Det Internationale Fagforeningsforbund, ITUC, protesterer mod en bølge af vold og trusler mod fagligt active, der har taget del i demonstrationer for en demokratisk udvikling i Bahrain, oplyser ITUC på sin hjemmeside mandag.
BRUSSELS, 4 April 2011: “The international trade union movement is extremely concerned at the large number of workers, including trade union representatives, who are being heavily penalised by the authorities simply because they exercised their legitimate rights to strike and to freedom of expression and assembly, following the widely-supported call for strike action by the national trade union centre GFBTU,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. “These dismissals are nothing less than a “political purification” in workplaces. This is totally unacceptable and illegal.”
“Such punitive actions, especially dismissals, for having taken part in legitimate demonstrations, is a flagrant violation of ILO Convention 111 concerning discrimination at work, which Bahrain has ratified, and of Convention 87 on Freedom of Association which Bahrain is obliged to respect.”
“ITUC will be pursuing this matter, and the situation in Bahrain in general, at the ILO including at the annual ILO Conference this June,” added Burrow.
About 300 workers have been dismissed for taking part in the strike and in demonstrations, mainly from the aluminium company Alba (Aluminium Bahrain BSC) and the Khalifa Sea Port (driven by APM terminal). Around 40 workers have apparently also been dismissed by Gulf Air.
Furthermore, the aluminium company Alba has announced that it will make its rules and procedures even tougher, notably through action in the courts against striking workers.
Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Hussain, President of the trade union at the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) has been sacked for having “called on workers to take part in the general strike” and faces legal action in the coming days. The company management has threatened to take legal action against other members of the union as well.
Bahrain University is also the scene of heavy anti-union repression. The Vice President of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association and 4 other members of the union’s leadership were arrested on 29 March, and the union’s General Secretary the following day. 1
9 students were also arrested, and the payment of salaries of certain lecturers and union members was stopped. Students supported by scholarships who participated in demonstrations have been punished by non-renewal of their scholarships.
With the GFBTU expecting the wave of sackings to flow to other key enterprises, the ITUC denounces the dismissals as “an economic massacre following the deplorable human massacre of the past few weeks”.
