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NZ needs to press for basic union rights
NZ needs to press for basic union rights in international trading partners
Several of New Zealand’s regional trading partners are cited in the annual survey of trade union rights violations launched overnight in Geneva by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The survey documents widespread repression, intimidation, imprisonment and even murder of trade unionists in Asian and Pacific countries including China, the Philippines, Thailand, Burma and India. The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU) is calling for more pressure to be applied to trade partners who fail to protect universally recognised trade union rights.
In the Asia-Pacific region during 2009 ten workers were murdered, some 300 were injured, and over 2000 workers lost their jobs in the course of defending their rights.
In China, trade unionists have been imprisoned after trials that fall far short of recognised fair legal practice, or have been sent for ‘re-education through labour’, a punishment which bypasses the legal system’s few safeguards.
The South Korean government has similarly used charges of ‘obstruction to business’ to justify the imprisonment of union leaders. Police violence against strikes is commonplace. Thousands of workers in India were arrested or faced criminal charges in 2009 for having taken part in collective action. One worker in the state of Haryana was beaten to death by men allegedly associated with company management.
Burmese repression of trade unions is already well documented and continues unabated. Fiji is also cited for the undue powers it exercises to terminate strikes.
CTU President Helen Kelly said: “The open hostility to legitimate trade union rights we have witnessed in New Zealand in events such as the lockout at Open Country Cheese may appear insignificant compared to the threats of violence, imprisonment and murder faced by unionists in our Asian neighbours, but they are at different ends of the same spectrum. Any attempt to deny workers their internationally recognised rights to free association and collective bargaining is a breach of fundamental democratic rights.”
“New Zealand should be using its influence in the region to help eliminate repression and brutality targeted at trade unionists, whether it is instigated by anti-democratic states or by ruthless business interests.”
ENDS
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
Te Kauae Kaimahi
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi brings together over 350,000 New Zealand union members in 40 affiliated unions. We are the united voice for working people and their families in New Zealand.
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