Anti-union repression persists
worldwide says report
By Gustavo Capdevila
Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 13 (IPS)— Anti-union
repression in 1999 cost the lives of 140 women and men around
the world, charges the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions (ICFTU) in its annual report on the global problem of
labor rights violations.
The trade unionists “were assassinated, disappeared,
or committed suicide after they were threatened, because they
had the temerity to stand up for workers’ rights against the
state or unscrupulous employers,’’ says the document.
The victims numbered fewer than in 1998, when
157 people died due to their union activities, but the Brussels-based
ICFTU stresses that the anti-union climate is intensifying and
workers’ rights continue to erode as the years pass.
The global organization considers it “paradoxical’’
that international agreements on union rights are ratified by
more and more countries, but are respected less.
In the 113 countries studied for the report, some
3,000 workers were arrested, more than 1,500 were injured, beaten
or tortured, and at least 5,800 suffered harassment due to their
legitimate union activities in 1999.
Bill Jordan, the British secretary-general of
the ICFTU, said the report reveals the “prevailing hypocrisy
which sees government officials parading at international gatherings,
ostensibly promoting basic workers’ rights, while those who
actually defend those fundamental rights at home are being harassed,
attacked, threatened, sidelined or silenced--sometimes forever.’’
The international union leader denounced “the
ruthless repression in Latin America, attacks and interference
in Asia, arrests and imprisonment in Africa, severe restrictions
and non-payment of wages in Eastern Europe and a growing trend
of ‘union-busting’ activities in industrialized countries.’’
According to the ICFTU report, Latin America
continues to be the most dangerous region for unionists. In
1999, it was once again the stage for anti-labor violence, worker
exploitation-- especially in the banana industry and maquiladoras
(export processing zones)-- and the negative impacts of globalization
and structural adjustments.
In Latin America, increasing numbers of trade
unionists are murdered with each passing year. The victim total
for 1999 reached 90, twice the number of similar deaths on any
other continent.
Last year, at least three union leaders were assassinated
in Guatemala, police shot a teachers’ union leader to death
in the Dominican Republic on the eve of a general strike, and
the murder of rural unionists in Brazil continued.
The Nicaraguan police force and army violently
suppressed striking transportation workers, leaving two dead
and hundreds injured.
But the gloomiest picture is found in Colombia,
where 69 unionists were assassinated-a few less than in 1998,
but a chilling situation nonetheless, comments the ICFTU.
Massive protests in various provinces of Argentina
to demand payment of back-wages met with brutal police repression,
claiming five lives and leaving 25 people injured.
The United States, meanwhile, saw approximately
40 percent of public sector employees denied the right to collective
bargaining last year, as well as reports of cases of extreme
exploitation.
Nearly 80 percent of all unionist arrests last
year worldwide took place on the African continent, which was
also home to the same portion of all prison sentences handed
down against trade union activities.
The ICTFU stresses in its report that government-imposed
structural adjustments led to privatizations across Africa,
and that cuts in public spending drove up unemployment and non-payment
of wages -- leading to a burgeoning informal economic sector
in which workers lack basic protections.
Additionally, the average African holds out hope
that the growing clamor to cancel the foreign debt of the poorest
nations will produce tangible results.
A ban on independent trade unions in Equatorial
Guinea, Sudan and Libya remained in place through 1999. In the
Central African Republic, meanwhile, the government “continued
to target the USTC union central, and its leader, Theophile
Sonny-Cole, was beaten up and prevented from attending international
conferences.’’
Zimbabwe is yet another country that saw labor
rights drastically deteriorate last year. Three leaders of the
leading central union were attacked after taking part in a labor
strike, an activity the government declared illegal, says the
ICFTU.
The Zimbabwean union denounced that the country’s
export processing zones, where most workers are women, saw an
increasing number of unfair labor practices.
In these areas, which are under fiscal protection,
workdays are long, overtime is paid at the normal rate, strikes
are banned and workers are denied legal representation in disputes
with employers.
In the Asia-Pacific region, at least 37 trade
unionists died last year due to strike-related incidents.
In Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries,
workers do not enjoy union rights in the export processing zones,
while in countries such as Fiji, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand
unions are not allowed to operate in the zones.
Strikes and demonstrations in the region were
savagely repressed last year, and in 19 of the 25 countries
evaluated, anti- union legislation predominates, according to
the ICFTU.
China represses any attempt to create independent
unions and imprisons labor leaders. Hundreds of Chinese workers
were injured during confrontations with the police as they protested
factory closings that meant layoffs for millions of people,
says the report.
Unions are practically non-existent in the Middle
East, where legal barriers prevent workers from organizing or
staging strikes.
In Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates,
Oman and Qatar, foreign workers make up at least two-thirds
of the labor force, but they have almost no rights, nor are
they covered by existing collective agreements, says the ICFTU.
In Europe, seven people died last year as the
result of their trade union activities, and two others committed
suicide to call the government’s attention to labor problems.
Four trade unionists were assassinated in Russia
in 1999, and the authorities there ignored striking workers’
demands for payment of back-wages owed.
The ICFTU is relating its latest report to the
campaign underway to promote linking respect for basic labor
standards with international trade agreements.
Workers slam US banana firms
Nicaragua, Sept. 13— Dozens of former banana
workers have been encamped outside the Nicaraguan National Assembly
as part of an effort to sue Shell Co. for manufacturing the
insecticide DBCP-- sold under the brand names Negamón and Fumazone--
and Standard Fruit Company, Chiquita Brands and Dole Limited
for using it on their banana plantations in Chinandega department
during the 1970s and early 1980s. The workers say that long-term
effects of the pesticide-- which causes cancer, respiratory
problems, bone deformation and male sterility-- have resulted
in 82 deaths in recent months and have affected the health of
22,000 to 50,000 former banana workers and their families.
The workers are pressuring the National Assembly
to pass the “Emergency Law for Those Harmed by Nemagón and Fumazone,”
which would allow the workers to sue the foreign-based companies
in Nicaraguan courts; current laws do not allow for suits of
this nature.
Source: El Nuevo Herald, Reuters, La Nación, Agence
France Press
Protests sweep Bolivia
La Paz, Bolivia, Sept. 15— Bolivia’s Minister
of Government, Guillermo Fortún, is threatening to use force
to stop a wave of protests that began picking up steam during
the week of September 11. The Bolivian Confederation of Urban
Teachers began an open-ended strike on September 13, with strikers
blocking transit in La Paz to demand a 50 percent wage increase.
Some 2,000 university students from the mining town of Siglo
XX arrived during the week of September 4 in La Paz, where they
are continuing to block traffic with peaceful daily marches.
Another group of students seized a building of the recently
created university in El Alto, adjacent to La Paz, and fought
off a police attempt to remove them; they are demanding that
the university be granted autonomous status.
Campesinos grouped in the Only Federation of
Campesino Workers of Bolivia (CUSTCB) plan to blockade highways
around the country beginning on September 18, to demand that
Congress revoke an objectionable law governing water rights
and use, and modify 10 articles of an agrarian reform law. The
same day, coca producers plan to begin a blockade in the Chapare
region to demand the departure of military troops from the area
and an end to forced coca eradication efforts.
Source: Associated Press, Hoy
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