World Day Against Child Labour

ITUC OnLine

(June 12) The ITUC is calling on governments to step up commitment to the global fight against child labour, with new evidence from the ILO that progress is slowing.  215 million children are still at work instead of in school.

“The two ILO Conventions on child labour have been ratified by the vast majority of governments, but tens of millions of children are experiencing the exploitation and misery of child labour when they should be getting a decent education.  The economic crisis, and the obsession with austerity, are severely hampering efforts to get the children out of work and into school,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

Bangladesh Labour Law Changes Inadequate

ITUC OnLine

Hundreds of Bangladesh workers in several garment factores were killed in a building collapse Photo: Bangladesh Federation of Workers Solidarity (BFWS).

Changes to Bangladesh’s notoriously weak labour laws being discussed in parliament are inadequate and will leave workers still without protection guaranteed under global labour standards, according to the international trade union movement.
Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the ITUC, said, “After years of inaction, the government is trying to hose down criticism of a system which has cost thousands of lives and kept the country’s garment workers on dollar-a-day wages to feed the corporate bottom line.  The changes being debated in parliament won’t change that, so major trading partners including the US and the EU will now need to step up pressure for real reform.”

The 360,000 workers in the country’s eight export processing zones will remain excluded from labour law coverage and instead relegated to a separate law that prohibits workers from even forming a union.  Remaining union-free appears to be one of the promises made to investors who set up in the zones.

On the Road to an Arab Region Trade Union Organization

ITUC On-Line

Meeting in Amman, Jordan, on 30-31 May, the Arab national trade union organizations affiliated to or associated with the ITUC have decided to launch the process of creating a trade union organization for the Arab region, in the framework of the ITUC.  To respond most effectively to the legitimate political and social aspirations expressed by the revolutions which have taken place in the Arab region, the founding organizations of this democratic and independent Arab trade union movement have adopted to this end a charter which sets out the fundamental principles for action and defines the objectives to be implemented.

Public support for action to invest in jobs outstrips ambitions of leaders, international unions warn OECD Ministerial

Brussels, 28 May 2013 (ITUC OnLine ):  Overwhelming public support for policies to create jobs, develop new industries and reduce unemployment and inequality is at odds with government actions, according to new public opinion polling from international unions.

Worldwide unemployment is set to rise above 200 million, with 48 million in the OECD area alone. Young women and men are particularly scarred by the crisis. Globally over 74 million young people under 25 are jobless.

Youth unemployment rates of 56 % in Spain and 38 % in Portugal and Italy are desperately alarming. Youth unemployment in the EU will remain above 17 % until 2015, according to the International Labor Organization.

Findings of public polling on policies to create jobs in 13 countries including 7 OECD countries (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, UK and the USA) show:

Building Workers’ Power: ITUC May Day statement 2013

ITUC OnLine

Working people are facing sustained and often brutal attacks on their rights in every region of the world. Inequality and unemployment are hitting record levels, as governments continue to follow the failed and destructive policy of austerity-at-any-cost, and the onslaught against collective bargaining continues.  The future of an entire generation of young people is at serious risk.

Corporate greed runs unchecked, costing the lives of thousands of workers, most recently in Bangladesh and Pakistan as factories burn and collapse.  Trade unionists in Colombia, Guatemala and elsewhere are paying the ultimate price for their commitment to social justice, while Turkish workers face the heavy hand of judicial repression for standing up for their rights.

The promise of transformation in the Arab world is being betrayed by the replacement of one form of autocracy by another.  Decades of social progress in European countries are being wiped out by the untrammelled power of global finance, while people across Africa continue to suffer under neocolonial plunder and corruption.

IMF labour market prescriptions condemn workers to worse jobs and more inequality

New report shatters economic myths behind labour reforms.

 ITUC OnLine

s  (April17) IMF labour market advice, as part of the Troika, undermines democracy and risks economic dictatorship across Europe and beyond warned the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and will create more divisions and social unrest, without producing any economic benefits.

The ITUC Frontlines 2013 report, “ Ideology without economic evidence: IMF attacks on collective bargaining” is  released on the eve of the IMF Spring meetings as extreme levels of unemployment and rising inequality continue to dominate the global economy.

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General  Secretary  said the new report provides empirical evidence demonstrating there is no sound economic case for attacking workers’ rights, with its devastating impact on families, communities and economies.

Working Women Empowered: Challenging Violence in South Africa

Solidarity Center

March 7, 2013—Although post-apartheid South Africa has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world and women comprise more than 40 percent of Parliament, the country also has high rates of gender-based violence, including “excessive rates of female homicides,” according to the World Health Organization.

Most recently, the brutal rape and murder of 17-year-old Anene Booysen in February and other high-profile killings have brought the issue of gender-based violence to national attention. Two men have been arrested for the death of Booysen, who worked at a construction company in a small rural town southeast of Cape Town, South Africa.

Around the world, in their homes and at the workplace, women are highly likely to experience violence—up to seven in ten women globally will be beaten, raped, abused or mutilated in their lifetimes. This March 8, International Women’s Day, activists across the globe are focusing on ending violence against women—and in South Africa, working women and their unions are among the leaders in events across the nation.

Stop violence against women and girls now!

ITUC On-line

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary

(February 25) Next week, the 57th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) will meet in New York on the issue of violence against women and girls. The ITUC urges the international community not to give in on any of the draft conclusions (Available at:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw57/CSW57_Draft_AC_proposal_presented_by_CSW_Bureau_8_February_2013.doc
).

Last year the Commission failed to reach agreement because of conservative governments questioning the very principle of gender equality. “This cannot happen again!” said Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, denouncing the current attacks on women’s rights and the cuts in budgets allocated to women’s issues.

North African Trade Unionists Arrested and Attacked in Algeria

ITUC OnLine

International Trade Union Confederation

(Brussels, 22 February 2013 ) The ITUC has firmly condemned the attacks on the rights of North African trade unionists visiting Algeria to take part in the first North African Forum to Fight Unemployment and Precarious Work.

“The police raided the hotel where the trade unionists were staying and proceeded to arrest five Moroccans, three Tunisians and three Mauritanians, including two women,” reported the independent national public workers’ union SNAPAP. They were then driven directly to the airport and deported from the country, without being able to inform anyone by telephone.

Tunisia: No to the Return of the ‘Red Hand’*

ITUC OnLine

Chokri Belaïd

The ITUC  [International Trade Union Confederation] has firmly condemned the killing, on 6 February, of Tunisian opposition leader Mr Chokri Belaïd, and has expressed full support for the general strike called by its Tunisian affiliate, the UGTT.

Shocked and angered, the people of Tunisia reacted instantaneously, taking to the streets of the capital and cities across the country in their thousands. “The situation in Tunisia remains extremely worrying,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. “This killing is inadmissible and forms part of the campaign of violence being waged over the last few months against trade union leaders, journalists, political activists and ordinary citizens. The UGTT, a key player in the revolution and an indispensable driving force in the transition towards full democracy and social justice, can count on the international trade union movement’s total support.”