Jun 1, 2012
In her first visit outside her home country since 1988, Burmese democracy activist and member of parliament Aung San Suu Kyi visited migrant worker communities in Samut Sakhon Province, where 300,000 of Thailand’s estimated 2.5 million Burmese migrant workers live and work.
Suu Kyi met Wednesday with seafood-processing workers at the learning center of the Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN), which is supported by the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) and the Solidarity Center. The MWRN provides legal protection and other services to migrant workers and has been involved in rescue operations of trafficked workers and victims of forced labor. Suu Kyi also met with representatives from the HRDF’s Migrant Justice Program and the State Enterprises Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC)—both Solidarity Center allies—as well as leaders of Thai trade unions and staff of the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University.
Suu Kyi, who was greeted by throngs of cheering migrant workers, held a private talk with a select group who presented her with pressing issues related to working in Thailand, such as occupational health and safety, lack of access to workers’ compensation and social security funds, prevention of human trafficking, poor education among migrant children, and exploitation by brokers in the Nationality Verification process. Suu Kyi promised to bring these complaints to the host government and find a remedy.
Suu Kyi’s trip to Thailand is the first leg of a journey that will culminate in Oslo, Norway, where she will receive the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded in 1991.
May 31, 2012
After more than three weeks on a hunger strike to protest government repression of the independent trade union movement, six women and two men from Algeria’s National Federation of Justice Workers are increasingly frail and face grave, possibly permanent, health threats. A ninth worker suspended his hunger strike. ACT NOW!
One of the women strikers, Leila Aberkane, is hospitalized in critical condition. Having lost consciousness and suffering neurological and skin conditions, she was rushed to the emergency room on May 25. Doctors also have had to resuscitate three other women strikers—Nadia Derouiche, Zahia Boutaoui, and Fouzia Bouziani. The health of all is rapidly deteriorating.
“These courageous women and men are using the ultimate means of action available to them by going on a hunger strike so as to make their voices heard,” said Nassira Ghozlane, secretary-general of the National Independent Union of Public Administration Personnel (SNAPAP). “They have reached a stage of severe physical deterioration and can hardly speak.”
The hunger strike has its roots in the decision by justice workers to reject a union created by the Ministry of Justice and to obtain representation by the National Federation of Justice Workers, affiliated with SNAPAP. When Justice Ministry officials rejected the workers’ choice, the federation staged a general strike in April, which was subsequently repressed by security forces.
Women workers, who are at the forefront of the growing movement for democratic rights in the workplace and society, comprise the majority of courthouse workers and are facing the brunt of the crackdown. They have been subjected to violence, arrests, suspension, and harassment over recent months. On April 24, more than 150 women were wounded at a peaceful demonstration. In addition, the government replaced more than 500 court clerks with other court employees in violation of Algerian law and International Labor Organization conventions.
The workers’ demands are:
- End repression against and harassment of trade unionists
- Revise the special statutes governing judicial officials
- Extension of benefits
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is calling for an end to the repression.
“We are very concerned that the health of the hunger strikers is deteriorating rapidly,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. “We ask the Algerian government to step back from its policy of confrontation, accept that these workers have the right to form and join their own trade union, and negotiate a comprehensive solution to the complaints they have raised. First and foremost, any justice ministry should itself operate on the basis of justice, in accordance with international law.”
Ghozlane is appealing for solidarity from fellow women workers.
“As the Secretary-General of SNAPAP, member of the National Bureau of Women’s Committee, and representative of the group in support of the hunger strikers, I appeal to all organizations, all women’s committees, and all women activists to take tangible action in solidarity with the hunger strikers,” she said in a prepared statement.
May 25, 2012
A two-day regional conference focused on strengthening union leadership within the media industry in Eastern Africa opened in Nairobi, Kenya, yesterday with a clarion call to journalists in the region to overcome their apathy toward advocating for their worker rights. The conference was organized by the Eastern Africa Journalists Association (EAJA) with support from the Solidarity Center.
Speaking at the opening session, the French Ambassador to Kenya and Somalia, Etienne de Poncins, lauded the important role EAJA and journalists in the region play in advancing the cause of freedom of the press and worker rights.
De Poncins called for enhanced protection of journalists by state and non-state actors in the region and better working conditions by their employers. In addition, he encouraged journalists union leaders to intensify their efforts to improve journalists’ working conditions through better union organizing.
De Poncins has thrown the weight of the French government behind supporting the struggle led by EAJA for security, press freedom, and journalists’ rights. “You have the full support of my government and I am here to confirm it,” he said.
The conference brought together leaders and representatives of journalists unions from nine Eastern Africa countries: Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda.
“For numerous Eastern Africa journalists, poverty pay, job insecurity, poor working and living conditions, disregard of health and safety, summary dismissals, physical assaults, abuse, and even murder are risks they face while performing the profession of journalism,” said Omar Faruk Osman, EAJA secretary general.
“It is impossible to win the struggle for press freedom and freedom of expression without securing decent working conditions for journalists,” added Osman. “We are committed to fight fire with fire on both press freedom and worker rights of journalists in chorus.”
Hanad Mohamud, Solidarity Center East Africa program director, told conference participants that journalists play an important role as catalysts of democracy amid many challenges.
“This important role of journalists is often restricted through legislation and other challenges including poor remuneration. Journalists unions must begin to play a more active role in addressing violations of their members’ worker rights,” he said.
The conference was also addressed by veteran trade unionist Andrew Kailembo, former general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions –Africa (ICFTU-AFRO), who recalled the important role journalists played in the liberation struggles against the yoke of colonialism in Africa, citing the cases of South Africa, Tanzania, and Kenya among others.
Kailembo said the challenges facing the journalists union could only be meaningfully confronted by relying on “the core values and principles of trade unionism, namely, worker unity and solidarity, strong independent trade unions, social justice, democracy, and good governance.”
Osman said the conference was part of an ongoing initiative to democratize and strengthen journalists unions in the region in order to enable them to advocate effectively for the rights of journalists.
The conference, which ends on Friday, is focusing on trade union leadership, trade union governance and democracy, gender representation and streamlining trade union membership, improving internal discipline and operation, and developing a code of ethics for EAJA’s affiliate unions.
May 23, 2012
As workers around the world celebrated International Labor Day at the beginning of May, more than 500 migrant workers on the Thai-Burmese border took collective action to demand that their employer improve wages and working conditions in a garment factory where they were earning less than 25 cents per hour for an 11-hour shift, according to reports. As a result of their two-day strike, the workers succeeded in doubling their wages and winning important gains in workplace conditions.
More than 2 million migrants, mainly from Burma, are working in Thailand, according to the International Labor Organization. These workers, among the most vulnerable in Thai society, have no legal right to form a union. Often lacking legal work permits, they are exploited, and their basic human and worker rights under domestic Thai laws and international labor standards are constantly violated. Non-governmental organizations such as the Human Rights and Development Foundation’s (HRDF) Labor Law Clinic—a Solidarity Center partner located in Mae Sot on the Burmese border—provide a safe haven for migrant workers struggling for justice and help them organize in the face of such harsh conditions. HRDF and its community-based organization, the Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs (JACBA), have long played a role in helping empower migrant workers to win justice against employers who seek to abuse workers’ rights in favor of the corporate bottom line.
The garment workers had been protesting their conditions for nearly a month: their wages were less than half the legal daily minimum wage, they were forced to work under filthy conditions, and they had no clean water or doors in the employee restrooms. On May 1, International Labor Day, they decided to take action the following morning. The LLC and JACBA helped the workers file a petition to the authorities and provided technical support after they went on strike. Following extensive negotiations with worker representatives, factory managers—seeing their profits dwindle with every day the strike endured—agreed to dramatically raise wages for both daily and piece work, shorten work shifts, and improve workplace conditions.
May 18, 2012
Three days ago, four masked men kidnapped human rights defender José Enrique Morales Montaño, of the Center of Support for Workers (CAT) in Puebla, Mexico. For 16 hours, his captors physically tortured Morales, kept a gun pressed to his head for extended periods, and threatened to kill him and the other CAT members. Then they took his cell phone and backpack and left him on an abandoned highway to make his way home.
At the moment of his kidnapping, Morales was headed to the local labor board in the city of Puebla to accompany a group of textile workers who were fighting a case against a factory in the region. CAT, a longtime Solidarity Center partner, has led multiple successful worker organizing drives at auto parts, maquila, and textile factories in Mexico. Formed in 2001, CAT has worked closely with the United Steelworkers and Los Mineros, the mine workers union of Mexico. Many of CAT’s organizing initiatives have sought to oust protection unions and replace them with democratic, independent organizations. CAT’s founder and current director, Blanca Velázquez Díaz, is a former Solidarity Center local program consultant in Mexico. Two hours after Morales was left by the roadside, she received a text from his cell phone. “You will die, bitch,” it said.
As a non-governmental organization whose mission is to promote the exercise and defense of worker rights, CAT has raised awareness of the precarious conditions that workers in Puebla face every day, but it has also drawn the ire of multinational companies. Morales’s kidnapping is only the latest in a series of systematic attacks. In 2010, CAT’s offices were burglarized and staff was threatened via email and threats painted on the office walls. After intense advocacy efforts, CAT staff received protection from the state of Puebla, but a year later it was removed without explanation or investigation into the threats. Last year, the president of the National Chamber of Industry of the Transformation (Canacintra) publicly called CAT “a threat to Puebla.” In April 2012, the head of the Congressional Labor Committee of Mexico’s House of Deputies pledged to “defend businesses where we have collective bargaining agreements no matter what the cost, even if there is violence.”
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