Sub-contracting has been a very destabilizing influence in the metal working industries (which includes auto factories, metalworking, fabrication, and electronic shops, etc.) and has begun to adversely affect workers power on the shop floor. They have yet to face plant closings on the scale we have over the last 20 years but they sure know the potential is on the horizon as sub-contracting continues to strip workers from CNM shops. The Workers Party government has been engaged in negotiating trade agreements to protect and improve the industrialization of Brazil with those countries that potentially could threaten it - such as China and India and Mexico. They are also in the process of industrializing the Brazilian economy and encouraging the development of steel, metal, and auto. Something the US has not seen for decades. Brazil has been one of the the leading opponents of US corporate free trade agreements and led the defeat of the WTO Ministerial summit last year in Cancun, Mexico.

The CNM represents 750,000 workers and has 375,000 members. It is comprised of workplaces in 49 areas. Each area has its own "local". In Brazil the union is the center of organization, politics, and assistance for practically all workers. We visited the Sao Bernardo do Campo (part of the greater Sao Paulo area) union complex that is part of the ABC region. (The ABC region is the most industrialized and organized region of the CNM.) There is nothing to compare this local CNM union complex to anything we have in the US. This local union complex of 90,000 members in every respect provides more resources and assistance than any US national union. It includes a medical center, cooperative travel agency, car and home insurance, legal center (to handle labor and other civil legal problems), education and training centers, and retiree center. This particular local even had a state-of-the-art printing presses enabling them unlimited capabilities to communicate with their members. The local produces a newspaper that is distributed by hand to 60,000 workers every morning Monday thru Friday. The leadership of the shops comes to the local before work, picks up the newspapers and takes them to hand out at their shops. If the union organization in a particular shop is weak then the "organizers" hand them out at the gates. This is the region President "Lula" comes out of. Because of their high level of organization the ABC area has more resources and can do more things than other areas but their example is where the CNM intends to head the rest of their union. There are 15 of these locals throughout greater Sao Paulo - a city of 17 million.

In Brazil union membership is voluntary and dues are 1-2% of your wages. However, all workers by law, union and non-union, pay a "union tax" equal to 1 day of wages. These funds are distributed to the appropriate union bodies at the local. Only members have the rights of union membership; including the use of the legal, medical, and all other services the local union provides. If you're not a member - you don't get the benefits. This "union tax", however, allows hundreds, if not thousands, of "yellow dog" unions to exist - collecting millions of dollars to run sham operations - much like the business and mafia type unions in the US but doing nothing to advance the interests of workers.

The CNM and the CUT are opposed to the "union tax" and as part of their campaign to reform the labor laws are working to abolish it. In its place the workers would vote on a "tax" that would be directly related to negotiated wage increases. Other parts of the labor reforms are to institutionalize the ability for unions to develop grievance procedures and representation systems within all workplaces. The resolution of problems and grievances is completely determined now by whether or not workers can organizationally apply enough pressure on the boss in the shop. The reforms will still give them the ability to strike over grievances but, also, set up other legal mechanism for addressing disputes ,that make a real difference in someone's life, but you negotiate a settlement instead of always stopping work to get it. In addition the reforms include demands to reduce the number of hours in the workweek from 44 to 40. Presently, in Brazil, with the exception of certain industries in the Sao Paulo area, most workers have to work 44 hours to get overtime. The CUT is organizing massive demonstrations to take place on July 16 to kick off the campaign for labor reforms and to shorten the work week. Despite always being on the defensive in the shop the CNM, the CUT, and the Brazilian labor movement are forging ahead with an ambitious offensive strategy and with their allies in government in the Workers Party intend to secure a better live for all Brazilian workers and their families. The future they are trying to build show us that "Another world is possible".

For more detailed information about the process and content of the Brazilian labor reforms go to the website: http://funky.macbbs.com.br/wwwroot/fnt/area.cfm?id_area=53&idioma=I