ANNUAL SURVEY OF VIOLATIONS
OF TRADE UNION RIGHTS - 1998

Fifty years ago the annual conference of the International Labour Organisation adopted Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise.

The Convention is the universal definition of what the most basic of trade union rights actually are. Together with Convention 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, which was adopted the following year, it provides a vital reference point for trade unionists the world over as they seek to defend and promote their rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted months after Convention 87, and echoes it in proclaiming that everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions. This is no coincidence. It is proof that trade union rights are human rights, and that they are universal.

Since its foundation, the ICFTU has been the driving force in the struggle for universal respect of the rights set out in Convention 87. There can be no excuse for violating those rights although many are made. All countries, regardless of their level of development, their economic and social system, their culture, or their region, can and must apply the Convention.

But 50 years on violations of trade union rights are widespread, serious, and all too often on the increase. The mere existence of Convention 87 has not stopped them. Every week of the year the ICFTU mobilises its affiliates against abuses which range from killings, disappearances, detention, and violence, to the more subtle use of restrictive legislation and other union-busting devices. The tactics may vary. But they all have the aim of preventing or breaking trade union organisation. And they are all breaches of Convention 87.

The ICFTU not only holds up Convention 87 as the standard to which all must adhere. It makes regular use of the special mechanisms that the ILO has set up to examine violations of trade union rights. Since its establishment in 1951, the Governing Body’s Committee on Freedom of Association has dealt with nearly 2000 cases many of them presented by the ICFTU, our affiliates, and International Trade Secretariats. In the process the Committee has built up a body of jurisprudence which makes explicit the substance of the rights guaranteed by the Convention. That includes the right to strike.

Experience of using these mechanisms has shown their value and their limitations. The ICFTU can point to successes – trade unionists released from prison, or reinstated in their jobs, repressive laws amended. But the ILO has limited powers of enforcement. Its capacity to bring the moral pressure of the international community to bear on offenders is considerable. But this mobilisation of shame will not bring results in all cases. There will always be those who persist in their attacks on trade unions until it becomes too costly, too unprofitable to do so.

This year, the ICFTU calls on all governments and all employers to join with the international trade union movement in its campaign to ensure the full respect of the fundamental rights set out in Conventions 87, and 98.

To those responsible for violations we say stop now. And to those who respect the Conventions we say help us to bring the offenders into line. We have a common interest in preventing those who would profit from abuse.

Conventions 87 and 98 are among the most ratified of all ILO standards. But there are still over 50 ILO member states which have not ratified them. On this 50th anniversary there must be decisive progress towards universal ratification. That implies no more than formal acceptance by governments of the obligations they assumed on joining the ILO.

Ratification, though, is only the first step. What really matters is full application, in law and in practice, of the Conventions. Today’s reality is that some of the worst violators of trade union rights have ratified Convention 87, but ignore its contents.

Developments over the last decade of Convention 87’s fifty year existence have had a particular impact on its application and its significance.

The ending of the cold war ushered in democratic change which brought with it freedom of association for millions of workers who had never known it in their lifetime. That leap forward for trade unionism came as the combined forces of technological revolution and world-wide liberalisation and de-regulation were launching the process of accelerating globalisation.

The challenge of our age is to make globalisation work for people and for social justice. Convention 87, and the other fundamental rights Conventions of the ILO are the essential elements of the response to it. They must be the ground rules for globalisation. Only when freedom of association is universally observed will workers be in a position to claim their fair share of the fruits of globalisation. And only then will the danger of employers and governments undermining workers’ fundamental rights to gain competitive advantage in the global economy be eliminated.

Averting this rush to the bottom, saving globalisation for working people, requires urgent action. It means building new ways of regulating the global market-place, on the bedrock of Convention 87. The ICFTU has made concrete proposals to put in place global rules for the global economy. That job started in May at the World Trade Organisation’s Second Ministerial Conference in Geneva, where the call for the integration of workers’ rights into the multilateral trading system was renewed. And it will continue in June at the International Labour Conference which is to consider measures to strengthen the powers of the ILO to supervise the application by all countries of its fundamental rights Conventions.

Fifty years ago policy-makers showed the vision needed for the reconstruction of a world devastated by unprecedented conflict. Convention 87 was at the heart of that vision. Today’s challenge is of the same magnitude. To construct a global economy based on social justice and respect of fundamental rights. Convention 87 is at the heart of that challenge.

Fifty years on a future generation will judge whether we were equal to the challenge and to the vision of those who went before.

CONVENTIONS OF THE ILO (INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION)

ON TRADE UNION RICHTS

Where a country has ratified either of the ILO Conventions which guarantee trade union rights - Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (N° 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (N° 98), it is indicated in the text as C87 or C98.