Faglige rettigheder krænkes systematisk. Værst står det til i Latinamerika, fremgår det af rapporten Annual Survey of Violation of Trade Union Rights, som International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC, offentliggjorde på ILOs 100. konference i Geneve. Den fortæller også om mord på fagforeningsledere, dødstrusler og arrestationer i tusindvis.
GENEVA, 8 June 2011: Survey across 143 countries shows that Colombia and the Americas maintain the lead in a grim record of murder and repression of workers involved in trade union activities.
The Annual Survey paints a picture of people fighting for greater economic rights and freedom to organise, with many governments and businesses responding with repression, sackings, violence, death threats and murder.
Covering the year 2010, the Annual Survey reveals:
90 murders of trade union activists (49 in Colombia alone)
Another 75 recorded death threats and at least 2,500 arrests
At least 5,000 sackings of unionists because of union activities.
“Around the world, workers, communities and populations are trying to claim basic rights to decent work and a decent life, and in many countries these people are being met with sackings, violence and in extreme cases murder by governments and by employers and businesses,” the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, Sharan Burrow, said Wednesday.
The global trends highlighted in the survey include governments not enforcing labour laws, lack of support for the funding of inspection or protection, the lack of rights and abuse of migrant labour across the world, but particularly in the Gulf States, and the exploitation of the mainly female workforces in the world’s export processing zones.
Repression in the Middle East
Across the Middle East, the 2010 Annual Survey paints a picture of governments trying to repress their people engaged in fighting to better their lives economically through union representation, better wages and collective bargaining.
In Egypt, the report shows sackings and reprisals by employers, police violence and numerous arrests as more and more workers joined independent trade unions and took strike action.
In Tunisia, the report spotlights the rising tide of social protest linked to the fight for economic rights, and the government responding by meddling in the affairs of the trade union movement.
In Bahrain, the report underscores the recurrent problem of unemployment and inequality, and this year the ITUC is monitoring the disappearances, arrests and violence directed at the independent trade unionists over the past months.
“Independent trade unions are essential to improving the living standards of ordinary workers across the globe. The ITUC Annual Survey shows that in fighting for basic rights to a decent job and decent life, many unionists put their lives on the line for the good of their communities”, Burrow comments.
Read the media releases concerning the regions:
Africa: http://www.ituc-csi.org/press-release-difficult-to-be-a.html
Ameritas: http://www.ituc-csi.org/press-release-the-americas.html
Asia: http://www.ituc-csi.org/press-release-anti-union.html
Arab World: http://www.ituc-csi.org/press-release-very-sombre.html
Europe: http://www.ituc-csi.org/press-release-europe-workers.html
Kilde: ITUC ituc-csi.org
Læs hele rapporten: http://survey.ituc-csi.org/?lang=en
