Jun 2, 2015
An Uzbek human rights monitor says she was arrested and assaulted as she sought to document the Uzbek government’s forced mobilization of teachers and doctors to clear weeds from cotton fields outside Tashkent, the capital.
Elena Urlaeva, 58, head of the Uzbek Human Rights Defenders’ Alliance, said in an email that she was detained May 31 in the town of Chinaz, after interviewing and photographing teachers forced by government officials to work in cotton fields.
According to Urlaeva, police injected her with unknown sedatives and interrogated her for 18 hours. During the interrogation, the police struck her in the head. While the police held her, doctors probed Ms. Urlaeva in the vagina and anus until she bled, and took X-rays, after accusing her of hiding a data chip. She was denied access to a toilet, ordered to relieve herself outside and photographed nude. The police threatened more physical violence and confiscated her camera, notebook and information sheet of International Labor Organization conventions.
“I have never experienced such humiliation in my life, Urlaeva said. “The police were laughing and enjoying humiliating me.”
Urlaeva also photographed 60 physicians pressed into work in the cotton fields by city hall officials. Kindergarten teachers told her that the mayor had ordered the schools to send them to weed the fields.
Uzbekistan operates what is perhaps the world’s largest state-organized system of forced labor, forcibly mobilizing more than a million of the country’s citizens to pick cotton each fall, as documented by the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights and the Cotton Campaign.
The Cotton Campaign, a global coalition of labor, human rights, investor and business organizations that includes the Solidarity Center, says “the violent response by the Chinaz police reflects an essential element of the government’s forced labor system: the use of coercion—imprisonment, assault, harassment and intimidation of citizens reporting human rights concerns.”
Steve Swerdlow, a Bishkek-based Central Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, says Urlaeva’s detention on May 31 and alleged abuse while in police captivity represents “a new low by the Uzbek government” and an effort to “brutalize the country’s civil society.”
The Cotton Campaign is demanding the government of Uzbekistan conduct a transparent investigation of Uraleva’s assault, bring to justice the public officials responsible and issue a public commitment to allow independent human rights organizations, activists and journalists to investigate and report on conditions in the cotton production sector without facing retaliation.
At least 17 people died due to unsafe working conditions during last fall’s harvest, in which teachers, medical professionals and students were forced to pick cotton without any time off and with little or no protective gear, such as gloves. Children often had no classes during these weeks because teachers were working in the fields. Clinics and hospitals had few or no medical personnel.
The most recent U.S. Department of Labor’s annual “Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor” placed Uzbekistan among 12 other countries at the bottom of the report’s rankings and one of three, along with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Eritrea, that received the assessment as a result of government complicity in forced child labor. Uzbekistan is also among 23 countries that received the U.S. State Department’s lowest ranking regarding forced labor and human trafficking in 2014.
On March 19, the Uzbek government arrested, detained, deported and banned from the country Dr. Andre Mrost, an international labor rights consultant, whose firm, Just Solutions Network, Ltd., has bid on a contract to implement a feedback mechanism also called for under the terms of the World Bank loans.
May 20, 2015
Protesting laws that facilitate mass layoffs and enable large-scale subcontracting of workers’ jobs, tens of thousands of Peruvian mineworkers launched a strike Tuesday at the nation’s gold, copper, tin and silver mines in regions such as Cerro de Pasco, Puno, Ancash, and Huánuco. Marching in the main square of Juliaca yesterday, mineworkers shouted, “Down with the outsourcing law, mineworkers unite!”
The Mineworkers Federation describes the outsourcing law and why it needs to be repealed in this brochure.
Members of the Mineworkers Federation (FNTMMSP), a Solidarity Center ally, are seeking to halt worker layoffs and prevent passage of a proposed law that, among other detrimental outcomes, would allow 10 percent of workers to be fired when a company reports losses. They are demanding the government repeal outsourcing legislation that union leaders say enables employers to divide the workforce and violate worker rights. (The Mineworkers Federation describes the outsourcing law and why it needs to be repealed in this brochure.)
The Federation is calling for all outsourced workers who currently perform core functions of mining operations to be moved into permanent contracts and also seeks modifications in legislation that would allow outsourced workers to benefit from annual profit sharing, which is the legal right of directly-employed mineworkers.
Further, the Federation is calling for a repeal of additions to Peru’s Health and Safety Law, enacted last July at the request of employers, which make it more difficult for injured workers or their families to hold employers accountable for workplace injuries, among other harmful measures.
Ivan Granados, a mineworker, said employers already are using the mass layoff legislation. Granados told Telesur that “at work, they are starting to fire the workers, saying that the company is losing money. They are … harassing people with threats of firing them. That is why we are here fighting.”
Mining accounts for up to 15 percent of the Peru’s gross national product, and mining exports have grown 4.7 percent over the past year.
“The mineral wealth of a country should be used for the benefit of the people, including the workers, and not to destroy the environment for the benefit of the corporations and politicians,” say United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard and Sindicato Nacional de Mineros President Napoleón Gómez Urrutia in a joint statement backing the mineworkers.
The USW and Sindicato Nacional de Mineros, whose solidarity statements were read at a press conference yesterday, are part of a broad coalition of supporters Peruvian mineworkers are engaging, one that includes the Confederación General de Trabajadores del Perú (CGTP), unions from the telecommunications, textile/apparel and oil/petroleum industries, as well as independent unions—Red Solidaria—and student and youth organizations. A coalition of students, young workers and unions earlier this year successfully repealed a law that reduced salaries and benefits for workers under age 25.
The Mineworkers Federation and its affiliated unions built the campaign to address outsourcing in the mining sector following Solidarity Center trainings and workshops, begun last year, in which they gained information about documenting worker rights violations and developing a policy proposal to improve outsourcing legislation.
Over the past six months, the Solidarity Center also has supported regional workshops for Federation affiliates to raise awareness and collect more information about how outsourcing is undermining decent working conditions—including health and safety in the mines—freedom of association and the right to collectively bargain in Peru’s mines.
The Mineworkers Federation also has filed a lawsuit alleging that the outsourcing law is unconstitutional, which has been accepted by Peru’s Constitutional Court for review.
May 19, 2015
More than 60 percent of workers worldwide, predominantly women, are in temporary, part-time or short-term jobs in which wages are falling, a growing trend that is fueling global income inequality and poverty, according to an International Labor Organization (ILO) report released today.
“This report reveals a shift away from the standard employment model, in which workers earn wages and salaries in a dependent employment relationship vis-à-vis their employers, have stable jobs and work full time,” the report states. Further, “labor incomes constitute the main source of income inequality.”
Although the incomes of permanent workers are relatively stable, the percentage of such workers is declining globally—and as few as 20 percent of workers are in permanent jobs in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Many of these precarious jobs are in the informal economy, which includes market vendors, day laborers, pedicab drivers and domestic workers. In fact, domestic workers, most of whom are women, represent 3.6 percent of wage employment worldwide, the report says.
“World Employment and Social Outlook: The Changing Nature of Jobs” cites a shortage in global aggregate demand as a potentially key factor in explaining the slow growth of decent jobs, which has created a global jobs gap that costs an estimated $1.218 trillion in lost wages for workers around the world. The ILO estimates that 201 million women and men were out of work in 2014, more than 30 million higher than before the start of the 2008 global economic crisis.
“A vicious circle may be at work, with lower demand affecting output and employment, thereby further depressing demand,” the report states. In other words, fewer jobs and lower wages mean workers and their families will be able to purchase less, and so fewer jobs will be created and low-pay will be the norm, a vicious cycle that can only be broken by large-scale job creation and incomes that sustain working people and their families.
Workers making low pay are less likely to be union members or to benefit from collective bargaining, according to the report. Further, despite widespread unemployment, in particular among women, there is very limited social protection for unemployed working-age adults. The report recommends policy changes that address the transformation in employment structures and include the growing numbers of precarious workers in social protection systems.
The report also notes that approximately 1 in 5 workers contribute to global supply chains, which “facilitates transitions to the formal economy and waged employment for many workers.” However, the study equally highlights that the vast majority of employment in the global supply chain takes place under poor working conditions. This is particularly the case for vulnerable workers, such as unskilled women, youth and migrant workers.
May 16, 2015
AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Labor Council President Jos Williams (green shirt) is part of an international union delegation to Swaziland. Credit: STAWU
An international delegation of union leaders traveling in Swaziland is calling on the government to guarantee the rights of workers to freely form unions and exercise freedom of speech and assembly, and says repressive legislation used by police against union activities still has not been addressed by Parliament, even as the government continues to imprison human rights activists for exercising their right to freedom of speech.
Led by Wellington Chibebe, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) deputy general secretary, the fact-finding group is looking into the ongoing government repression directed at Swazi union leaders and human rights proponents, and plans to issue a report to the ITUC and to several members of the European Parliament by the end of May.
Just days before the delegation arrived on May 14, the Swaziland government announced it had registered the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), an action it has refused to take for the past three years.
But delegation members say they are not celebrating the action because the government “did not do more than it was supposed to do,” says Jos Williams, president of the AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Labor Council, speaking from Swaziland. “We do not see that as a victory of any kind.” Williams is among a six-member delegation that includes a representative from the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU).
In fact, two days after the government announced TUCOSWA’s official registration, police massed outside a meeting of TUCOSWA affiliates in a show of force, according to TUCOSWA Secretary-General Vincent Ncongwane.
“All that has been told (by the government) to the world is just playing to the public gallery,” Ncongwane says, while the reality of repression in a monarchical government that outlaws political parties continues. Twice this year, police have broken up TUCOSWA union meetings, injuring a union leader in the process. On May Day, brave union members held rallies despite a government ban on public gatherings.
The ITUC is demanding the government repeal anti-terrorism laws that enable it to imprison union leaders and others who call for democracy; provide full recognition of union activities in accordance with international laws; and support freedom of speech, assembly and association.
“The government must meet the demands the ITUC delegation has made if the ITUC is to give a favorable report by the end of the month,” Williams says. “From my standpoint, the actions of the government have not been very encouraging. Yes, they have recognized the union, but regarding the other demands we made, there has been no response.”
Delegation members also sought to visit political prisoners, some of whom have been held for two years. So far, says Williams, they “have gotten the run-around” in efforts “to see our comrades in jail and look at the conditions.” (You can sign a LaborStart petition demanding their release. If you Tweet, use the hashtag #SwaziJustice.)
In June 2014, the U.S. government took the rare step of suspending African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade benefits for Swaziland, citing the Swazi government’s systematic violations of fundamental worker rights, including refusal to legally recognize TUCOSWA. In addition, the 2014 U.S. State Department human rights report cited serious human rights violations in Swaziland, including arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government or its agents and severely restricted freedom of assembly, including violence against protestors.
Given the level of harassment and repression, Williams says he “came here seeking to encourage” union leaders, but instead found that “they are standing tall in the face of adversity.
“It is rewarding to me as a trade unionist to have drawn strength from these individuals.”
May 14, 2015
Bangladesh shrimp industry owners, management officials and labor and human rights activists discussed and debated the dispute resolution process in the country’s shrimp industry at a recent workshop organized by the Solidarity Center, the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) and Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF).
The alternative dispute resolution process was instigated in 2013 when BFFEA, BSFF and the Solidarity Center signed a groundbreaking memorandum of agreement (MoA).
Under the MoA, shrimp industry owners and managers agreed to implement worker rights according to Bangladesh labor law and International Labor Organization (ILO) core labor standards and to give the nearly 1 million shrimp workers who toil during peak season across the supply chain the right to form trade unions.
Among the participants, who included production managers, compliance officers and managing directors, BFFEA Senior Vice President Golam Mostafa said he hoped the dispute resolution mechanism in the shrimp industry would be an example other industries will follow. Solidarity Center-Bangladesh’s MoA project consultant and former secretary of Bangladesh government AKM Zafar Ullah Khan said that alternative dispute resolution and participation committee is important for a sustainable shrimp sector.
Solidarity Center’s Bangladesh staff also addressed questions about pending cases, worker compensation and the overall process.
Alonzo Suson, Solidarity Center Bangladesh country program director, stressed the need for promotion, outreach and education to make workers aware of the alternative dispute resolution process. Suson praised the MoA and said he had heard that labor-management relationships were improving because of the joint initiative.
The Solidarity Center began working with Bangladeshi nongovernmental organizations in 2005 to look at ways to ensure the rights of shrimp workers are protected at the workplace. In 2012, the Solidarity Center issued its second in-depth report on the issue, “The Plight of Shrimp-Processing Workers of Southwestern Bangladesh.”
