Jan 31, 2012
With a labor code that disadvantages workers and an increasingly hostile attitude toward the rights of working people, the Republic of Georgia is no easy place to join or persist in a union. This is particularly true for people trying to eke out a living in the informal economy.
Still, the Trade Union of Self-Employed Commercial and Independent Sector Workers of Georgia, begun in August 2011, has established roots and is working to protect the rights of its 200 members, primarily market workers, according to Miranda Mandaria, the union’s acting president.
“In Georgia, 60 percent of workers are in the informal economy, the majority of them in Tbilisi (the capital). They have no social protections or benefits. They are precarious workers and, while they are very hard to reach, they have rights and deserve protection,” said Mandaria, a lawyer by training who also works for the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC).
All of the union’s members today have contracts with their employers. In Georgia, Mandaria added, it is normal for permanent employees to have a contract, which establishes work hours and conditions, but the concept is new for people working in market stalls. In some cases, the Georgian legal code acts against workers, either because of its lack of recognition (i.e., in the case of domestic workers) or because of its draconian treatment (i.e., of street vendors).
“It is good the market workers have a contract, though the working conditions are not always good. At least it offers them some protection,” she said.
The union has faced intimidation by employers. Its biggest difficulty, however, is reaching workers who, like domestic workers, work alone or who cannot count on a fixed location as their workplace.
“It is very difficult to organize street vendors,” she said. “They do not have regular workplaces, and there is no law regulating their rights. They have no paid leave, no insurance, no social protections. They get nothing from the government.”
Exacerbating street vendors’ day-to-day struggles is a law enacted in 2006 that mandates street vendors move to a single location to sell their wares. “And the law makes them pay a tax for that privilege,” Mandaria said. “The fine for violators is the confiscation of their products.”
In 2010, the GTUC drafted a labor code aimed at protecting street vendors. It proposed that street vendors be exempt from taxes until 2012, Mandaria said. The government did not respond to the proposal.
“Street vendors cannot afford taxes, but the government is not interested in social dialogue,” she said. “So I am thinking all the time about what I can do for street vendors, for domestic workers. They need social guarantees to protect their rights.”
Jan 18, 2012
Nigerian unions have called off a general strike that, with broad support from the public, crippled the country for more than a week after the government partially restored a crucial fuel subsidy. With the subsidy abandoned, the price of gas and other essentials more than tripled. While the protests were largely peaceful, at least 10 people were killed and hundreds wounded in the course of the strike, which began January 9.
“In the last 24 hours, the labor movement and its allies who had the historic responsibility of coordinating these mass actions have had cause to review the various actions and decided that in order to save lives and in the interest of national survival, these mass actions be suspended,” said the leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria in a joint statement. “We note the major successes Nigerians scored in these past days in which they rose courageously as a people to take their destiny in their hands.”
The new 60 cents per liter price is about one-third higher than it was before deregulation on January 1. Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan had said that the resulting $8 billion in savings from suspending the oil subsidy would be used to shore up infrastructure and improve health and education. But Nigerians saw the subsidy as their only benefit from the country’s vast oil wealth and feared that the profits would disappear to corruption. The unions had threatened to cut off oil production and shut down refineries but held off as negotiations were under way.
Jonathan also pledged to end what the unions call “massive and crippling corruption” in the oil sector. “The federal government committed to forensic audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and will work to eliminate acts of corruption,” said NLC spokesman Chris Uyot. “The government has agreed to form a special committee that will review all the issues that trade unions have raised concerning downstream oil production. Nigeria’s trade unionists will serve on that committee.”
Jan 11, 2012
Would Kyrgyzstan’s membership in a regional economic bloc with Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan aid or undermine jobs, wages, and living standards for Kyrgyz workers? The Solidarity Center brought together some 70 government experts, union leaders, employers, researchers, and representatives of international organizations in Bishkek to discuss key concerns.
The Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, established within the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), came into force on January 1, 2010. Tariffs on more than 11,000 products have already been adjusted. As of July 2011, the three countries have a common customs border.
Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic and also a EurAsEC member, is considering whether to join the Customs Union. Kyrgyz officials point to a number of benefits, including access to new markets, attraction for investors, reduced prices on Russian and Kazakh imports, the removal of trade barriers, adjustment of technical, sanitary, and veterinary regulations, and a possible decrease in prices of imported energy. Moreover, they contend, by remaining outside the Customs Union, Kyrgyzstan could lose its privileged access to the attractive markets of its richer northern neighbors.
By joining the Customs Union, however, Kyrgyzstan would lose its low import tariffs, a main benefit since it became a member of the World Trade Organization in 1998. As a result, the practice of transporting cargo to other Central Asian countries through Kyrgyzstan would likely end.
“If Kyrgyzstan loses its advantage of being able to import goods at lower prices, who will be interested in this small poor country, which has a huge gap between living standards and prices?” said Stanislaw Cieniuch, Solidarity Center country program director in Kyrgyzstan, who spoke at the conference. “Most Kyrgyz citizens will not be able to afford basic necessities such as medicines if drugs are no longer duty-free.”
Cieniuch pointed out that the Dordoi Market, a huge wholesale enterprise in Bishkek, is developing successfully thanks to international trade, providing thousands of Kyrgyz with jobs. In addition, the dynamic expansion of the garment industry (now a locomotive of the Kyrgyz economy) is based on a mixture of comparative advantages: cheap imported materials and machinery, low labor costs, talented entrepreneurs, creative fashion designers, and civilized industrial relations. “Many fear that the higher tariffs and other trade barriers of the Customs Union could ruin this Kyrgyz success story,” he said.
The conference, chaired by textile and light industry union President Ryskul Babayeva, received extensive media coverage and drew the public’s attention to the potential economic and political consequences of Customs Union membership. Under Babayeva’s leadership, participants drafted a resolution calling on the government to take working people’s concerns into account in negotiating the agreement. The resolution was delivered and negotiations are ongoing.
Jan 11, 2012
Two years after a massive earthquake destroyed much of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding towns, the Haitian people are still struggling to recover from the disaster and the entrenched poverty that it has exacerbated.
The solution, say Haitian workers, is a Haitian-driven reconstruction effort that focuses on sustainable, equitable development aimed at improving the lives all citizens—not just a few.
While unions and worker organizations have been calling for the creation of decent jobs that respect fundamental worker rights, pay living wages, and empower Haitians to provide for their families, little progress has been made toward that goal. Indeed, more than 70 percent of the labor force does not have formal work and struggles to survive, earning less than $2 a day.
To mark the grim anniversary, worker organizations are participating in marches and discussions organized by the larger community to draw attention to the enormous needs in Haiti. They also are educating workers and the community about their rights while continuing to provide the opportunity for workers from various sectors, both employed and unemployed, to meet. The Haitian labor movement has crafted a pubic policy statement of principles on decent work and a living wage, which it will release later this month. Workers plan to press for further improvements.
“The deplorable conditions in which most Haitians live are in stark contrast to the small pockets of improvement and the large-scale investments coming into the country. For those left homeless, access to the very basics—permanent shelter, food, jobs, water, transportation—is elusive,” said Ose Pierre, the Solidarity Center’s program representative in Haiti. “Much, much more needs to be done to create jobs and, at the same time, ensure that workers are paid decent wages and their rights are recognized and respected.”
The Solidarity Center, which focuses on building the capacity of Haitian partners to develop and jointly advocate public policies that help working families, published a living wage survey for apparel workers in March 2011. The research found that prices for necessities and basic goods were out of reach for most workers. This remains true today: The cost of living has increased while wages, for the jobs in the formal economy, have stagnated.
“Haiti’s recovery will depend on the ability of working people to earn a decent wage so that they can pay the rent, feed their children, and live a dignified life. Grinding poverty is never solved through low wages or exploitation,” said Molly McCoy, Solidarity Center regional director for the Americas. “Our partners remain hopeful that the large-scale investments coming into Haiti, including the Caracol Industrial Park, create jobs that pay workers sufficiently to support their families and rebuild their lives and their country.”
In a matter of seconds, the earthquake dramatically altered the scale and scope of the Haitian labor movement. Trade unions and worker organizations suffered huge reductions in membership due to mass casualties and severe unemployment. Many people were further burdened by catastrophic damage to their homes and belongings.
Within days after the quake, the Solidarity Center field office in the Dominican Republic launched a union-to-union emergency response, linking Dominican partners directly with Haitian workers and channeling emergency aid to workers through unions and labor support organizations. The Solidarity Center dispatched regular overland shipments of food, water, rehydration fluids, plastic tarps, diapers, blankets, first-aid supplies, medicine, and feminine hygiene kits to meet the most immediate needs. The Solidarity Center also directed funds to Haitian unions and labor support organizations to locate missing members and restore offices for use as shelters and food distribution centers.
In concert with these efforts, U.S. unions and workers made generous contributions to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief Fund, which enabled the Solidarity Center to respond to an array of urgent and ongoing needs identified by our Haitian trade union partners. Specifically, the Solidarity Center:
- Paid educational fees for 700 children of union members to attend school.
- Partnered with the American Federation of Teachers to establish the union-run Workers Solidarity Clinic, aimed at serving the health care needs of 26,000 union members and their families.
- Worked with the International Trade Union Confederation to develop and deploy cholera brigades, each composed of 50 trained union members, that deliver much-needed hygiene and sanitation kits as well as information about preventing and identifying the disease to workers and families in the hardest-hit areas. To date, 1,000 kits have been distributed.
- Purchased and installed solar energy panels and work stations for Solidarity Center partner AUMOHD (United Action for Human Rights in Haiti), a worker education and legal support organization based in Port-au-Prince whose office escaped severe damage. The office now serves as a neutral space where Haitian unions can conduct business and access electricity.
- Provided laptops to union partners to ensure ongoing communication and continued operations.
- Provided support to TransAfrica Forum’s “Let Haiti Live” project, which empowers Haitian workers and their communities to advocate for improved living conditions. “Let Haiti Live,” in partnership with local grassroots organizations, is mobilizing vulnerable communities throughout Port-au-Prince to identify their greatest needs and develop advocacy campaigns to direct aid to those key areas. Thus far, communities have highlighted access to clean drinking water as a top priority.
Jan 9, 2012
Shops, airports, offices, and schools across Nigeria were shut down on the first day of an indefinite strike called to protest the Nigerian government’s removal of a longstanding fuel subsidy that more than doubles the price of oil and gas.
The government announced the deregulation of the oil sector on January 1, 2012, and defended its decision a week later. It claimed that the resulting $8 billion savings would be used to improve health care, education, and Nigeria’s sporadic electricity supply. But Nigerians saw the subsidy as their only benefit from the country’s vast oil wealth and feared that the profits would disappear to corruption. Although oil is the source of 80 percent of Nigeria’s government revenues, the wealth has not trickled down to the people. More than 90 percent of Nigeria’s 160 million citizens live on less than $2 a day, according to the International Labor Organization.
The protests have turned violent as police have moved in to quell demonstrations. At least two protesters have died, according to Reuters, and more than two dozen people have suffered injuries in the crackdown.
In a January 4, 2012, joint statement, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) warned that if the government did not reverse its decision, they would direct their affiliates to hold “indefinite general strikes, mass rallies, and street protests across the country” starting on January 9. They dismissed a January 6 court order to stop the planned strikes. “There is no going back on next week’s protests and shutdown,” said the NLC.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) issued a similar statement. The unions say that any negotiations must be tied to improving existing refineries and building new “green” ones, as well as shoring up infrastructures such as roads and railways.
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