Communications Technology (ICT) Sector

1. Introduction

Since the last global Mechanical Engineering conference in November 2015 in Bern,

Switzerland, the world has been witness to dramatic changes:

 Political far-right movements have been in charge in many countries of the world,

including USA, Brazil, Turkey, Philippines, Hungary and many others – the list is

continues to grow. This development is a burden for democratic progress worldwide and

hampers any positive development for the global workforce. Right-wing governments

never act in favour of the working class, despite what their party leaders say. They

always and without exception weaken labour and trade union rights in order to create

economic advantage for “their” capital. Right-wing governments threaten “trade wars”

and tariffs to put their respective country’s capital “first” and not their workforce.

 The Brexit discussion, which dragged on for many years, has resulted in chaos paralyzing

the European Union for several years. Instead of discussing necessary progress in

social and environmental cohesion, European leaders have been occupied with an

unhealthy discussion over the parameters of a deal or no-deal Brexit. But at the same

time, the European Union is forced to re-position itself in a changing global environment

with new challenges, new players, and new risks that require new answers.

 Global warming and the discussions around the necessary CO2 reductions have on the

other hand mobilized a whole generation that fears for their future and demands a

drastic change in climate policy which also requires a drastic change in the automotive

industry, public transportation, energy production, new technologies, and other industrial

sectors. The younger generation rightly demands that we work on a future for

humankind in an environment where people can exist. The German word for

sustainability – “Nachhaltigkeit” – refers to a way of running an economy without harming

the opportunities for future generations. Originating in forestry, it meant not harvesting

more trees in one year than could regrow in the same period. Reduction goals for CO2

emissions are a big challenge for many industries (or rather the products), but this is not

the whole picture. Global warming is but one element of environmental risk where

mechanical engineering industries can deliver solutions. This includes better technical

solutions, new products and also better working conditions.

 Technological developments have gained momentum and industrial production is

changing with an enormous speed. The concept of digitalization is transforming not only

the industrial setting but also the whole system of relations between producer, service

provider, supplier and customer. Autonomous driving, digitalized processes in 

production, service, and consumption revamp the whole setting for our industries.

Besides, specific technologies such as digital three-dimensional (3D) printing, the

interaction between man and machinery, artificial intelligence and others change the

whole system of supply, production and product life cycle management. This requires

new skills and tools. Also, new ethical discussions are needed about the limits of using

artificial intelligence and moral categories in autonomous operating products.

 Multinational corporations (MNCs) going through mergers, restructurings, divestments and

splits represent a huge challenge for the labour movement, on regional, national and

global level. Siemens, General Electric, Caterpillar, thyssenkrupp are only some

examples from our sector whose restructuring brings changes in our industrial settings.

MNCs do not respect our views of sectors, borders, or workers’ rights in these

processes. They are driven by “active” shareholders who only want higher dividends

leaving the interest of workers and their representatives out. Trade unions and global

unions have the difficult task of safeguarding workers’ interests in this process. Global

Framework Agreements, campaigns and social dialogue are the main tools at the global

level, while European Works Councils are the major tool at the European level.

 Multinational Corporations are not the only driving force of the global struggle for market

share and profits. Competition between countries and regions drive it as well. We have

seen ever stronger Chinese economic growth, which is now slowing considerably.

Despite this, China is one of the most dynamic economies in the world, although often it

does not care much for sustainability goals. The last one and a half decades made

China and Asia very important players in the global economy, with China representing

50 per cent and more of market share in several sectors and products. China and Asia

are now not only markets for North American, European and Japanese products any

more, but also big producers and competitors, especially in our segments.

Workers’ and trade union rights are under pressure in this socio-economic and political

environment. The general trend for decades now is that the rich get richer while the poor get

poorer. Global capital has lost any decency and prudence: tax paying is something only for

workers, their families and customers. It is not for shareholders, billionaires, MNCs. Wealth

inequality in the developed countries is today higher than in 1913.1

This is fertile soil for rising nationalism, racism, fear and hate. Trade unions have always been

on the forefront of fighting these anti-values, but recent developments make this fight even

harder than in the past. This is why global unionism is a core asset of the labour movement.

Only global unions can organize cooperation between trade unions with different heritage,

culture, power and means. This makes IndustriALL Global Union one of the major assets for its

affiliates.

During its first eight years IndustriALL Global Union has launched a new era in global union

solidarity. At the same time, we need the greatest possible unity to fight global capital. Unions

need to grow and gain strength at sector, company and factory levels. We need to be strong for

the benefit of workers. We need to build real industrial muscle.

In our sector, we are confronted with strong MNC’s2

. To challenge their strength IndustriALL has

developed our Action Plan, which was then translated into five strategic goals: 

Any activity of our global union, in every sector, must be in line with these five strategic goals. In

our sector it is crucial to build union power in order to confront global capital if we want to

defend workers’ rights. On the other hand, defending workers’ rights has become crucial in the

context of defending democratic and environmental rights of the whole population. Mechanical

engineering is positioned to help making industrial and energy production more sustainable.

IndustriALL Global Union also stands for safe working conditions and workplaces where

workers do not ruin their health.

The 2016-2020 Action Plan, adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, closes with the following call:

“IndustriALL Global Union will fight for its strategic goals, uniting workers and unions

throughout the world in global solidarity.”

In the mechanical engineering sector, we did our best to translate this call into concrete aims

and activities. We adopted strategic plans and developed campaigns, networks and GFAs. In

spite of the socio-economic and political environment we made progress. In our sector, we launched strategic discussions on consequences for the entire manufacturing industry. 

In this report we will talk about the tools, activities and campaigns we have so far conducted in

line with IndustriALL’s Action Plan and our strategic goals.

We present this report as a balance sheet of our activities over the past four years so that

affiliates in the sector can discuss what has been achieved, where there are shortcomings and

how we can improve. Sometimes, we need to be honest enough to admit that we do not have

the answers at hand. But then it is crucial to ask good questions. Let’s do that together.

Using our five strategic goals we translated the IndustriALL global strategy into policy and

practice in the mechanical engineering sector.

With respect to the long-term goals, we decided for our sector in Bern 2015:

1.More effectively promote international solidarity and cooperation among workers in

multinational companies and their supply chains

2.Fight against precarious work in all its form

3.Support and reinforce organizing efforts and activities of affiliates in multinational

companies and their supply chains

4.Integrate more women and young people into our work

5.Continue with the work on MNC strategy, including global networks and GFAs, in order to

enhance trade union presence and power in the MNCs

6.Promote a sustainable industrial policy in the mechanical engineering sector.3

These long-term goals in the sector became the basis of our strategic planning for the sector in

coordination with the affiliates. Although we did not achieve everything we wanted, we made

progress. Besides, some developments, especially concerning green tech, required new

approaches and creative thinking from us.

4. Digitalization and mechanical engineering

Digitalization or Industry 4.0 is in full swing. Although IndustriALL’s sectors are affected

differently, it is a major issue in every sector, including mechanical engineering. At production

use, Internet of things, cooperation between human beings and machinery, use and integration

of artificial intelligence; all these trends are leading to structural and socio-economic

transformations.

As stated in IndustriALL’s 2018 paper on digitalization and approaching changes in traditional

industrial sectors:

“Aside from the ICT sector, mechanical engineering will be one of the most affected sectors by

the digitalization of manufacturing. New production needs new machinery and so there will be

an increased demand for high-tech mechanical engineering. The transformation of this sector

has in fact many similarities with the systematics in ICT, because likely industrial design and

industrial manufacturing will experience very different employment effects. When the production

of mechanical engineering equipment can be digitalized, and other disruptive modern

manufacturing techniques like 3D printing can be used to replace human labour, their

production will experience job losses while in industrial design and various engineering

disciplines, through the rising demand for advanced mechanical engineering equipment, jobs

may be won. However, as mentioned in chapter 3, the job profiles between those lost and those

won are in fact very different. A white-collarization of not only (but including) services but also in

production, creation and maintenance itself is already visible: from technician to engineer, from

engineer to full-service customer-care-person.”

8

The following picture helps to understand the underlying dynamics of this megatrend in actual

context.

Mechanical engineering provides for the tools and means that are drivers of development.

Workers in this sector are at the forefront of the change. Changing production and interaction

systems and new ways of customer relations also demand new skills. Traditional “operators”

become more and more technicians, engineers and/or IT experts. This also leads to a redistribution of work. Estimates show a lot of jobs will disappear. Trade unions will have to find

new answers about working time systems, skills management, training, cooperation between

blue- and white-collar unions and so on.

Even though this looks like a dark perspective and a bad future for labour, trade unions should

focus on opportunities and positive aspects and take care of the employees’ interests. It is

crucial that trade unions on plant, national, and also global level and in multinational

corporations seek to safeguard the influence of organized labour.

It must be clear that under these circumstances, trade unions are as important as ever as while

the world of labour faces new and drastic industrial transformation. Trade unions, shop stewards

and works councils are crucial players in the socio-economic and political change. Otherwise, all

the benefits of Industry 4.0 will flow entirely to employers and capital owners, which will

inevitably result in political and social instability.

Although workplaces may be fundamentally transformed, it is crucial that workers’ and their

trade unions’ fundamental rights are respected. These are freedom of association and the

effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, elimination of forced or compulsory

labour, abolition of child labour and elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and

occupation. They are all part of the International Labour Organization Declaration on

fundamental principles and rights at work, and are often referred to as ILO Core Conventions.

The following picture shows how different sectors within IndustriALL’s footprint are exposed to

the challenging developments that have already started. Mechanical engineering as the one of

the most-affected sectors requires special attention from the trade unions operating in the sector

when it comes to their future work. Workplaces, qualifications, skill requirements and vocational

training will change, and trade unions will have to adapt to this change in order to be able to

recruit in the new environment.

As the digitalization of the workplace progresses, several issues will be crucial for the future of

trade unions and of the self-determination of workers:

 the right to information and consultation for workers’ representatives at the local, regional,

national and international levels

 the right to education and training

 the right to defined levels of privacy at work and at home.

To ensure workers’ rights, trade unions will need to adapt their structures and culture to the new

realities of the Industry 4.0 workplace, e.g. by devising ways to organize isolated workers who

may be on individual contracts in the so-called “gig economy”.

In mechanical engineering, digitalization has two faces. On the one side, mechanical

engineering is a driver in this process, as the sector delivers the tools and machinery that drives

and transforms the industrial production process and service environment in many industries.

On the other side, mechanical engineering is itself transforming, which means that traditional

jobs will disappear or change, and that new and different tasks and activities are emerging.

From 3D printing of tools, machinery to self-diagnosing lifts and escalators, wind rotors or

bearings, all of these developments are changing production, service and customer relations in

the mechanical engineering section.

Products are changing and thus the whole industrial setting. For instance, agricultural

implements now include autonomous tractors, harvesters and other equipment, directed via

GPS and/or cameras, deciding themselves when they need the feeder tractor or maintenance,

service and so on. In the sector of lifts and escalators, a “turbolift” that moves through a building

vertically and horizontally – until recently a matter for the distant future –is now a reality. Service

and maintenance are digitalized and communicate with (currently human) service technicians

via VR glasses, mobile devices and/or other interfaces and tell them where the problem is

located and how to fix it.

Today, suppliers, manufacturers, customers, and service and maintenance people are

connected, and service and maintenance people are connected. Connectivity is one of the core issues in mechanical engineering. If a lift is installed, it can announce the need for services

directly to the lifts and escalators’ company and they will send a specifically skilled technician

who interacts with the lift in order to fix the problem.

A roller bearing in a railway locomotive wheel today can interact with the bearing producer and

announce whether it needs service, maintenance or replacement. This interaction goes via the

internet to the company that then can provide the demanded service. The same goes for wind

rotors, rotating equipment and also lifts, escalators, mining and agricultural equipment. Service

or maintenance technicians are thus increasingly becoming IT experts. They use apps in order

to communicate with their tools and machinery and interact with the customer.

New technologies like digital design, virtual reality, 3D printing, cyber-human cooperation and

artificial instruments in mechanical engineering are tools that will create new relations between

human and machine. Activities that are complicated for human beings, like complex

mathematics, are easy for machinery. Many tasks that are easy for humans, like understanding

language or creative processes, can now increasingly be done by machinery or artificial

intelligence.

To be very clear, digitalization or “the internet of everything” goes far beyond the presence of

more robots. The new development and change is about the interaction between machinery,

tools, materials, producers, operators and customers. 3D printing offers possibilities for the

design of tools, machinery and parts with previously unknown accuracy and makes low-scale

design and production efficient and cheap.

Trade unions will have to adapt since management may use digitalization and new technologies

to interact with the workforce, especially when working in the cloud, directly and offering

information and consultation, bypassing traditional trade union structures. This represents a big

challenge for IndustriALL’s affiliates who need to find good answers to the challenges posed by

the “Internet of Everything” (IoE).