26 September, 2007ITUC report documents murder, violence and intimidation against trade unionists worldwide.
GLOBAL : A total of 144 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers rights in 2006, while more than 800 suffered beatings or torture, according to the Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations, published by the International Trade Union Confederation.
The 379-page report documents nearly 5,000 arrests and more than 8,000 dismissals of workers due to their trade union activities and investigates 484 new cases of trade unionists held in detention by governments. The report gives accounts of mass dismissals, beatings, detentions and threats against workers and their families carried out in countries in each region of the world.
Dictatorships and authoritarian governments in Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, North Korea and several Gulf countries maintained their suppression of independent trade unions, with more than 100 Chinese workers detained in prisons and forced labour camps in appalling conditions.
The Survey also reports growing government hostility to fundamental workers' rights in some industrialised countries, in particular in Australia, where the government's deceptively-titled "WorkChoices" legislation stripped workers of a raft of rights and benefits, and imposed heavy restrictions on union activity, with harsh penalties for individual workers and union officials. In the United States a National Labour Relations Board Ruling deprived millions of the right to organise.
The anti-union activities of a number of multinational companies, including repeat offenders such as Coca Cola subsidiaries and suppliers, Wal-Mart, Goodyear, Nestlé and Bouygues come under the spotlight.
Women workers in particular continued to face repression, particularly given the exploitation of the mainly female workforce in Export Processing Zones in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with numerous instances of dismissal and outright refusal by employers to recognise even the most fundamental rights of their employees.
The report is available in four languages, French, English, Spanish and German and is available in hardcopy or online at: http://survey07.ituc-csi.org/.