N° 107-108 / 15 July - 1 August 2000
"Your voice at work"
"Your voice at work"
Top
The report was submitted to the last session of the International Labour Conference, in the framework of the follow-up of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work which was adopted in June, 1998. "Your voice at work" draws the world situation as regards union freedom and the right to bargain collectively.
The importance of the issue led to an all-day discussion of the report during a special session of the Conference. During the discussion, the outstanding roles of Lech Walesa, Nelson Mandela and Muchtar Pakpahan in their respective countries were underscored. Two of these characters belong to the WCL family. A video was also played during the special session, clearly showing that union freedom is still severely violated. Violations are still perpetrated in almost 60 ILO member States (2/3 of ILO membership), where union leaders are murdered, threatened to death, arrested, jailed, forced into exile, etc.
In most part of the world, agriculture, domestic and migrant workers are denied their fundamental rights. Among civil servants, many workers are deprived of their right to bargain collectively, and even their union freedom. Export processing zones (EPZ’s) often strive to attract investors by highlighting their non-recognition of union rights. Whenever workers try to organize, they are systematically dismissed or harassed in many ways.
As a result of economic globalization, adjustments were imposed by the liberalization of exchanges and financial systems. The employment is now more volatile and insecurity and inequalities have increased. In many countries, the upsurge of informal economy has resulted in working men and women totally defenseless with regard to their working conditions. All these factors have aggravated the deficit in labour representation. However, as Fernand Kikongi stressed it in his address, "while we should worry about the real weakening of trade unions representativeness, we should not forget the emergence of a new trade unionism". Muchtar Pakpahan highlighted in his speech the need for "globalization to be controlled, to have a new balance, so that the rewards of social development are distributed equally among all. As the ILO founding fathers, who pursued this goal, we can still say today that union freedom is essential to social progress and justice in the 21st century".
Tokyo: trade unions meet
The WCL Secretary-General traveled to Tokyo to participate to a union meeting previous to the G-8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan. The document prepared by the TUAC (Trade Union Committee consultative before the OECD) was presented to the Japanese press during a meeting of trade unions from G-8 countries (United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain and Russia) and the WCL, the ECTU, the ICFTU and the TUAC. The union declaration denounced, among other things, the approach of a globalization exclusively based on market deregulation. In their document, the union organizations also made a case for a global economic system built on rules that be equal for both controlling world markets and establishing efficient and transparent international economic institutions, with a view to a development favorable to democracy, and socially and ecologically sound.
A seminar was also organized by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO) for union leaders, on the issue of "financial stability after the Asian crisis and for the development of South East Asia".
WCL’s mission to Portugal
On May 19 and 20, Confederal Secretary Eduardo Estévez attended a Forum on globalization and its effects on health, the environment, the social situation and work, in Lisboa, Portugal. Several issues were dwelt upon, like agro-industries, the environment, the economy and its relations with policy-makers, deregulation and other cultural aspects, as well as the workers in the face of globalization. "Thinking globalization and globalizing the resistance" was a motto during the debates. Estevez’s visit to Lisboa was an opportunity for him to thank again the CGTP for the support it has provided the WCL with during the European Section meeting in that city, in March, 2000. After the meeting, both organizations agreed to deepen their cooperation to better structured levels.
Geneva 2000 – Copenhagen +5
On June 26 to 30, the United Nations General Assembly held its special session. After the debates, a final document was adopted, including a political declaration, an assessment for the follow-up to be granted to the 1995 Social Summit of Copenhagen, as well as a series of new initiatives aimed to the application of the undertakings resolved during the said Summit. An enlarged WCL delegation, headed by Secretary-General Willy Thys, attended the special meeting and also participated to related events held in Geneva. Willy Thys delivered a speech before the union panel previous to the summit, called "Globalizing social justice and promoting sustainable social development". During his address, Thys expressed his concerns facing governments inability to carry on their undertakings of 1995. If the decisions, both previous and new ones, are not applied as a matter of urgency, then the condition of the workers and the poor is bound to continue to deteriorate all over the world.
The Secretary-General presented the objectives the WCL deem likely to allow poor countries to ensure their development. Confederal Secretary Eduardo Estévez also intervened on behalf of the WCL, during the ad hoc Plenary Committee at the 24th Extraordinary Session of the General Assembly. He appealed for a fair solution to be given to the foreign debt.
It is the WCL’s view that the conclusions of Copenhagen +5 are largely inadequate, facing the number (1.3 bn) of people in the world living with less than 1 dollar a day. The is a clear lack of concrete measures for eradicating poverty. "If you don’t go forward, then you go backwards" —expressed Willy Thys in essence, strongly criticizing the shyness perspiring from the General Assembly’s declarations.
Toolsyraj Benydin’s leaving
Our friend Toolsyraj Benydin has left the WCL Secretariat at the end of June and is back in Mauritius, his country of origin, to undertake new responsibilities. Following the Caracas Congress, the Confederal Committee, meeting in Gdansk in 1990, had appointed him Confederal Secretary, a function he undertook in September 1990. He was in charge, among others, of the WCL relations with African trade unions.
Colombia
Social Alert has just released a document titled "Colombia: the European Union’s support to the Plan Colombia, challenges and general reflection". The so-called "Plan Colombia" program was drafted in December 1998 by the Colombian government with a view to obtain the financing of social projects and to consolidate peace in the country. The plan involves a participation by the international community. While the debate on the Plan Colombia is already open in the United States, the issue remains relatively new in Europe. The financial involvement by the European Union, however, would amount to more than one billion US dollars. In its document, Social Alert analyzes the objectives and means of the program and deepens on the human rights situation in Colombia, underscoring civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other. As a conclusion, some reflections are proposed as guidelines to the Plan Colombia. This plan was drafted as a development program aimed to support the peace process in Colombia. The question is now: will it be able to do it or will it strengthen repression even more? In the meantime, the EU has postponed its support, deeming it too security-minded and not enough socially-oriented. Social Alert is an international coalition of social movements, workers organizations and human rights NGO’s.
ELA condemns violence
In a press release, the Basque trade union ELA firmly condemns the terrorist attack that cost the life of José María Martín Carpena, a municipal councilor from the Spanish People’s Party. ELA considers the new attack is of "particular severity" since the councilor had been elected by many Malaga inhabitants who now feel they are the blank of this kind of action. The press communiqué also refers to a reflection carried out last month by the nationalist confederation, according to which "those who have responsibilities must assume them and strive to find solutions. The fact that things are wrong is in no way an excuse for not working to make them better". For ELA, all the citizens, "no matter their political opinion or ideology", claim for solutions to be found and for a détente instead of a tenser situation.
Human rights violations: an update
Myanmar : According to the WCL-affiliated in Indonesia, the SBSI, the self-proclaimed government of Myanmar has a more than dubious legitimacy. On the international scene, Myanmar does not even comply with the most elementary rules of reciprocity and autonomy. This is why the SBSI has claimed, without success yet, to meet the Myanmar diplomatic representation in Indonesia, with a view to exchange ideas on the situation of the workers and theirs rights in this country. Fulfilling with the WCL’s policy and the ILO agreements in this area, the SBSI has released a communiqué on the issue of forced labour and human rights in Myanmar and delivered it to the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta. However, the hundred workers and the members of the SBSI national board only found closed doors. The Embassy even refused to meet a small delegation of SBSI representatives: a diplomat was seen through the fences, but he refused to speak to the delegation. Following talks with the police, the delegation was allowed to place placards and signs denouncing forced labour and the repression against workers, just at the top of the embassy’s main gates. The SBSI is determined to continue to press on the military leaders of Myanmar. Initiatives will be taken to address the Indonesian and Myanmar authorities so that the observance of the most elementary workers’ rights become a condition for any cooperation between the two countries. uuuRwanda : The WCL has just been informed that 10 militants of the ATRACO trade union, a CESTRAR affiliated, were arrested on July 13th, during a strike by communal taxi drivers in response to the imposed appointment last year of Twahirwa Dodo, a retired general of the Rwandan army, as the secretary-general of the trade union. The strike was also aimed against the forced resignation of two ATRACO leaders and the use of the trade union by general Dodo as a weapon to imprison his enemies. In a correspondence to the Prime Minister of Rwanda, the WCL denounced the arrests as violations to Conventions 87 and 98, both ratified by this country, and claimed for the release of all the unionists imprisoned.
Correction
A mistake was made in our last Teleflash (105-106, June 15 to July 1st): in page 2, the report by the Director General is obviously entitled "ILO Activities 1998-99".
Willy Thys’ address to the General Assembly on the said report can be found in the ILO internet page www.ilo.org
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)
-
Information Officer: André Linard (Andre.Linard@cmt-wcl.org).
Reproduction authorised under acknowledgement of source. WCL - Trierstraat 33 - B-1040
Brussels Tel: +32.2/285.47.00 - Fax: +32.2/230.87.22
URL: http://www.cmt-wcl.org E-mail: teleflash.en@cmt-wcl.org