Labour Start

Guaranteed Health Care for All

Support and Demand national health care. The United States Health Insurance Act (HR 676)

Repeal Taft-Hartley

The Labor Management Relations Act, also known as Taft-Hartley, has been on the books since 1947. The anti-labor, anti-workingclass provisions of Taft-Hartley, which were drafted by employers, include a ban on secondary boycotts, allows states to pass so-called right-to-work laws, prohibits strikes by certain government employees, and allows management to "interfere" in union organizing drives. It is time to repeal this law that infringes on workers civil and human rights. Visit the following sites to contact your Senators and Congresspersons

ITUC Welcomes Re-Election of Juan Somavia as ILO Director General

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has welcomed the re-election of International Labour Organisation Director General Juan Somavia for a further term, at the meeting of the ILO's Governing Body in Geneva. The ITUC and the Workers Group of the ILO supported Mr. Somavia in his re-election, and we congratulate him. The ILO has an essential role to play in promoting the Decent Work agenda, most especially at this most difficult time when the global economy is in crisis and jobs and living standards are under such serious threat, said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. The ILO, as the UN specialised agency dealing with the world of work, is a tripartite body bringing together representatives of governments, employers and trade unions. At its annual conference this year, it adopted a landmark Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation, which in the ILO's words represents a new strategy to sustain open economies and open societies based on social justice, full and productive employment, sustainable enterprises and social cohesion. We look forward to continuing to work with Juan Somavia during his forthcoming mandate to make decent work a reality for all working people, and to deal with the enormous challenges facing the world community, said Ryder
Source: ITUC OnLine

COLOMBIA Privatisation of Refuse Collection Services in City of Cali, Derogation of Collective Bargaining Agreement and Mass Redundancies

Public Services International is asking its affiliates to send letters of protest in support of refuse collection workers from the Municipal Refuse Collection and Waste Disposal Corporation (EMSIRVA) in the town of Cali, Colombia. The Directorate of Public Services, a national body which follows guidelines laid down by the government under Alvaro Uribe Velez, has initiated a privatisation process which will result in a unilaterally imposed revision of the collective bargaining agreement. The new agreement would disregard the rights and benefits won by the trade union SINTRAEMSIRVA, redefine the workers legal status (they will no longer be classified as public sector workers), and lead to some 230 redundancies
Source: PSI Urgent Actions

ICEM Affiliates Protest Mexican Government's Assault on Mine, Metalworkers Union

Scores of International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions (ICEM) affiliates have sent letters to Mexican President Felipe Calderone condemning the Mexican government's campaign to destroy the Mexican National Miners and Metalworkers Union (SNTMMSRM), known as Mineros, and undermine the union's duly elected general secretary, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia. The Mexican government has colluded with Grupo Mexico to destroy Mineros, which stands out as one of the few democratically elected trade unions in a country in which genuine trade union rights are routinely repressed. Gomez, who exited the country under threats of assassination and arrest on false charges, was subsequently overwhelmingly re-elected to head Mineros. However, the government has refused to recognize the election as lawful, further demonstrating the government's complicity with Grupo Mexico. Political leaders in Europe, the US, Canada, and Latin American have also sent letters of protest to the Mexican government. Two members of Mineros, who have been on strike for over a year at a Grupo Mexico copper mine, attended the ICEM's Global Mining Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia. They gave a stirring presentation of the strike by 3,000 miners and the repressive actions taken against their union and Napoleon Gomez. ICEM affiliates agreed to engage in actions in support of Mineros, and the letter to Calderone represents a first step in a widening campaign of support. The ICEM is working closely with International Metalworkers Federation (IMF) and the United Steelworkers of America (USW) to build global trade union support for the union and Gomez
Source: ICEM InBrief

Stop Impunity in Guatemala: Trade Union Appeal to the European Union

A delegation of Guatemalan trade union representatives, including the General Secretaries of the ITUC affiliated CGTG and CUSG, is to take part in a mission organised by the International Trade Union Confederation. The mission, which will run from Monday 3 to Thursday 20 November and will visit various European member states, is a follow up to the international trade union conference held in Guatemala in January on "The Role of Trade Union Organisations in the Fight against Impunity". The delegation's mission is to request aid and cooperation from the international community and European institutions. Aid is needed by the government of President Colom to strengthen its institutions, to consolidate the rule of law, to bring an end to impunity and to establish a tripartite dialogue producing concrete results between the government, employers and unions. The success of this dialogue is crucial to workers free exercise of their basic rights. The mission will also ask governments and the European Union to give political support to the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (set up following an agreement between the United Nations and the Guatemalan government) so that it can investigate the parallel groups acting inside and outside the Guatemalan State. These parallel powers constitute an active threat to good governance by the Guatemalan authorities. Trade union rights are far from respected in this Latin American country. Guatemala is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for trade unionists. Corruption, drug trafficking and maras (criminal youth gangs) affect the everyday lives of workers in Guatemala. It is estimated that violence claims close to 6000 lives a year and that an average of two women suffer violent deaths every day, the term "feminicide" has become part of everyday language in Guatemala. Guatemala also has one of the worst records, globally, as regards the number of unresolved murder cases. It is against this background that Pedro Zamora, General Secretary of the Guatemalan Port Workers Union, was murdered, whilst heading a campaign against the privatisation, without worker consultation, of Puerto Quetzal. Zamora's case has become emblematic, but it is far from isolated. The fight against impunity and organised crime is the fight of all, said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. The international community and the European Union must do everything in their power to end impunity, he added. The delegation will go to the headquarters of the European Union in Brussels before travelling on to London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and, finally, Geneva
Source: ITUC OnLine

ICEM Intensifies Campaign on Contract and Agency Labor with New Site

A new site on contract and agency labour, which will soon also become multi-lingual, is launched by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions (ICEM). Aiming to become a first port of call for all ICEM affiliated trade unions, and their members, as well as other trade unionists searching for practical and useful information, the site will continuously provide campaign materials, brochures and guidelines, best practice examples, case studies, and more
Source: ICEM News Release

Port Workers Support Organizing in Global Network Terminals

Unions representing workers at the world's largest port terminal operators took firm steps forward recently as they planned future strategies and vowed to increase workers organisation along major transport chains. Fifty port workers representatives from APM Terminals, Hutchison, Dubai Ports World and PSA International gathered in Antwerp, Belgium. During the event they welcomed organising successes achieved in key ports across all the global port operating networks, reaffirmed their shared aim of setting standards in all ports and terminals worldwide, and planned for future achievements. The meeting agreed a declaration of solidarity covering workers in all global network terminals (GNTs). International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) Dockers Section Chair, Paddy Crumlin of the Maritime Union of Australia, explained: We are seeking global dialogue but at the same time, we are prepared to fight for workers rights and good safety practices. The GNTs need to demonstrate good governance in their global relationships with their workforce. Unions here have made a strong commitment to support each other to stamp out any threats to ports workers and to their communities, and to work together to build labour solidarity throughout the transport chain. In these uncertain times, dock workers stand resolutely together with all transport workers, whose efforts keep the wheels of the global economy turning, he added
Source: ITF News

Global Union Federations Bring Contract, Agency Labor Issue Squarely Before the ILO

A forum to highlight, before the International Labor Organization (ILO), the social unravelling that comes with the widespread use of Contract and Agency Labour, and all forms of precarious work, was held in Geneva. The half-day programme was intended to give notice to the ILO that it must address the issue in order to preserve its work relationships agenda. The Global Union Federations, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions (ICEM), Building and Wood Workers International (BWI), International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF), International Metalworkers Federation (IMF), and Union Network International (UNI) took part, as did the Council of Global Unions, the umbrella organisation of the GUFs, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Trade Union Advisory Council of the OECD. The forum had input from representatives of the Bureau of Workers Activities (Actrav) of the ILO. Speaker after speaker emphasized the threat to core ILO Conventions 87 and 98 by the ever-growing use of short-term contract and temporary workers by employers. With that, came a common outcry, a lowering of living and working conditions is sure to follow. In introducing the subject, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda equated the current precariousness of the global financial situation, and the hopeful end to blind faith markets, with the necessity for the ILO to begin the process to introduce global standards on precarious work. The issue of precarious work is fundamental to the very essence of the ILO, stated Warda. The erosion of employment structures robs workers of the will and capacity to join unions, and it gives families a permanent feeling of insecurity. Warda stressed that the ILO must begin serious discussions with its employer constituencies and governmental units to establish recommendations and standards on the issue. ICEM testimony also came from Danish trade union leader Jorgen Juul Rasmussen, the General Secretary of Dansk El-Forbund. He said the practice of employing contract or agency workers is now common in both developed and developing nations. Our experience, which is not always easy, is to identify the primary employer, and then use all means to enforce the law regarding health insurance, pension rights, and other social criteria on behalf of agency workers. The strategy of Dansk El-Forbund, an electrical workers union, said Rasmussen, is to be pro-active in organising agency workers and so-called subcontractors. BWI General Secretary Anita Normark said companies engage temporary workers to cut costs, increase their flexibility, and to have less responsibility. Global trade unions and the ILO, she said, must engage governments and companies on what this is leading to in society. For governments, this is fast becoming an issue on how to secure the economies of their nations. IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi called attention to an ILO complaint that his federation, together with the Korean Metal Workers Union, brought before the Committee on Freedom of Association over falsification of contract workers. He said at the Kiryung Electronics factory, an operation cited in the complaint, only 5 percent of workers in the plant are permanent workers and they are male. Nearly all the (others) are women earning 47 percent less than their male colleagues. He added, Our unions are facing an uphill battle and they need the support of the ILO. The best hope for precarious workers to improve their situation is to unionise. The forum opened with endorsement of a process toward ILO debate on the subject by Actrav Director Dan Cunniah, who said there should be an ILO Convention on precarious work and that more can and should be done to achieve one. Raquel Gonzalez of the ITUC's Workers Group called the 3 October discussions important because the issue is a major obstacle to the decent work relationship. She said the ILO's declaration from June 2008, the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation, has several provisions which tie in with precarious employment. Gonzalez also said the growth of temporary work must be central in discussions next year during the ILO Labour Conference's focus on Gender Equality, since women are over-represented in this type of work. In the mid 1990s, the ILO did take up the issue of temporary and agency labour, but the discussions were dropped due to lack of consensus, within the tripartite structures, over definitions, terms, and language related to non-regular work
Source: ICEM InBrief

ITUC Launches YouTube Video Channel with World Day for Decent Work Videos

In the lead-up to the World Day for Decent Work on 7 October, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) officially launches its channel on the video sharing website YouTube with videos about the World Day for Decent Work from ITUC President Sharan Burrow and General Secretary Guy Ryder as well as International Labor Organization Director General Juan Somavia. The ITUC site will contain videos produced by the ITUC itself, as well as those produced by other trade union organizations nationally and internationally. Already on the site are videos on Export Processing Zones in Haiti and in Honduras, repression of trade union and other human rights in Burma and Guinea, construction workers in Australia and a host of other topics
Source: ITUC OnLine

International Transport Workers Federation Seafarers Website

ITF Seafarers is the first online resource from the ITF devoted uniquely to the worldwide seafaring community. The new site offers content on key issues and rights, a ship look-up tool, an Inside the Issues briefing area, an online community and blog and much more
Source: ITF News

Global Labour University

Since its inception in 2004, the Global Labour University has welcomed trade unions in its Masters Programme in labour studies. The university is also a network of trade unions and universities aiming to facilitate research and spark debate. At its annual conference in 2009, trade unionists and scholars are invited to present papers and discuss the responses of labour to the challenge of financialisation and how financial markets increase the rates of return on their investments. Studies should respond to: The impact of global capital mobility on wages, working conditions and trade unions, Extending rights and collective bargaining to workers in precarious and informal employment. The deadline for receipt of proposals for papers to be sent in electronic format is November 1st 2008. For full details, see Call for Papers The inscription deadline for the Global Labour University programmes in Brazil and South Africa is September 1st 2008 and in Germany and India, April 1st 2009
Source: Public Services International World News

The World's First Global Union--Workers Uniting

The United Steelworkers (USW), North America's largest private sector union, and Unite the Union, the largest labor organization in the United Kingdom and Ireland, have signed an agreement clearing the way for the creation of Workers Uniting
Source: USW News Release

From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks

Official Trailer "Battle in Seattle"

Water Operator Partnerships: An Alternative to Privatization or Business as Usual

There are at least 250,000 public water utilities in the world. Some are strong, some are weak. Together, they have the skills to answer almost any problem in the sector. But, for a variety of reasons, cooperation among public utilities is relatively rare. This is especially true across national borders and in the international water family. Public Services International (PSI) has long advocated public-public partnerships instead of the public-private profit-making model imposed by the World Bank, regional development banks and a number of donor countries. Our ability to work with unions, public managers and NGOs has given more depth to our advocacy, to the extent that the water operator partnerships concept has now entered into the language of the international water family. Kofi Annan accepted the concept and asked UN Habitat to implement such partnerships. Water operator partnerships were discussed at the recent Stockholm Water Week and at the congress of the International Water Association. The Asian Development Bank is spending Japanese money to implement water operator partnerships in the region. The question is, whose water operator partnerships are we talking about? The private water companies and their various lobbying groups are trying desperately to prevent public-public partnerships, as these will inevitably cost them opportunities for new contracts. And a number of governments are resisting, as they want to use their aid funds in the sector to give their own companies lucrative contracts. So, even though we are making progress, we need to remember that the profit motive is extremely powerful and deeply entrenched, even in countries where the majority of water utilities are owned and managed by the public sector. Unions are helping create the conditions for public-public partnerships, for example, in Argentina and Peru, Uruguay and Bolivia, and within the Philippines. A number are working to support this project with their governments, for example in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Austria. If your union can help promote public water utilities, please contact Public Services International
Source: PSI World News

U.S. Anti-union Administration Weakening Labor Law Enforcement and Violating Fundamental Workers Rights

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) presents its biannual report on core labour standards in the U.S., coinciding with the Trade Policy Review of the U.S. at the World Trade Organization. It reveals a poor and worsening record on worker protection, particularly in the areas of trade union rights and child labour, areas in which serious violations continue to take place. U.S. law excludes large groups of workers from the right to organise. These include agricultural workers, many public sector workers, domestic workers, supervisors and independent contractors. Moreover, for most private sector workers forming trade unions is extremely difficult and anti-union pressure from employers is frequent. The report notes that there is a huge union-busting industry which aims at undermining trade union organising. Some 82 percent of employers hire such companies that employ a wide range of anti-union tactics. Employers also force employees to listen to anti-union propaganda and threaten workers with company closures if they vote to form a trade union. The U.S. administration, rather than leading the way on protection of the rights of working people and on decent pay and conditions, has been intent on denying the freedom to join a union and bargain collectively to millions of American workers. This hurts America's working people and has a negative impact on workers rights in other countries as well, said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. New figures from the U.S. Department of Labor show that the Bush Administration has been cutting back even further on labour law enforcement, now spending an average of only US$26 per employer, while spending on rigorous oversight of trade union activities amounts to an average of $2,500 per union/local union. The report further notes that the Employee Free Choice Act, which would redress some of the imbalances workers are subject to, was blocked by Senate Republicans last year despite passing the House of Representatives and gaining majority support in the Senate. Moreover, the National Labor Relations Board took a number of decisions in 2007 which withdrew various workers protections and weakened already ineffective remedies. Among these decisions was one that makes it harder for workers who are illegally fired to recover back pay and another to make it easier to discriminate against employees who are union representatives. Child labour is in many cases not effectively addressed in the U.S., particularly in agriculture and not least because of the hazardous conditions that children are exposed to. Many of the children are migrant farm workers, often Latino. Not enough urgency is being shown with the Children's Act for Responsible Employment (CARE) currently before the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House of Representatives, which would bring standards for children working in agriculture in line with standards for other sectors. Moreover, child labour inspections are falling, as shown in the report. Concerning discrimination and remuneration the report notes that women continue to earn less than men (80.8 percent), and that for most women of colour this gap is even larger. Women earn less in every occupational category, even in occupations where they outnumber men. Nurses and middle school teachers earn 10 percent less than their male colleagues even though over 80 percent of the employees are female. Finally, the report notes that forced labour remains a problem in the US, in particular with forced labour in agriculture for migrant workers, and manufacturing (garments) in US overseas territories, in particular the Northern Mariana Islands. Working conditions are severe, and recruitment practices often result in indentured servitude
Source: ITUC OnLine

ILO Labor Standards

The International Labor Organization's labor standards take the form of International Labor Conventions which are ratified by member countries. Of the total number of ILO Conventions, eight are considered core labor standards, fundamental to the rights of workers

Trade Union Advisory Committee

The Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an International trade union organization which interacts on behalf of trade unions with a consultative status when meeting with the OECD Secretariat, committees, and member governments