ICFTU criticizes Asia for repressing workers' rights
ICFTU criticizes Asia for repressing workers' rights
Agence France-Presse, Singapore
Many Asian workers continue to be repressed, with trade unions hampered by laws restricting their ability to fight for labor rights, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) said.
In an annual survey of 30 countries in the region released Tuesday, the Brussels-based organization said it "deplores the depressing continuation and even partial worsening of trade union rights violations" in Asia.
It said four trade unionists were killed and more than 1,250 in the region were either arrested or imprisoned in 2002 while championing workers' rights.
"In many Asian countries forming a union is a real obstacle course, given the sheer number of legislative and practical barriers, and it can actually be a dangerous business for trade unionists," said the ICFTU, which represents 158 million workers through 231 affiliated bodies in 150 countries.
"Both in legislation and practice, the right to strike is generally not respected in the region," it said, noting that workers are barred by the law from going on strikes in Pakistan and in some regions of neighboring India.
In some countries, employers even have the "tacit or direct complicity" of authorities to exploit workers and this is especially evident in Asia's export processing zones, which played a pivotal role as the growth engine of the region during the 1980s and 1990s, the ICFTU said.
It cited the example of a textile firm in Thailand which allegedly used brutal tactics including beatings and intimidation to control its workers.
"They have even been forced by management to sign blank documents on which the manager has subsequently written that the workers in question have agreed to changes weakening their rights!" the ICFTU said.
"This is just one example of the fact that the working conditions in most Asian countries are still very insecure and the right of workers to organize is constantly breached by employers, often with the tacit or direct complicity of the authorities," it said.
"This is particularly common in the export processing zones, which are all too often synonymous with union-free zones," the ICFTU said.
Very often, the vast majority at the mercy of employers and anti-worker legislation are the millions of women workers who "are doing backbreaking jobs on poverty wages with disgraceful health and safety conditions," it said.
Some even lose their lives, the report said, adding that Bangladesh holds the "depressing" world record for workers' death due to fires at workplaces.
China, the region's rising economic powerhouse, also came under strong criticism in the report.
"Long-term imprisonment, beatings, internment in psychiatric hospitals or labor camps, and harassment of families are systematically used in China to stamp out any free trade unions," the ICFTU said.
It said the established trade unions in China were simply "political instruments for controlling workers and have negotiating rights, whilst free trade unions are strictly forbidden and any hint of free union activity is very harshly repressed."
This also applied to Myanmar, North Korea, Laos and Vietnam, the ICFTU said.
According to the report, Beijing rounded up dozens of independent union activists last year who are still languishing in jails in degrading conditions.
In the Philippines, 15,000 workers from electronics firm Cebu Mitsumi struggled for eight years just to get their trade union recognized by authorities, reflecting the red tape and bureaucratic hurdles faced by the labor force, the ICFTU said.
In Malaysia, the ICFTU said "extremely long delays in examination of applications are the rule" in getting trade unions recognized.
The report denounced Indonesia for using force to clamp down on workers rights, saying there were growing number of attacks on trade unionists by paramilitary groups backed by the army and the police.