INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS
ICFTU OnLine:
089/070606
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, 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.
To read the full report: http://www.icftu.org/survey2006.asp?language=EN
Link to the press release on Africa::
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223813&Language=EN
Link to the press release on Americas:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223815&Language=EN
Link to the press release on Asia & Pacific:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223811&Language=EN
Link to the press release on Europe:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223814&Language=EN
Link to the press release on Middle East:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223812&Language=EN
Link to the press release on China:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991223809&Language=EN
-To see the audio/ video materials covering the ICFTU Survey 2006:
http://www.icftusurvey.org/audio_video/en/
The ICFTU represents 155 million workers in 236 affiliated organisations
in 154 countries and territories. http://www.icftu.org The ICFTU is also
a partner in Global Unions. http://www.global-unions.org