Workers' rights hit by markets, labor bodies say<\/p>\n
GENEVA (Reuter): The world's largest labor group said
\nyesterday workers' rights were under fierce assault around the
\nworld as employers drive to exploit free markets and economic
\nglobalization to push up profits.<\/p>\n
Although a report from the International Confederation of Free
\nTrade Unions (ICFTU) pointed to China, Colombia and Indonesia as
\namong the worst offenders, it also asserted that abuse was
\nfrequent in the United States.<\/p>\n
And the annual survey, issued by the Brussels-based ICFTU at
\nthe conference of the United Nations' International Labor
\nOrganization (ILO), said women in particular were suffering from
\nan assault on unions by governments and big companies.<\/p>\n
"Governments' thirst for investment is compounded by the
\ninsatiable appetite of employers for new markets and a
\n'competitive' labor force, by which they mean cheap and endlessly
\nexploitable," an introduction to the report said.<\/p>\n
"This combination of governments seeking to shed their powers
\nof intervention in the economy, and employers and the business
\nworld seeking to increase theirs, is one of the root causes of
\nanti-union repression," wrote ICFTU General Secretary Bill
\nJordan, a former British union leader.<\/p>\n
"As governments dismantle their public services and
\nmultinational companies look for the cheapest workers, women are
\nincreasingly in the front line of anti-union repression," the
\nICFTU said.<\/p>\n
The strictures were identical to those in a similar report
\nissued on Wednesday by the smaller, but also Brussels-based World
\nConfederation of Labor (WCL), and were echoed in a major U.N.
\nsurvey on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Under globalization -- trade liberalization, free investment
\nflows and integration of world financial markets -- the market
\nwas the only regulator and "everything is sacrificed to the cause
\nof competitiveness" to maximize profits, the WCL said.<\/p>\n
This was widening the gap between rich and poor in North and
\nSouth, while workers were being forced to abandon rights they had
\nwon to social protection and decent working conditions.<\/p>\n
And in its annual report issued on Thursday, the UN's
\nDevelopment Program (UNDP) also drew a stark picture of poor
\ncountries -- and poor people in rich countries -- dropping deeper
\ninto poverty under globalization.<\/p>\n
The report by the ICFTU, which links 124 million workers in
\n195 organization across 137 countries, said the onslaught on
\nlabor rights took institutional as well as violent forms.<\/p>\n
Women especially suffered, it said, because under global
\nmarket reforms public sector enterprises, where many employees
\nare female, were being decimated "and because sweatshops and
\nexport processing zones are being set up in countries where
\nmultinational companies can find cheap, non-unionized workers."<\/p>\n
Hundreds of trade unionists, mainly in Latin America, "die
\nfighting for union rights," it said. At least 264 were murdered
\nlast year, including 98 in Colombia and 24 in Brazil.<\/p>\n
"The key statistical tool for assessing the state of
\nindustrial relations in Latin America is still the body count,"
\nthe report declared.<\/p>\n
China, it said, "has one of the worst records of trade union
\nrepression," keeping its workers "on a tight rein, harassing and
\npersecuting independent trade unionists with the blessing of the
\n(official) All-China Federation of Trade Unions."<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in Asia, it said, many governments still viewed
\ntrade unions "as an alien institution bent on frustrating
\neconomic progress". Myanmar, Vietnam and North Korea simply
\nplaced officials in control of "fake unions."<\/p>\n
In the United States, the report declared, "the right to
\nstrike and the right of workers to organize trade unions are not
\nadequately protected in the labor legislation.<\/p>\n
"The law is unable to protect workers when the employer is
\ndetermined to destroy or prevent trade union representation... At
\nleast one in 10 union supporters campaigning to form a union is
\nillegally fired by the employer."<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/workers-rights-hit-by-markets-labor-bodies-say-1447893297",
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