7 January, 2011The IMF Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean highlighted the impact of job insecurity and employers' refusal to recognise the freedom of association. He also requested greater ILO cooperation in strengthening national and international collective bargaining at the sector level.
CHILE: Government, worker and employer representatives from more than 30 American countries met in Santiago, Chile, for the 17th American Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which concluded on December 17, 2010 with a call for greater effort to promote the Decent Work agenda on the continent.
Delegates called for promotion of the decent work agenda; respect for the freedom of association and collective bargaining; ratification of ILO Convention 102 on social security; a competitive economy accompanied by social cohesion; basic labour rights; and institutionalisation of the labour market.
Jorge Almeida, IMF Regional Representative, highlighted three issues at the meeting: job insecurity, freedom of association and collective bargaining. He proposed:
- Harmonisation of the OECD guidelines with the ILO Tripartite Declaration, in such a way as to take account of the conventions mentioned in the ILO document.
- Increased ILO technical support and cooperation on sector studies to help strengthen national and international collective bargaining at the sector level (IFAs).
- He noted the absence of any study on the new forms of organisation of TNCs, notably the impact of new production methods on job insecurity (for example outsourcing) and non-compliance with ILO Convention 87 on the freedom of association (for example, Grupo Mexico and the Mexican National Miners' Union.
"We have an opportunity to produce a consensus document focusing on the next four years, a period within which there will be opportunities for decent work in the Americas. To waste this opportunity and allow working conditions to deteriorate will take us down the path of job insecurity, exploitation and conflict," said Almeida.
He added that the freedom of association must be preserved as an absolute value of trade union democracy and that free, independent and democratic organisations must never renounce their right to the freedom of association. He said that collective bargaining must be seen as an essential instrument for regulating labour relations, resolving workplace problems and sharing the benefits of labour. Its impact goes much further than the workplace and affects the living conditions and development prospects of communities, so we must not ignore it.
He also highlighted the situation of the Mexican miners, commenting that many companies make absolutely no investment in health and safety at the workplace and violate the freedom of association, "for example, Grupo Mexico; on 19 February, five years will have passed since the industrial homicide at the Pasta de Conchos mine, from which the remains of 63 workers have still not been recovered," said Almeida. He added that the Mexican government and Grupo Mexico violate the trade union autonomy of the Mexican National Miners' Union as does Mexican legislation, which prevents the freedom of association.
He explained that the IMF has presented two complaints to the ILO: first, in 2006, about the anti-trade union attitude of Grupo Mexico regarding the Miners' Union and second, in 2009, about protection contracts and official procedures (toma de nota) that restrict the freedom of association. The second complaint called on the ILO to ask the Mexican government to take the necessary steps to incorporate ILO Convention 87 into national law and to encourage democratic labour relations.