Human.Rights@Work 
ACTRAV's regular newsletter

Contents
ILO and the tsunami aftermath
In Memoriam: Ditiro Saleshando
Social issues top world's 2005 agenda
Europe: governance and decent work
World Social Forum: ACTRAV in Porto Alegre
Global Labour University: assessing the Masters Programme
Unions' role in the world economy and the fight against poverty
Textiles: quotas end, headaches begin
Spotting automotive industry trends
Pointers

ILO and the tsunami aftermath

Sharing the grief of the many families affected by the tidal wave in the Indian Ocean on 26 December 2004, the International Labour Organization has set up an emergency team in its Bangkok office and at its headquarters in Geneva and has reinforced the technical personnel and support facilities in its Jakarta, Colombo and New Delhi offices. Local social partners have been closely involved in needs assessment and in assistance with reconstruction, infrastructure repair, housing and the relaunch of activities beneficial to the local economy, as well as livelihood programmes.

ILO technical cooperation programmes will, the organization has decided, be redirected so as to give priority to the worst-affected regions. On the basis of its assessments, it has developed a five-part response strategy: infrastructure reconstruction, livelihood programmes, recovery of the labour market, support for the most vulnerable groups and the relaunching of social protection for all. Projects with an initial value of more than US$10 million are starting up. The US Department of Labor has already approved a budget of US$ 1.5 million to assist vulnerable children.

Among the ILO projects:

• Setting up an employment services centre in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. This centre should rapidly become the focal point of a network enabling those who have lost their jobs to find new employment. Aceh is one of the regions hardest hit by the tsunami;
• Restoring community infrastructure, using highly labour-intensive techniques that provide jobs for a large number of unskilled workers;
• Training that will enable local entrepreneurs to launch ventures and workers to acquire skills. In a strategy paper presented to the UN Conference on disaster reduction, held in Kobe (Japan) on 18-23 January, the ILO says the response to the tsunami requires "employment-intensive recovery, giving special attention to the needs of the most vulnerable groups and the reestablishment of social protection mechanisms". The ILO estimates that at least a million people lost their livelihoods in the disaster. It says that adequate aid and the rapid mobilization of support for reconstruction should make it possible to rehabilitate 50 to 60 per cent of the tsunami-affected families by the end of 2005 and to restore 85 per cent of the jobs within 24 months.

The ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV) has also mobilized its specialists in the field and has redirected its technical cooperation in the region affected. In Aceh, a specific project drawn up in cooperation with the trade union organizations will play its part in the drive to rehabilitate workers. In India's Chennai (Madras) region, the project implemented since the end of the 1990's by ACTRAV with development support from the Nordic Countries has been expanded to provide rehabilitation assistance to fishing communities that were badly affected by the tidal wave. Modelled on, and aided by, the self-help groups used to organize women in the rural sector, training schemes have been launched for the fishermen, with the initial aims of helping them to overcome the trauma which is preventing them from going back to sea and of finding alternative sources of income. In the medium term, the project should lead on to the unionization of the fishermen, so as to promote solidarity among them and enable them to take back control of their own destinies.

The international trade union confederations ICFTU and WCL, and the sector-by-sector Global Union Federations, have also mobilized and have acted to channel the funds collected by unions worldwide into rehabilitation and reconstruction projects - so workers' organizations are making a specific and much-needed contribution. Over and above the emergency assistance, the trade union movement also wants broader, longer-term action to tackle global poverty. A mission of international and regional trade union leaders has just returned from Indonesia and Sri Lanka. They brought back information complementing the reports already received from unions in the region. On this basis, priorities can be drawn up for action in response to the most pressing reconstruction needs. The mission recommends that the Global Unions should have an on-the-spot presence in Banda Aceh, so as to assist the unions in implementing and monitoring the solidarity assistance programmes.

In Memoriam

The ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities is in mourning. On 18 January 2005, our colleague Ditiro Saleshando, head of the African office, passed away. He had been suffering from a heart condition, which surgery undertaken last October was unable to correct. Paying tribute to "Sales", as we called him, ACTRAV Director Jim Baker recalled our colleague's ceaseless commitment to the values of free and democratic trade unionism which, for him, "were not an abstraction, but part of his everyday life and his very being".

"In his long, full life as a trade unionist, even though it was nonetheless too short, he learned and taught many lessons. He was a good trade unionist who knew, among other things, how to disagree without being disagreeable. He was a gentle man and a gentleman."

Ditiro was born on 3 September 1951 in Maun, Botswana. As soon as he started work in the mining industry in 1972, he became a trade union activist, and subsequently a shop steward. In 1981, he was elected Executive Secretary of the Botswana Mining Workers Union, and in the same year as General Secretary of the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions. At the time, the BFTU was one of the few autonomous trade union centres in the continent of Africa, where most of the trade unions were under the tutelage of one-party regimes. Ditiro Saleshando's commitment to promoting the improvement of the Botswanan miners' living and working conditions was indissociable from his equal commitment to the struggle against apartheid in the neighbouring country. His testimony helped to reveal the fate of migrant workers in South Africa and highlighted the ill-treatment suffered by black workers there.

He was a deputy member of the ILO Governing Body from 1978 to 1981, and was elected to the Executive Committee of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in 1983, at a time when the ICFTU was stepping up the anti-apartheid struggle and the campaign for democratic trade unionism in Africa. He became Assistant General Secretary of the ICFTU African Regional Organization in 1985, and in 1991 he was behind the first-ever international trade union conference on human and trade union rights in Africa. This event, held in his native land, marked the beginning of the democratization movement in Africa, in which the trade union movement played a key part.

When he joined the ILO Workers' Education Branch in 1995, Ditiro Saleshando was described as having "solid national experience as a trade union leader and educator". That was an understatement. In fact, he brought with him not only his experience but also his strong motivation and enthusiasm, convinced as he was that the International Labour Office must help the renascent African trade union movement, which was facing all kinds of challenges. This conviction remained with him throughout his career.

Expressing their deepest condolences to his widow Miranda, his daughter Keipele, his sons Bakang and Tlotlo, and his many friends and colleagues worldwide, the ACTRAV staff declared that "Ditiro's courage and dedication, but also his humour, live on and inspire us all. His friendship is engraved in our hearts."

Social issues top world's 2005 agenda

A recent UN General Assembly resolution (A/RES/59/57) places a fully inclusive and equitable globalization at the heart of international economic and social development programmes.

It also boosts the ILO's drive to achieve the aim set by the Millennium Declaration: to turn globalization into a positive force for the good of humanity as a whole.

Under the resolution, an assessment of all the challenges and opportunities presented by globalization will be part of a comprehensive review of the Millennium Declaration during 2005. The resolution also calls on relevant UN agencies and other multilateral institutions to provide the Secretary-General with information about their activities to promote an inclusive and equitable globalization. So the resolution takes the first steps towards bringing all concerned international bodies into a more coherent, better coordinated and less fragmented multilateral framework for managing globalization.

Meanwhile, a UN secretariat document entitled "Copenhagen +10" will be debated at the next session of the UN Commission on Social Development, to be held in New York on 9-18 February. During this session, the ILO will be represented at a round table discussion on employment. Two other round tables will examine poverty and social integration.

This March, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will publish a report on the implementation of the Millennium development objectives, aimed in particular at reducing extreme poverty worldwide by 2015. His document will draw mainly on a report entitled Investing in Development - a practical plan to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, published this month by the millennium project team headed by the Secretary-General's Special Adviser Jeffrey Sachs. This report makes ten major recommendations and proposes concrete measures for achieving the goals. Governance, the defence of human rights and participation by civil society are among the points covered by the recommendations.

With the world's leaders scheduled to meet at the G8 summit in July and the UN summit on the implementation of the Millennium Goals in September, this will be a crucial year for promoting the social dimension of globalization.

Europe: governance and decent work

What are the best policies for ensuring youth employment and decent work? How should the migration issue be tackled at a time when demographic trends suggest that Europe will need to bring in extra labour? How can labour market flexibility be reconciled with security of employment and income and social protection? What is to be done about pensions, given an ageing population and rising life expectancy?

These issues will top the agenda at the ILO's Seventh European Regional Meeting, to be held in Budapest on 14-18 February 2005. Delegates representing governments, employers' organizations and trade unions from 50 European and Central Asian countries will take part in the event, which will open on 14 February in the presence of the Hungarian Prime Minister M. Ferenc Gyurcsány, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker - currently holding the presidency of the European Union - and ILO Director General Juan Somavia. Also taking part will be the Prime Ministers of Malta, Lawrence Gonzi, and of Kazakhstan, Danial Akhmetov.

"The social future of the world is in Europe," says Juan Somavia in his report to the conference. "If Europe is able to maintain its social model, it will be a sign of hope for the rest of the world."

Apart from the in-depth discussions of the agenda items, an informal ministerial meeting will be held on the follow-up to the Report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization. The meeting will be co-chaired by Juan Somavia and Philippe Séguin, the Chairperson of the ILO Governing Body.

World Social Forum

Trade Unions, Globalization and Development - strengthening workers' rights and skills. That was the theme of a seminar held by ACTRAV in Brazil, just before the opening of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre on 24 January. The seminar was organized through the Global Union Research Network (GURN), with support from ACTRAV and the international trade union organizations. Topics discussed included poverty reduction strategies, the multinationals, the international financial institutions, international and bilateral trade agreements, migration and strengthening trade unions.

Seminar participants joined the national delegations in Porto Alegre for the World Social Forum. As a curtain-raiser, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the World Confederation of Labour and the European Trade Union Confederation held a trade union forum to discuss the future of international trade unionism.

The union internationals, together with similarly minded non-governmental organizations, also organized a seminar on the social dimension of globalization.

Labour University

An international workshop will be held in Johannesburg in February 2005 to evaluate the Masters Programme on Labour Policies and Globalization, launched last October. The programme is run by the University of Kassel and the Berlin School of Economics, following an initiative by the ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV), and is organized in cooperation with the international trade union movement and several other universities around the world. Courses at this Global Labour University (GLU) tackle issues such as international labour standards within the context of globalization. The courses are particularly aimed at trade unionists from different parts of the world. The trade union movement's potential role in mastering globalization is at the heart of the studies. The first 24 students come from 19 countries. They were selected from among 150 candidates supported by trade union organizations. The programme is backed by the German Trade Union Federation (DGB), the Hans Böckler Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). In May 2005, the Berlin School of Economics will host a research seminar organized by the Global Labour University. This will examine the effects of globalization on national economic policies and trade union strategies.

GLU students will choose the topics for their theses, which they will present in September 2005 during a workshop attended by the next intake of students. Applications for the next academic year must be submitted before 15 March. For more information: www.ilo.org/lpg.

Unions' role in the world economy and the fight against poverty

The subject of ACTRAV's next biennial symposium will be the role of trade unions in the world economy and the fight against poverty. To be held in Geneva on 17-21 October, it will look at the dynamics of the world economy, assess the causes and current trends of poverty and, most importantly, discuss unions' role in drawing up plans and action to eradicate poverty and social exclusion. As well as to trade union organizations, the symposium should send a clear message to donor bodies and countries, and to the ILO, on the basis of the trade union movement's priorities. As ACTRAV Director Jim Baker point out in the most recent issue of Labour Education, on the theme of Trade Unions and Poverty Reduction Strategies: "In the absence of genuine discussion with the representative workers' organizations (or employers' organizations), the desired policy outcomes are very unlikely to be achieved. After all, trade unions, as key players on the economic, social and political scene, will have a crucial role in implementing the strategies. This seems to have been overlooked ... Things have to change. And things can change... The trade union movement should not, therefore, abandon its efforts to influence this process."

In that issue of Labour Education, a number of specialists from the trade union movement and elsewhere examine the nature and quality of the participation process and assess unions' involvement in drawing up official poverty reduction strategy papers. While pointing to the many obstacles that still hamper such participation, they nevertheless all agree that developing country governments are fully capable of opting for policies that truly reflect their respective national priorities - including on employment strategies, social protection, health promotion and education for all. Citing many trade union proposals on these issues, they express the hope that the international financial institutions will start paying serious attention to them and will earmark the resources needed.

Textiles: quotas end, headaches begin

From the 1970s onwards, the western countries were keen to protect their textile and garment industries in the face of competition from lower-cost countries, particularly in Asia. So the first Multifibre Arrangement (MFA) came into force in 1974. It was based on a system of quotas which the developed countries set for textile and garment exports by the developing countries.

Most of the studies published on the ending of the quota system on 1 January 2005 conclude that China and, to a lesser extent, India will substantially increase their market share within the world textile and garment trade. The World Bank estimates that, by 2010, half of the world's garment exports will come from China, as against the present one-quarter. But an ILO study to be published shortly suggests that, after a steep rise due to the ending of the quotas, the growth in China's market share will flatten out. One reason for this is that the major garment buyers will wish to maintain some diversity of sourcing. The study also emphasizes that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh may become more competitive than China if they bring in reforms.

However, the ILO study shows that the ending of the quotas will lead to a big shake-out in this sector. The least productive enterprises, such as the notorious sweatshops, will find it difficult to survive whereas, at the other end of the scale, competitive firms are likely to expand. At the global level, these shifts will probably lead to the stagnation or slight, gradual decline of employment in the sector, as labour productivity is likely to increase faster than demand. By 2018, between 1% and 2.5% of the jobs may have been lost.

According to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), "the textile and clothing sector is set to experience a revolution on 1 January 2005." An ICFTU report published in December speaks of an "imminent social drama of global proportions" which will lead to "the loss of millions of jobs in countries which are already some of the poorest in the world".

Entitled Disaster looms with the end of the quota system, the ICFTU report concentrates on the disastrous social consequences that the ending of the quota system and the rise of Chinese competition could have in several countries that have based their development on the textile and garment trade. The cases of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mauritius, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic are examined in detail on the basis of on-the-spot surveys, but these are just a few examples of a situation that is causing deep concern in dozens of countries all over the globe. Nor will the industrialized countries be spared. The textile and garment sector employs more than 2.5 million people in the European Union and the ending of the quotas could lead to the disappearance of 15% of textile and garment jobs in the UK and 13% in Germany. In the US, this sector has shed 350,000 jobs over the past four years, and the ending of the quotas threatens more employment losses in both the US and Canada.

The dismantling of the quotas and China's growing share of textile exports were also the focus of concern when textile workers' unions gathered in Istanbul last October for the World Congress of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF). They feared that producers will exploit cheap, unprotected labour.

Spotting automotive industry trends

Auto parts suppliers are now playing an increasingly important role in the automotive industry, according to a report by the International Labour Office (ILO). Their share in the value added of a car (currently up to two-thirds) could reach three-quarters for some makes, the report says. Entitled Automotive industry trends affecting component suppliers, the report was the main document for a tripartite ILO meeting held in Geneva on 10-12 January. An interesting social dialogue development noted in the report is that auto manufacturers and suppliers have been to the fore in signing international framework agreements with the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) and local unions. These agreements recognize the ILO's core labour standards, including Conventions nos. 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, 100 and 111 on equal opportunities and treatment, 29 and 105 on forced labour, and 138 on child labour. The companies involved expect their suppliers to adhere to these same standards as part of their continuing business relationship.

The importance of these framework agreements is stressed in the meeting's conclusions, and participants expressed the hope that social dialogue will become a permanent feature of industrial relations in this sector.

Pointers