Sep 14, 2012
Yesterday, Hassine Abassi, Gerneral Secretary, Tunisian General Union of Labor (UGTT) and S. Salman Jaddar Al Mahfoodh, General Secretary, General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU), received the 2012 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award on behalf of their respective labor movements, as emblematic of the labor movements across the Middle East working to preserve democracy, justice and freedom during a ceremony at the AFL-CIO’s headquarters in Washington.
At the ceremony, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recognized the labor movements throughout the Arab region for their ongoing role in the struggle for democracy:
“I’m proud to honor the brave working people of Bahrain and Tunisia, who transformed a wave of protests into the mass movement of democracy and economic equality that has come to be known as the Arab Spring. Unionists are a leading voice against corruption, for women’s rights and for a robust democracy with the rights of working people at its core… Their courage inspires us, and we at the AFL-CIO have been proud to join the unions of Tunisia and Bahrain in this struggle. We will use every available channel to pursue the fundamental human rights that they so courageously champion. And we will not stop until you’ve achieved the goals you want and need,” said Trumka.
“This award is recognition of the revolution for freedom and dignity in Tunisia, and it is confirmation of strong global labor solidarity. While we take pride in being recognized, we feel a growing responsibility to continue our common struggle for freedom and democracy with strong will and determination,” Hassine Abassi, General Secretary of the UGTT.
Said S. Salman Jaddar Al Mahfoodh: “This award does not only belong to the GBFTU, but first and foremost, it belongs to the more than 4,000 Bahraini workers and unionists who have been suffering from unjust firings and the consequences of expressing their opinions. It also belongs to the Bahraini people, who are still struggling for freedom, democracy and social justice.”
In addition to the award recipients, President Trumka also recognized union activists from Egypt, Algeria and Morocco who mobilized thousands in their own countries to carry forward a message of social justice.
Sep 12, 2012
More than two decades after a violent military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators forced thousands of Burmese activists into prison or exile, Maung Maung has returned home. The general secretary of the Federation of Trade Unions – Burma (FTUB), Maung Maung spent the last 24 years nurturing the Burmese labor movement from his exile in Thailand.
“We are heartened by Maung Maung’s return to Burma,” says Tim Ryan, Solidarity Center regional program director for Asia. “We are confident that he and the leaders of the new unions that are organizing will significantly advance worker rights in the country in the coming years.” The primary mission of the FTUB—established in 1991—has been to build a democratic union movement within Burma while defending the rights of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand and India.
Maung Maung’s return was made possible by the government’s decision in August 2012 to remove more than 2,000 people from a list of over 6,000 pro-democracy supporters banned from entering the country. He arrived in Yangon (Rangoon), the former capital, on September 4.
In a first-person account of his arrival after more than two decades in exile, Maung Maung said he was first met by trade union leader and former political prisoner Myo Aung Thant and then by six members from the Special Branch police.
Afterwards, “I met my families: my wife and son, whom I had not seen all this time, and the trade union family that had developed over the last twenty years.”
“All was a blur,” he said. Maung Maung’s son was a toddler when the long exile began. His father, now 91, was “ready to discuss many issues.”
Local and regional press covered the return, including Radio Free Asia and Mizzima News, as well as international media.
On September 7, Maung Maung met with Labor Minister Maung Myint in Naypyitaw to discuss issues of concern to workers. These include minimum wages, work-related training, protection of worker rights and protection of migrants working in foreign countries.
Aye Cho, who attended the meeting at the ministry, told local news outlet Mizzima that Maung Maung and Maung Myint discussed workers affairs, but the conversation was lacking in detail.
Labor activists paid a heavy price for their efforts to bring democracy to Burma. Many were sent to Burma’s notorious jails or forced into long-term exile. FTUB Executive Committee Member Myo Aung Thant was imprisoned for more than a decade. In September 2007—after attending a training program at the American Center—six labor activists were imprisoned and sentenced to 20 years or more in prison.
In the past year, the government has instituted a variety of reforms, including the passage of a law allowing for the formation of trade unions.
The FTUB is a longtime partner of the Solidarity Center and the AFL-CIO.
Sep 12, 2012
On Friday, August 31, the United Workers Union of Liberia (UWUL) signed an historic collective bargaining agreement with the largest mining multinational in Liberia.
The agreement—retroactive to April 1, 2012—includes salary increases and improved benefits. It also codifies a system of labor relations at all the multinational’s facilities, setting up avenues for labor-management dialogue in areas such as health and safety, and conflict resolution.
Workers covered by the agreement are located in Nimba County, Monrovia and the port of Buchanan. UWUL Local #4 will represent workers covered under the new agreement. The multinational, which is also the world’s largest steel and mining corporation, was Liberia’s first post-war major mining investor. It began operations in the shuttered facilities of the former Liberian-American-Swedish Minerals Company in 2007.
Although negotiations on the agreement began in November 2011, workers began an organizing drive in 2007. In 2009, they democratically elected leaders at the Nimba, Buchanan and Monrovia worksites. After the first iron ore shipment was announced in September 2011, workers and company representatives returned to the bargaining table.
Given that a number of other mining companies have set up operations in Liberia in recent years, UWUL hopes this agreement will set a standard for freedom of association and labor-management relations in the Liberian mining sector.
Since 2007 the Solidarity Center and the United Steelworkers (USW) have been working with UWUL’s leaders and shop stewards on the role and duties of shop stewards, and on negotiation strategies.
This agreement comes roughly four years after a groundbreaking collective agreement between Firestone Natural Rubber Liberia and the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL). That collective bargaining agreement resulted in several positive changes at the hugely influential rubber farm, including pay increases and an end to child labor.
Sep 6, 2012
A lock-out is preventing recently unionized teachers and administrative staff from returning to work at the Notre Dame de la Paix, a private elementary school in Rabat, Morocco.
On Monday, the teachers and support workers—many of whom have worked at the school for decades—were met with security staff, who prevented the teachers from returning to the classroom and to their jobs of educating children.
“These actions have been taken against us for the simple reason that we formed a union,” said Abdelillah Jarbi, general secretary of the Moroccan Catholic Schools union, which is affiliated with the Moroccan Labor Union (UMT-ECAM).
Last year, when uprisings swept across the Arab world, workers at the school established a union for the first time in more than 60 years of operation. UMT-ECAM represents workers at three schools in the Rabat, the Moroccan capital.
The political opening encouraging workers to stand up for their rights was short-lived. School authorities retaliated by illegally firing Jabri and 20 other teachers for their union activities. According to the locked-out workers, the school wants them to sign short-term contracts containing a no-union clause before they will be allowed back to work—a measure that violates international standards regarding freedom of association.
“We’re not asking for anything unreasonable,” said Jabri. “We simply want to see our rights respected—including our right to form a union and the reinstatement of the sacked workers.”
The UMT is a Solidarity Center partner.
Aug 28, 2012
Two Moroccan union leaders remain in jail and under “preventive detention,” arrested more than 10 weeks ago as they worked to defend the rights of ferry workers who were stranded in France and Spain when their company declared bankruptcy.
Said Elhairech, general secretary of the dock workers’ branch of the Union Marocaine de Travail (UMT) and chair of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) Arab World Regional Committee, and Mohamed Chamchati, general secretary of Morocco’s Merchant Seafarer’s Union, were detained in mid-June. At the time, they had been working with the ITF to help secure the repatriation of workers abandoned aboard their impounded vessels.
A Moroccan court determined that the two union leaders should be held in “preventive detention” on suspicion of forming a criminal gang with intent to sabotage buildings, the port and ships, divulge professional secrets and undermine state security and the right to work. Their original trial date of July 2 has been postponed pending further investigation.
Morocco has a statute, Article 288 of the Penal Code, that empowers the state to arrest and imprison people attempting to organize a strike or for interfering with free commerce.
The UMT and the ITF maintain that “the men’s legitimate trade union activities lie behind the arrests.” The UMT reports that the ferry company and the operator of the port of Tangiers fired elected union leaders, ceased paying wages and behaved with duplicity in their negotiations with the union.
“The charges laid against these activists are quite simply ridiculous. We want our brothers to be freed,” said UMT General Secretary El Miloudi El Moukharek. “The only reason these men have been put in jail is to hurt the union. We call on our union brothers and sisters around the world for support.”
The ITF has launched a global solidarity campaign to help free the two men.
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