10 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 39/2001
Canadian-based Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. should withdraw from Burma. That is the call from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) on the eve of Ivanhoe's annual shareholders' meeting.
The company’s joint venture with the Burmese military regime in the Monywa copper mine provides “funds for the coffers of a regime that has been irrefutably linked to forced labour and narcotics trafficking,” say CLC President Ken Georgetti and ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a letter sent to Ivanhoe Chairman Robert Friedland.
The Monywa mine, located in Sagiang, is also linked to mass conscription of involuntary labour. According to the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO), 921,753 people were forced to build the railway connecting Monywa to the town of Pakokku. The Thazi dam hydroelectric plant which is the mine’s power source was built using 3,000-5,000 forced labourers.
The labour leaders cited the decision in November 2000 by the ILO, which is comprised of unions, employers and governments, to exhort corporations to “review...the relations that they may have with [Burma] and take appropriate measures to ensure that [Burma] cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labour.”
“We urge you to re-evaluate your direct business relations with the Burmese military junta in light of this global consensus,” wrote Georgetti and Higgs. “It is the position of the global labour movement that it is impossible to do business with the Burmese government or in Burma without subsidising forced labour and other human rights violations. Certainly in the case of Ivanhoe’s partnership with the military junta, foreign investment is directly propping up the regime.”
The ICEM is a global trade union federation uniting more than 20 million workers worldwide. The CLC represents 2.3 million working Canadians and their families. It is the voice of Canada's labour movement.
A recent proclamation issued by the ICEM's energy union affiliates from the Asia/Pacific region, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, called on oil and gas companies to “cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues.” The unions represented were from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
The company’s joint venture with the Burmese military regime in the Monywa copper mine provides “funds for the coffers of a regime that has been irrefutably linked to forced labour and narcotics trafficking,” say CLC President Ken Georgetti and ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a letter sent to Ivanhoe Chairman Robert Friedland.
The Monywa mine, located in Sagiang, is also linked to mass conscription of involuntary labour. According to the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO), 921,753 people were forced to build the railway connecting Monywa to the town of Pakokku. The Thazi dam hydroelectric plant which is the mine’s power source was built using 3,000-5,000 forced labourers.
The labour leaders cited the decision in November 2000 by the ILO, which is comprised of unions, employers and governments, to exhort corporations to “review...the relations that they may have with [Burma] and take appropriate measures to ensure that [Burma] cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labour.”
“We urge you to re-evaluate your direct business relations with the Burmese military junta in light of this global consensus,” wrote Georgetti and Higgs. “It is the position of the global labour movement that it is impossible to do business with the Burmese government or in Burma without subsidising forced labour and other human rights violations. Certainly in the case of Ivanhoe’s partnership with the military junta, foreign investment is directly propping up the regime.”
The ICEM is a global trade union federation uniting more than 20 million workers worldwide. The CLC represents 2.3 million working Canadians and their families. It is the voice of Canada's labour movement.
A recent proclamation issued by the ICEM's energy union affiliates from the Asia/Pacific region, meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, called on oil and gas companies to “cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues.” The unions represented were from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.