By N. C. Srirekha
New York, New York, Dec.. 3 — If American workers’
unions are crying hoarse about their jobs being outsourced to countries
like India, a coalition of Indian labor unions is protesting against
the same for spawning unfair labor practices by multinational corporations.
The issue of outsourcing was a hot potato in the US presidential elections
where candidates traded accusations about the increase in the number
of jobs shifting from the US to other countries. Now, a delegation of
labor leaders from India, affiliated with the New Trade Union Initiative
(NTUI) has embarked on a tour of nine major US cities to open a dialogue
about ensuring that the interests of working people everywhere are respected
and promoted. The labor leaders expect to address the outsourcing issue,
seeking dialogue with US workers about mutual interests in the fight
to defend good jobs and ensure fair labor standards.
In a statement released ahead of the tour, which begins in New York,
Ashim Roy, the president of several unions representing General Electric
workers in Gujarat in western India, said, “The jobs that multinational
companies destroy in the US outnumber the jobs they create in India,
as workers are working harder and longer. The companies create insecure
jobs at near-poverty level wages with inhuman working conditions. We
want to work with our sisters and brothers in the US and elsewhere to
prevent exploitation and guarantee jobs with fair wages and human dignity
for all.”
“We will resist the corporations’ efforts to pit us against
each other,” said V. Chandra, a woman who has worked in the coal
industry for 25 years and is the Organizing Secretary of a union representing
50,000 miners. “We know that the companies see no borders in their
efforts to make money, so we too must look past them,” she added.
“Workers are talking across the continents about their mutual interests,
together we can defend jobs with fair labor standards.”
The New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) is an effort to bring together
the many independent unions, unaffiliated with political parties, in
a new confederation. The NTUI sees itself as a democratizing force within
Indian labor, one which can unite the millions of unorganized workers
in the informal sector and the millions in existing unions who want
to transcend party identification and play a leading role in the larger
social movements now burgeoning in India.
According to the press release, the NTUI has begun a collaboration with
Jobs with Justice (JwJ), a network of over 40 local workers’ rights
coalitions in the US that connects labor, faith-based, community and
student organizations to work together for social and economic justice.
JwJ member organizations have witnessed first hand how the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and global financial institutions like
the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) create a worldwide
“race to the bottom.” Their policies have promoted labor market
“flexibility,” deregulation, privatization and mass layoffs
in the public sector. It has allowed giant corporations to exploit workers,
the environment and communities, while drawing down living standards
around the world.
The NTUI forsees that the threat to workers’ standard of living
will increase on Jan. 1, 2005, when the Multifiber Agreement of the
World Trade Organization expires. As a result, hundreds of thousands
of jobs in the worldwide garment industry are expected to move to lower
wage facilities in China. This has serious implications for workers
in India, the US and around the world. “JwJ and the NTUI know that
when corporations drive a wedge between us, we all lose,” said
Fred Azcarate, JwJ Executive Director. “Corporations are global,
so we need a global movement of workers and their communities to fight
for better jobs and secure futures. That’s why Jobs with Justice
is working with NTUI.”
JwJ has a history fostering dialogue between workers across international
boundaries and of promoting trade policies that protect workers and
communities, not corporate interests.
In 2001 and 2003, JwJ organized an exchange between workers from Kentucky
— many of whom lost jobs directly as a result of NAFTA — with
workers from Nogales, Mexico, where many corporations relocated. Last
year, JwJ was one of the lead groups organizing protests in Miami during
negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas where tens of thousands
of people stood up to say “No to Free Trade, Yes to Fair Trade.”
The work of activists throughout the hemisphere helped to effectively
derail negotiations on the FTAA.
Source: India Post
