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Half the world’s
workers denied rights
By Stefania Bianchi
Brussels, May 24 (IPS) — Almost half the world’s workers
are denied fundamental rights, says a report released by the United
Nations labor agency.
Many countries are failing to protect workers rights, the International
Labor Organization (ILO), the UN agency which seeks to promote social
justice and internationally recognized human and labor rights says in
a report “Organizing for Social Justice.”
The report published May 24 says many large countries such as Brazil,
China, India, Mexico, and the US have not ratified fundamental rights
such as freedom of association. This would give workers and employers
the right to form or join organizations that promote and defend their
interests without interference from one another or the state.
The ILO says violations of such rights takes forms from murder, violence,
and detention to refusal to allow organizations the legal right to exist
and function.
Many countries have failed to implement the right to collective bargaining,
the report says. This right to organize can apply to all workers and
employers, including those in the informal economy.
The ILO says freedom of association and collective bargaining are fundamental
rights provided for in ILO conventions 87 and 98, and should be ensured
in all countries.
“All countries should ratify the ILO conventions 87 and 98, and
should ensure that these conventions are fully implemented in their
countries by ensuring that national laws are in conformity with the
conventions, and that the laws are properly respected and enforced,”
Tim Noonan from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
(ICFTU) which represents more than151 million workers in some 152 countries
told IPS.
The ILO report says freedom of association and collective bargaining
do not hinder performance of individual enterprises or the economy as
a whole. The agency says this is borne out by research by the World
Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),
a group of 30 industrialized nations.
“Freedom of association, and the recognition of the right to bargain
collectively, are not only fundamental human rights at work, but also
vital elements of economic, social, and political processes,” the
ILO said.
“The report takes account of the current trends in exercising these
rights as well as the significant challenges that still remain in many
parts of the world, particularly in the today’s global economy,”
it added.
Launching the report at the ICFTU headquarters in Brussels, union general
secretary Guy Ryder said freedom of association and collective bargaining
“are not a luxury but fundamental rights and the basis for sustainable
and adaptable labor markets. Workers attempting to organize are sometimes
blacklisted, reprimanded, or sacked. The catalogue of abuses in such
workplaces is long.”
The level of ratification of the two core conventions means that half
the world’s workers remain unprotected by the conventions’
provisions, the ILO report says.
The report looks at several areas in which these rights are frequently
flouted, particularly the export processing zones (EPZs) established
by governments to encourage manufacture of goods for export. The number
of EPZs has grown from just 79 in 25 countries in 1975 to some 3,000
in 116 countries in 2002.
“Public awareness and pressure from the international community,
led by trade union organizations and institutions such as the ILO, has
resulted in some degree of progress in the respect for fundamental workers’
rights in EPZs,” Ryder said. But he added that more needs to be
done.
ICFTU points to Namibia where labor laws now apply to all parts of the
economy including EPZs, and Turkey which has abolished legislation that
had effectively barred industrial action in these zones.
“However, many countries which have ratified the conventions do
not apply them in full, meaning that workers are still deprived of their
rights,” Ryder said.
The ILO report highlights how “trade union-free environments”
are used to attract foreign investors and to gain commercial advantage
over those countries or regions where workers’ rights are respected.
The agency says that “all too often, this is accompanied by exhausting
work schedules and extremely poor health and safety conditions.”
The report proposes an action plan to help build and consolidate a culture
of freedom of association and collective bargaining, with emphasis on
systematic data collection and analyses of legal and practical obstacles.
ICFTU says that both countries and international organizations must
share responsibility for workers’ rights.
“The primary responsibility lies with governments — it is
they which have the responsibility to ensure that these rights are respected,”
Noonan said. “International organizations, such as the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank, must also ensure that their policies
and programs reinforce and support, rather than undermine — which
is too often the case at present — the application of these rights
by national governments.”
The ILO also stresses that “he real question is not whether to
respect, realize, and promote these rights, but how best to go about
it.”
Workers file lawsuit against
farm labor recruiter
By Josh Ferguson
May 25 (AGR) -- The North Carolina Growers Association(NCGA),
headquartered in Vass, NC, is the nation’s largest recruiter of
agricultural guest workers, importing thousands of migrant workers to
North Carolina farms each year. This April, nine of those workers filed
a lawsuit against the organization, accusing it of maintaining a blacklist
of workers who spoke out against unsafe working conditions and unfair
treatment.
The lawsuit, filed April 13 in Wake County Superior Court, alleges that
workers were placed on the list for actions such as requesting medical
treatment for work-related injuries, complaining about unfair working
conditions, and consulting with legal council.
Workers were also penalized for failure to complete the entire term
of their allotted stay in the country, even though the work they had
come to do had been completed, and NCGA had denied them other work that
would have allowed them to finish out these terms. Since the term had
not been completed, their contract stated that they were forced to fund
their own transportation back to Mexico, even though their initial application
process included promises of round trip bus fare. Some workers also
allege that they were placed on the blacklist for not purchasing their
early return bus tickets through NCGA.
Once workers were placed on the blacklist, they were denied future work
through NCGA, oftentimes effectively denying them legal access to jobs
in the United States.
Stan Eury, director of NCGA, denies all of the allegations made in the
lawsuit. In a telephone interview with the AGR, Eury asserted that the
lawsuit was a political attempt to damage the reputation, as well as
the finances, of his company.
“We [NCGA] of course are not guilty,” he said. “We have
a long history of contention w/ legal aid [Legal Aid of North Carolina,
the legal group representing the plaintiffs] because they support open
borders, where as we support guest worker programs.”
When questioned about charges that NCGA workers were penalized for soliciting
legal advice and pursuing medical treatment and workers’ compensation,
Eury stated that NCGA workers are among the best treated migrant workers
in the country.
“Our workers are head and shoulders above all other workers in
the state. Our guys all live in 100% approved and inspected housing…our
workers are the only migrant workers receiving workers compensation
in North Carolina,” he said.
Eury pointed out that H2A workers are often better protected legally
than other types of legal or illegal migrant employees. The type of
workers employed by NCGA are referred to as “H2A” workers,
due to the temporary visas they receive under section 101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(a)
of the Immigration and Nationality Act. These workers are immigrant
farm workers employed under the conditions that local labor is not available
to fulfill the employer’s need, and that the position being filled
is only temporary or seasonal work. H2A visas are only available to
farm workers, although other non-farm workers can receive similar visas
under different federal provisions. Eury stressed the fact that the
H2A worker is guaranteed an $8.06 hourly wage, as opposed to other programs
that only ensure that workers make the federally imposed minimum wage.
While pay may be better, however, the H2A guest worker program does
create a situation that gives employers a unique position of power over
the employees. As long as the visa is secured exclusively through the
employer, the employer is in what is a potentially ideal position to
exploit H2A workers, since the legality of the worker’s presence
in the United States is directly contingent on their employer. To this
effect, a 1997 report by the US General Accounting Office stated that
H2A workers “are unlikely to complain about worker protections
violations, fearing they will lose their jobs or will not be hired in
the future.”
Such conditions are perhaps most evidenced in North Carolina, if only
due to the sheer number of workers. According to the US Department of
Labor, out of 47,686 H2A visas that were issued in 2001, over 10,000
of these visas were issued for workers in North Carolina. Most of these
workers come from Mexico, hoping to make money in the United States
that is not available to them in their own country. Many work abroad
to support families staying at home in Mexico.
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) is an AFL-CIO affiliated
union of immigrant farm workers in eastern North Carolina. In the summer
of 2003, FLOC received complaints from H2A workers regarding lack of
health care and medical treatment, restricted access to kitchen and
bathroom facilities, denial of breaks, denial of cups for water, denial
of promised reimbursement for travel expenses, inadequate housing facilities,
age and gender discrimination, and forced resignation after illness
due to pesticide exposure.
This is the context in which H2A workers are filing their lawsuit against
the NCGA, demanding that workers not be afraid to speak out against
unfair treatment. The blacklist, they allege, maintains an atmosphere
of exploitation that continues out of fear on the part of the exploited
employees.
NCGA continues to deny the existence of the blacklist, although according
to Lori Elmer, an attorney from Legal Aid of North Carolina, NCGA has
not yet responded to the plaintiffs’ complaint, except to ask for
more time, which was granted.
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