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At least 191 union activists were murdered in Colombia last year. Since the beginning of 2002, over 60 more have been slain. The great majority of these killings have gone uninvestigated and unpunished. 
 
Colombia is the world's most dangerous country in which to be a trade unionist. Its government must act to halt the wave of killings, abductions and disappearances. And it must act now. 
 

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That was the clear message brought to the Colombian Ambassador in Brussels this afternoon by a delegation of Belgian and international trade union leaders. 
 
As demonstrators chanted in the street outside, the delegation presented the ambassador with a letter detailing just some of the recent crimes against Colombian trade union leaders. 
 
Persecution against the Colombian trade union movement has become &quot;serious, systematic and persistent,&quot; the letter points out. While the crimes against trade unionists rarely result in prosecutions, some leaders of the oilworkers' union USO have themselves been brought before Colombian courts in trials that are &quot;marked by repeated serious violations of the minimum rules of due process and defence rights&quot;. The unions suggest the appointment of a special official within the Colombian prosecutor's office. The official's task would be to ensure that any trials against USO leaders are conducted fairly. 

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The letter is co-signed by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), the Belgian unions Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale-FGTB, SETCA-FGTB and CNE and the Brussels region of the Belgian labour confederation CSC. Handing it over to the ambassador were ICEM Vice-President Paul Lootens, who is National Secretary of the Centrale G&eacute;n&eacute;rale; ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs; and Guy Tordeur and Jacques Debatty, the Federal Secretary and Assistant Secretary of CSC Brussels. The demonstration was held by the Belgian unions, the ICEM and USO, with the support of a wide range of human rights and development organisations. 
 
The unions' letter goes on to condemn the escalation of the armed conflict in Colombia. While this has undoubtedly led to violations of trade union rights and other human rights, such breaches cannot be seen as &quot;a natural consequence of the existence of the conflict.&quot; The letter calls for a resumption of dialogue and negotiations with the guerrillas in Colombia, &quot;leading to a cessation of hostilities and a humanitarian agreement that lays the basis of a solid and lasting peace process&quot;. The European Union should continue to stimulate such negotiation and dialogue, the unions say. At the same time, responsibility for ending the persecution of trade unionists in Colombia rests with the Colombian State. The letter also stresses that the special Colombian forces set up to protect energy industry installations must operate under proper legal and constitutional control. 
 
&quot;The Ambassador was quite open and candid,&quot; ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs told the demonstrators just after the delegation emerged from lengthy talks inside the embassy. &quot;The Ambassador said that corruption, due in particular to money from the drugs trade, had reduced the ability of the Colombian State and judiciary to act. We pointed out that this was no excuse for permitting the murder and abduction of trade unionists, and we assured him that the international trade union movement would continue to monitor developments in Colombia very closely. He promised to relay our letter to the Colombian President and Government, and to communicate their response.&quot; 
 
 
To applause from the crowd, Higgs described Colombia's trade unionists as &quot;heroic&quot; and urged the global trade union movement to continue supporting them in every possible way.

Colombian Union Rights Demo In Brussels

A resolution calling on energy multinational Unocal to adopt a workers' rights policy was supported by over 31 percent of the shares voting at the company's annual shareholder meeting in the US this Monday. 
 
It is a significant increase over the votes cast for a similar motion last year. 
 
In the final tally released yesterday by Unocal, the workplace rights resolution garnered 31.34% of the voted shares, with an additional 4.47% of the voting shares abstaining on the resolution. Last year's motion gained approximately 23 percent of the vote. 
 
The resolution tabled this year urges the board of directors to adopt and implement a company-wide employee policy based on the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. This key declaration by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) includes bans on child labour and forced labour. 
 
The Longview Collective Investment Fund of the Amalgamated Bank and the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical &amp; Energy Workers International Union (PACE) sponsored the Unocal resolution proposal. 
 
Unocal came under pressure this year from representatives of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), the US national labour federation AFL-CIO and PACE, as well as religious and human rights activists, concerning the company's ongoing investments in Burma. Unocal is a joint venture partner in a gas pipeline project there with a firm owned by the Burmese military dictatorship. Pressed over a recent media report that Unocal and the Burmese regime were considering a new gas pipeline to India, Unocal CEO Charles Williamson publicly stated that the company would refrain from expanding its investments in Burma. 
 
Further union support for Monday's vote was mobilised in Britain, where the Trades Union Congress (TUC) contacted over 100 pension funds and lobbied key investors. Information about the resolution was also sent to all 630 members of the TUC Trustees Network. A number of large UK institutional investors, including fund manager CIS and some individual pension funds, decided to vote in favour or to abstain. 
 
The Unocal vote is &quot;a great success for global labour solidarity,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;It also demonstrates increased social awareness by investors.&quot;

Big Unocal Shareholder Support For Worker Rights Proposal

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the leading independent proxy advisory firm in the United States, has recommended that shareholders of energy multinational Unocal vote for a proposal concerning workplace practices. 
 
The resolution has been tabled for the company's upcoming May 20 annual meeting. It calls on the board of directors to adopt and implement an enforceable company-wide employee policy based on the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Adopted by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Declaration opposes child labour and forced labour, while enshrining the right to form and join trade unions and to bargain collectively and the right to no discrimination or intimidation in employment. 
 
The Longview Collective Investment Fund of the Amalgamated Bank and the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) are the sponsors of the proposal. The American labour federation AFL-CIO, the British Trades Union Congress and the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) are also urging shareholders to support this resolution. PACE is an ICEM affiliate. 
 
&quot;ISS recognises the value of labour standards and formal company policies on human rights practices, particularly for companies that have operations in countries where there are fewer protections for workers,&quot; the ISS report states. &quot;Ethical issues aside, there may also be very real implications for the bottom line. As borne out by the recent experience of some high-profile manufacturers and retailers, an increasing number of consumers and shareholders are seriously concerned about whether low wages and abusive working conditions exist in facilities patronised by U.S. companies; firms that do not share that concern can risk damage to their corporate reputation and possible consumer backlash.&quot; 
 
&quot;We are pleased that ISS - a truly independent expert - recognises that Unocal's endorsement of global labour standards would benefit the company and its shareholders,&quot; said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. 
 
&quot;ISS's recommendation is one more indication that this proposal is gaining support among institutional investors,&quot; added Kenneth Zinn, ICEM North American Regional Coordinator. &quot;We believe its adoption would promote shareholder value.&quot; 
 
ISS noted that a similar proposal submitted at last year's Unocal annual meeting received approximately 23 percent of the vote. &quot;This turnout suggests that many mainstream investors, in addition to socially conscious investors and human rights activists, are concerned about the company's human rights record and involvement in Burma,&quot; the report stated. &quot;In light of the serious human rights concerns in a number of the countries where the company operates (including Burma), we believe that this step of publicly endorsing these international labour standards and adopting independent monitoring will benefit the company and its shareholders.&quot;

Proxy Advisers Back Unocal Ethics Vote

Meeting in Washington this week, senior officials from seventeen paper and graphical trade unions in eleven countries resolved to build global union networks at four multinational corporations. 
 
The unprecedented meeting was jointly sponsored by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and UNI Graphical, both global trade union federations. The union leaders came from Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. 
 
The unions agreed to build global trade union networks at four multinational companies in the paper, packaging and graphical industries - Finnish-based Huhtam&auml;ki, Irish-based Jefferson Smurfit Group plc and its affiliated company Smurfit Stone Container Corp, Canadian-based Quebecor Inc. and Swedish-based Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget. These companies employ approximately 170,000 people in over 40 countries around the world. 
 
The unions agreed to form global union networks for workers to share information and experiences, build international union solidarity, and develop new tools for unions to contend with the challenges of globalisation. 
 
The delegates expressed their concern about the uneven record of these and other multinational companies in their treatment of their employees' rights to organise unions and engage in collective bargaining, and agreed to take joint action to try to ensure that workers' rights are respected everywhere in the world that the companies conduct business.

Paper And Graphical Unions Forge Cross-Border Networks

Warrants for the arrest of South Korean power workers' leaders should be withdrawn immediately, the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) urged today. 
 
&quot;The unionised workers at power plant subsidiaries of the Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) are engaged in peaceful industrial action,&quot; wrote ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in a protest message to South Korea's President Kim Dae-jung. &quot;The State's response has been to issue warrants for the arrest of 24 union leaders. We also understand that state-owned KEPCO has decided to dismiss more than 5,000 workers, to bring in replacement workers and to sue more than 200 trade union officers. 
 
&quot;All of this is wholly unacceptable in a democratic society,&quot; Higgs told President Kim. &quot;It constitutes a breach of the internationally recognised right to strike. We urge you to do your utmost to ensure that the arrest warrants are withdrawn immediately and that KEPCO rescinds all threats of dismissal and legal action. Your government should also negotiate sympathetically with the striking workers' union and should press KEPCO to do likewise.&quot; 
 
Over 5,000 power workers grouped within the Korean Power Plant Industrial Union have been on strike for the past nine days - mainly over plans to privatise South Korea's electricity industry. 
 
Unions were never consulted about the privatisation scheme. The decision was unilaterally imposed by the government in December 2000. 
 
South Korea's electric power unions are prepared to continue a dialogue aimed at finding solutions, but the government withdrew from the negotiating table and backed the unions into a corner by replacing strikers with retired workers. The unions' demand is for a full debate on privatisation, with the involvement of relevant civil society organisations and of the consumers.

Korean Power Strike: Halt Arrests And Restart Talks

Yet another Colombian oilworkers' leader has been kidnapped. 
 
Gilberto Torres was abducted on Monday evening, as he was on his way home from his office. Torres is the General Secretary of the pipeline section of the Colombian oilworkers' federation USO. 
 
This is &quot;one more act of violence,&quot; says the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) in a protest message to Colombia's President Andr&eacute;s Pastrana. 
 
&quot;Time and again,&quot; the ICEM reminds Pastrana, &quot;we have asked your government to take steps to punish those responsible for the persecution and murder of trade union leaders.&quot; The ICEM says that the Colombian authorities have allowed the murderers and those behind them to go unpunished. &quot;Since the beginning of this year alone, more than 20 trade unionists have been murdered,&quot; the ICEM points out. It calls on the Colombian government to &quot;take effective measures to track down, judge and punish those responsible for this crime.&quot; 
 
Colombia is the world's most dangerous country for trade unionists. Last year, more than 130 union activists were murdered there.

Colombian Oil Workers&#039; Leader Kidnapped

Miners in the Spanish province of Huelva have vowed to continue protests over plans to close many of the area's metal mines. A meeting between unions and the Spanish government in Madrid yesterday proved &quot;very negative,&quot; the miners' leaders said. 
 
The campaign includes an underground sit-in by thirteen miners. They have already spent twenty days 400 metres below the surface. Despite some health problems brought on by the damp, they are determined to stay put. 
 
The miners' unions, FIA-UGT and FM CC.OO, will also be organising further demonstrations in Huelva and beyond. 
 
Large crowds of miners demonstrated outside government offices in Huelva city yesterday while the discussions took place in Madrid. They accused the Spanish government of &quot;ducking the issue and passing the buck&quot;. 
 
Parts of Huelva have an ancient mining tradition. The recent threat by a number of companies to shut down the metal mines would deal a severe blow to the local economy. Some companies argue that the mines are uneconomic, although there is considerable dispute about this. 
 
The unions are demanding extended unemployment benefits for laid-off miners, an early retirement scheme, economic diversification projects for the affected areas and the continuance of mining activities. Union leaders also denounced the lack of minimum maintenance at some of the mines. 
 
At the global level, FM CC.OO. and FIA-UGT are affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;We entirely support our Spanish colleagues in their struggle to defend their mines and to secure decent replacement incomes,&quot; declared ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;All too often around the world, commercial short-termism has destroyed mining communities and irreparably damaged valuable mines. That is a waste of resources - and, above all, a waste of people. The miners of Huelva can count on the solidarity of mine and allied workers everywhere.&quot;

Spanish Miners Protest; Above Ground And Below

Shareholders are pressing US-based oil multinational Mobil to review its investments in Nigeria in the light of continuing human rights violations there. 
 
Two institutional shareholders announced today that they will be tabling a human rights motion at Mobil's annual shareholders' meeting on 14 May. In particular, they want the company to push for the release of two detained Nigerian oilworkers' leaders. 
 
The Mobil shareholders' move is a further step in the world trade union campaign to free Milton Dabibi, General Secretary of oil and gas workers' union PENGASSAN, and Frank Kokori, General Secretary of oil and gas workers' union NUPENG. 
 
Kokori has been detained without trial in Nigeria since 1994 and Dabibi since January 1996. Both are in poor health, and their condition is reported to be deteriorating rapidly. They are still being denied access to the medical care that they need. They are also barred from contact with lawyers and with their unions, which are being run by government-imposed administrators. Dabibi and Kokori are both recognised by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience. 
 
The two Mobil shareholders tabling the motion are Franklin Research and Development Corporation, a US-based socially responsible investment firm with 500 million US dollars in client assets, and the Service Employees International Union Master Trust. They have jointly filed a resolution asking the Mobil board of directors to review and develop guidelines for company investments in countries where &quot;there is a pattern of ongoing and systematic violation of human rights; a government is illegitimate; there is a call by human right advocates, pro-democracy organisations or legitimately elected representatives for economic sanctions; and Mobil's long-term financial performance may be potentially threatened by international criticism, economic sanctions and boycotts by consumers and local governments.&quot; 
 
The resolution notes that all of these factors are in place in Nigeria. Mobil is in direct partnership with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and has made payments, including royalties, fees and taxes, to the military government. The resolution further notes that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has found Nigeria in violation of internationally-accepted labour standards and has demanded the release of union leaders Frank Kokori and Milton Dabibi and others held incommunicado without charge or trial. 
 
Last week, the ILO voiced &quot;outrage&quot; over Nigeria's continued flouting of basic labour rights. The ILO, a UN agency in which the world's unions, employers and governments are represented, has now set up a special commission to investigate worker rights in Nigeria, notably the situation of the imprisoned trade unionists. 
 
&quot;It is past time for Mobil to take action on behalf of Kokori and Dabibi,&quot; said Andrew Stern, President of the 1.1-million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU). &quot;Reports from Nigeria indicate that these union leaders are very sick and may die in jail.&quot; Mobil, he insisted, must &quot;use its influence with the Nigerian government to seek the release of the duly elected leaders of its Nigerian employees.&quot; 
 
&quot;Mobil's complete lack of action on human rights in Nigeria has exposed the company to considerable business risk,&quot; said Simon Billenness, senior analyst of Franklin Research and Development Corporation. &quot;Until democracy is restored there, Nigeria provides an unstable business climate.&quot; 
 
The two shareholders have a combined investment in Mobil Corp. of 49,500 shares, worth more than 3.9 million US dollars. 
 
Leading the world trade union campaign to free Dabibi and Kokori is the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which PENGASSAN, NUPENG and the SEIU are affiliated. 
 
The ICEM has called for full UN economic sanctions against Nigeria, including an oil embargo, unless the ILO commission is permitted to enter the country and Dabibi and Kokori are released without further delay. Meanwhile, the ICEM is maintaining its own preparations for targeted action against Nigerian oil exports into a number of key countries - including the USA, which is the biggest importer of Nigerian crude (see ICEM UPDATE 20/98). 
 
The inclusion of the shareholder resolution on Mobil's proxy statement follows meetings on this issue between senior Mobil management, institutional shareholders and other concerned organisations. 
 
Corporate human rights policies have already been discussed at the global level between the ICEM and a number of multinationals, including Shell.

Nigerian Rights Abuses: Mobil Shareholders Seek Investment Review

Oil multinational Total is to resume sales of World Cup '98 footballs bearing its logo, a spokeswoman told ICEM UPDATE this afternoon. She said the company had received &quot;formal certification&quot; that no child labour was involved in the production of the balls. The certification came from Lucerne-based ISL Marketing, which handles licensing deals for the World Cup. Total has therefore lifted its suspension of its supply contract with Dutch-based football manufacturer Smits Plastics. 
 
French oilworkers' unions had raised the issue with Total after video footage was screened on French TV, apparently showing Pakistani children stitching World Cup soccer balls bearing the Total logo. Both Total and Smits say they have examined the footage from which the TV version was edited. They claim that the pictures screened on French TV were a &quot;misleading montage&quot;. 
 
This does not, of course, mean that child labour has been eliminated from Pakistan's football industry, which produces most of the world's stitched soccer balls. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the textile workers' international ITGLWF and the commercial workers' FIET are holding further discussions with football's world governing body, FIFA, and the sporting goods industry concerning child labour and other labour rights issues in the sporting goods industry.

Total Resumes Football Sales

Escalating its pressure on the Nigerian government, the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) has launched a Commission of Inquiry to investigate trade union rights abuses there. Earlier, in unusually strong language, a key ILO committee had voiced &quot;outrage&quot; over Nigeria's continued flouting of internationally recognised labour rights. 
 
The Commission of Enquiry was set up yesterday by the ILO's Governing Body, in which the world's governments, employers and trade unions are represented. Significantly, the commission was established under Article 26 of the ILO Constitution, whose provisions are invoked only in the event of persistent and serious violations of international labour standards and the repeated refusal of a member state to bring its labour practices into line with ILO rulings. Such a commission's findings are final. According to international lawyers, its conclusions can then be challenged only in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. 
 
The ILO Committee on Freedom of Association has repeatedly called on Nigeria's military-led government to release imprisoned trade unionists, end harassment of trade unions and take measures to guarantee respect for the civil liberties essential to trade union rights. In recent findings, the Committee underscored the persistent deterioration of trade union rights and denounced the non-respect of civil liberties in Nigeria. 
 
In its current session, the Committee expressed its &quot;outrage&quot; at the way in which the Nigerian government has ignored repeated requests to modify its labour regime and allow a special mission into the country to examine the state of trade union rights and visit imprisoned trade unionists. 
 
The Committee said the Nigerian government has repeatedly ignored calls for a mission to examine trade union rights in the country and to visit trade unionists detained without trial, &quot;at least one of whom has been detained for over three years.&quot; 
 
This is a reference to Frank Kokori, General Secretary of Nigerian oil and gas workers' union NUPENG. Kokori has been held since 1994. His colleague Milton Dabibi, General Secretary of Nigerian oil and gas workers' union PENGASSAN, has been in jail since January 1996. Neither has been charged with any offence. 
 
The two Nigerian labour leaders are recognised as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International. Their health is reported to be deteriorating. They have been denied access to adequate medical care and legal assistance. Their unions are being run by government-imposed &quot;sole administrators.&quot; Union bank accounts have been frozen, and the check-off of union dues has been frozen. Many oilworkers sacked on government orders after the 1994 strike in the Nigerian oil industry have never been reinstated. 
 
 
 
World oil conference protest 
 
This is not the first time the Nigerian government has been in trouble at the ILO recently. 
 
Nigeria was seriously embarrassed in full view of the world's oil companies, oil unions and governments last month at an ILO world conference on industrial relations and freedom of association in the oil refining sector. 
 
Conceived as a mainly technical meeting, the conference was in fact completely overshadowed by the cases of Dabibi and Kokori. The two democratically elected oilworkers' leaders had been invited by name to take part in the talks, but the Nigerian government refused to release them so that they could attend. 
 
The workers' group at the conference, consisting of oilworkers' leaders from all continents, was disgusted by the presence of Nigerian government representatives there while the Nigerian oil unions are under government control and their elected leaders are rotting in jail. This was, after all, a UN-backed world conference on how to promote freedom of association in oil refining ... 
 
Coordinating the workers' group was the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the two Nigerian oil and gas unions are affiliated. 
 
The workers' group kept Nigeria at the top of the agenda throughout last month's conference and intensively lobbied government and employer representatives. As a result, the governmental, oil company and oil union delegates to the meeting adopted a formal conclusion referring specifically to the ILO's ongoing Freedom of Association case 1793 (Nigeria) and calling on the ILO Governing Body to resolve problems. Yesterday's Governing Body decision is in part a response to that call from the world's oil industry and governments. 
 
 
 
Sanctions call 
 
&quot;The Nigerian government is thumbing its nose at the UN and its specialised agency, the ILO,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe today. &quot;It is therefore cocking a snook at the world community. The ILO commission must be permitted to enter Nigeria without delay, and Milton Dabibi and Frank Kokori must be released now. If not, the only adequate UN response will be the introduction of full economic sanctions against Nigeria, including the imposition of a world embargo on Nigerian oil exports.&quot; 
 
In the meantime, Thorpe said, key ICEM affiliates would maintain preparations for targeted international action of their own against Nigerian oil. This readiness includes stepped-up campaigning by oilworkers in the USA, the world's biggest importer of Nigerian crude (see ICEM UPDATE 20/1998). The campaign to free Dabibi and Kokori is supported by the world trade union movement as a whole, including the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), which organises seafarers and port workers worldwide.

ILO &quot;Outrage&quot; Over Nigerian Abuses

Archive

Colombian Union Rights Demo In Brussels

Big Unocal Shareholder Support For Worker Rights Proposal

Proxy Advisers Back Unocal Ethics Vote

Paper And Graphical Unions Forge Cross-Border Networks

Korean Power Strike: Halt Arrests And Restart Talks

Colombian Oil Workers' Leader Kidnapped

Spanish Miners Protest; Above Ground And Below

Nigerian Rights Abuses: Mobil Shareholders Seek Investment Review

Total Resumes Football Sales

ILO "Outrage" Over Nigerian Abuses

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