The International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) was a

global union federation A global union federation (GUF) is an international List of federations of trade unions, federation of national trade unions organizing in specific industry sectors or occupational groups. Historically, such federations in the social democratic t ...

of metalworkers'

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s, founded in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in August 1893. the IMF had more than 200 member organisations in 100 countries, representing a combined membership of 25 million workers.

History

The federation was founded as the International Metallurgists' Bureau of Information. In 1904, the International Secretariat of Foundry Workers merged into the federation, which renamed itself as the "International Metalworkers' Federation". From 1921, its constitution called for not only international co-operation to improve wages and conditions, but also for workers to take over the

means of production In political philosophy, the means of production refers to the generally necessary assets and resources that enable a society to engage in production. While the exact resources encompassed in the term may vary, it is widely agreed to include the ...

. Membership of the federation reached 1.9 million in 1930, but fell to only 190,000 in 1938, hit by the international depression. By 1947, membership had reached a new high of 2.7 million, and the federation took a leading role in opposing the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade union, trade unions established on October 3, 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the Int ...

, instead becoming a founding constituent of the

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was an international trade union. It came into being on 7 December 1949 following a split within the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and was dissolved on 31 October 2006 whe ...

. The organization held a congress every four years, consisting of delegates from the member organisations. The congress established the broad lines of the IMF's policies and actions and elected the President and General Secretary of the IMF. Some member unions wished for the federation to hold sectoral conferences, and the IMF's refusal to do so led six unions to found the International Federation of Foundry Workers in 1949, but this was dissolved in 1954. The international headquarters of IMF was based in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. There were regional offices in

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, and a project office in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In June 2012, the IMF merged into the new global federation

IndustriALL Global Union IndustriALL Global Union is a global union federation, founded in Copenhagen on 19 June 2012. IndustriALL Global Union represents more than 50 million working people in more than 140 countries, working across the supply chains in mining, energy a ...

Affiliates

The following unions were affiliated in 2009: ;Notes

Leadership

General Secretaries

:1893: Hermann Vogelsanger :1896: Charles Hobson :1904: Alexander Schlicke :1920: Konrad Ilg :1954: Adolphe Graedel :1971: Ivar Noren :1974: Herman Rebhan :1989: Marcello Malentacchi :2009: Jyrki Raina

Presidents

:1960:

Otto Brenner Otto Brenner (8 November 1907 – 15 April 1972) was a German trades unionist and politician. Between 1956 and 1972 he was the leader of the powerful IG Metall ''(Industrial Union of Metalworkers)''. In a tribute published in 1967 to celebrate ...

:1972: Hans Rasmussen :1974: Eugen Loderer :1984: Hans Mayr :1987: Franz Steinkühler :1993: Klaus Zwickel :2003: Jürgen Peters :2009: Berthold Huber

References

External links

*
Catalogue of the IMF British Section archives
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collect ...

{{Authority control Global union federations Metal trade unions Trade unions established in 1893 Trade unions disestablished in 2012