| 221. In Honduras, a country which ratified ILO Conventions 87
and 98, it is illegal for a group of unorganised workers to sign a collective
agreement in a firm where a legally formed union already exists. However, this
measure is not worth the paper it is written on, as the employers know they can
count on the government's sympathy. At AAA Honduras Apparel Manufacturers for
example, a house union was formed after the expulsion of the members of the
legitimate trade union was accepted by the labour minister.
| 221. There is, again, no claim here that this has any relation
to EPZs.
|
| 222. One of the principal exemptions affects the right to
strike. In 1982, in Pakistan, the government formally banned the right to
strike in the zones. "No employee" says the ordinance that applies specifically
to the export processing zones, "has the right to refuse work, hold up work or
go on strike. No employee may begin, continue, instigate, incite or force
others to take part in a strike or to support one."
| 222. In 1982 the Government of Pakistan was a military dictatorship of General Zia Ul
Hak. As stated in paragraph 164 "There is
usually a direct link between the type of political regime in the host country
and the social and trade union situation." Labor at the time supported the
opposition, and often paralyzed the economy with general strikes.
|
| 223. Furthermore, workers in the EPZs do not have the right to
form trade unions following the suspension of all labour legislation in the
zones. The Pakistani authorities proudly announced their willingness to
exchange trade union rights for foreign investment. At the end of 1992, the
federal Finance Minister Sartaj Aziz, speaking to a group of Japanese businessmen
in Tokyo, promised that "the labour laws of Pakistan will not be applicable
in the special industrial zones created by the government."
| 223. See our paragraph 222.
|
| #224. When an EPZ was created in 1995 in Walvis Bay in Namibia
the Windhoek government, sensitive to investors "concerns" banned the right to
strike in the zone. Initially it had wanted to ban unions altogether
| 224. This is a new zone not yet in operation. In August the
government announced that the labor laws of Namibia would apply within the
zone, except for the clause on strikes and lockouts.
|
| Government indifference
|
| 225. Very often, governments choose not to apply the law. No
action is taken against the enterprises, the fines foreseen by law are not
collected, complaints filed by the trade unions are ignored. The workers are
effectively living in 'lawless' territory where to defend their rights and
interests they are constantly forced to take "illegal" action themselves.
Unable to form a trade union or enter into collective bargaining, the only
course of action open to them is wildcat strikes and sudden stoppages. "Although
national labour legislation covers the whole territory," notes the Associated
Labor Unions TUCP of the Philippines, "enforcement is a different matter."
| 225. What has this to do with the ICFTU attack on EPZs (which
are not mentioned)? If the ICFTU has problems with governments they should be
addressed to governments.
|
| 226. In El Salvador, the legislation appears to protect the
freedom of association: article 47 of the Constitution grants workers in the
private sector the right to 'associate freely in order to defend their
respective interests by forming occupational associations or trade unions".
This right is reinforced by article 248 of the labour code under the terms of
the "fuero sindical" which bans the dismissal of trade union officials (unless
on legal grounds determined by a judge) at the time of their election, during
their mandate and for the year following their mandate.
| 226. Nothing to do with EPZs.
|
| 227. "The reality endured by trade unionists however differs
substantially from the letter of the law" notes an AFL-CIO report. "The list of
sacked trade union members and leaders is getting longer. Not only are these
workers dismissed for no reason, they are also refused any form of compensation
or reintegration. Despite these abuses, the Salvadorian Labour Ministry
maintains his complacent attitude and if an enterprise is found to be at fault,
the Labour Minister often refrains from applying the law or even imposing a
fine."
| 227. Nothing to do with EPZs.
|
| 228. This laxity often hides the collusion between the public
authorities and the enterprises. According to information collected from Korean
owners, the Foreign Affairs ministry of Honduras, under the Callejas
presidency, promised Korean investors that if they came to the EPZs trade
unions would not be tolerated and the labour code would not be strictly
applied. A parliamentary report published in May 1994 commented on "the
slowness and sometimes apathy of labour inspectors called on to investigate
workers' complaints." The report made several proposals, including the expulsion
of foreign employers found guilty of ill-treatment, but the suggestions were
never acted upon.
| 228. Nothing to do with EPZs.
|
| 229. The Honduran authorities, already very hostile towards
any social protest, consider enterprises in the zones as strategic industries.
The EPZs have the same status as a public enterprise, making all strike action
illegal. The pro-government press is also part of the antiunion campaign. For
many weeks, says an AFL-CIO report published in June 1995, the daily papers
accused, without giving the slightest proof, the US trade unions of sending
money to the Honduran unions, with a view to destabilising the maquila industry
and bringing clothing jobs back to the United States.
| 229. EPZs are strategic industries -- more
than the public bus line, more than the water & sewer department. The
future well being of the country is being created in EPZs. Public employees
have many rights in Honduras, but not the right to bring down the nation.
The AFL-CIO, through its lobbying activities in
the US Congress, and its TV and Newspaper advertising in the USA (together with
its Gang of 5 buddies from environmental activists, religious agenda promoters,
"consumer advocates" and anti-immigration xenophobes) shut down the US Agency
for International Development's expenditures to promote new industry in
Honduras which had the same effect of slowing down Honduran economic
development.
|
| 230. Playing on nationalist feelings, the
government came close to considering the trade union activists as "traitors to
their country". Reacting to the complaints made in the United States by
Honduran trade unionists, the Labour Minister said, "it would be preferable to
present these complaints to the country's authorities so that our government
can take the appropriate legal measures and avoid this type of international
complaint which is not only harmful to the government but also to the
country."
| 230. Hondurans live with the memories of striking banana
workers when bananas were about the only source of income.
If trade unions acted responsibly and used the
right to strike only against employers when they had a grievance against that
employer, there would be far less labor tension in Latin America and elsewhere.
But the trade unions use the right to strike for political purposes, in which
the employer is not a party. These general strikes and sympathy strikes are
quite harmful to the countries and unions involved. They poison the atmosphere
of labor relations since even the best labor practices are not rewarded with
reliable workers.
|
| 231. He clearly did not know that the
complaints lodged in Honduras had the unfortunate habit of getting lost in a
tangle of bureaucracy, corruption and indifference. Treading in the footsteps
of the private enterprises which draw up and circulate the black lists of
"difficult" workers, the Salvadorian labour ministry issues "certificates of
good conduct" which specify that the person in question does not have a record
as a trade union organiser, enabling enterprises to avoid "bad influences",
sentencing anyone dismissed for trade union activities to almost certain
unemployment.
| 231. Suddenly ICFTU again mixes up its countries in the same
paragraph. It starts with Honduras and turns to El Salvador in mid-paragraph.
This is the typical shift from one country to another we have seen before. This
may be intended to mislead the reader into believing that the facts are
indistinguishable between countries, but in reality such sloppy writing and
thinking are not persuasive.
Where are the EPZs in all this?
|
| 232. "There is an urgent need to restructure,
purge and modernise the Labour Ministry," wrote two Salvadorian researchers,
Gilberto Garcia and Marisol Ruiz. "It is riddled with corruption, bureaucracy
and inefficiency". It is not unusual, in Central America, for corrupt labour
inspectors to be appointed as personnel directors in the enterprises they were
supposed to be inspecting.
| 232. EPZs are not mentioned. But there are generalized unsupported allegations about
Central America, typical of most of this ICFTU document.
|
| 233. In Mexico, the authorities have multiplied the obstacles
facing the organisation of independent unions in the maquiladoras. According to
the daily "La Jornada", some towns on the border with the United States do not
have a labour tribunal. "Attempts to set up a tribunal in the towns of Sabinas,
San Pedro and Muzquiz were blocked by a member of parliament from the PRI (the
ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party) who also owns one of the biggest
firms running factories in these towns".
| 233. The villages of Sabinas and Muzquiz are located about 120
kilometers south of the USA border at Eagle Pass, Texas, a sparsely populated
section of both the USA and Mexico. They are not far from the town of Nueva
Rosita, Coahuila. Knowing the lack of budget of Mexican Authorities to provide
services in this region, it is quite possible that labor tribunals are not high
on their priority list, much as they might want to have them. We could not find
San Pedro on the map.
|
| Repression
|
| 234. These practices confirm the fact that most of the
countries that are host to export processing zones also appear regularly in the
reports of human rights organisations. It shows that the repression against the
trade unions comes not only from the employers but also from the public
authorities.
| 234. Most of the countries that grow palm trees appear
regularly in the reports of human rights organizations.
|
| 235. Protest movements are regularly repressed by the police,
but trade union activists are also at the mercy of the paramilitary groups and
security guards working in collusion with the enterprises' management.
| 235. This, as already admitted, has nothing at all to do with
the existence of EPZs. These practices have been going on long before EPZs were
even thought about, and again emphasizes that ICFTU should have far more
pressing agenda items than EPZs.
|
| #236. In the Philippines for example, trade union leaders were
"visited" by the governor's men to convince them to put an end to their trade
union activities, while in the textile sector (Quiong El) trade union leaders
were abducted and tortured by armed men. Since the last attempts at trade union
organising in the Cavite zone some thirty kilometres south of Manila, seven
trade unionists have been reported missing. Three other missing people were
later found dead.
| 236. The first sentence is unrelated to EPZs.
Cavite EPZ is one of the early government
zones; it has recently been expanded due to its success.
|
| 237. In the Dominican Republic, on 9 July 1994,
a trade union official, Prospero Juan, was placed under arrest by the police as
he was leaving a trade union meeting in La Romana. He was held in detention and
not released until the following month.
| 237. Was that meeting about the EPZ, the sugar mill, the
cattle operations or the Oscar de la Renta resort? What were the reasons for
his detention?
|
| 238. In Guatemala, a country torn by for forty years by
government and paramilitary violence, trade unionists in the EPZs are not
spared the general climate of intimidation. Cases of disappearance and murder
are legion. According to information from the Workers' Union of Guatemala
(Unsitragua), Alejandro Gomez Virula, finance secretary of the trade union at
the RCA enterprise, "disappeared" on 13 March 1995. Six days later, his body
was found in Guatemala city. On 28 February, a trade union leader from the
maquiladora M.J. and L.L. Modas, Debora Guzman Chupen, was also kidnapped but
her abductors "released" her on 1 March.
| 238. What EPZs are being discussed? Name, location, company involved?
In a country in the condition described, isn't
it exceptional that foreigners are investing in export industries at all? The
uncertainty factor is very high, the infrastructure is limited, and the risks
enormous. Doubtless the workers are happy to have jobs. Again the EPZ is
clearly not the problem. The problem is a general climate of intimidation that
existed before EPZs were ever created and perhaps that local union official
supported the leftist insurrection for years.
|
| The anti-union war
|
| 239. Enterprises are all too aware of their privileged status,
and openly violate the law and the labour code. Labour inspectors are
frequently prevented from entering factories and when they are allowed in, they
often find there is nobody in the management to hand the official notification
to. When in December 1992, after a succession of unfair dismissals of trade
union leaders, the Honduran deputy Labour Minister allowed trade unions not to
reveal the names of the 30 people needed to create a trade union, several
maquiladoras continued with the practice. In July 1993, 45 workers who had
signed up for the creation of a trade union were shown the door by the Seolim
company.
| 239. Name the EPZ.
|
| 240. Supported by governments with a long tradition of
antiunion measures and the violation of their own laws, enterprises are fully
versed in the union busting techniques tried and tested in many enterprises in,
for example, the southern states of the US.
| 240. We are tireless in pointing out again that this is
unrelated to EPZs, but rather related to the frustrating climate in many
countries for politically motivated trade union movements. See our
paragraph 230.
|