Attack on Trade Unionists on the rise world wide

international | worker & community struggles and protests | feature

Wednesday October 24, 2007 23:37

by Jim O'Sullivan

GAMA workers and Joe Higgins fighting exploitation

Recent reports indicate that trade union activists are coming under increasing attack and in some cases these attacks are deadly. As globalisation and far right wing capitalism increases, so the attacks on trade unions and their members increase. Below is a ICFTU report which highlights the extent of the problem

115 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers’ rights, while more than 1,600 were subjected to violent assaults and some 9,000 arrested. 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 Burma, Iran, El Salvador, Djibouti, China, Cambodia, Guatemala, Zimbabwe and Saudi arabia. Other 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.

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. 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.
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 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.

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, 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.

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.

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.