N° 111 / 15 September 2000
Solidarnosc: twenty years
Solidarnosc: twenty years
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General secretary Willy Thys represented the WCL at the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Polish organisation Solidarnosc, affiliated to our world confederation. The celebration took place in Gdansk on 30 August. The WCL and its affiliates were among the first to support at the time the birth of this independent trade union, the first of its kind in the Eastern Bloc.
Indonesia: the growth of the SBSI
On 28 August, the Indonesian weekly Tempo pointed out the growing importance of the SBSI, affiliated to the WCL and led by Mukhtar Pakpahan. The article in question relates the workers’ victory in a dispute at the coal company Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC).
This growth of the SBSI also finds expression at the international level.
A large number of unions therefore affiliated to the international trade federations of the WCL. So as to bring the national and international strategies in line, the international trade federations IFTC, WFIW, WFCW and WFBW conducted on 25-27 August near Jakarta a joint seminar with their affiliates. SBSI president Mukhtar Pakpahan opened the seminar; he seized this opportunity to elucidate a number of recent social disputes, particularly the one in Medan. At the local level and in many companies, the SBSI unions still have to struggle for their basic right to be recognised as interlocutors and social partners. During the seminar, around seventy participants discussed the national strategies of their unions, the international strategy of the aforementioned international trade federations, the regional organisation and activities of the international trade federations and the best way to support the national strategies.
The SBSI affiliates have made it their main task to enter, in each company, upon a dialogue with the employer; this dialogue ought to result in collective agreement. Some unions are even thinking further than that and are gearing up for nationwide dialogue covering the entire branch. The unions are well aware of their own responsibility in the matter of achieving financial autonomy. Dignity and a convincing power of expression require that the unions can fight their own battles financially. In this respect, a policy aimed at the members’ interests underlies the strengthening of the unions’ financial and political basis.
The international trade federations, for their part, will help their affiliates develop their know-how in the field of bargaining and analysing the working conditions, on the basis of the usual international standards among other things; wherever necessary, they will lend financial support for organisational development. Everything seems to indicate that the SBSI unions will become important actors in Indonesia’s social and economic policy and a meaningful factor in the development of this country which ranks fourth as regards population density.
Against de rise in fuel prices and for freedom of the press
The Confédération syndicale des Travailleurs du Togo (CSTT), the Togolese branch of Social Alert and the consumers’ association in that country have protested strongly with the government against the price rises for fuel and basic consumer goods as well as against the mobility problems facing in the first place workers, housewives and students ..., whereas the retirement pensions and some salaries are paid several months in arrears.
The Confédération syndicale des Travailleurs de Centrafrique (CSTC), for its part, have opposed various measures the Bangui government has taken to muzzle the country’s independent press.
Beijing +5: what results?
On 5-9 June last, the UN organised the summit "Women in the Year 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century". The purpose was to assess the extent of implementation of the plan of action adopted by the 4th World Conference on Women, in Beijing in 1995, and to give a boost to the progress of women worldwide.
So, the purpose was not to renegotiate what had been acquired in Beijing. Nonetheless, that is what some countries tried to do, refusing each advancement in the matter of freedom for women. The divergencies, the confrontation were related to the "sexual and reproductive rights" (birth control, abortus).
This made the talks arduous and delicate, and the outcome by and large mitigated. The talks did not all result in a consensus. That is why many points of the Beijing platform were renewed without modification.
In many points Beijing +5 is not a revolutionary document, but it contains a few advancements with regard to very specific aspects such as the reference made to intolerable universal practices such as crimes of "honour" (including mutilation and other attacks of passion), or forced marriages. As regards such acts of violence, the text recommends the prosecution of aggressors and rapists and it discourages the sexual mutilation of little girls.
Another favourable outcome concerns the talks on the struggle against the traffic in women and young girls. The final document deals largely with the evolution of the AIDS file, in particularly with the fact that this epidemic is increasingly affecting women. A new health target was set, providing for universal access to basic health care for women in the year 2020. A recommendation was passed, providing access for women to birth control services, contraception and prevention of AIDS.
A new accent was placed on the training of girls for scientific and new-technology careers, facilitating their access to strong-growth and high-salary branches. Measures were taken which tend to reduce the income gap between men and women and to involve men more in (unpaid) household work.
Leader of Cartel Alfa assassinated
Virgil Sahleanu, chairman of the company union at Tepro in Iasi, affiliated to the CNS-Cartel Alfa (Romania), was stabbed on 7 September and succumbed to his injuries. He was 54 and married; one of his three children would have got married two days later. CNS-Cartel Alfa labels the murder as a "social assassination": Virgil Sahleanu indeed knew the hidden side of the disastrous privatisation of Tepro. It says it was the third attack of this kind against trade union leaders of privatised companies.
Human rights violations – Update
The WCL Human Rights and International Labour Standards Department continues its urgent actions throughout the world to the governments not only respect the conventions they ratified, but also the physical integrity of each human being. The WCL had to intervene with the prime minister and the minister of Labour of Morocco as well as with the presidents of El Salvador and Mauritania in protest against trade union freedom violations.uuuMorocco : In Morocco three activists, members of the UGTM, employed by the urban transport company Rostum, were killed by the manager’s son for having called a sit-in to obtain respect for their rights in the company.uuuEl Salvador : In El Salvador, workers in the informal economy sector Antravepecos were victims of human rights and trade union freedom violations. Even a pregnant woman and young children got seriously injured during the expulsion ordered by Martha Elena Rodriguez, mayor of Soyapango.uuu Mauritania : In Mauritania, fishermen were denied the right to unite in trade unions as well as access to the sea; at the same time, the Confédération Libre des Travailleurs de Mauritanie (CLTM) is a victim of systematic obstructions to its activities.
ICATU visited WCL
A three-member delegation of ICATU headed by its Secretary General, Hacene Djeman, visited WCL in August 2000. During the said visit, ICATU suggested for a more concrete collaboration with the WCL focusing on globalisation and its impacts to workers. There was also a stress made on possible joint activities such as exchange visits between the two organisations and among their respective affiliates. With this as a start, WCL Secretary General, Willy Thys believes that a unity of action can be realised while respecting the principle of pluralism. ICATU invited high-level WCL-delegations begin of the next year.
NAPFE conducted its 44th Biennial Convention
The WCL had been represented by Necie Lucero, Confederal Secretary in the NAPFE’s 44th Biennial Convention last August 2000 in Los Angeles, California. The theme was "A New Millennium - A Renewed Vision Still Striving For Excellence". The said convention was highlighted by the Self-Insurance Health Plan and the simultaneous meetings of its Auxiliary, Youth, Retirees and Management Divisions.
NAPFE with around 50,000 members is playing the dual role of a trade union and a civic organisation defending the workers’ rights, fighting racism and all forms of discrimination in a very challenging and complicated environment. This is why there is a very strong solidarity which lives in the hearts of every member as attributed by its historical background.
At the end of the Convention, the newly elected officers were inducted with Bro. James McGee re-elected as President of this fourth largest trade union in the United States.
Schedule of activities
11-15/9 Media training seminar Ter Nood (Overijse) (Belgium)
25-9/13-10 2nd training seminar for trade union officials Ter Nood (Overijse) Belgium
28/9-1/10 WFIW/WFBW/IFTC : CEE seminar Budapest (Hungary)
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