75th year, November / 1997-4

75th year, November /1997-3
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Editorial 24th WCL congress in Bangkok, Thailand Top

In recent weeks, almost everything at the WCL secretariat was focused on Sri Lanka, the island republic in the Indian Ocean. This can hardly be a surprise, for the island would be the venue of the 24th WCL Congress. The secretariat followed with more than the usual interest everything directly or indirectly related to Sri Lanka.

General consternation when the news got out that a shoot-out had taken place in the centre of the capital Colombo, during which several people got killed or injured. The shoot-out between army units and guerrilla fighters broke out a few minutes after a bomb truck had exploded, causing heavy material damages. One of the buildings hit was Galadari Hotel, at which the 400 WCL delegates were expected to take part in the Congress, the four-yearly democratic peak in our action. The assault and the shoot-out drew once again attention to the community problems between the Singhalese majority and the Tamil minority. The Tamil, who account for around 20% of the population, demand greater autonomy, and some radical groups do not shrink from acts of violence to give strength to their aspiration for an independent state in the north-east of the country. Even teenagers, so it appears, are deployed during these assaults.

Under the inspiring leadership of brother Anton Lodwick, General Secretary of the National Workers' Congress (NWC), affiliated to the BATU and the WCL, the preparations in Colombo went according to schedule until violence and terror in the streets of Colombo put a spoke in the wheel. In compliance with the decisions the Confederal Board had made in October 1996 in Lugano, we decided to change the venue of the Congress, but preferably not the date. The BATU, our Asian regional organisation, examined together with the leader of BATU-India, brother Noel Rebello, and the Sri Lankan Congress team several other options. We opted eventually for Bangkok, Thailand, where we could count on two young but no doubt dynamic affiliates.

The fact of not being able to organise the Congress in Sri Lanka is absolutely distressing in that it makes us think of the victims of the civil war, the wounds it inflicts and the violence which only generates new violence. It is, further, a sad fact because the NWC, which was so looking forward to hosting the Congress, will not be rewarded for its remarkable efforts, not in Colombo anyway, for its Congress team will be helping to organise the 24th WCL Congress in Bangkok. No time was lost that way, and we will be able to organise our Congress next December, as scheduled.

During the Congress we will discuss strategies to place the world economy in an effective social framework. In their relentless pursuit of higher profit and growth rates, trade and industry and the financial centres are carrying competition to extremes. They are playing workers out against one another (by applying at the right moment their relocation tactics) and taking the government leaders in tow (by enforcing a far-reaching flexibilisation of the labour laws). In each country the workers are experiencing the consequences of this approach. This is also the case in Thailand. In recent weeks there has been heavy speculation against the baht, causing the currency to plummet. The growth figures have gone down considerably. They will not even amount to 3% by the end of this year, against 10% a few years ago. The growing competition from even lower-wage countries (China), combined with a drop in the demand, have resulted in a decrease in economic activity and mass dismissals in the building trade among others. Thai workers accept lower wages and longer working hours so as not to loose their work. This proves once again the necessity of an international social framework. This is why our Congress will seek feasible alternative options to check effectively the world-wide downward pressure on the working conditions and the erosion of the social dialogue.

We are ready for it? You too?

Willy Thys
General Secretary

75th year, November /1997-3
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24th Congress - Alternative solutions to the current globalisation Top

Tragic events have led the WCL to "change course" for its Congress. It is indeed in Bangkok it will be held, not in Colombo. An assault, during which many innocent people got killed or injured, has seriously damaged the hotel the WCL had initially opted for as the venue of its Congress. These circumstances are extremely painful for the victims, whom and whose families we wish to salute here while condemning each recourse to blind violence to defend a cause of whatever nature.
They are also painful for our sisters and brothers of the NWC, our Sri Lankan affiliate, who had applied all their energies to making this event a success. The WCL is particularly grateful to them for these efforts.

A long path of reflection and consultation within the WCL led to the 24th Congress, the theme of which is: "From Internationalisation To Globalisation: Struggle to Change Course".

At the present stage of the proceedings which the Congress will finalise, it appears that facing the henceforth internationalised society, the globalisation of which serves the interests of money only, the WCL proposes by way of alternative the building of a society marked by solidarity, in which politics would democratically re-institute all the decision-making centres in order to legally impose regulations on the economic and financial powers. Yet, this alternative does not stand a chance unless a new balance of power emerges, based on the evolution and expansion of the trade union movement, on the increasingly efficient concrete shaping of a joint international trade union front and on concerted actions and synergies between the trade union and the association world.

Not the internationalisation is called into question, but its current globalised expression. Never before the world has had such a potential, yet it is heading straight for the rocks. Neo-liberalism is not a new phenomenon, but in the industrial countries of old the workers could impose laws on it, and the labour cost was not the main stake in the competitive struggle anymore.

The new technologies have accelerated the internationalisation, however, and the economy has managed to escape the national laws, paving the way for a wild, unbridled and arrogant liberalism.

Today, the globalisation with a neo-liberal flavour has become the uniform thinking, an ideology which crushes the world of labour, the more so as communism has disintegrated. But was also communism not a kind of uniform thinking based on material possession only? The WCL thinks it was. It takes the view that the human being must not be reduced to his or her individual or collective material welfare. This is why its action finds expression in the pursuit of self-fulfilment of each woman and each man as well as in the promotion of harmonious personal and collective relations marked by respect for differences.

The WCL claims to be a world trade union organisation of proposal and participation. Yet, this does not prevent it form being alive to the balance of power in society and from affirming that the current internationalisation requires much more than small adjustments. Adding a social flavour to the market ruled by wild liberalism will not be enough to make it acceptable. It could not be enough to do something about the symptoms; it is the illness of the "moral of profit" that has to be eradicated and a social economy that has to be established.

So, the Congress debates will not remain limited to the preservation or development of the workers' rights. The Congress will seek to define an innovating, overall and credible alternative. It will define the fields of action and select alliances capable of promoting and strengthening the WCL's action. Genuine revolutions are neither violent nor spectacular. They lead to a better life for each and everyone.

The advent of such a revolution requires a political organisation of society capable of carrying it through. The WCL will struggle to achieve that such a political organisation is introduced in a democratic way. For this politics it will demand the means to develop but in particular to decide on laws regulating at all decision-making levels the strength of the forces of money and ensuring a fair distribution of the fruits of the progress of humankind.

The political environment is mediatised like never before and yet decides less and less, to the extent that in the final analysis essential decisions are dictated by the economic and financial world.

One of the consequences reads as follows. Though a considerable part of the analyses of the International Conferences and their intentions to combat poverty and dualisation are close to our options, lots of situations are deteriorating due to the fact that these declarations are very rarely followed by concrete initiatives.

So, the state and the political authorities, at all levels, have to be given or returned the necessary powers enabling them to honour the commitments they have made.

As regards the contents of the politics to be implemented, the WCL will plead in particular for a restoration and revitalisation of the public sector. The needs of women and men exceed largely what the market can cater for. Nor could they be fairly distributed by the market.

A fair tax system has to be introduced to enable the organisation of life in a society balanced by efficient and productive public services.

Catering for needs is not only a matter of job creation in public services. It is necessary to organise these services validly, to motivate those who commit themselves to them and, in particular, to intend them to be used by those who really need them.

In this respect, the WCL will specify in Colombo what it expects from guaranteed universal services in the essential fields of the lives of all the citizens: education, health, housing including the possibility of heating and lighting, transport and access to culture.

Yet, simultaneously with these political, economic and social issues, the WCL will have to direct its action also to the international company structures. It is indeed urgently necessary that a spirit of international enterprise emerges, a spirit which takes account of the social conditions and relations.

Furthermore, the WCL will focus its attention on:

• the ILO standards and in particular the core standards concerning trade union freedom, ban on each form of discrimination as well as on forced and child labour;
• pursuit of a dignified employment for each and everyone;
• promotion of an international social legislation by introducing social clauses, social labels or social codes of conduct for enterprises;
• defence, introduction and promotion of collective social rights and services for everybody, particularly in the field of health care;
• attention to the informal sector;
• gender equality at each level of society and therefore also in the trade union movement.

So, on the basis of its analysis of an internationalised and globalised society and of the great challenges facing it today, the World Confederation of Labour will define its policy lines and action priorities until the year 2001, until the first steps of humanity in the new millennium.
It will do so by reaffirming the primacy of the human being, of each woman and each man over any other consideration, and it will raise the strength of its organisation in order to ensure more and a better protection and promotion.

75th year, November /1997-3
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4th International Women's Conference of the WCL - Integration of women into the labour market is still in the future Top

World trade has been strongly on the rise in recent decades, bringing about enormous changes in the international economy. Also the percentage of women on the formal and informal labour market has risen considerably. The International Labour Office (ILO) has called this the "phenomenon of workforce feminisation world-wide". An irreversible trend has been set: the globalisation of the production of, and trade in, goods and services has given women in many regions and countries better opportunities on the labour market. Indeed a step forward in the emancipation process, but only for a minority because the living and working conditions of most women have deteriorated. This is due to the way they are treated on the labour market: as cheap and docile labour. They can count on a job as long as they meet these criteria. So, the way women are inserted in the labour market leaves much to be desired.

There may be more women on the labour market, but they are also the first victims of the perverse effects of the globalising economy. They are the first ones to be affected by unemployment, they are given low-skilled jobs and they are denied equal pay for equal work. It is also chiefly women who are working in the new strongholds of globalisation, the free processing zones, where they are facing miserable working conditions, exploitation and brutal anti-union practices.

Women are not spared the effects of economic globalisation. On the contrary. They are the first target of it. The trade union women in the WCL consider this state of affair a new challenge to develop strategies aimed to tackle the perverse effects of economic globalisation on women. As an advocate of changes in society the trade union movement has excellent instruments for accelerating the emancipation process. It has to take up its responsibility, even if the women raise difficult questions which are not self-evident, even if they cause anxiety and overthrow the established order by accentuating other values in discussions and the decision-making process.

Women's participation at all levels of the trade union movement is of paramount importance and a prerequisite for democracy. The women workers in the WCL take up the challenge by calling to action, organising themselves and inducing their organisations to take their concerns to heart.

It is in this spirit the 4th International Women's Conference of the WCL is being prepared. It will give the women the opportunity to explain their view on the world and their analysis of the problems confronting them. The women are determined to develop efficient strategies, in which even more attention is paid to equal opportunities and which contribute to a world in which also women count.

Women's Conference: 24 - 25 November
The main theme during the debates and decision-making will be "Globalisation and its Effects on Women and their Families".
This theme will be divided into three subthemes:

• expansion of the informal sector in all its aspects: women's representation and trade union action
• development of free processing zones: new opportunities for women or a new kind of slavery?
• national and international migration of women.

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Thailand in transition Top

After more than a decade of prosperous economic growth, in 1996 Thai productivity began to slow down. The economic crunch continued also in the first half of 1997. The decline in export growth, tight monetary policy and political instability are stressed as important causes. But also heavy speculative attacks on the Thai baht, last July, battered the nation's economy. During the past period of fast economic growth, systems of redistribution of wealth and social consultation were not on the list of the highest priorities of the consecutive Thai governments. The workers and the people suffer the consequences of the ongoing weakening productivity and the lack of a social policy.

As a consequence of new strikes in November 1995, labour exploitation and working conditions became again a public concern. Many trade unionists commented that there was not enough supervision from the Government and that long-term solutions to remedy unhealthy working conditions in the workplace received little attention. Indeed, effective measures to safeguard workers against toxic substances and dangers in their workplace were not implemented. Even the dozens of calls after the fire at the Kader doll factory in Nakhon Pathon on May 10, 1993 which left 188 workers dead and 469 injured, by trade unions and several non-governmental organisations involved with labour affairs could not move successive governments to set up a tripartite committee to be charged of improving and ensuring safety and health conditions of all workers. Finally, after more than 15 months, a law demanding that every workplace employing at least 100 staff should have at least one security guard was issued. The Labour and Social Welfare Ministry also set up committees to work on improvements to safety standards in the workplace. But, these measures failed to reassure employees. They refer to reports stressing that worker-related accidents have increased by 4 % on average each year from 1988 to 1993.

The Compensation Fund reported in 1996 that while there were 48,912 work-related accidents in 1988 (36.3 in 1.000 workers), the figure rose to 196,304 in 1993 (or 46.6 in 1,000). Other studies revealed that in the same period 3,528 employees died due to injuries suffered at work (or 25 in 100,000). A ministerial announcement requiring each workplace to appoint a committee involved with safety concerns has proved to be unsuccessful as some committees have never met and several staff representatives are unaware of their responsibilities. And the sad part of that, the announcement did not stipulate penalties for violations of the law by employers.

more controversial issues
In several factories, the practice is that it is very difficult to get a day off. Even when you are ill you can only stay at home for one day but you must present a doctor certificate. When workers don't show up at work, they loose not only their remuneration but also their job. Subcontracting inside (textile) factories is a common practice especially in those places where no trade union activity exists. Intermediaries hire (innocent) people from the country side and put them in a factory (such as TM Garments) where they earn less than the minimum wage and don't receive any benefit. In other factories the annual leave is often not granted and, as it is the case at the Gumai Garments, only 60 days of maternity leave is given while the law dictates 90 days.

Although the existing Employment Ordinance stipulates the working day of 8 hours, many workers are forced to work more than what is provided for. For instance in the construction sector working days of 14-16 hours is often a rule rather than exception. Sundays do not make any difference to the building workers and they have to work also even under bad weather conditions too. The number of inspectors who are sent to the construction sites is not adequate. According to the law each worker should have a place of 3.4 square metres minimum but a lot of builders (especially those imported from Hong Kong and the neighbouring countries) is congested in an area of 500 square feet where 50 people are living together. Some have to sleep on the floor; some even have to stay in the work sheds. Employers may pay the workers according to the law, but it's a cold and common trick among building contractors to force the (less formed foreign and very often illegal) workers to pay part of the money back.

Porous borders separate the impoverished Indochina-region with Thailand that since decades attracts legal and illegal labour mostly from southern China, Burma and Cambodia. These foreign workers -believed to number almost 900,000 nation-wide- have played a crucial role in the domestic labour market. They now constitute for instance about 90 % of those employed in the heavy fishing industry. Since a few year the faces of those crossing the borders have become younger. These migrant children, mostly unskilled and uneducated youngsters, are subjected to various forms of abuse and exploitation. A research study carried out by Thailand's Mahidol University estimates that 185,000 children under 15 are involved in one form or another of illegal work activity. Because of their illegal status and their inability to speak Thai, they refrain seeking assistance or the recourse of laws that might protect them.

Another painful issue in Thailand deals with the traffic of women and girls. The predominant purpose for trafficking is related to prostitution but also to domestic (slave)labour, factory work (sweatshops) and the mail-order bride business. Research has shown that women are now directly recruited from remote villages and areas by local people, friends or relatives. This is a change from the 1960's and'70's when women moved to the great cities and only entered the fast growing sex-industry once there. A second development is that women are being moved directly to other countries instead of serving a period of time in night-clubs of Bangkok and Pattaya. Although several factors play a role in the complex phenomenon of the sex business (such as an increasing demand for sex-services in a world where indifference, pure materialism and a lack of respect for values prevail), the government tourist authority can also be considered complicit because of its reluctance to restrict promotion of sex tours.

Growing social tensions In 1996 the growth of Thailand's GPD represented still 6.4 %. As such a good result but in relation of the 8% and even 10 % that was registered some years ago, is a disappointing figure. Based on estimates of the IMF, the growth for 1997 will reach only 2.5 % that means a downgrade by 3.5 to 4 percentage points according to previous year. The decline in growth is reflected in loss of jobs and the close down of several factories. According to a report of the Thai Farmer's Bank, 4,400 employees working for 66 companies were dismissed in the first 9 months of 1996. The authors of the study estimate the loss of jobs in the labour intensive export sectors where they make cloths, shoes and jewellery even higher. The Employers' Confederation of the Thai Industry fears that in the coming months up to 400,000 workers may be laid off this year and another half million next year. Projected to be hit the hardest is the construction sector which may terminate 40 % or 60,000 of the 150,000 construction workers due to the inevitable collapse of the property market.

It bears than no surprise that the bad economic forecasts provoke also social tensions. On 17/12/96 frustrated workers put in fire the headquarters of Sanyo Electric as a consequence of a dispute on benefits. Three months earlier workers of the Suzuki plant just outside Bangkok locked up the direction. In a joint reaction, employers of Japanese concerns like Honda, TDK and Sanyo insisted in May this year upon the Ministry of Labour for a more severe control of trade union activities. Also in the first months of 1997 violent actions took place in several factories.

Trade union movement in Thailand is young. Prior to 1975 freedom of association was not allowed and since 1992 the government forbids all trade union activity in the public sector. Some 3 % of the total labour force or about 12 % of the industrial workers is affiliated to a union. In the agriculture sector the percentage is even smaller. Trade union membership in Thailand is characterised by a strong proliferation (19 trade union confederations) which weakens the position of organised workers in national tripartite consultations.

Workers criticise government as it chooses to favor the side of employers in conflicts. (The current regime is still fragile and must take into account the strong influence of army-officials who still control large parts of the economy and some political parties). Also the new migrant labour policy which became reality in June 1996 can't count on much sympathy amongst workers. The resolution permits, under certain conditions, foreign labourers to be employed legally for two years. These workers, many of them Burmese, Laotian and Cambodian, are mostly underpaid and have to work in bad conditions. The unions criticise the cabinet resolution referring that the legalisation of cheaper foreign workers lifts up the unemployment among Thai worker and depresses loans in all sectors. Furthermore they fear that when Thai industry continues to bet on industrial activities requiring low wages, this will put a brake on building up sectors that need more skilled personal. Employers on the other hand complain about insufficient labourers and the high costs of the Thai labour force that put in danger their competitiveness in relation to Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian and East European companies. While Thai labourers look for better paid jobs in the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan, Thailand's industry welcomes workers at still cheaper rates from Burma, Cambodia and Laos and tempers the call to rise up minimum wages (now around 165 bath = 4,5 US dollar) in a bid to remain competitive. (JoVe).

75th year, November /1997-3
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Migration in Africa Top

Migration in Africa, like in every other continent, has quite a record and has been topical to this day. Does migration hold out interesting prospects? The WCL is seeking an answer to this question, in search of a broader and more efficient workers' movement.

According to several authors international labour migration started in the 15th century, when millions of Africans were brutally abducted and sold as slaves in the Arab countries, but particularly in the American continent. Yet, unlike in other continents international migration was relatively low in Africa.

Besides, is "migration" the correct term for the huge traffic in people which the African slavery was? Slavery is more than forced labour and deportation. Officially this form of forced labour disappeared in 1865, but it still exists, particularly in Sudan, despite the fact that governments throughout the world are opposed to it.

After the second world war the African continent was confronted with a number of striking migration waves. The largest ones, however, had nothing to do with the search of work; they were due to political circumstances.

We can mention here the independence of Algeria, which caused 300,000 people to leave the country. And in the recent past there was the Rwandan tragedy, which made around two million people homeless and drove them into the tropical rain forest. They could not find a job and were confronted with hunger, illness and death.

There were (and still are) other kinds of migration waves. They, too, do not really originate in the search of work, but rather in historical coincidences. They result from colonial borderlines having been drawn without taking into account the traditional borders in the continent. As a matter of fact, the borderlines were not very clear. They coincided more or less with the territories of the ethnic groups or clans.

To this day, nomadic or half-nomadic ethnic groups are crossing borders, moving from country to country. To them it is more important to belong to the clan than to have an official nationality.

There are no reliable migration statistics, but the World Bank has estimated the number of migrants at around 40 million a year. In what respect do they answer the definition of the rights of migrant workers contained in the United Nations Convention of 18 December 1990, according to which they are "people undertaking an activity in a country of which they are no citizens"?

These migration waves - the most striking ones of which are found in Africa as far as historical events are concerned - must not blind us to other migration phenomena. These phenomena are maybe of a more individual nature but therefore not less important, the more so as they are motivated by economic reasons such as the creation and search of jobs.

The first and clearest form of migration is the one to the industrial countries. These migrants originate from most African countries and have had their training either in Africa or abroad. They hope to find in the industrial countries living and working circumstances in accordance with their training. Considering its size, this migration movement can be called a genuine brain drain.

Other people, who are as a rule less or unskilled, try their luck in the industrial countries, in search of a better life. The fact that this adventure leads in many cases to poverty and tragedy does not make it less tempting to these people.

If these forms of migration prove to be a positive experience, they are for the countries of origin a sizeable source of foreign currency either saved by the migrants or resulting from investments.

In its 1994 Human Development Report, the United Nations Development Programme estimates that the developing countries receive 20 billion dollars that way. This amount is not to be sneezed at, for it corresponds with one-third of the official development aid world-wide. In Burkina Faso, for instance, these receipts account for 8% of the gross domestic product. These funds have the advantage that they are not dependent on political or economic conditions. Nor do they add to the debt burden since they do not need to be refunded in that they stem from citizens of the country.

The migration waves in West Africa are attributable to the fact that this part of Africa is officially united in the West African Economic Community (CEDAO), which the inhabitants consider to be one single economic entity. This conception is nourished by the fact that nomadic and half-nomadic groups cross the national borders because they feel they belong to a supranational entity.

The reactions against these waves - we think here of Nigeria, from which two million migrants were sent back home in 1983 and 1985, in absolutely miserable conditions in some cases - take nothing away from their importance. In 1975 in Côte d'Ivoire, for instance, migrants accounted for 26% of the working population. Though there are no statistics about the current developments in this regard, everything indicates that hardly anything has changed.

Central and East Africa have been confronted with huge migration waves to the copper mines in Zambia and to the plantations and factories in Zimbabwe.

In southern Africa migrants are chiefly attracted to South Africa. Most miners in that country - up to 80% in 1973 - are foreigners. In the course of time the percentage of foreign labour has gone down on account of the higher wages and better working conditions, which have made this kind of work more attractive to the local population. Also high-skilled workers migrate to South Africa, where the conditions are better than elsewhere in Africa.

Besides this historical or sociological reality one can wonder if it is not possible to stimulate a migration movement the other way round, ie from North to South.

Research work on the economic effects of migration on the host countries shows that a certain amount of labour mobility has a favourable influence on the economy, at least in countries and regions facing difficulties with the production and not with sales as is currently case in the industrial countries.

Is it naive or unrealistic to think that skilled workers from the industrial countries can establish themselves in the South to set up small and medium-sized companies and to transfer their know-how and technical skills? That way they would also create on-the-spot jobs and stimulate development, so that the African population would feel less compelled to emigrate and the brain drain would be reduced.

The policymakers in North and South could elaborate on this concept. It holds out new prospects to boost development and would benefit both the countries and the workers.

Together they can give a positive socio-economic picture of the South, a picture that is attractive to the unemployed and to the skilled workers in the North. They can also lend some support so that these people would not plunge into a perilous adventure but take up a realistic enterprise with the support of the authorities both of the country of origin and of the host country. Africa, the continent of new, positive migration benefiting everyone in general and Africa in particular.

Why not?

(Faustina Van Aperen - Jean Hinnekens)

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Recent global migratory trends Top

Between developing countries
More than half the global flow of migrants is now between developing countries (DCs). Demonstrating this growing trend are the increasing flows of labour from the labour surplus economies of South Asia some countries in Southeast Asia going to oilrich countries in the Middle East and to the fast-growing newly industrialising economies (NIEs) and the newly emerging NIEs in East and Southeast Asia. The relatively successful countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria and South-Africa) likewise attract workers from their poorer neighbours. Nonetheless, the flow of migrants from the developing countries continues to rise. In Australia, Canada and the United States, inflows from DCs have risen slowly: reaching about 900,000 annually by 1993, according to the 1995 World Development Report. In Western Europe, a dip in foreign recruitment in the early 1980s was soon followed by a rise in the growth of the foreign population to about 180,000 a year in an alarming environment of rising unemployment that is exacerbating social tensions and increasing xenophobia.

Temporary migration
As more and more immigrant countries opt for temporary versus permanent migration as a source of cheap, unskilled or semi-skilled labour, millions of the world's migrant workers --estimated at least 42 million-- face a constant danger of exploitation, often sacrificing family and home life for low pay, poor working conditions and inadequate job security. The trend toward temporary employment prevails irrespective of geography or levels of economic development of receiving countries. For example, in Canada, a traditional immigration country, the number of temporary worker visas issued quadrupled during the last decade. The average annual inflow of temporary workers into Canada was two and a half times larger than the number of permanent immigrants, with 234,000 temporary workers compared to 114,000 immigrant workers. In the United States, another large immigration country, the number of non-immigrant work visas grew by 4 % annually, from 340,000 in 1990 to 413,000 in 1995. Much the same pattern prevails in Australia and a middle-income country such as Mexico admits each year more than 70,000 workers from Central America for seasonal work in agriculture.

Feminization of labour migration
The growing feminization of labour migration is another major trend. Migration rates for women in recent years have almost caught up with and sometimes even surpassed that of men's, particularly in South and Southeast Asia where more than 70 % of women migrant workers are under 25 years old. The main sending countries of Asian migrant women workers are Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The main receiving countries are the Gulf States, particularly Saudi Arabia as well as Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. An approximate 1.5 million legal and illegal Asian Asian women are working abroad. Their countries of origin report an aggregate outflow of 800,000 female migrant workers per year. And the number keeps on rising. The growing feminization of labour migration particularly in booming Asia has been attributed to a number of reasons. Large wage differentials between sending and receiving countries, increasing economic burden on women as unemployment rises, the existence of large overseas social networks that facilitate migration and reductions in demand for male labour spur female migration.

Private agencies
Private, free-charging recruitment agencies are rapidly coming to dominate the organisation of temporary migration, with, for example, as much as 80 % of all movements of labour from Asia to Arab countries -one of the world's largest migrant flows- being handled by private agencies. In Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, private agencies dominate the organisation of migration of employment abroad, "accounting for anywhere from 60 tot 80 % of all migrant workers hired."

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SRI LANKA: promoting trade union awareness amongst workers in free trade zones Top

An intensive survey set up by the WCL affiliated National Workers' Congress (NWC) revealed the appalling conditions under which the majority of the workers -who are women- have to live and work in the Free Trade Zones of Sri Lanka. This encouraged the NWC to launch programmes for their benefit despite the scope of organisation being severely constrained. With success.

With a population of 18.315 million Sri Lanka has a labour force of around 6.2 million. Of this total labour force 5.5 million ( 88 %) are formally employed. Employment generation has been constrained by the slowing down of economic activities. For the unemployment rate to be contained the economy must generate about 90.000 new employment opportunities per year for the next five years.

In Sri Lanka there are three Free Trade Zones; the first set up in 1979 at Katunayake adjoining the Bandaranaike International Airport; the second at Biyagama - a suburb of Colombo - and the third at Koggola in the South.

They were set up as part of the strategy to open the economy to foreign investors by liberalising the economy and offering attractive incentives. The majority of the factories are for garments while there are few other light industries such as toys, plastics, rubber products and electronics. The investors are mostly from Asia (South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hongkong and India). There are few investors from Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

Repression of workers is visible specially in areas in the Free Trade Zones (FTZs) where contracts signed by foreign investors and the Board of Investment provide among other matters to the exclusion of trade union activity in their establishments. So there are no recognised trade unions within the FTZs although according to the law employees have the right to form or join them. The notion that prevails among the workers is that they are not allowed to form unions. It is also true that trade unions are not encouraged to form branches in the FTZ factories. Under these circumstances trade unions have not been able to directly involve themselves with the workers. The National Workers' Congress (NWC) has been able to make a breakthrough.

The NWC entered the Katunayake Free Trade Zone by setting up a hostel for working girls and followed it up with a service centre for the working women to meet and conduct their activities. Our affiliated union also established counselling centres know as 'Friendship Houses' near all three Zones where recreational facilities are provided in addition to educational and training programmes. This is considered an important support structure as counselling services are available in times of need and labour issues are discussed and resolved. The NWC has contact persons in all three Zones. They meet and dialogue with the workers in thier homes and boarding houses. This has resulted in several workers joining the NWC endorsing the acceptance of the services provided by the NWC. The NWC formed furthermore a Joint Co-ordinating Committee of the workers of the three Trade Zones comprising of five workers from each Zone. They meet monthly to discuss issues and are guided by members of the NWC staff.

The method of the NWC directly infiltrating the FTZ through its own workers has been successful, effective and acceptable. (NWC)

75th year, November /1997-3
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Redistribution of work in Holland Top

Less and less Dutch companies are concluding collective labour agreements providing for 40-hour working weeks. In the metallurgic industry, for instance, the working weeks run to 38 hours, and in the building sector to 37 hours on average. The graphics industry has its labour work 36 hours for a long time already. Employers from the steel industry are certainly no advocates of shorter working hours, unlike bankers who are very much in favour of them. The Dutch Post Office (KPN) would like to reduce the working hours, but the staff are stalling this decision.
Redistribution of work through shorter working hours is a very topical subject for discussion.
Redistribution of work through the introduction of the 36-hour working week is an important weapon in the struggle against unemployment. Holland has been running up against a persistent high rate of unemployment for over 25 years already. At this moment there are still 700,000 people living on unemployment benefits. This is an extremely high rate despite the job boom in the past 15 months. In the past year, 100,000 additional jobs were created, whereas there were merely 24,000 people less on the dole. This is explained by the fact that a large number of people entering the labour market, eg school-leavers and married women, were not on the dole before they did. So, a lot remains to be done to bring down the rate of unemployment.

Holland has accomplished quite a lot in the field of redistribution of work. More and more people, particularly women, are working part-time. In 1994, 85% of the male labour worked more than 35 hours a week, against merely 37% of the female labour. It is therefore no surprise that it is easier to introduce the 36-hour working week in public services, health care and education than in industrial branches and the building sector, which employ chiefly male labour.

It is now a very topical question to know whether the working time will be reduced any further in the short run.

Impetuses
There are two reasons to assume that the redistribution of work will indeed go on. Firstly, the number of women workers is expected to rise. The Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) has published calculations to the effect that women will catch up swiftly on the labour market. It is a well-known fact that the increase in female labour has been an important impetus to the ongoing redistribution of work. The pressure on the working hours will grow in proportion to the number of wage-earning married couples, for this is a prerequisite for a well-balanced distribution of labour and household tasks.
Reorganisation is a second impetus to the redistribution of work. If the signs do not deceive us, the reorganisation urge will only grow stronger. Technologies will be constantly innovated, and the market conditions will change drastically. It is of paramount importance for the workers to keep their jobs in these circumstances. Redistribution of work can be highly conducive to this, for it is way to preserve jobs in spite of the reorganisation.

Opposing forces
The WRR expects the demand for high-skilled labour to rise so strongly that there will even be a shortage. On the other hand, however, there will be less demand for low-skilled labour, causing the rate of unemployment in this group to remain high. A favourable market situation for the high-skilled, combined with a bad one for the less skilled, will only widen the income gap and cause the zest for working shorter hours to decrease.

Prognosis
Time will tell which trend will gain the upper hand. The trend towards a 36-hour working week is likely to predominate, however. The wish to combine labour and household tasks and to keep jobs will weigh more heavily than the income gap between high- and low-skilled workers. Moreover, however unfortunate this may be, people will not fully count in society unless they have paid work. This fact raises the pressure on the creation of full employment. The outcome of the recent collective bargaining goes to show that the Dutch society obeys calls for solidarity. Solidarity is achieved when the workers relinquish high wage demands as long as the employers co-operate on the redistribution of work. The general expectation is that the employers will continue to do this in the medium run, if only to take advantage of the vocational training opportunities resulting from shorter working hours. There is indeed a strong need for that. Many research workers have found that companies pay insufficient attention to the acquisition of knowledge. The resulting leeway is a time-bomb for the economic development in Holland. Less working and more training hours cause the rate of unemployment to fall and the level of knowledge to rise, resulting in a structural solution to the problems facing the Dutch economy.

75th year, November /1997-3
http://www.cmt-wcl.org/en/pubs/labor97-3.html
info@cmt-wcl.org

CLAT: promote the principles protecting labour law Top

The Latin American Commission for Legal Action (CLAJ) tries to get accepted in the entire region the principles protecting social and labour law. It does so in view of the changes the neo-liberal ideology wants to effect in order to let capital entirely outweigh labour.

The CLAJ consists of lawyers from the Latin American and Caribbean workers' movement. Its purpose is to study and defend projects and to formulate answers and suggestions related to labour and social law with the end in view of protecting the rights and freedoms of the workers and their organisations. It does so in the light of the events currently shaking the world of labour.

Another purpose (still related to labour and social law) is to act as an adviser to the CLAT, the Latin American regional organisation of the WCL, and to affiliates or other workers' organisations requesting this. Besides very capable advisers, the CLAJ has at its disposal, in all the countries, a network of national commissions and lawyers from the workers' movement, which enables it to lend very concrete and very direct support to all trade unions interested.

With the help of the CLAT and the University of Latin American Workers (UTAL) it organises conferences, seminars and workshops to update and go more thoroughly into themes related to social and labour law. For MERCOSUR, for instance, the CLAJ has made a comparative study of the labour laws in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. The purpose of this study was to level the living and working conditions up, and not down like certain political, company and technocratic forces would like to do. In order to maximise the result of its efforts, the CLAJ co-operates closely with several universities and NGOs which are familiar with the matter.

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