Support of women urged
The IFBWW, based in Geneva,
Switzerland, has been pushing
for the inclusion of women into
trade union activi-

organization
realizes that soci-
eties and cultures in
Latin America, Asia and Africa
make it hard for women to be
involved in their unions.

For the past several years the
organization, of which the IWA is
a member, has worked with the
Danish trade union central, the
FNV, to carry
out trade
union progr-
ramming in
Asia and
| Africa. With
sustained
efforts
progress has

been made, although women’s
participation remains low in
those continents.

In Latin America, the IFBWW
has yet to launch a global
women’s program - leaving it up
to affiliates at the sub-regional
and national levels.

Early next year, the IWA and
the National Confederation of
Forest Workers of Chile (CTF)
will be breaking new ground in

Chile and in Latin America when
they get together to develop and
write a week-long course on
women’s issues in trade unions.

“Our members are going
down to Chile to share their
experiences and knowledge with
the CTF women’s committee,”
says national secretary-treasurer

David Tones. National |WA
women’s committee chair
Brenda Wagg and Local 1-3567’s
Bev Humphries will join the
CTF’s Silvia Leiva and others to
co-write the course. “This is an
exciting opportunity for us to
learn about working women in
Latin America,” says Wagg.

Dominican workers violated
The International Confederation
of Free Trade

7 Unions has
condemned

union rights in the

Dominican Republic's free trade
zones and sugar plantations
where ILO standards of freedom
of association and freedom to
bargain collectively are denied.
Intimidation and violence
imposed by police and
employers is often used. In the
plantations, companies close
when workers call for collective
bargaining, and open under a

| new name, dismissing workers.

= CHILE CTF - IWA Education Project

PHOTO COURTESY CTF

= Since March of 2000, when the IWA trained a group of instructor in Chile
(above), the CTF-IWA Education Centre, has made significant progress, develop-
ing several courses for confederation affiliates.

Trying to get to the bargaining table

Joint CTF-IWA collective
bargaining course delivered

In early November, the CTF-IWA
Education centre
in Concepcion
Chile, ran its first-
ever four day-long
course. on collec-

tive bargaining in
in the forest
industry.

“The course went very well, consid-
ering that it was the first time,” says
CTF secretary general Sergio Gatica,
who is also in charge of the education
program. “The leadership in our union

base is really interested in how to be
more effective in collective bargaining
and we think the new course we have
developed, in cooperation with the
IWA Canada, has some valuable les-
sons for our members.”

The 6,500 member CTF, the
National Confederation of Forest
Workers of.Chile, represents workers
in’ forty-five individual unions. All of
them bargain separate contracts under
Chilean labour laws.

The course was co-written at the
IWA’s office in Vancouver in early
October when Brother Gatica and [WA
International Solidarity coordinator
Rolando Quintul assembled materials

for the course. [WA secretary-treasurer
David Tones stressed the importance of
creating unity in the workforce around
bargaining issues.

“In Canada and in Chile too, I think
it is generally agreed that unions have
to get the rank and file to fully support
their demands and ensuring that being
unified is the only way to make
progress,” says Brother Tones.

Gatica agrees. “For so many years,
Chilean workers have been intimidated
and divided and have been unable to
taken meaningful collective actions on
a broad and continuous basis,” he says.
“We hope this course will help us break
through some of the barriers that
restrict our progress.”

Most of all the Chilean Labour Code
has workers hemmed in. The course
deals with legal restrictions on collec-
tive bargaining. It also deals with topics
like economic factors affecting bargain-
ing, how to form a negotiating comm-
mittee and prepare union demands,
legal rights of employers, how to plan
and execute negotiations, legal media-
tion, arbitration, and-how legal strikes
or lock outs can occur.

“It’s a course that covers a lot of
ground,” says Brother Quintul. “We
wrote the course to encourage a great
deal of participation, so there’s lot of.
discussion around things like what the
role of the committee should be if a
strike takes place. Most importantly the
course contains ways of building better
contracts by the sharing of information
between CTF affiliates.”

“We can work together in a more
unified way in the future,” comments
Brother Gatica. “Our members can
eventually build and structure better
contracts even though we are highly
restricted by the laws and by the
employers.” As is customary at the end
of every course, the participants shared
a toast and were given certificates of
participation, signed by the presidents
of the CTF and IWA.

Talkin’ union with a
Croation leader

NOT ONLY IS THE IWA involved in
international solidarity activities with
the National Confederation of Forest
Workers of Chile as a national union —
itis involved on the international scene
at the local union level as well.

In late August Mr. Ivica Ihas, the
President of the Trade Union of State
and Local Government Employees of
Croatia met with IWA Local 700 offi-
cials in Toronto to discuss how trade
unions operate in Canada.

Brother Ivica was in Ontario on his
way to the Public Service International
Conference in Ottawa, held during the
first week of September.

Brother Ihas’ interest in the IWA is
related to the fact that Local 700 organ-
ized workers at the Croatian Credit
Union in Toronto, which is currently
trying to get a first collective agreement
at the operation, even tough it organ-
ized the workers in October of last year.

The union’s acting chairperson,
Sister Nadia Toncovic was present
along with interpretor John Jolic.

Brother has told the IWA that, fol-
lowing the changes to the former

socialist state, in 1992, as a pluralistic
democracy emerged, the Croatian trade
union movement began to become a
force to be recognized with in his coun-
try. His union currently represents
30,000 of 80,000 government work-
ers. Among them are border guards,
police and state civil servants.

“They are definately struggling and
trying to find the best way of doing
things,” says Diotte. “Their union is
also involved in social issues like build-
ing housing for workers and helping

PHOTO COURTESY LOCAL 700
=| At the IWA national office in T.O. were (I. to r.) Nadia Toncovic, Ivica Ihas,
National VP Wilf Mcintyre, John Jolic and Local 700’s Ron Diotte.

enhance a social infrastructure. It’s a
different type of system but the objec
tives are the same — to help workers. ”

Sister Toncovic says unions in
Croatia also assist workers in trying to
achieve-every day needs like obtaining
food and other necessities. “Brother
Thas was interested in the IWA, from
how we collective bargain to how dues
are collected and used by unions in
Canada,” says Sister Toncovic. “There
are many things that we can learn from
each others’ movements.”

12 [ THE ALLIED WORKER DECEMBER 2002

eres