International Metalworkers' Federation

The International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) is an organization of more than 200 free and independent metal unions in 100 countries representing about 25 million members, with headquarters in Geneva.

In August 1893 30 union members from eight countries met in a small hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, to coordinate a joint collaboration. With the establishment of the International Metalworkers' Federation, they laid the foundation for one of the oldest organizations of its kind, the then united 60,000 metalheads.

Three years later, in London, there were already 140,000 workers; Paris 1900 240 000. In Amsterdam, an International Metalworkers' Federation was founded in 1904. Beginning of the 1920s the number of members rose to nearly three million people, reaching a peak, which dropped up to the meeting in Prague in 1938 to less than 200,000. After the Second World War the number of members rose almost continuously.

Unions, which operate in different countries at the same multinational companies, such as the carmaker Ford and Siemens in the electronics industry, founded so-called World Company Councils, who met for the automotive industry in 1966 for the first time in Detroit.

In the Japanese capital Tokyo, a representation was opened in 1957, in 1969 a regional office in New Delhi. In Johannesburg, South Africa in 1984 opened an office. There are two more in the Chilean capital Santiago and Mexico for Latin America and the Caribbean region and one each in Malaysia and Moscow.

In international organizations like the UN or the OECD, the International Metalworkers' Federation represents the interests of the workers. Every four years the members to determine the way forward with action programs. For Germany, the IG Metall is represented, for Austria the IG Metall and the Unia and Syna Switzerland.