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ADDRESS BY DAVID COCKROFT, ITF GENERAL SECRETARY, TO INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE JUNE 2008
Mr President, Delegates,
On behalf of the ITF – the global voice of transport workers – I wish to congratulate the Director General on his report. i
Decent work and fair globalisation are becoming central to the agenda of all governments, employers and workers. i
Today’s credit crisis, the massive rise in oil and food prices and the growing threat to our planet of climate change shows that market forces alone cannot deliver decent jobs, decent living conditions or sustainable growth.h
This year sees the 60th anniversary of the adoption of Convention 87 and the adoption of a Declaration on social justice for a fair globalisation – which will bring the language of the Declaration of Philadelphia to match the challenges of today’s global world. More than ever we need a strong ILO today.
The transport sector continues to lead the way.h
Two years ago, the ITF, representing seafarers and the ISF representing shipowners, together with the government group, led by China, made a major step forward in raising the profile of the ILO with the adoption of the Consolidated Maritime Labour Convention. i
Shipping, which was the world’s first global industry now has the world’s first enforceable international labour standard. The MLC will take its place alongside the three fundamental maritime conventions of the International Maritime Organization as the fourth pillar of global maritime regulation. Any ship which does not carry and comply with a maritime labour certificate laying down Convention standards will be excluded from global trade by port states. i
The importance of continuing joint work between the ILO and the IMO is a message which I will take to the IMO Council when I address it next week to mark that organisation’s own 60th birthday. In the future we must build similar relationships with the entire UN system.i
Last year this Conference adopted a new Consolidated Fisheries Convention and will make a real difference to the daily lives of fishers – in what is probably the most dangerous occupation on earth, and I would like to pay tribute to the role played by the International Organisation of Employers in bringing that Convention to a successful conclusion .i
There are very few seafarers’ or fishers’ shipowners or fishing boat owners anywhere who are not aware of the ILO. We need to achieve the same level of understanding throughout the global economy. The new Declaration allows us to do so.i . This underlines why the recent reform of the ILO sectoral activities and the possible new work in reference to Multinationals, led by the Director General, are vital to the future of the Organisation. Strengthening sectoral social dialogue will ensure that the work of the ILO has a direct impact on workers and employers.i
That is why we there will be a series of key advisory group meetings later this year bringing together employers, workers and interested governments in each sector to advise the Governing Body on sectoral work.i
In transport we have already started the process. The ITF together with the IRU, our road transport employer counterpart, and the ILO, have produced a toolkit designed to help train drivers and employers in how to stop the transmission of HIV/AIDS. In aviation we need to plan how to handle the social impact of the liberalisation of the airline industry as the process of negotiating ‘open skies’ agreements between the EU and major economies continues .i
The ILO is also working more closely with the World Bank, which at the end of last month published its new five year Business Strategy for Transport. Social dialogue is needed to achieve Safe, Clean and Affordable transport.i
And gender equality must be taken seriously in every aspect of ILO’s work. There needs to be higher participation of women in all ILO activities – not as tokenism but as a reflection of efforts to ensure that women take their rightful place in the leadership of trade unions, in business and, of course, in governments.i
Let me give you two examples of growing international union cooperation in transport. Many of you will be aware that a Chinese flagged ship, the An Yue Jiang, was recently discovered planning to unload 3 million rounds of AK 47 ammunition and rocket propelled grenades in the port of Durban. These weapons were destined for the soldiers of Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe at a moment when political tensions there are at their highest. The ITF dockers' union refused to unload the ship and as the ITF received reports that it would try to escape the action by unloading in Mozambique, Angola or Namibia, ITF unions in those countries made it clear that the ship’s cargo wasn’t welcome anywhere in Africa. African Union governments also added their support. Contacts also took place between the ITF and the Chinese Seamen’s’ Union and the ACFTU, and with the Chinese government.i
I am happy to be able to tell you that those weapons are nearly back in China.i
A second example is a remarkable development in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. For over two years, Israeli and Palestinian ITF unions have been working to improve conditions for professional Palestinian drivers. Last year we established, at a meeting in Cyprus, an ITF/Histadrut /PGFTU Liaison Committee. Earlier this year we held negotiations with senior representatives of the Israeli armed forces to establish a system under which genuine transport workers – taxi and truck drivers – can move through checkpoints more easily without compromising Israel’s security. We have now begun to recruit workers in a call centre in Ramallah and a new Helpline for Palestinian transport workers will soon be up and running. Decent work in that region has a very special meaning.i
And finally, let me say a few words about the DG’s report ‘Freedom of Association – Lessons Learned’i.
In too many countries, organising workers into genuine trade unions still carries with it a very high risk. The killers of the General Secretary of the ITF’s Guatemalan port workers union STEPQ - Pedro Zamora - still have not been brought to justice, although the new President, Alvaro Colom, has promised to step up the pressure.i
And there is still a serious lack of Freedom of Association in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
When I addressed this conference last year, Mansour Osanloo, chair of the Tehran Bus Workers’ Union, had just stepped off a plane in London to participate in an ITF road transport meeting. A week later he travelled to Brussels where he addressed the ITUC General Council and met many of the world’s top trade union leaders. They were all deeply impressed by his passion to create a genuine independent workers' movement in Iran. In my address I asked the Iranian authorities to make sure that he did not face any reprisals when he returned home.h
With great regret, I have to tell you that a month after his return to Tehran, security agents kidnapped him from a bus driven by one of his own members. For three days he disappeared from view and we feared for his life. Eventually we discovered that he had been returned to the notorious Evin prison where he remains today sentenced to five years in jail simply for trying to achieve for Tehran bus workers the fundamental rights guaranteed in ILO Convention 87, which most people in this hall take for granted at home.h
The existence of an independent organisation of workers is still seen by some elements in the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a threat to that republic’s very existence. It is not.
In fact the government still refuses to let genuine worker organisations operate. Instead it claims that the Workers' House and Islamic Labour Council - two bodies which it created - are the only legitimate voice of Iranian workers.
In 2005 members of the Islamic Labour Council attacked and badly injured Mansour Osanloo. In more recent attacks by security agents his eyes were badly damaged and urgent intervention by the Director General was probably the main reason he was eventually given treatment which, we hope, saved his eyesight.
ITF and ITUC unions throughout the world are continuing to campaign to secure the freedom of Osanloo, of Mahmoud Salehi of the Saqez Bakers’ Union and of the many other independent labour leaders in Iran who still face intense harassment simply for trying to secure freedom of association and collective bargaining rights for their members.
One of the leading figures in pursuing that campaign was Janek Kuczkiewicz of the ITUC human and trade union rights department, who tragically died of a sudden illness earlier this year. The establishment of proper trade union rights in Iran would be a fitting tribute to his memory. It would be an important sign to the international community that Iran respects the same universal standards as other Islamic states.1
And I appeal to the Workers’ House – if it really wants to show that it is an independent workers organisation – to make a public statement calling for the release of all imprisoned trade union leaders and the full exercise of trade union rights in Iran.1.
I very much hope that I will not have to make a further statement on this question next year or that I will be able to report good news of Mansour’s release and that independent workers’ organisations can take their rightful place.h
Thank you. |