No. 93-94/15 December 1999 - 1 January 2000
FOR SOCIAL STANDARDS IN TRADE AGREEMENTS
TopOn 25 and 26 November last, on the eve of the 3 rd Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Con-federation of Labour conducted in San José, Costa Rica, an international symposium on “Markets against Workers’ Rights? Princi-ples and Rights at Work in World Trade”. The symposium assembled eighty trade un-ion leaders from all continents. Addresses and papers were delivered by personalities and experts from the ILO, the IMF, UNCTAD, the World Bank ... and, of course, WCL leaders. The conclusions of this international symposium highlighted the development of poverty and the growing marginalisation of a considerable part of the world population. That is why a new World-wide Social Contract by way of alternative and social counterbalance to the supremacy of the Market and to competitiveness has to be intro-duced. The basic labour standards contained in the ILO Declaration on the basic principles and rights at work constitute a minimum platform, a sine qua non for a sustainable social develop-ment in which the workers’ organisations have a crucial role to play. On the occasion of the 3 rd ministerial WTO meeting the WCL sent a delegation to Seattle. The proceedings during that meeting took place in five workshops: agriculture, access to markets, implementation of former agree-ments, follow-up of the Singapore Declaration and transparency. The WCL reiterated its po-sition to the necessity of taking into account the social standards. The meeting ended in-conclusively. According to the WCL this is a victory in that the globalisation was not ex-tended, but also a failure in that the unfavour-able effects of the current globalisation were not checked.
TopOn 10 December the World Confederation of Labour launched a worldwide campaign for the ratification of ILO Convention 182, which takes on the worst forms of child labour. The campaign is conducted by the affiliates in their respective countries. It is aimed to sensitise public opinion and to get the competent pub-lic authorities to ratify and, after that, to effec-tively apply Convention 182. To date this Con-vention, signed in June 1999, has been rati-fied by only two countries, the Seychelles and Malawi. The results of the campaign will be made public during a rally in the margin of the next International Labour Conference, in June 2000. In the same logic the WCL supports the Euro 2000: Human Rights: Straight to the Goal campaign, launched on December 10 th on the occasion of the European football champion-ship. The latter campaign is aimed to enforce observance of the basic workers’ rights by the manufacturers of sports outfit. We refer to the WCL site for information on this campaign.
TopBogdan Hossu, WCL Vice-President in charge of Central and Eastern Europe, was one of the speakers at the ETUC forum on the Sta-bility Pact in the Balkans, which took place in December 1999. This Pact is aimed to sup-port the efforts made by the countries in South-east Europe to achieve peace, democracy, economic prosperity and respect for human rights with a view to stability in the entire re-gion. In the opinion of Bogdan Hossu this re-quires first the prevention or termination of the current regional conflicts, then the maturing of democratic political processes and the con-ceiving of economic solutions that would be feasible for the states involved. He also in-sisted on the important role the ILO as a tri-partite structure should play in the prepara-tion and application of the Pact. Moreover, the economic reforms promised have to go hand in hand with social reforms in which the so-cial partners and the entire civil society should be closely involved; without them there is in-deed a real risk of social conflict like in Kosovo. In conclusion, Bogdan Hossu stressed the importance for the Balkan states to take an active part in the reconstruction and regional integration process.
TopAt the invitation of the industry federation in the USO, the WFIW held its this year’s World Board meeting on 26 September in Madrid. Delegates from all over the world assessed the activities of the past year and discussed proposals for action. The expansion of the WFIW worldwide is confirmed by new affilia-tions all over the world, particularly in Great Britain, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Indonesia and a number of African countries. The Board ap-proved special budgets for activities in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America, and it decided to assemble the next WFIW World Congress in Doorn, Holland, on 20-24 March 2000. The main theme of the seminar was “Trade unions in a changing world”. The purpose of the seminar was to pre-pare this World Congress. A new project, en-titled “Workers’ rights worldwide”, was pre-sented. It is intended for workers both in the industrial and in the industrialising countries. They should combine forces to protect their rights world-wide and particularly in the multinationals. Piet Nelissen, executive secretary, presented the ILO study by Shauna L. Olney on “Trade unions in a changing world”. The study was the starting point for a discussion on matters such as the unionisation of the highest-skilled and most individualistic workers, the regulation of flexibility in collective agreements, the prevention of society developing at two paces, the organisation of migrant workers, women, etc. Achille Dutu from the WFIW liaison office in Roma-nia introduced in a lucid way “privatisation as a solu-tion for economic and social development in Central and Eastern Europe”. One of the conclusions was that trade unions should keep urging the governments to develop long-term strategies aimed to build a mar-ket economy with a social dimension, in other words a market economy that includes a social security system.
TopGUATEMALA - On 13 October, an armed gang attacked and threatened with death leaders of the Sindicato de Trabajaderos Bananeros de Izabal, SITRABI, located in Morales, if they did not give up their trade union action and their jobs at the BANDEGUA company. They were forced to call off the next day’s demonstration in protest against the dismissal of 897 workers and, under death threat, to leave the region taking their families with them.
COSTA RICA - The Central del Movimiento de Trabajadores Costarricenses (CMTC) has informed us of the decision to restructure the Instituto Nacional de Vivienda y Urbanismo (INVU), which implies the dismissal of around 160 workers. The restructuring should be concluded by December 1999 at the lat-est. INVU is a social institute in charge of the hous-ing of the poorest and of urban development.
TopThe BATU Asian Women Commission (BAWC) mo-bilised its officers and leaders in a one-week Train-ing Course on Leadership Formation and Enhance-ment held from 5 to 11 September 1999 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Twenty women leaders represent-ing the national women’s groups of BATU affiliates in Indonesia , Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka actively took part in the activity. Among others, the training course aimed at training and pre-paring women leaders for both leadership and man-agement roles and responsibilities in their respec-tive trade unions and women’s organisations. In col-lectively redefining the role of women’s leadership and outside trade unions as one of the major outputs of their training, the BATU women leaders have, in effect, charted the course of the BATU wom-en’s leadership and committed themselves to pur-sue with the advent of a new millennium. The course is a critical undertaking under the second phase of the ongoing BATU-BAWC-CNV-AKO Programme for the Empowerment of BATU Women as Leaders and Decision-Makers. Likewise, it meaningfully marks the commemoration of the 5 th year of BAWC as the struc-ture for women within BATU. A cultural night hon-oured by the presence of Dato Fauzi Bin Abd. Rahman, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department of Malaysia, was held on 11 September as a tribute to the women of BATU and a gesture of recognition for their growing contribution to BATU and their own organisations.
TopOn 18-25 September 1999 Salzburg, Austria, hosted a seminar that was aimed to raise the awareness of managers of the social and environmental stakes against the background of sustainable development. The seminar took place in the form of workshops and working parties on the future duties of compa-nies to achieve sustainable development. It was at-tended by the ISF-WCL, governments, the European Union, companies and nature conservation and ani-mal rights organisations. Several cases of compa-nies being sensitive to human rights and environ-ment- related problems were presented in order to show the managers present that it is indeed possi-ble to implement projects while integrating the fol-lowing two dimensions into them: respect for the human rights and respect for the environment. The NGOs and governments alone are powerless: it comes to the companies to act as the driving force in order to avoid planetary disasters, hence the emer-gence of a new concept of trained executives: sen-sitive new age guys. Faustina Van Aperen, Director of the Foundation, took part in this seminar. The pres-ence of the WCL (for the second time in succes-sion) proved to be useful in that it made it possible to meet managers of multinational companies and to foresee their future strategies. Do they accept to act in favour of respect for the social rights or do they simply use the label without putting their com-mitments into practice? It is in this connection that the certificates of good conduct (type SA 8000) take their full meaning.
Top20/1 IFTC Board Vienna (Austria)
21/1 WFBW Board and European Council Vienna (Austria)
27-29/1 Eurofedop Symposium Lisbon (Portugal)
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