ICFTU OnLine
279/221298/DD

Brussels December 22 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): The following is a summary of main trade union news for the last week. The numbers at the end of the paragraphs refer to the relevant issue of ICFTU OnLine.

Canada's labour rights: A new ICFTU report on Canada's labour rights, out this week, shattered the illusion of Canada as a country with a progressive attitude to trade union rights. The report describes how federal and provincial governments seem set on rejecting trade union rights at every opportunity. As well as refusing to act to stop flagrant anti-union discrimination by private companies, the Canadian government and many of Canada’s provinces interfere in the collective bargaining rights of trade unions in the public sector. The report was released to complement the WTO's trade policy review on Canada.

Iraq bombing: Following the bombing raids on Iraq the ICFTU called for negotiations to begin immediately on a peaceful resolution to the conflict over the UN disarmament programme, and for Saddam Hussein to co-operate fully with the UNSCOM inspection team and Security Council resolutions on the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The ICFTU said that a UN supervised programme of disarmament was the only available way to reduce the persistent threat to peace in the region and ensure that Iraq's resources and those of the international community are used to tackle poverty, reduce unemployment, improve health and education services. (OnLine 277)

Christmas Toys: The ICFTU is asking consumers to tell the head of the major toy retailers that they don't want to buy toys produced in terrible conditions in China. Drawing from a new report issued by the Asia Monitor Research Centre, the ICFTU said that Chinese workers producing toys such as this year's crazes - Furbies, and Teletubbies, received very low wages, and worked and lived in bad, unsanitary conditions. Because they cannot form or join independent trade unions they have no means of fighting for their rights. The report which detailed conditions in 12 factories producing toys for western retailers, said that for a toy selling at $10 in the US, $8 was used on transportation, marketing, retailing and profit, $1 on management and transport to Hong Kong, 65 cents on the raw materials and China earns 35 cents by providing sites, labour and electricity. Labour costs were only 0.035% of the total amount which China receives for every toy. (OnLine 278)

Mexico/Workers arrested: . Enrique Hernandez Felix, General Secretary of the October 6th Union, and Jose Angel Penaflor from the trade union representing the Han Young workers were arrested on December 17. The workers at the Han Young factory, which welds chassis for the nearby Hyundai factory, have been trying to win recognition for an independent union, and get management to negotiate a new contract. At present the workers receive US$4 a day for an 10/11hour shift, in dangerous conditions. Workers have voted three times to have an independent union, and won certification of their union last January after a 26-day hunger strike, but the management has refused to negotiate with the October 6 union. Virtually the entire regular workforce has been on strike since the previous contract expired in May.

Trade unions under surveillance in Zimbabwe: The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) continues to be a thorn in President Robert Mugabe's side. On December 10, a local weekly paper, the Financial Gazette, revealed that Zimbabwe's intelligence services had been investigating the activities of the national trade union centre with a view to weakening it. The government is trying to prove that international aid to Zimbabwe's trade union movement is aimed at enabling it to seize power. In addition to the tactical alliance between the employers and the unions who both hold the President responsible for the country's economic decline, the government is faced with the reticence of the international financial institutions to support a regime that appears to be as unpopular as it is ineffective. The IMF has decided to delay its examination, initially foreseen for December 11, of Zimbabwe's application for substantial financial aid. (OnLine 275)