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7 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 78/2000
The working people of Pakistan and India are not at war with each other. The two countries must resolve their differences peacefully, renounce nuclear weapons and divert spending from defence to the alleviation of poverty.
That was the call yesterday from Asia-Pacific trade union leaders meeting in Singapore. They were taking part in the Regional Conference of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
The union leaders also urged the Asean economic bloc to exert more pressure on Burma to comply with "basic civilised standards". The Burmese regime systemically violates labour rights. The use of forced labour and child labour is widespread and genuine trade unions are banned. Burma is an Asean member state, and the union call came as Asean's economics ministers were meeting in Thailand.
Multinationals, especially those in the oil and chemical sectors, should also step up the pressure on the Burmese regime, the union leaders said.
The Singapore meeting evaluated the record of the ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Organisation. Substantial progress had been made on the organisation's four main objectives, Regional President Daisaku Kochiyama said. These are:
the construction of union networks both within individual multinationals and across whole sectors
the strengthening of respect for trade union rights and other human rights across the region
trade union education
friendship and solidarity among the region's trade unionists.
ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs reported progress in the ICEM's campaign to sign global agreements both with individual multinationals and with whole sectors.
Guest speakers were Noriyuki Suzuki, General Secretary of the Asia-Pacific Regional Organisation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, and John de Payva, President of Singapore's National Trades Union Congress.