ICFTU ONLINE...

Brussels December 7 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): The following is a summary of main trade union news for the last week..

World Aids Day: December 1 was World Aids Day, and the According to UNAIDS latest estimates, 2.5 million people died of AIDS in 1998, more than any other year since the disease first appeared in 1981. Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest hit region, as four out of every five deaths have taken place there, since the epidemic began. The disease is developing fastest in Southern Africa, where the worst affected countries are now to be found: in Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, nearly one quarter of people aged between 15 and 49 are affected by the virus. However, measures are being taking, for example there is an anti-Aids programme financed by the United Nations, and in some countries, for example, Uganda,. with the cooperation of civil society, employers and trade unions have succeeded in developing a very effective prevention policy and a system of care. Another sign of hope lies in the launching of an anti-AIDS programme financed by the United Nations

WTO Annual Report: The ICFTU responded to the publication of the World Trade Organisation's report saying that it believed that the WTO was underestimating pressures on world trading system. The WTO report asserted that the world's multilateral trading system had ridden out the current financial and economic crises, which the ICFTU believes was much too premature. However, the ICFTU said that it supported the WTO premise that free trade has the potential to bring benefits to working people world-wide. The ICFTU believed that the report should include reference to the relationship between trade and labour standards, a theme which was strongly supported at the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Geneva in May 1998 by leading political figures such as President Clinton and the President of the European Commission Jacques Santer. The ICFTU will be working with governments in the lead up to the next WTO Ministerial Summit in the USA in 1999 to ensure that the linkage between trade and labour standards is fully discussed.

Indonesia report on Labour Standards: A new ICFTU report said that trade union rights were still being violated in Indonesia despite the change of government that promised improvements in human rights. These violations have been part of the strategy for maintaining Indonesia's booming export policy, as each time consumers in the industrialised world benefit from cheap Indonesian goods they are, in effect, benefitting from a government policy of repression of trade union rights and of workers’ fundamental human rights. This policy still continues as the ICFTU has recently protested to the Indonesian government on two occasions: first concerning the force used to quell recent demonstrations which have resulted in the deaths and serious injuries of many citizens, and secondly because of the continued detention of an independent labour leader, Dita Indah Sari, who was sentenced in 1997 to 5 years' imprisonment on trumped-up charges of subversion.

Djibouti: On December 3, the ICFTU protested to the government of Djibouti over the continual harassment of trade unionists, and repression of trade union rights. There have been a number of incidents this year involving the sacking and eviction from company housing of trade union leaders because they had participated in strikes, the sacking of leaders of the teachers’ unions because of their participation in strikes, and the sacking of hundreds of trade unionists in the public services because of their trade union activities. The most recent incident occured on November 25 when police officers forcibly evicted trade unionists from their work, in order to cast their votes in union elections at the Ministry of Public Works, Urban Planning and Housing. The ICFTU is asking its affiliates to send their own protests to PresidentHassan Gouled Aptidon.

Chile/Pinochet: The pressure for the British government to extradite General Pinochet to Spain to stand trial continues. This week British Home Secretary Jack Straw has been flooded with letters urging the government to go ahead with the extradition, and in Belgium there was a joint trade union/Amnesty International demonstration outside the Council of Ministers. Meanwhile public opinion in Chile seems to be turning against the General, as a clear majority now think that he should stand trial, whether in Chile itself or outside the country. The British government has until December 11 to decide.

ILO marks 50 Years of Convention 87: On December 7 the ILO is holding a Conference at the TUC in London to mark 50 years of ILO Convention 87. In his speech to the Conference ICFTU General Secretary Bill Jordan pays tribute to the role which trade unionists have played in fighting for the implementation of Convention 87 in their countries, including trade unionists in Colombia, Indonesia and Poland. He also mentions the importance the case brought against General Pinochet in the 1970s under Convention 87 by the ICFTU on behalf of trade unionists who were murdered, tortured and disappeared in Chile under the junta. To end its own campaign on Convention 87, the ICFTU is writing to those governments which have not already ratified Convention 87 urging them to mark the 50th anniversary by carrying out ratification as swiftly as possible.

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
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please contact: Luc Demaret on: 00 322 224 0212 - press@icftu.org

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