Volume 10, No.1 - February 2001
Never Again
International
Belarus: New plot to crush labour rights
The Belarus government is discreetly preparing new attacks to muzzle the trade union movement, according to a fresh report obtained by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).
Among the steps being contemplated are amendments and supplements to the already repressive "Trade Unions Act" which would deprive trade unions of the right to access enterprises and organisations where their members work.
The Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB), which has been excluded from discussions on the new measures, fears that they will be used to further restrict the labour movement's scope of action. It says the state authorities have been instructed by the Presidential administration to "implement measures which will limit the rights and freedoms of the workers and their trade unions".
In a related development, the administration has dismissed as "inconsistent with the FTUB Constitution", the plan for the union's president, Vladimir Goncarik, to run as an independent candidate at the next presidential election due this year.
The Lukashenko regime has even threatened to dismantle the FTUB should it support Mr Goncarik as a presidential candidate. The regime says that the simple fact of discussing such a prospect at the Committee meeting does not correspond to the goals and objectives of a trade union.
"Whoever the candidates for the presidential elections are and whatever form the electoral contest takes, a contest which must be open and fair, we regard threats of attacks on or reprisals against trade unions as a violation of freedom of association," says the ICFTU.
Protesting against the planned anti-union actions, the FTUB declared its "resolute determination to use all legitimate means to protect the rights and freedoms of workers and their unions."
ICFTU General Secretary Bill Jordan expressed deep concern over these developments and is taking the matter to the ILO: "If they materialise,' he says, "the government plans would constitute clear violations of international law and fundamental ILO Conventions, especially Convention 87 on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, which the regime ratified."
Last year, the ILO's sixth European regional meeting noted the many violations of trade union rights in Belarus and called on ILO Director General Juan Somavia to take all necessary measures to ensure compliance by the state authorities of Belarus with the provisions of conventions no. 87 and 98 on the right to organise and the right to collective bargaining.
President of Saqez Bakers Syndicate, must be released immediately
Mahmood Salehi, President of the Bakers Syndicate (trade union) of the city of Saqez, was arrested and imprisoned on 24 August 2000 by the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is the fifth time that he has been arrested and detained - first in 1983, then in 1985 for a period of three years, in 1995 for eight days, and in 1999 for two months. He is currently held in a horrendously inhumane state in prison and is being denied medical treatment.
According to the latest reports, his health has rapidly deteriorated, and his condition is critical as he only has one kidney, which has developed complications. The situation was such that two people had to carry him so that he could see his wife for a brief visit. The prison authorities refused to send him for treatment despite all his wife's attempts.
In protest at this situation, on 23 October 2000, she called on Fallahzadeh, the prison governor, who at first refused to take any action. Later Fallahzadeh's assistant said that a visit to hospital would be allowed provided that Mahmood Salehi is chained and guarded by four prison officers. He protested against such an inhumane suggestion.
In addition to the physical and psychological pressures, the horrendous hygiene and food provisions of the prison have affected his physique and that of other prisoners. One has caught TB and was hospitalised.
Mahmood Salehi's crime is nothing but his trade union activities and defence of workers' rights - something that is a crime in the Islamic Republic, with heavy punishment and possible death.
The Worker-Communist Party of Iran has organised a campaign in defence of his life and for his release and is calling on all freedom-seeking people, workers' organisations, left-wing parties and all human rights bodies across the world to take immediate action.
Protest against the Islamic Republic and support this campaign by sending letters of protest, or any other means at your disposal, to put pressure on the regime authorities and demand his immediate release so that he could be treated. Please keep us informed of any action that you have taken.
With regards Rahman Hoseinzadeh Secretary of the Kurdistan Committee of Worker-Communist Party of Iran, 24 October 2000 Tel: 0046 739 855 837. Fax: 0044 870 133 7209. Email: r-hoseinzadeh@yahoo.com
Morocco of trade union rights violations
As the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues held its Congress in Morocco (10-14 January) the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in Brussels has condemned the country's anti-union repression.
In a complaint sent to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a UN specialised agency, the ICFTU points to the connivance between the Moroccan authorities and certain enterprises, particularly multinationals, in preventing any trade union activity at the workplace.
The ICFTU notes that when a trade union was set up in November of last year at a subsidiary of the Irish "Fruit of the Loom" group in the town of Salé - a factory employing over 1,200 workers - a whole arsenal of anti-union tactics was unleashed:
When the Moroccan Labour Union (UMT), an ICFTU affiliate, reported the case to the governor of Salé, he sided with the "Fruit of the Loom" management, stating bluntly that he didn't want any unions in his prefecture.
The ICFTU immediately contacted the multinational's head office in Ireland, noting that the Irish Prime Minister was currently in Rabat on an official visit.
Meanwhile the General Tire Company, initially owned by the Moroccan state and now a part of the German multinational "Continental", chose to close down its factory and leave some 200 people out of work rather than examine their demands.
Financial difficulties, which the UMT attributes to the poor management of the company, had led it to cancel the workers' thirteenth month salary and unilaterally reduce its employees' pay.
The ICFTU has denounced anti-union repression at the Salé free trade zone, in the suburbs of the Moroccan capital Rabat, occupied by mainly foreign-owned companies producing for export.
It also notes that 21 Moroccan trade unionists were imprisoned in 1999 for trade union activities and tortured during their detention.
The ICFTU also condemns the repression of a demonstration on 9 December last year organised by the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) to mark international human rights day. Some 40 demonstrators were arrested outside the parliament in Rabat, including seven UMT leaders and activists.
The ICFTU has asked the Moroccan Prime Minister, Abderrahmane El Youssoufi to ensure that "all political and administrative authorities scrupulously observe international standards on the freedom of association and enforce their respect".
Metal Workers in protest to Chinese government
The general secretary of the International Metalworkers' Federation, Marcello Malentacchi, has written to the president and prime minister of the People's Republic of China in protest at the government's abuse of human and trade union rights in the case of the labour rights lawyer, Xu Jian.
Malentacchi has requested all charges against Xu Jian be dropped and that he be immediately released from prison. Xu, who was formerly employed at the Yunhao Inner Mongolia Legal Company in Baotou City, was arrested in 1999 and charged with "incitement to subvert state power". On 18 July 2000, he was sentenced by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Baotou City Intermediate People's Court to a four-year prison term, his 'crime' being his attempts at independent workers' organising.
With the current high levels of unemployment in China and convinced that workers should independently defend their rights and livelihood through legal channels, Xu Jian provided them with legal counselling as well as assistance in filing labour dispute cases for arbitration and litigation.
The bulk of his caseload was taken up with laid-off workers seeking redress from two giant employers, the state-owned Neimenggu No. 2 Machinery Main Factory with a workforce of 20,000, and Baotou Steel Company with a workforce of 100,000.
He distributed leaflets on the legal rights of workers facing factory closure and layoffs and on China's labour law, including the stipulations on remuneration, working hours and overtime pay, their right to elect shop-level union officials, and the jurisdiction of the workers' congress in state enterprises.
Despite the strictly legal basis of Xu's work, the court rejected his defence that his activities did not constitute a danger to the state. Instead, the court deemed that Xu Jian's open and legal activities were a danger to national security.
The verdict holds that the judgement was made "in order to protect national security and uphold the people's democratic dictatorship and the socialist system," although no evidence was produced to substantiate this accusation.
The arrest and sentencing of Xu Jian is in violation of China's own laws and regulations and a violation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 (Freedom of Association and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining). He is being held in Area Two of Chifeng Prison, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, and is suffering from hepatitis contracted after he was incarcerated. His condition is critical.
Stop forced labour in Burma!
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has requested trade unions across the world to press their governments to impose a ban on investments in and trade with Burma, ahead of an important meeting of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in March.
The ICFTU mentions 30 different products in relation to which it found "vast evidence of forced labour over the last 10 years". They range from teak wood to coconut oil, rubber, cement, coffee, sugar cane and others.
The ICFTU said it had accumulated evidence of forced labour in 17 different industries. In addition to oil and gas production and textiles, where forced labour is already well documented, it is now also researching the telecommunications, automobile and pharmaceuticals industries. It has asked its affiliates world-wide to seek detailed data from their national governments on three areas:
Adopted in June 2000 and confirmed last November, an ILO document calls for its member states to "review relations" with Burma and cease any that might help the junta perpetuate the forced labour system.
The ICFTU said: "We have noticed some very small and cosmetic steps by the military but we are still very far from seeing any real progress. We are convinced that fear of the impact of the ILO Resolution is the real drive behind the 'secret' SPDC talks with the opposition and the recent release from jail of about 100 senior opposition activists".
"We welcome both the talks and the prisoners' release, but they should never have been detained in the first place", said the ICFTU General Secretary, Bill Jordan
"You cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, consider as a genuine sign of progress the mass arrests, then the periodic release, of political prisoners ahead of important international visits, mostly followed by their re-arrest once foreign delegates have departed", he added, stressing that the reason for the ILO resolution is the systematic use of forced labour and evidence suggests the scourge is still very much there".
The ICFTU has made clear it wants to see "genuine and credible evidence of progress on the forced labour issue" before even considering a shift on the issue of ILO sanctions.
"All available evidence points to the exact opposite," said an ICFTU spokesperson, adding that the ICFTU would propose a comprehensive union strategy at an international trade union conference on "Solidarity with Burma", to be held at the end of February in Japan.
Work or death
In Burma, on any given day, several hundred thousand men, women, children and elderly people are forced to work against their will by the country's military rulers. Forced labour can include building army camps, roads, bridges, railroads, etc. Refusal to work may lead to being detained, tortured, raped, or killed.
Military officers issue written forced labour orders everyday. The ICFTU knows their units, rank, names and movements. There are only two ways to escape forced labour -: paying for a replacement, or, when money has run out, fleeing before the army comes to burn your village and kill you or your family.
The ILO has called on Burma's authorities to end the practice of forced labour since the early 1960s. In 1997 the ruling SPDC refused to co-operate with a special ILO Commission of Inquiry into violations by Burma of the ILO Forced Labour Convention. In 1998, it refused to allow the Commission into the country.
In its report, the Commission of Inquiry said forced labour in Burma was a crime against humanity, likely to continue as long as the military stayed in power.
What you can do?
GM Vauxhall unions will resist closure of the UK plant
Workers at the General Motors Vauxhall plant in Luton, England, have taken strike action in protest at the announced shutdown of this factory in 2002. On 12 December, announcing a huge restructuring plan in which it intends to cut 10,000 jobs in North America and Europe, GM said it will close all car-making at its Vauxhall plant at Luton, with the loss of 2,000 jobs.
In a joint notice issued on behalf of all Vauxhall trade unions and following a meeting held in the Luton plant, representatives of all hourly and staff trade unions at all UK locations declared their intention to resist "by whatever means" the closure of the Luton plant. This declaration has the support of the GM European Works Council and reaffirms their decision that plant closures will not be tolerated anywhere in Europe
Management has been informed that its total plan for Europe is unacceptable and an emergency meeting of the full European Manufacturing Committee has been called in order to develop a trade union strategy to resist the proposals made by General Motors Corporation.
"The interests of the membership are of paramount importance in this matter." Statement by the International Metalworkers' Federation.
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