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Cambodian workers face
lifting of export quotas
The International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions has sound-
ed a loud warning over the
future lifting of an export quota
system between textile manufac-
turers in the southeast Asian
nation of Cambodia and the
United States. In January of
2005, the quotas will disappear,
throwing the emerging industry,
which employs some 200,000
workers (mostly young women),
into direct competition with
China's tex-

tile facto-
January ‘04

report the
ICFTU notes that a bilateral trade
agreement with the U.S.,
reached in 1999, has benefited
workers in a limited way
because access to the American
market has been linked to work-
ers’ rights. As a result, some
trade union activity has surfaced.
However, the minimum daily
wage in the country is $1.50. An
average worker requires a
monthly salary of about $80 to
live decently and raise a family,
according to the report. Despite
some gains, thousands of
Cambodians are routinely forced
to work overtime or be threat-
ened with dismissal or worse.
Four or five hours of OT is not
out of the ordinary, with few
inspectors to check workplaces.

IFBWW calls for direct ILO
involvement in Colombia
The International Federation of
Building and Wood Workers, the
IWA’s international free trade
union affiliate, has called on the
Geneva-based International
Labour Organization to set up a
commis-
sion of
inquiry in
Colombia
to investi-
gate viola-
tions of
human rights in the South
American nation. On December
10 (Human Rights Day) of last
year, IFBWW reps and others
from the global labour move-
ment, organized and assisted by
the ILO, held a panel discussion
in Geneva under the title of
“Stop the Killing and Impunty in
Columbia.” In 2003, until that
date, there had been assasina-
tions of 59 trade unionists in
Colombia. Most of the murder
victims were public sector work-
ers. In 2002 there were 184 mur-
ders in the country, sixty per
cent of whom were actively
involved in collective bargaining
or were involved in legal actions
at the enterprise, local or region-
al levels. After the panel, the
conference participants went to
the Colombian Embassy in
Geneva, and delivered a letter
for president Alvaro Uribe. The
letter called for a halt to the
impunity and assasinations in
his country and noted that the
state of internal unrest has
resulted in increased harass-
ment of unionists, more arbi-
trary arrests and more impunity.

CTF - IWA Education Project

- 4 (yee (os => .

Twenty women workers took
part in an historic four day

educational class in Chile
Women members of the National
Confederation of Forest Workers of
Chile made a little history in December
of last year, when twenty activists from
the southern com-
munites of
Temuco,  Talca,
San Pedro de Paz,
Lota, Los Alamos
and Concepcion,
Participated in the
first-ever course
co-written by the CTF and IWA Canada.
A four day course, presented between
December 17-20, was very well received,
according to Sister Silvia Leiva, course
instructor and leader of the CTF’s
women’s department.

PHOTOS COURTESY CTF

= Pictured are some of the twenty CTF women who took part in the course.

CTF women hold their first-ever course

The course included an analysis of
the current role of women in Chilean
society (about 48 per cent of women
between the ages of 25-55 are actively
employed), the CTF’s policies towards
women (less than ro percent of the con-
federation’s membership is female),
Mothers of the Country (an historical
rundown on important contributions to
the advancement of women in Chile),
equality, unionism from a gender per-
spective, roles of women today, political
action, leadership qualities, public
speaking, and women and globalization
issues.

The course also includes information
on the IWA Canada, the Canadian
Labour Congress and a message from
Brenda Wagg, chair of the IWA
National Women’s Committee. In
February of last year, Sister Wagg,
accompanied by Local 1-3567’s Bev

Humphries and Local 2693's Rolando
Quintul, traveled to Concepcion, to co-
write the course with Sister Leiva.
“We're very happy that the first course
has been delivered by the CTF and that
there was a very high level of participa-
tion,” says Sister Wagg. “We are proud
to have assisted our
sisters in Chile and
hope they can build
upon the sharing of
lifetime and workplace
experiences and learn-
ing together.”

Sister Leiva says that
all twenty women gave
their committment to
stay in touch with each other and work
to further the activities of the women’s
department at the CTF. In their course
evaluations, the women called for a
great sharing of information between
the confederation and women in the
workplace.

Women have a long way to go to take
leadership roles in the Chilean labour
movement. Of the fifteen leadership
positions in the Central Unitaria de
Trabajores (CUT), the central labour
body, only one woman has been elected.
Only about 5 per cent of working Chilean
women are organized out of the millions
that are employed in professions, ser-
vices, and the agricuture industry, where
working conditions are the most severe.
The main objective of the course is pro-
vide women with greater knowledge and
awareness in order to enable the CTF, as
a whole, combat inequalities that exist in
the workplace and the exploited, sec-
ondary role that Chilean women have
been assigned.

“The course teaches us, that we have
no alternative — we have to struggle
together as men and women to combat
injustices in Chile. They effect every
man, women and child,” says Sister
Leiva. During the final day of activities,
the women left for a tour of the coal
mining community of Lota.

Silvia Leiva

Bush to reconsider
status of ‘illegals’

U.S. PRESIDENT George W. Bush says
he will remove the threat of deporting the
millions of “illegal” migrant workers who
are toiling in that country’s underground
and black market economy. Bush, who is
trying to smooth rocky relations with
Mexico, a poverty-stricken country which
supplies about half of the estimated 8-10
million “illegals” (some estimates go as
high as 14 million), is proposing to allow
these workers, who are currently in the
United States, to apply for legal status
within three years, if they have jobs. In
addition, freedom of travel, back and
forth to their native countries, would be
granted for three years with a possible
three year extension.

Critics call the Bush initiative a shrewd
play for Latino votes in 2004 and nothing
more that a “guest worker program” -
something he presented to Mexican pres-
ident Vicente Fox at the Summit of the
Americas in early January. Bush is hard
up for sliding political support. But the
U.S. president is not allowing “illegal
workers” to apply for green cards (the
U.S. government gives out only about

5,000 per year to blue collar workers -

= There are conservative estimates of
between 8-10 million ‘illegal’ workers.

some have to wait up to Io years) and is
not planning to permit the workers to
seek permanent residency status, an
essential step towards full U.S. citizen-
ship with the rights that entails.

“One of the great competitive advan-
tages that the U.S. economy has, and that
few people ever talk about, is its vast and
cheap labour market,” says IWA national
third vice president Joe da Costa. “Major
industries including agriculture, con-
struction, meat packing and the retail sec-
tor, benefit from the fact that they are not
monitored by the U.S. Department of
Labour. They pay this sector of the work-
force much less and don’t pay into social
security benefits. They are, in fact, subsi-
dized by the fact that Uncle Sam has pur-

posefully turned a blind eye to the issue.”

The giant bust at 58 Wal-Mart stores in
October of last year, where an alleged 245
undocumented workers were rounded
up, has helped bring the illegal worker
issue to public attention.

Brother da Costa also points out that in
2000, the AFL-CIO overturned its policy
of supporting stricter immigration laws
and is now doing more to reach out and
organize immigrant workers. Some suc-
cessful union drives have eliminated a
two-tier wage structure and have politi-
cized workers to speak out for fair treat-
ment. In short, the American labour
movement is starting to realize it is better
to organize to bring up the standards of
illegal workers than push for policies that
are not effective.

The International Monetary Fund esti-
mated that in 2002, undocumented
workers in the U.S. accounted for a stag-
gering $180 billion worth of the nation’s
economic activity.

“It's a system that has worked well for
employers and poorly for the rights of
workers,” adds Brother da Costa. “No
workers can be blamed for seeking a bet-
ter life by coming to North America and
supporting their families. The whole
labour system needs to be addressed.”

20 | THE ALLIED WORKER

MARCH 2004