29 August, 2011
Trade union movements in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK will protest at Fiji missions in their respective countries this week over escalating union and civil society repression imposed by Fijian military dictator Josaia Voreque Bainimarama. These manifestations – in addition to protests at embassies of Fiji in several other countries – occur as Daniel Urai, President of the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC), and Dinesh Gounder, of the National Union of Hospitality, Catering, Tourism Employees, face a court hearing this week, 2 September, on charges of holding a union meeting without a permit.
Gounder and Urai, formerly of ICEM affiliate Fiji Electricity Workers’ Union who also serves as General Secretary of the Hospitality, Catering, Tourism union, were arrested on 3 August for violating a four-day-old decree aimed at disempowering trade union activities.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will conduct two manifestations while Urai and Gounder are in the dock; one at the Fiji Consular General’s office at 100 North Walker Street, North Sydney, the other at the Fiji High Commission in Canberra, 19 Beale Crescent. Both demonstrations begin at 11h.
Daniel Urai, Dinesh Gounder
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) will conduct a protest at 12h30 on Friday, 2 September, at Fiji’s High Commission offices at 31 Pipitea Street, Thorndon, Wellington.
In the UK, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) will hold a protest together with Amnesty International outside of Fiji’s High Commission in London on Thursday, 1 September, from 16h to 17h. This Fiji mission is located at 34 Hyde Park Gate, London SW7 5DN.
LabourStart has launched an online campaign in which opponents of this blatant repression of trade unionism can respond directly to the Fiji government. The LabourStart campaign can be found here.
The Fiji military regime has tightened the noose on human and trade union rights over the past months and it has flaunted it in full view of the international community. In May 2011, the regime imposed a draconian anti-social amendment to the Employment Relations Promulgation 2007 law that eliminates public-sector workers from the scope of the regulation. On 29 July, the regime of Commodore Bainimarama then published the Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree, effectively banning all industrial actions, voiding existing collective agreements in weeks to come, curbing overtime pay, and canceling wage adjustments and certain work terms in designated industries. The decree will severely hamper union ability to gain bargaining rights and maintain representation status.
The decree also prohibits people from holding union office unless employed by the respective company, and those that do not face large fines and jail sentences. The right to was previously limited, but the Essential National Industries decree now makes it near impossible, with strike authorisation only granted by government approval.
The military regime last week also banned the annual conference of Fiji’s Methodist Church because church leaders refused to accept a government demand that pro-democracy church leaders step down from their church roles. The Methodist religion is Fiji’s largest religious affiliation.
The ICEM joins national labour centres and other labour organisation in pressing Fiji to reverse these archaic decrees, as well as calling on Fiji to conduct free and democratic elections in the near future.