Author: Otsieno Namwaya
Date: January 23, 2007
Type of article: News
Source: The East African Standard http://www.eastandard.net/archives/index.php?mnu=details&id=1143963957&catid=159

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The World Social Forum shifted focus to the original issues that gave birth to the movement six years ago. Delegates took issue with employers and industries for what they said was a serious violation of international labour laws and environmental degradation.

Kenyan delegates wondered why the long standing concerns over the violation of workers’ rights by Del Monte, a fruit processing company, and the EPZ companies, which have been in the news in the last few years, have not been taken seriously by the Government.

They blamed the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) for sacrificing the interests of the workers and, instead, allowing itself to be compromised into protecting errant employers.

"The freedom of association of workers who seek to form other trade unions of their choice has been fought by a combined force of employers, the Government and Cotu. To this day, Cotu has remained loyal only to its creators, who are the Government and owners of capital," said Mr Stephen Kanyari, who was delivering a paper. But Mr Janitor Boaz Otieno, the Secretary General of the Kenya Union of Employees of Voluntary and Charitable Organisations, argued that nearly all the instruments of labour and trade were not sufficiently designed to protect the workers. He said the challenges facing workers today were due to bad policies that have been pushed down the throats of mainly poor nations by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation.

"The composition of the WTO is singly Government and that is why all WTO agreements cannot contain the violation of workers’ rights," said Mr Boaz Otieno, who also dismissed the idea that the African Growth and Opportunities Act, a mainly American idea, can be of benefit to African economies and thus the workers.

"In the textile and apparel industries, for example, the jobs created under Agoa and EPZs do not respect existing national labour legislations of the African countries, and they are characterised by poor working conditions and low pay," said Otieno, who pointed out that this was, in fact, a violation of the conditions that countries have to meet to access American markets under Agoa.

The delegates, according to Mr Allan Chege, the co-ordinator of the conference on labour, were trying to establish areas of concerns that were similar for workers in both the poor and rich nations. "That is why this session has brought together trade unions from both the North and the South to discuss labour issues and examine shared concerns," he said. "It is very difficult for trade unions to address the needs of workers in the informal sector economy and thus difficult to get a common framework that will serve workers in both informal and formal sector," said Mr Luca Piazzi of the Italian Christian Workers’ Association. Piazzi singled out the rising problem of temporary jobs, which he said is being caused by the emerging new economy in which employers prefer to pay less taxes and terminal benefits.

"This is affecting people’s lives around the world because they cannot afford to do what they would like to do for themselves," said Luca Piazzi. This, he said, presents a problem to the trade unions because they are used to dealing with the problems of permanent workers.

He said the challenge they faced as the World Social Forum was that they do not offer direct answers to the problems that workers face.

It is an issue that Cotu secretary general, Mr Francis Atwoli, on the first day of the World Social Forum, said would become their main agitation point this year. But delegates dismissed this as a public relations gimmick, because "the union has been so complicit to the misdeeds of the employers and Government."

"On occasions, Cotu issues empty warnings against employers who engage in unfair labour practices. Of course such warnings are issued as a public relations gesture, as the unfair labour practices have continued unchecked over the years," said Kanyari.

While the delegates blamed multinationals for perpetuating this culture of blatant violation of the workers’ rights, they also pointed out that it was not a problem only for the multi-nationals. "Even the mainly localised employers have taken cue and are doing the same," said Piazzi.

The multi-nationals were criticised for causing environmental degradation, with delegates taking particular issue with America’s decision to undermine the Kyoto Protocol on gaseous emissions, saying it was merely a ploy to protect its big industries at the expense of humans.