Violations of trade union rights in the Newly Independent States must stop

At the ITUC conference in Moscow, IMF affiliates joined the Newly Independent States (NIS) in their demands that the government and employers respect fundamental rights guaranteed by ILO Conventions.

NEW INDEPENDENT STATES: There is no positive developments with trade union rights in the region over the recent years, was the conclusion of the participants of the International Confederation of Trade Unions Conference, “Building Democracy and Trade Union Rights in the NIS” held on December 3-4 in Moscow.

               "We have the situation when in the countries with about 200 million able-bodied population the real security of workers approaches to zero," reads the final document adopted by the delegates.

              The large and representative conference was attended by union leaders and activists from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, as well as representatives of the ITUC and its Pan-European Regional Council (PERC), European trade unions and global union federations including the IMF, NGOs, academics, trade unionists and journalists.

              The nature of violations differ: in Russia trade union leaflets are added to the list of "extremist materials", in Belarus the system of annual contracts is used as a tool of anti-union discrimination, which covers 90 per cent workers, in Georgia a truncated Labour Code is introduced, which contains only 55 articles and virtually no guarantees of legal protection of trade unions, but the same trend can be observed everywhere. Employers and the government violates the fundamental right of workers to freedom of association as guaranteed by ILO Conventions.

               Officials from different Russian government agencies attended the conference including the Ministry of Healthcare, Ministry of Justice, General Procurator’s Office. This created the possibility of a direct and sharp dialogue between trade unionists and government representatives. Chairman of the Duma Committee on Labour and Social Policy, Andrei Isaev spoke about the legislative work regarding labour relations.

About 15 activists of the primary union organizations from across the region spoke of pressure exerted on them by employers and authorities. Behind each of the short report was a history of several months and sometimes years of struggle, persecution, unlawful dismissals, discrimination and fierce resistance.

               The final document adopted by the representatives of trade unions calls for strengthening trade union solidarity, to conduct educational work, to build strong trade unions to hold national and international campaigns for the protection and development of trade union rights.

             "Over the recent years you have achieved great progress," said Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, addressing the representatives for trade unions in the region, "I congratulate you, but at the same time I urge you to do more."

Dec 14, 2010 – Ilya Matveev

 Source:imfmetal.org