No. 104/1 June 2000
WCL Delegation visited ACFTU
TopLast 06-14 May, a WCL seven-member delegation headed by its Secretary
General, Willy Thys visited ACFTU in China. The mission started with a meeting
with the ACFTU Yunnan Provincial Trade Union Council and the visits to its
Kunming municipal headquarters, the Workers' Palace and the Kunming Cigar
Enterprise. Then it was followed by the meeting with ACFTU Shanxi Provincial
Council in Xi'An and a visit to Xi'An Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. Finally the
mission ended in Beijing where they met with the top leaders of ACFTU and a
visit to their Job Center. The WCL delegation received a warm welcome from the
ACFTU President Wei Jianxing who stressed the importance of a more intensified
form of collaboration between WCL and ACFTU.
The meeting led to the successful conclusion of five major points as follows:
Joint Seminar on International Labor Standards, Promotion of Trade Unions in the
Private Sectors, Collaboration on the Study of Export Processing Zones,
Continuous Exchange Visits and Promotion of Technical Cooperation.
TopThe 88th Session of the International Labour Conference takes place in Geneva
from May 30 to June 15 2000. The main points on the agenda are revision of
Convention No. 103 and Recommendation No. 95 on the protection of maternity
(second discussion before decisions are reached); enhancement of human
resources: professional orientation and training (general discussion); security
and health in agriculture (first discussion); removal of a number of Conventions
(numbers 31, 46. 51, 61, 66). The other themes to be dealt with are in general
reports and discussions: the reports of the Board Chairmen and the Director
General, the report on the follow up to the ILO Declaration on principles and
fundamental labour rights, adopted in 1998, and the special session, which will
be held in the presence of some heads of State. The WCL has written a number of
documents reaffirming its position on the following issues: protection of
maternity rights, Convention 182 against the worst forms of child labour,
security and health in agriculture.
The ILC 2000 should approve of a final new convention and a new recommendation
on the protection of maternity rights. In the view of the WCL, the new text
should among others, constitute real progress in the fight for rights, and not a
regression, and eliminate discrimination due to maternity (recruitment,
dismissal, etc.). Convention 182, which was adopted in June 1999, has the
objective of prohibiting and taking immediate measures to eliminate the worst
forms of child labour and to arrive at total abolition of it. To achieve this,
the Convention should first of all be ratified and then applied by the States.
This is why the WCL, on 10th December 1999, International Day of Human Rights,
launched a campaign for ratification which went on until 1st May 2000. Its
affiliate organisations took initiatives aimed at ratifying the convention in
their respective countries.
With regard to security and health in agriculture, the need to adopt a
protective law for agricultural workers is indispensable because in a lot of
countries, the main objective of the law is above all, on the safety of machines
and equipment, as well as pesticides. Finally, the WCL has also prepared a
document for discussion on information and reports on the application of
conventions and recommendations. The document gives examples of some countries,
namely Columbia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Sudan, questioned by the Standards
Commission, presided over by Luc Cortebeeck, president of the CSC. In all, about
twenty countries will be brought before the Commission.
You will find these WCL documents on the Internet site at this address: www.cmt-wcl.org.
Top"Live to pay, die in debt": was the focal point of an international conference held last May 11 and 12 on external debt (debt cancellation) at the UTAL headquarters in San Antonio de los Altos, Venezuela. Manuel Zaguirre, Secretary General of USO, represented the WCL at the conference. Trade union leaders from the region, as well as representatives of multilateral financial organisations (IMF, World Bank, and IDB), heads of enterprises, parliamentarians, members of civil society etc. focussed on the issue of debt, the payment of which is the cause of social, economic, political and human degradation of the continent. The interest alone of Latin America's debt is 800,000 million dollars! In his speech, Manuel Zaguirre stressed the WCL's points of view on this issue and put forward the fundamental reasons for the debt to be cancelled. In the presence of the Minister for Works, representing the Venezuelan government, he explained that, "the WCL does not consider as "democratic", countries where 80% of the population face unemployed, poverty and exclusion". At the end of its deliberations, the Conference adopted the "San Antonio de los Altos Declaration on External Debt", which stressed the urgency of drawing up a debt cancellation plan for Latin American Countries and proposed the creation of a Latin American Social Front for External Debt. Rodolfo Romero, Deputy Secretary General of CLAT, Luis E. Gautéiro, President of the "Confederación National de Profesionales Liberales de Brasil" (CNPL) and Carlos Navarro, Secretary General of the "Confederación de Trabajadores de Venezuela" (CTV) participated in the conference. The conference was under the auspices of the Latin American Episcopal Conference, the Jubilee 2000 Coalition, the Latin American Economic System (SELA), the Madrid Autonomous Community, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and World Solidarity.
TopBAHRAIN : In a letter to the prince of Bahrain, the WCL condemned the violation of trade union freedom and human rights in the country. In fact, the 2nd labour court did not agree to compensation for 265 workers arbitrarily dismissed by Gulf Air after 30 years of work.
COLOMBIA : The WCL wrote to Mr. A. Pastrana Arango, President of Columbia, to draw his attention once again to the systematic violations of trade unions rights in the country. Oscar Dario Zapata Muñoz (of Enka de Colombia in Girardota), Islem Quintero (of Telecom), Cesar Wilson Cortes, Romulo Gamboa (of Trinidad) were abducted and then assassinated on April 7. In the case of Jorge Heli Pérez and Julio Vicente Camacho, they were seriously injured on April 8.
Still in Colombia, Alirio Uribe Muñoz, member of the "Jose Alvear Restrepo" team of lawyers, and other trade union leaders, received death threats and other forms of intimidation from a group calling itself "Colombian Rebel Army". Furthermore, Jesús Ramiro Zapata Hoyos was assassinated on May 3.
BOLIVIA : In a letter to Mr. Hugo Banzer Suarez, President of the Republic of Bolivia, the WCL expressed deep concern for recent events, which have occurred in various towns in Bolivia. Protest demonstrations carried out against the approval of Law 2029 on the supply of potable water, were met with violence. A state of emergency was declared. At least three people lost their lives, some people were hurt, and others were put under house arrest, or detained. The WCL requested the immediate lifting of the state of emergency, the immediate release of all leaders detained without reason and in the case of trade union leaders, the guarantee of the respect of their rights and freedom in order to allow them carry on with their duty of defending workers' interests.
BELARUS : The WCL has just been informed by the Belarussian Free Trade Union (BFTU) of persistent acts of violation of Conventions 87 and 98 of the ILO, which the government has however ratified. The WCL wrote to Mr. A. Lukashenko, president of the Republic, to denounce these different acts of violations, which seek among others, to eliminate BFTU, and have been carried out throughout the country (Bosbruisk, Grodno, Slonim, Mogilev, Elizovo, Orsha, Minsk). They are the result of the application of Decree No. 2 adopted on 26th January 2000 on "Certain measures aimed at improving activities of political parties, trade unions and activities of other public associations". This law in effect led to systematic attempts to eliminate BFTU by destroying its local trade unions and organisational structure.
EL SALVADOR : The WCL wrote to the President of the Republic of El Salvador on the condition in which workers of the ISSS ("Instituto Salovadoreño del Seguro Social") live. These workers are represented by the "Sindicato de Trabajadores" (STISSS) and the "Sindicato de Médicos Trabajadores" (SIMETRISSS), with the support of the Salvadorian trade union movement, among others, the "Central Autonoma de Trabajadores Salvadorenos" (CATS), affiliated to the CLAT/WCL. As a result of an agreement between the Commission appointed by the president and trade union leaders, the conflict was suspended on March 10 and a discussion was started on workers' demands. However, there are still problems, which have given rise to new protest actions, especially by 221 dismissed workers, 12 of whom started a hunger strike on April 3. They are demanding immediate return to their jobs, the drawing up of a collective work contract for all persons concerned, the payment of salaries and the respect of labour contracts.
CHILE : On May 1, workers of the "Sergio Pincheira" trade union of the company SOPRAVAL S.A. went on a peaceful demonstration on the occasion of "Workers' Day", which resulted in physical attacks and violence from the forces of law and order. Since then, the police have been stationed in front of the company. The lawyer of the trade union tried to obtain an agreement, based on Article 381 of the Work Code, Article 19 no. 16 of the Chilean constitution. In spite of these attempts, the special police force intervened with force. Several people were seriously injured and 16 were detained, 12 of whom were trade union leaders.
GUATEMALA : Mario Garcia, head of the "Ingenio Palo Gordo" factory, attempted to assassinate Edwin Rafael Fuentes Lopez, who represents the unionised workers of the factory. Likewise, the big landlords of the South coast tried to eliminate José E. Pinzon and Roberto Duenas Morales, Secretary General and deputy Secretary General of the General Workers Trade Union of Guatemala (CGTG), because of their involvement with the trade union.
CMT - WCL - WVA - TELE FLASH is a two-weekly information bulletin
containing brief trade union messages, edited by the press department of the WCL.
Responsible Editor: Willy Thys (e-mail: Willy.Thys@cmt-wcl.org)
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