International Conference of Free Trade Union 06 - 07 - 06

INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS

ICFTU OnLine:

Press release - 2006 Survey - Africa

Trade union repression intensifies in Africa

The ICFTU's 2006 survey of trade union rights violations reveals an intensification in the violent repression of workers' rights in Africa, the world's poorest continent. Among the most striking manifestations of the rise in repression was the failure of most governments to respect the rights of their own employees - the right to organise, to strike or bargain collectively. The widespread restrictions on the right to strike, both in the public and private sectors, pushed workers outside the law when taking collective action to defend their interests. The resulting repression is increasingly brutal and, in some instances, deadly.

According to the survey, public sector employees in Ethiopia are deprived of even the basic right to form a union. Despite education being essential to the eradication of poverty, teachers were particularly hard hit by the surge in repression during 2005. The Ethiopian Association of Teachers was again a prime target. Its members were arrested, imprisoned and accused of high treason. The attacks on this sector were not limited to Ethiopia. In Algeria, a strike by university lecturers was declared illegal on three occasions and leaders of the teachers' union in Cameroon were the victims of intimidation.

Teachers were not the only public sector workers to have their rights violated. Many other sectors were also affected by what appears to have become the norm in Africa. In Botswana, several leaders of a local government service association were placed under tight surveillance by the national security forces and had their calls tapped. Intimidation was also directed against the President of the teachers' union, who received a "forceful" visit from the army.

The ICFTU survey reports numerous attacks on the right to strike. In Ghana, at least three miners suffered bullet wounds when police opened fire on protestors. In South Africa, it is not unusual for police to use tear gas and rubber bullets to "resolve" any problems caused by striking workers. Examples of such excesses abounded in 2005. Fifteen bus drivers suffered brutal consequences when 3000 of them took part in a protest to support their claim for a wage increase. Seven members of the metal workers' union were also injured during a strike, with one requiring hospitalisation.

Repression of the right to strike has all too often fatal consequences. In South Africa, again, two people were killed and a third injured in April at MCE engineering when the employer decided to open fire on the workers during a wage dispute. In September, one person was killed and several others injured when security guards at Kenhym Estates shot at striking workers.

According to the survey, Djibouti was the setting for similar tragedies. In September, at least one member of the drivers' union was killed and several others seriously injured at the hands of police during a demonstration. Drivers were not the only victims of anti-union repression in Djibouti. Dockworkers, for example, will not easily forget their strike that led to 170 arrests and 70 dismissals. Another sector singled out for repression was the postal service. A new provision of the labour legislation stipulates that any postal worker who forms or joins a union will be sacked.

Anti-union sentiment is also high in Nigeria, which has passed new laws severely restricting the right to strike and outlawing it in a range of essential services. Hundreds of health workers were dismissed for taking part in a strike. Their dismissal caused disastrous consequences for their hospital because it no longer had enough staff to function properly. In the oil industry, about 170 workers were dismissed after pressing for better working conditions. Similarly, the management of an oil drilling company called in police to repress a strike organised by its employees. The leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress, an ICFTU affiliate, have been placed under constant pressure by the national authorities, making it virtually impossible for them to fulfil their task of defending workers.

In Zimbabwe, the ZCTU (Zimbabwe Confederation of Trade Unions), affiliated to the ICFTU, continues to be the victim of systematic harassment. The confederation's leaders, including the President and the General Secretary, have received death threats, suffered physical assaults, and many have been arrested - simply for being union members. Zimbabwe was also the scene of brutalities, such as the torture of a teachers' union leader and the beating of telecommunication workers who were protesting against an unfair dismissal.

Numerous African countries, such as Sudan, Egypt and Libya, forbid the formation of democratic and independent trade unions. Only national unions controlled by governments are permitted.

The ICFTU represents 155 million workers in 236 affiliated organisations in 154 countries and territories. http://www.icftu.org

ICFTU is also a partner in Global Unions.

The WCL represents 30 million workers around the world.

For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224 0204 or +32 474 621 018.

Brutal Suppression of Workers' Rights Detailed in Worldwide Report

Brussels, 7 June 2006 (ICFTU OnLine): 115 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers' rights in 2005, while more than 1,600 were subjected to violent assaults and some 9,000 arrested, according to the ICFTU's Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights violations, published today. Nearly 10,000 workers were sacked for their trade union involvement, and almost 1,700 detained.

Latin America remained the most perilous region for trade union activity, with Colombia once again topping the list for killings, intimidation and death threats. 70 Colombian unionists paid the ultimate price for standing up for fundamental rights at work. Other countries under the spotlight for violence and repression against unionists include Iraq, Iran, El Salvador, Djibouti, China, Cambodia, Guatemala, Zimbabwe and Burma. Some Arabian Gulf countries continue to ban trade unions altogether, while in several other countries including North Korea, government-controlled "official trade unions" are the order of the day. In Australia, the government rushed through new laws depriving the country's workforce of the most fundamental protections.

"This year's report reveals deeply disturbing trends, especially for women, migrant workers and those who work in the public sector", said ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder. "The death toll was slightly lower in 2005 than the previous year, but we are nevertheless witnessing increasingly severe violence and hostility against working people who stand up for their rights," he added.

Alongside the 70 killings, 260 Colombian trade unionists received death threats, in a climate of continuing impunity for the assassins, and deliberate targeting of trade unions by armed groups. The education sector was a particular focus for repression, contributing to a growing phenomenon of violence against women workers.

Elsewhere in the Americas, eight rural worker's rights supporters were killed in Brazil, and in Honduras, regional trade union coordinator Francisco Cruz Galeano was slain last December. In Guatemala the pervasive climate of violence and fear, especially against women workers, continued with workers in education, banking and agriculture amongst the primary targets.

The Bush Administration continued its efforts to undermine freedom of association and collective bargaining in the USA, helping to ensure that union-busting remained rife. One of the most notorious anti-union employers in the US, WalMart, spread its practices into Canada. Several provinces in Canada also took further steps to weaken workers' rights. In common with other regions, systematic violations of workers' rights in export processing zones was a prominent feature in Mexico and the Dominican Republic in particular, with multinational companies profiting from low wages and exploitative working conditions, especially in supply chains in the textiles and metals sectors.

Export processing zones in several Asian countries, notably Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka were highlighted for anti-union action by employers, often with government complicity, as part of the relentless drive by many global companies to undercut their competitors.

In Burma, ten underground organisers of the outlawed Federation of Trade Unions of Burma were caught and sentenced to prison terms of up to 25 years as the military junta reinforced its stranglehold on the country. Kim Tae-hwan, of South Korean trade union centre FKTU was one of 17 Asian trade unionists killed during 2005, run over by a truck driver who was following police orders to drive through a picket line at a cement works. Anti-union violence by police and security forces was repeatedly documented in India, Cambodia, China and several other countries.

Nepalese trade unions were at the centre of a civil society movement to restore trade union and human rights following the coup mounted by King Gyanendra, while workers were subjected to strict government control in North Korea, Laos and the Maldives, as was the single Vietnamese national union federation. Dozens of Chinese trade union activists remained in prison, and the authorities brutally repressed protests by workers in many different locations, with unconfirmed reports of the deaths of two demonstrators.

The conservative Australian government rushed a new wave of anti-union laws through the country's parliament at the end of the year, including heavy restrictions on workers' rights to trade union representation. Protection from unfair dismissal was removed from most Australian workers, and provisions were introduced for heavy fines against union officials and workers for even asking employers to provide paid leave for union-delivered training or to guarantee not to sack workers without good reason.

In the Middle-East, a series of protest actions by Iranian workers, including in the transport sector, met with heavy-handed police tactics and reports of torture and violence against strikers. Attempts to form a union by workers at the Iran Khodro auto plant, producing for Renault, were prevented by the authorities, and many of them were dismissed for protesting against non-payment of wages. One worker was taken away by company security staff, viciously beaten, and reappeared several weeks later in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. The conflict in Iraq made trade union activity extremely difficult, with 13 union representatives killed as a direct result of their union activities, including Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions official Hadi Salih, who was brutally tortured and murdered by assassins who invaded his home on 4 January.

Migrant workers suffered extreme exploitation in several Middle-East countries, including Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Jordan. In a number of these countries, unions were still totally outlawed, or subject to heavy legal restrictions. In the United Arab Emirates, the 130 construction workers were violently attacked for going on strike, and some migrant workers remained unpaid for up to 16 months. In Bahrain, hopes that the government would take some positive steps towards bringing the law further into line with international standards were dashed with the promulgation of a new legal disposition which is in fact more restrictive. A positive move was made in Qatar, where a new labour code, although deficient in several respects, allowed for the creation of free trade unions.

In one of the worst incidents on the African continent, police in Djibouti shot one driver's union member dead and wounded several others, while a strike of dock workers in the same country was met with 170 arrests and 70 dismissals. Zimbabwe's trade union movement was subjected to continued harassment by the government, with death threats against trade union leaders, arrests and detentions of union members, and several cases of physical violence against trade unionists.

Rubber bullets and teargas were a feature of police responses to protests by workers in South Africa, two of whom were hospitalised as a result of police actions, while new laws in Nigeria placed heavy restrictions on the right to strike and totally banned trade unions for certain types of worker. The Ethiopian authorities targeted the journalists union for repression and maintained their ban on the country's teachers' union, several of whose members were detained and accused of high treason, and further anti-union action in the education sector occurred in Algeria and Cameroon. In Sudan, Egypt and Libya, only government-controlled national trade union centres were permitted.

In Europe, the heaviest repression against trade unions occurred in Belarus, where the Lukashenko regime failed to implement any of the recommendations of an ILO Commission of Enquiry, moving instead to consolidate the position of the government-controlled FBP organisation and maintaining high-level interference in the affairs of independent unions. The Moldovan government also attempted to coerce health and education workers in particular into joining the authorities' "preferred" trade union structures.

The Turkish authorities were also responsible for acts of violence against education sector workers, and more than 500 Turkish workers were dismissed for their union involvement. Within the European Union, interference in and surveillance of trade unions was reported in Poland, while the German government refused to lift a ban on strikes by civil servants. The Lidl supermarket chain in Germany remained virulently anti-union, while the Gate Gourmet catering company was also singled out for its actions in Germany as well as in the UK.

Worrying case of "anti-unionists" spreads throughout Europe

European employers are becoming more and more brazen in their attempts at dismantling social dialogue, while some regimes in Central and Eastern Europe are still having a hard time accepting independent trade unions, according to the European section of the ICFTU's 2006 Survey of Trade Union Rights' Violations released today.

The Lukashenko regime's reputation for crushing democracy extended to independent trade unions. Despite a warning from the European Commission that Belarus had six months to put an end to its serious violations of trade union rights or risk losing its preferential trade status with the European Union, the independent trade union BKDP faced interference and obstruction from the highest levels of government. At the same President Lukashenko introduced legislation to further his goal of making the government-controlled FBP the only union in the country, while failing to implement any of the recommendations of the 2004 ILO Commission of Inquiry.

Similarly, the Moldovan government attempted to coerce workers, particularly education and health sector workers, into joining their 'preferred' trade union confederation, Solidaritatea. The pattern of repression of civil servants' rights shows up in Turkey as well, where the Egitim Sen teachers' union continued to be a target with the police arresting ten and injuring seventeen workers in a violent crack-down on a peaceful demonstration. Twenty-three trade unionists were beaten and 543 dismissed also in Turkey, a worrying trend for an aspirant EU member.

Demonstrating that EU membership is not a panacea against trade union repression, Poland's trade unions reported surveillance and interference whilst some Polish employers simply refused to recognize or bargain with unions. The German government still refuses to lift a ban on strikes in the public sector and Malta's trade unionists faced numerous death threats, including one against a trade union leader's mother, simply for campaigning against the budget.

"The pattern emerging is clear - many regimes and employers throughout Central and Eastern Europe are using threats, intimidation and interference to stop the spread of independent trade unionism. Meanwhile, despite the long established tradition of social dialogue in Western Europe, employers are increasingly going to greater lengths to undermine basic freedoms and rights, and government's are letting them get away with it" said Guy Ryder, the General Secretary of the ICFTU.

Gate Gourmet's dismissal of 670 workers in the UK took the cake in the multinational corporation belligerence stakes. Showing its anti-union reputation is truly international, in Germany the same company refused to honor the collective agreement they are signatories to and brought in strike-breakers, whilst the supermarket chain Lidl remains virulently anti-union. Coca Cola features in the survey for its treatment of workers in Azerbaijan, Moldova, Turkey and the Russian Federation, where workers at the Volzhsky plant were told they would loose their jobs if they joined the union.

"In this increasing atmosphere of trade union repression everyone, but particularly the EU, has a responsibility to use whatever tools are at its disposal to encourage respect for worker's rights and ensure bad behaviour is not rewarded. For example, despite clear evidence of trade union repression in countries such as Belarus, Moldova and Georgia, the Commission decided to grant them trade preferences under its GSP+ system in 2005. Similarly current EU member states have a responsibility to ensure trade union rights are respected within the EU, particularly if they want to preach to aspirant member states such as Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania," Ryder commented.

Russia's trade union movement suffered the only fatality in Europe with Vyacheslav Karpov, former Chairperson of a municipal teachers' union in the city of being shot under as yet unexplained circumstances following death threats and arson at his home.

Showing that even diplomats can lack listening skills, workers in Sweden's Lithuanian embassy and workers in UK's Washington embassy had trouble having their union recognized as their representative in collective agreement negotiations.

Possibly the most flamboyant gesture of anti-union determination belongs to a Belgian vigilante employer who chartered a helicopter during the general strike held on October 27 in order to be able to spot any breaches of the stringent regulations governing picketing, thus taking on the role normally carried out by the police.

Vital statistics:

Murders: 1

Death threats: 10

Injuries, beatings, torture: 27

Arrests: 18

Detentions: 2

Prison sentences: 0

Dismissals: 1297