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As organised labour combines its strengths, union mergers are on the increase worldwide. Big amalgamations in Japan and the USA are about to boost that trend. 
 
Japanese chemical workers' federations Goka Roren and Zenkoku Kagaku will unite this October to form the new Kagaku League 21. (Kagaku means chemical). The merged federation will have about 96,000 members. It will be affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), of which Goka Roren is already a member. 
 
In the USA yesterday, the executive board of the oil, chemical and atomic workers' OCAW approved a merger with the paper workers' UPIU. Both these American unions are ICEM affiliates. The UPIU executive gave the merger the go-ahead last month. 
 
The OCAW and UPIU will hold simultaneous conventions in January to ratify the agreement. The new 330,000-member union will be known as PACE, the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union. Its headquarters will be Nashville. 
 
PACE's President will be Boyd Young, currently President of the UPIU. OCAW President Robert Wages will take office as PACE's Executive Vice-President.

Union Mergers In USA And Japan

Indonesia must repeal its old repressive labour legislation and replace it with a new law. That was the call from representatives of Indonesian trade unions and labour groups on 21 August at the end of an international workshop held inside the country. 
 
The demand was immediately backed by union internationals. In a joint statement issued in Indonesia on 21 August, the Asia-Pacific representatives of seven of the unions' sector-by-sector International Trade Secretariats declared that they &quot;look forward to working with Indonesian workers to build a democratic, strong and independent trade union movement.&quot; Such a movement will, they insisted, &quot;actively protect and enlarge the currently fragile democratic space opened up since May 1998.&quot; 
 
Signatories to the international statement include Phee Jung-sun, Asia-Pacific Regional Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). He and the other internationals' regional officers were in Indonesia during the workshop, which was held by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). Other internationals signed up to the support statement are the food, agriculture and allied workers' IUF, the building and wood workers' IFBWW, the commercial, clerical, professional and technical employees' FIET, the education staffs' EI, the public service workers' PSI and the communication workers' CI. 
 
The union internationals demand an &quot;immediate end to military intervention in labour disputes&quot; in Indonesia. 
 
The Indonesian government must, they insist, ratify and implement all the main ILO Conventions that protect basic labour rights, notably freedom of association and collective bargaining for all workers. Women workers, as &quot;the most vulnerable and exploited segment&quot; of the Indonesian workforce must be guaranteed equality of treatment and opportunity and must be protected against discrimination and sexual harassment. 
 
&quot;Administrative procedures (for example, registration of unions) should not be tantamount to seeking permission from the state and should not be used to deny, undermine or discriminate against the establishment of unions and union structures of workers' own choosing,&quot; the internationals warn. 
 
They declare &quot;our solidarity with the millions of workers and the unemployed&quot; in Indonesia who &quot;face rapidly rising living costs and the loss of their livelihood which are the consequences of bad political and economic policies. It is necessary for an independent trade union movement to intervene in economic policy-making to ensure that these policies are directed at job creation, protection of workers' rights and livelihood and equitable development.&quot;

Indonesia: Internationals Back Union Freedom Call

Forced labour is &quot;widespread and systematic&quot; in Burma (Myanmar), says a major report published today by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The report on the forced labour practices of the Burmese military junta was produced by a special ILO Commission of Enquiry after sifting voluminous evidence. It is one of the ILO's strongest ever condemnations of a national government - and probably the world's most detailed and careful compilation of evidence concerning Burmese forced labour. 
 
A &quot;saga of untold misery&quot; in Burma is described by the three-person Commission, which comprised former Chief Justices of India and Barbados and an Australian barrister. 
 
They note &quot;abundant evidence&quot; of &quot;the pervasive use of forced labour imposed on the civilian population throughout Myanmar by the authorities and the military.&quot; Women, children and the elderly are among those forced into work which is &quot;almost never remunerated or compensated.&quot; 
 
&quot;Forced labourers, including those sick or injured, are frequently beaten or otherwise physically abused by soldiers, resulting in serious injuries,&quot; the ILO report says. &quot;Some are killed, and women performing compulsory labour are raped or otherwise sexually abused by soldiers.&quot; 
 
In a clear warning to Burma's rulers and others concerned, the Commission points out that any person who violates the prohibition of recourse to forced labour in international law bears an individual criminal responsibility. 
 
The ILO findings will further increase the pressure on multinationals to withdraw from Burma for as long as the junta stays in power there. The call on firms to quit Burma was renewed today by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
&quot;The ILO report makes it quite clear that the Burmese economy runs on forced labour,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Vic Thorpe. &quot;Any company that stays in Burma is benefiting either directly or indirectly from that illegal and immoral system. There can be no justification for maintaining investments in Burma as things stand there today.&quot; 
 
The ICFTU also today called on the Burmese junta to resign and hand over power to a democratic, civilian-led government. 
 
The ICFTU coordinated international worker complaints which led the ILO to set up the special Commission. Support came from the ICEM and other union internationals. The complaints were based on ILO Convention 29, which prohibits forced labour. Burma has been a party to this Convention since 1955. 
 
 
 
ARCO QUITS 
 
A number of multinationals have already decided to quit Burma, the latest being the US-based energy corporation ARCO. The company's announcement on 12 August that it would not be renewing its remaining exploration lease in Burma is a major victory for Burmese and US campaigners. Oil and gas exports are the Burmese junta's biggest legal revenue earner - rivalled only by its lucrative illegal trade in heroin and other narcotics. 
 
Both the US and the EU already have a range of economic sanctions in place against the Burmese regime, due mainly to international trade union campaigning on the issues of forced labour and child labour. 
 
Prominent among the campaigners for oil companies to withdraw has been the ICEM-affiliated US oil, chemical, atomic and allied workers' union OCAW. 
 
&quot;We are proud of our rank and file members and ARCO workers who confronted management directly with this issue at the refinery and shareholders meetings,&quot; commented OCAW President Robert Wages. &quot;We also profess our admiration to all the activists who turned up the heat and made ARCO's Burma investment a lose-lose situation.&quot; 
 
 
 
ARRESTS AND TORTURE 
 
Wages condemned the recent arrest of 18 Burmese peace activists in Rangoon. &quot;We hold Unocal, Total and Arco directly responsible for these arrests,&quot; Wages said. &quot;It's the oil companies who prop up this corrupt narco-regime.&quot; 
 
Meanwhile, the ICEM and its affiliated unions worldwide are stepping up their pressure for the release of Burmese trade unionists U Myo Aung Thant and U Khin Kyaw. Both were arrested on 13 June 1997 and have been in jail ever since. U Myo Aung Thant has been sentenced to ten years in jail and given a concurrent life sentence for &quot;high treason&quot;. The &quot;treason&quot; was his attempt to form a trade union in the All-Burma Petrochemical Corporation, where he was employed. U Khin Kyaw, from the Seafarers' Union of Burma, was arrested with him and is apparently being held without trial. Both are reported to have been tortured in prison. 
 
 
 
OIL COMPANIES ACCUSED 
 
Oil and gas multinationals have been widely criticised for their economic support of the Burmese junta, but energy corporations have also faced specific accusations that they have directly benefited from forced labour. 
 
The charges have centred on the Tavoy pipeline, built to carry gas from the Yadana field off the Burmese coast to Thailand. The main partners in the Tavoy consortium are the energy multinationals Total and Unocal, together with the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Exploration and Production Company and Burma's state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). 
 
Two particular allegations were examined by the ILO Commission. One was a charge that helipads built by forced labour had been used by the oil companies. &quot;In a communication addressed to the Commission, TOTAL stated that most of the helipads situated on the pipeline route had been constructed by TOTAL or by companies working for TOTAL and applying its code of conduct, although TOTAL did not know under what conditions other helipads in the region had been constructed.&quot; 
 
The other charge concerns preparatory work on the pipeline site: &quot;There was evidence before the Commission in the form of secondary statements that forced labour was used until May 1995 for ground clearance work to provide access to survey teams for the Yadana gas pipeline project in Yebyu township, Tanintharyi Division. In a communication addressed to the Commission TOTAL stated that it was wrong to claim that the preparatory clearing work could have been undertaken by forced labourers for the purpose of facilitating the access of the project teams. During the years 1993 and 1994, clearing work had been carried out by the Compagnie g&eacute;n&eacute;rale de g&eacute;ophysique (CGG).&quot; 
 
The ILO Commission ultimately found itself unable to rule on these allegations, because the junta refused it permission to visit Burma and investigate: &quot;In view of the contradiction between the facts presented, and since the Commission was denied access to Myanmar to supplement its evidence, no finding on this matter could be made.&quot; So for the present, these charges are neither proven nor rejected. 
 
 
 
&quot;STAND BY THE ILO&quot; - AUNG SAN SUU KYI 
 
But as to the Burmese junta itself and its forced labour system, the ILO's findings are conclusive and damning. 
 
Commenting in Burma on today's ILO report, Nobel Prize-winning Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said: &quot;What the ILO needs to do is not just put an end to forced labour in Burma but also to try to create conditions under which our workers can get a fair deal... It is for the international community to stand by the ILO and to insist that necessary changes be brought about in Burma.&quot;

Burma Slammed By UN Body Over Labour Abuses

Confusion surrounds moves by the Nigerian government to lift restrictions on the oil workers' unions NUPENG and PENGASSAN. The withdrawal of government administrators from the unions' offices was announced last week - but today the unions were still under government control. 
 
On 11 August, Nigerian Head of State General Abdulsalam Abubakar repealed decrees dating back to 1994, under which the two unions were kept under the tutelage of government-imposed &quot;sole administrators&quot; and union activities were severely circumscribed. The two unions' elected General Secretaries, Frank Kokori and Milton Dabibi, had been detained in 1994 and 1996 respectively, and were held without trial until their release this June. 
 
On the phone from Lagos today, Dabibi and Kokori told ICEM UPDATE that they welcome the move to end government intervention in their unions - but that it has not so far been put into effect. 
 
In fact, the government has instructed its &quot;sole administrators&quot; to stay at their posts inside the unions for the time being. 
 
This has given rise to concern that the military-led government may attempt to convene union congresses and new leadership elections while PENGASSAN and NUPENG are still under its control. The two unions and their members could not accept this, Kokori and Dabibi warned today. First, the unions must be handed back to the current democratically elected leaderships, they insisted. Then congresses would be convened and elections held. 
 
A delegation from the UN's International Labour Organisation has now arrived in Nigeria to examine the trade union rights situation there. Dabibi and Kokori will be discussing these and related issues with the ILO representatives on Friday. 
 
&quot;Milton Dabibi and Frank Kokori are right. Clearly, NUPENG and PENGASSAN must be handed back to democratic control without further delay,&quot; commented Vic Thorpe today. Thorpe is General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), to which the two Nigerian unions are affiliated. 
 
&quot;Oil and allied workers worldwide will continue to campaign on this issue until PENGASSAN and NUPENG have regained full trade union freedom,&quot; Thorpe pledged.

Nigerian Government To End Intervention In Oil Unions?

I n the wake of a coal mine disaster on 13 May in Anhui Province in eastern China that left 63 miners dead and another 23 missing, the 20-million-member strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (ICEM) is calling on the world's mining industry to join with the global trade union federation in forming a &quot;rapid response&quot; team to investigate safety in China's mines. 
 
The ICEM today has written the Chinese government and the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) offering assistance on the basis of a frank and open dialogue. 
 
&quot;Serious mining accidents are regrettably a regular feature of the Chinese mining industry,&quot; said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. &quot;For this reason, the ICEM has written the ACFTU and the responsible minister in China to call on all parties to take immediate and serious measures to address the parlous state of health and safety in China's mines. 
 
&quot;We also call on the world mining industry to join with us in our attempts to improve the health and safety record of Chinese mining,&quot; added Higgs. Brussels-based ICEM is the preeminent trade union organization at the global level in the mining industry. 
 
The 13 May disaster at the state-run Luling mine in Huaibel city, Anhui, is being blamed on a natural gas explosion. The 86 miners were working 500 meters inside the mine. The Luling mine employs 7,000 to 8,000, and produces 2.4 million tons of coal annually. 
 
Figures from China's work safety bureau cite nearly 15,000 deaths occurred last year due to explosions, floods and cave-ins. In the first two months of 2003 alone, official figures cite 1,600 miners as having died in the country's mines. And a rash of accidents this spring has pushed this figure much higher. 
 
On 17 April, floods trapped and killed 14 at the Jiangshuping mine in the coal-rich northern province of Shanxi. A natural gas explosion on 30 March at the Mengjiagou mine in Liaoning Province killed 25 miners, and another gas blast on 22 March at the Mengnanzhuang mine in Shanxi killed 72. The Mengjiagou mine explosion was caused when managers failed to evacuate miners after shutting off power to adjust voltage. The outage shut off units used to ventilate natural gas from shafts as it seeped from the coal bed. 
 
&quot;The miners of the world are not prepared to sit back and allow this unacceptable loss of life in China,&quot; said Higgs. &quot;We're hopeful that with a joint labour-employer international team in place, coupled with the cooperation of the Chinese, comprehensive health and safety solutions can be found.&quot;

Action Needed on Chinese Mine Safety

A second round of industrial actions organised by the Federation of Austrian Trade Unions (&Ouml;GB) was held 13 May to protest the ruling conservative-far-right coalition government's regressive pension reform plan. The 13 May labour actions and strikes, joined by the ICEM affiliate Austrian Metal and Textile Workers' Union, come one week after initial actions by workers were held to protest the government's refusal to get consensus from social partners over pension changes. 
 
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel introduced the draft law 29 April that would raise Austria's retirement age and decrease pay-outs. Representatives from the &Ouml;GB and employers group then met proposing a delay in any reform until late September in order to submit suggestions to the draft law by the social partners, as is customary in Austrian lawmaking. Schuessel has refused, and his aim is to bring the measure to Parliament in early June. 
 
Pension reform as proposed would prolong the period of contributions from 40 to 45 years, as well as change the way in which pay-outs are calculated by taking an average of contributions over 40 years rather than the 15 most recent or most advantageous years. The government's reform would phase out early retirement, abolishing it altogether by year 2008. It proposes retirement age be raised to 65 years, whereas most Austrian men now retire at age 59 and women at 57. 
 
Metal and Textile Workers' Union President Rudolf N&uuml;rnberger commented on the government's plan: &quot;For they know not what they do. A man who works one year longer, so pays longer into the system, still gets less pension. This reform punishes those who have worked over their whole lives.&quot; N&uuml;rnberger addressed over 5,000 workers, mostly employees of Siemens and Henkel, at a rally on 6 May in Vienna. 
 
The Metal and Textile Union conducted some 307 different actions across Austria on that day that included 57,500 workers. In all, Austria's labour unions informed some 120,000 workers of the planned degradations to then pensions in workshop meetings leading up to the 6 May and 13 May job actions.

Industrial Actions in Austria

For the first time ever, employers and unions are close to reaching a worldwide agreement covering a whole industrial sector. 
 
Workplace health and safety and environmental protection are the theme of a working document drawn up in Tokyo at the end of last month by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). 
 
The paper focuses on union participation in the chemical industry's voluntary initiative, Responsible Care. The Responsible Care programme aims to ensure uniformly high occupational health and safety and environmental standards wherever the industry operates. 
 
Two years of negotiations have gone into the Tokyo document, which recognises that workers and their unions have a vital role to play in ensuring the highest standards. 
 
The ICCA is a council of leading trade associations representing chemical manufacturers worldwide. It deals with issues of international significance to the chemical manufacturing industry. 
 
The ICEM is a global federation of industrial trade unions representing more than 20 million workers on all continents. 
 
&quot;A joint working document was agreed in Tokyo and will be recommended to the industry,&quot; explained ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;It includes six policy objectives which are essential if Responsible Care is to gain the credibility it needs in order to secure our full support. We hope the document can be signed as a formal agreement between the ICCA and the ICEM before the end of next April.&quot; 
 
This would be a world first, Higgs said. &quot;It would be a historic development in international industrial relations - the first-ever world agreement between the representative body of employers in a whole sector and a global federation of workers.&quot;

Chemicals: Worldwide Union-Employer Agreement?

Some 700,000 coalmine workers in India are to stage a six-day strike this month. 
 
The strike call was announced yesterday by Indian National Mineworkers' Federation (INMF), which is organising the action jointly with three other national unions in the sector. At the global level, the INMF is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
Scheduled for 18-23 December, the strike has been sparked by the public sector coal industry's failure to implement a memorandum of understanding signed between the industry and the unions. Negotiations on the deal had taken over three years to complete. 
 
The INMF says management has &quot;distorted and misinterpreted&quot; the memorandum - particularly as regards the payment of cost-of-living adjustments. Management &quot;has also backed out from their earlier promises of accepting unions' demands which include additional increments.&quot; 
 
As well as the industrial action, the INMF is planning demonstrations and publicity campaigns on the issue.

Indian Miners To Strike

Energy workers' trade unions from fourteen countries in the Asia-Pacific region have urged Western oil and gas companies to &quot;cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues&quot;. 
 
The unions were attending a regional energy conference organised in Bangkok this week by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). 
 
The Burma pull-out call was unanimously approved by oil, gas, electric power and coal mining unions from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. 
 
The delegates also sent a message of solidarity to the Korean National Electricity Workers' Union whose representatives were absent from the meeting due to an ongoing battle against the privatisation of the state electric power utility KEPCO. The union has threatened to launch a nationwide strike from 24 November if the Korean parliament presses ahead with legislation to split up and privatise the company. The parliament's Industry and Energy Committee is due to consider the draft law by 23 November. 
 
 
 
 
BURMA, SLAVERY AND THE MULTINATIONALS 
 
On Burma, the energy unions noted with alarm the military rulers' decision to cease all cooperation with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
In 1998, the ILO found that forced labour was &quot;generalised and systematic&quot; in Burma. This verdict was backed by the world's governments, employers and unions, who meet on equal terms within the ILO. 
 
Last week, the ILO Governing Body ruled that the Burmese junta has still not taken the required steps to end forced labour. The new finding follows an ILO mission to Burma this October. Burma therefore remains in serious breach of ILO Convention 29 on forced labour. Unless the regime bans forced labour by 30 November - and there seems little likelihood that it will - then the ILO will advise companies, states and international organisations to review their relations with Burma, so as to ensure that they do not in any way support or condone forced labour. The ILO will also ask the UN Economic and Social Committee to tackle the Burmese situation. The ILO itself described these moves as &quot;unprecedented&quot;. 
 
If the ILO spotlight has remained on Burma, this is largely due to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which has continuously compiled and forwarded new evidence of the abuses. More than a million Burmese are still subjected to forced labour, toiling on construction sites for roads, railways, military installations and tourist infrastructure, the ICFTU says. 
 
A voluminous new ICFTU file, sent to the ILO last week, documents still more cases of forced labour relating directly to the building of the gas pipeline linking Burma and Thailand and the construction of tourist infrastructure. One of the country's military leaders, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, is directly involved. 
 
TotalFinaElf and Unocal are in a joint pipeline venture with Burma's state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) to bring gas to Thailand from the Yadana field off the Burmese coast. Since its inception, this project has stood accused of serious human rights abuses, including the use of forced labour. MOGE has also been linked to the laundering of the proceeds from Burmese junta's international sales of illicit drugs. 
 
Quite apart from these allegations, multinational energy investors are clearly helping to prop up one of the world's most repressive regimes. Another oil company heavily involved in Burma is British-based Premier. 
 
The full horror of the Burmese system is again shown in the latest ICFTU evidence. Men, women and children are drafted in for unpaid work - notably as forced porters for the Burmese army, as the country's long-running civil war continues. Forced porters are often sent ahead into minefields. The beating, rape and murder of forced labourers are commonplace. 
 
The following is the full text of this week's resolution on Burma by the Asia-Pacific energy unions: 
 
 
Oil, gas, electric power and coal mining unions attending the ICEM Asia-Pacific Regional Energy Conference on November 20-21 in Bangkok, note with alarm the decision of the military rulers in Burma to cease all cooperation with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). 
 
The ILO has moved firmly and decisively to isolate Burma because of the continuing use of forced labour. 
 
We reaffirm that freedom from forced labour is a fundamental human right and condemn the Burmese military government for the denial of this basic right. 
 
We call upon all international investors, especially those in the oil and gas industries, to cease investment in Burma while the use of forced labour continues. 
 
ICEM affiliates in ASEAN nations are called upon to press their governments to use all intergovernmental means possible to make Burma apply international minimum human rights standards in the workplace, including abolition of forced labour. 
 
 
 
&quot;The ILO has clearly ruled that forced labour is continuing and systematic in Burma, and our energy unions in the region have made their views very plain,&quot; commented ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels today. &quot;The world must not tolerate slavery. The ILO is part of the UN system, and the United Nations should now urgently decide on the most appropriate international measures against the brutal Burmese regime - up to and including mandatory economic sanctions.&quot; 
 
 
 
SOCIAL ENERGY 
 
The Bangkok conference also adopted an Asia-Pacific Action Plan to put into practice ICEM's global &quot;Social Energy Programme&quot; which was launched in 1998 by the world's energy unions. The main points of the Action Plan include: 
 
 
 
Unions and the ICEM will increase pressure on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stop pushing for anti-social reforms and for foreign models that do not take local circumstances into account. Unions must be consulted and their opinions must be respected. 
 
 
Unions pledge to intensify information exchange via the Internet, to which practically all of them are connected. This exchange will especially cover experiences on privatisation, strong and efficient regulation, and dealing with multinational enterprises. 
 
 
Unions will take joint action to fight against destructive privatisation and deregulation and support each other whenever needed. 
 
 
Unions will join the ICEM's multinational company networks in the oil, gas, electric power and coal mining industries. They support the ICEM's efforts to negotiate global agreements with corporate management to guarantee union rights and high health, safety and environmental standards wherever the companies operate. 
 
 
Unions will also focus on internal development and will train officials and shop stewards for strategic campaigning. Organising is a priority, and efforts will be made to build stronger unions and to consolidate union structures. 
 
 
The Bangkok event was hosted by the Labour Union of the Thai state electricity utility EGAT. This union only recently won the legal right to collective bargaining and union action. The conference praised the impressive campaign mounted by the union to gain these rights and to preserve the unity of the EGAT company which is among the best-managed and most respected enterprises in Thailand. The union has therefore seriously questioned the World Bank-influenced plans to break up and privatise the utility. &quot;Why risk the future when EGAT is doing a good job and guaranteeing a proper public service?&quot; the union asks.

Asia-Pacific Energy Unions Urge Burma Pull-Out

Fiji's high court has upheld the 1997 constitution. It therefore recognises the elected president and parliament who were in office prior to the coup staged this May by businessman George Speight. 
 
Speight's coup was eventually thwarted, but instead of handing power back to the democratic parliament and government, the military imposed their own &quot;interim administration&quot;. 
 
The court ruling means that the &quot;interim administration&quot; must now give way. 
 
That verdict was welcomed today by Fiji's Blue, the campaign for a return to constitutional rule in Fiji. 
 
Fiji's Blue is spearheaded by the Fijian trade unions, who have received strong backing from organised labour worldwide. Particular concern had been caused by the interim administration's moves to curb trade union rights (see ICEM UPDATE 80/2000). 
 
The interim administration must now &quot;prepare to resign their offices to make way for the convening of Parliament and the appointment of a multi-party Government by the President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara,&quot; the Fiji's Blue committee insisted today. 
 
Fiji's Blue &quot;expects that the new government will seriously review the 1997 constitution and take into account the grievances of those who are dissatisfied with specific clauses that need addressing within it.&quot; 
 
In the meantime, Fiji's Blue will continue its campaign. It today called for calm and national reconciliation, and urged the military and the police to &quot;implement the restoration of the 1997 Constitution.&quot; 
 
Statement from Australian Trade Unions:
Fiji High Court Rules on Coup 
Date: 15 November 2000 
 
ACTU President Sharan Burrow has welcomed today's ruling by the Fijian High Court that the abrogation of the 1997 Fijian Constitution was not legal and that deposed President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and the democratically elected Fijian Parliament should be reinstated immediately. 
 
&quot;Supporters of Fijian democracy, including Australian unions, have always maintained that the legal and legitimate solution to Fiji's constitutional crisis is the restoration of the 1997 Constitution and the reinstatement of the democratically elected parliament,&quot; said Ms Burrow. 
 
&quot;Today's decision by the Fijian High Court vindicate that position. 
 
&quot;It is now up to the Australian Government and other Governments in the region to demand that the Fijian interim administration secede power and 
restore the legally and democratically legitimate Parliament, President and 1997 Constitution.&quot; 
 
Today's decision by Justice Anthony Gates of the Fiji High Court was in response to an application funded by the Fijian Citizen's Constitutional 
Forum and argued by Australian barrister Dr George Williams. 
 
In his decision Justice Gates ordered that: 
- the abrogation of the 1997 Constitution was wrong. 
- Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara is still President of Fiji. 
- the appointment of Laisenia Qarase's Interim Government by the military was wrong 
- the Judges who advised the military acted illegally 
- that deposed President Mara summon an immediate sitting of Parliament which should resume its normal functions. 
 
Fiji was thrown into constitutional crisis when George Speight and a gang of supporters took the Fijian Parliament hostage on May 19, 2000. 
 
Australian unions imposed cargo and communications bans against Fiji in support of the hostages who were released after 56 days.

Fiji Unions Welcome Democracy Ruling

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