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.