BRUSSELS, 27 October 2010: The International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC, has written to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon criticising the actions of the UN’s Palestine Relief Agency UNRWA as a strike of its employees enters a third week.
UNRWA management has insisted that they will not talk to the workers’ union unless and until the strike is called off. Some 7.500 employees and contract workers are on strike over claims for improvements in their wages and working conditions.
– It is perfectly normal for unions and management to hold talks during a strike – that is how disputes are resolved. The hard-line attitude taken by the UNRWA to its own employees is not acceptable, and will only make matters worse. That is why we have written to Mr Ban today to ask him to help get the UNRWA to take a reasonable and constructive attitude rather than refuse to accept the legitimate rights of their own employees, said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.
ITUC will continue to monitor the situation along with its Palestinian affiliate the PGFTU, and is raising the matter with major donors to UNRWA – countries which themselves respect trade union rights.
