PrintAround the world, workers continue to face daunting challenges in their attempts to organize for a voice in the workplace. Each year, through a Solidarity Fund, the AFT makes modest contributions to the valiant struggles of a handful of unions. Their stories inspire us and remind us that the fight for even the most basic rights is far from over. Below are descriptions of projects the AFT has supported in the past year, including background on the deplorable conditions in which many of our partners operate.
BOTSWANA | BURMA | CAMBODIA
CHINA | COLOMBIA | GEORGIA
BOTSWANA
The project: AFT sent two AFT Healthcare representatives to Botswana to conduct a workshop on organizing and building a nurses' union for the Nurses' Association of Botswana (NAB). The workshop provided NAB’s executive council and local leaders with information and advice to assist them in becoming a formally recognized nurses' union and a collective bargaining agent for their members. A second objective was to discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS on nurses and possible funding for a community-based children's village for orphans who have lost parents to the pandemic. The AFT Healthcare delegation also visited South Africa to establish fraternal relations with healthcare unions there. Discussions focused largely on the impact of HIV/AIDS on healthcare workers and the possibility of assistance from the AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign.
Background: Botswana is one of the most prosperous countries on the African continent, with economic growth averaging an impressive 9 percent annually. While independent unions are permitted and strong trade unions do exist, workers' rights to strike and to bargain for wages are restricted. Also, tragically, AIDS is taking a toll on the economy and society, with more than one-third of the population infected with HIV and life expectancy a low 39 years.
Nurses form the backbone of the healthcare system. About 70 percent of all healthcare workers are nurses who work for either the central or local government in various health facilities.
The Nurses' Association of Botswana (NAB) is a professional association representing 900 of the country's 5,000 nurses. Others belong to several other healthcare and public employee associations.
BURMA
The project: AFT funds supported the Kawthoolei Education Workers Union office in Mae Sot, Thailand. From their headquarters, the KEWU coordinates organizing, education and training activities in the seven Karen refugee camps along the Thai border and in towns and villages inside Burma. These activities include union leadership training and democracy education for Karen teachers.
Background: The situation in Burma remains bleak. The Burmese military (SPDC) and their allies continue to target the Karen, Karenni, Mon, Shan and the many other ethnic groups, subjecting them to forced labor, murder, rape, extortion and land confiscation. They attack villages with impunity, forcing villagers to build roads and carry military supplies without compensation. Burma has the largest number of child soldiers—70,000—in the world. The army kidnaps children, treats them brutally and forces them to commit horrible human rights abuses.
As human rights violations continue unabated, more and more Burmese have been forced to flee their villages, adding to the 2 million already displaced inside Burma. Many flee to the Thai border and in desperation cross illegally into Thailand. Inside Thailand, the Burmese trade unions in exile, other Burmese dissidents and democracy advocates and organizations trying to assist Burmese refugees are barely tolerated. Periodically, Thai officials raid their offices in Bangkok and in the border areas and arrest activists. Sometimes these organizations are forced to close or relocate their offices and go into hiding.
Since 1998, the AFT has provided assistance to new unions representing teachers, healthcare and agricultural workers in the refugee camps in Thailand and in the villages inside Burma. These unions are striving to educate their members and others about democracy, trade unions and human rights. The Kawthoolei Education Workers Union, with support from the AFT Solidarity Fund, has organized professional development for teachers, union leadership training and civic education for teachers in the refugee camps and inside Burma.
The AFT-trained KEWU trainers travel great distances under difficult conditions to villages inside Burma to teach colleagues about democratic trade unions and to organize new members. They travel many days on foot through the jungle, in the mountains and by boat, hiding from the military forces. Training is conducted under difficult conditions, sometimes in the evening by candlelight, sometimes in a remote hiding place, as participants face the constant threat of raids by SPDC troops. Despite these difficulties, KEWU is growing: membership is approaching 2,000—1,063 in the seven refugee camps and 774 inside Burma. The KEWU trainers incorporate training on democracy and human rights education into their union training seminars.
CAMBODIA
The project: The AFT in 2005 will host two leaders of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA) for a three-week study tour to the United States. This study tour will assist the union leaders in developing their democratic leadership skills and their capacity to build and strengthen their organization. During their stay they will observe an AFT organizing campaign, participate in a state AFT training program and visit one or two AFT locals as well as AFT headquarters. The Cambodian delegation will also have an opportunity to speak to AFT leaders and other trade unionists about the problems trade unionists face in the current political climate in Cambodia.
Background: On Jan. 22, 2004, Chea Vichea, Cambodia’s most prominent trade union leader, was assassinated. A political "Black List" of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party was discovered, and among the five targeted for assassination was Rong Chun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association. Despite an international outcry, no progress has been made into the investigation of Chea's murder and there is continued concern for the safety of the CITA president and other outspoken union leaders. On May 7, 2004, another prominent trade union leader, Ros Sovannareth from the garment workers, was assassinated.
CHINA
The project: Since 2002, the AFT has been providing financial support to the China Labour Bulletin (CLB). The twice-weekly radio broadcast, Labour Bulletin, hosted by Han Dongfang, reaches hundreds of thousands of listeners in mainland China via Radio Free Asia and has facilitated communications between CLB and workers throughout China.
AFT funds also support the CLB's legal aid efforts to raise awareness of workers' labor rights; promote the use of legal channels to resolve labor disputes; provide a referral service to lawyers with experience in labor-related cases; create a meeting space and a loose network for workers from different industries to share their experiences in fighting for labor rights; develop a group of labor activists with practical legal knowledge; and develop a group of lawyers with a strong trade union consciousness.
Background: In recent years, labor disputes in China have increased enormously, both in state-owned and foreign-owned enterprises. More workers are voicing their dissatisfaction through protests, strikes and complaints. The government-controlled trade union has been largely unresponsive to workers' grievances, and more workers are seeking legal assistance to deal with basic workplace issues: unfair layoffs, excessive hours, unsafe conditions, unpaid wages, etc.
The China Labour Bulletin is a labor rights organization founded in 1994 by Han Dongfang, leader of the workers in the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising. Based in Hong Kong, the organization promotes democratic union organizing and the protection of workers' rights in Mainland China. Through Radio Free Asia, the CLB hosts a radio talk show that has become a unique forum for workers throughout China to exchange opinions on issues of concern in an uncensored mass medium.
Under China's economic reforms in recent years, the provision of social services has been transferred from state-owned enterprises to individual workers, enterprises and local governments. Increasingly, local governments have been asking private businesses to share this responsibility by offering certain social services to workers and their families. Through contacts made with workers via radio broadcasts, CLB is raising legal and labor rights awareness and setting roots in the community. CLB local programs report a growing number of Chinese workers seeking information about their rights under Chinese labor law and assistance in taking action on their complaints.
COLOMBIA
The project: AFT funds are supporting a project with the teacher union of Colombia, the Federación Colombiana de Educadores (FECODE). The project aims to support jeopardized teachers and other trade unionists in Colombia; aid AFT leadership in developing a better understanding of the issues in the conflict and U.S. policy towards Colombia; and provide a platform for possible future union-to-union relations. Collaborating with the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, our project activities include: a AFT fact-finding trip to Bogotá and Medellin; a three-month U.S. visit for six Colombian teachers to participate in union-related activities and hands-on training; and a one-week training workshop to be held in Bogotá.
Background: Colombia remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world. It has been torn by decades of civil conflict and become synonymous with drug trafficking. Various peace efforts have so far failed to end large-scale violence, kidnappings and poverty.
Trade unionists have been affected by Colombia's civil conflict in a number of ways. Jobs have been lost due to the poor economic situation. Businesses have chosen to close down rather than deal with organized workers. Most notably, hundreds of union activists have been threatened, harassed or killed in connection with organizing activities. Reports estimate that an average of more than one trade unionist was killed each week in 2003. Teachers, who make up the largest portion of the country's main union federation, have been especially vulnerable. They are traditionally seen as leaders in their communities (whether urban or rural) and thus targeted for threats, kidnapping, exile or even assassination.
Often invoking the cause of national security, President Alvaro Uribe has waged his own above-ground campaign against trade unions. Uribe, who continues to enjoy a 70 percent approval rating, has pressured local governments to weaken legislation that protects workers' rights and overseen the drive to privatize and out-source government services. He also has been accused of preventing public demonstrations, free assembly and access to the media for unions, and in many cities, public service workers have been stripped of their right to organize. An upcoming national referendum, supported by the government, will further damage the rights of Colombian workers by freezing public sector (including teacher) salaries. As a share of the national workforce, union membership has reportedly fallen to as low as 6 percent. Witnessing the intimidation and arrest of union organizers and the fear of losing their own jobs keeps many workers away from the union movement.
GEORGIA
The project: With funds from the AFT, the Free Trade Union of Teachers of Georgia-Solidaroba (FTUTG) in 2005 plans to conduct 15 democratic union leadership training programs in 11 cities with a special focus on Tbilisi, the capital. In each three-day workshop, 25 teachers from the city and the surrounding communities will be invited to participate. The FTUTG trainers will be drawn from among the union leaders that AFT trained and certified in August 2003.
Background: In November 2003, Eduard Shevardnadze was forced to resign as president of Georgia after three weeks of peaceful protests that followed parliamentary elections widely viewed as fraudulent. FTUTG was actively involved in the peaceful "Rose Revolution," where union leaders spoke out forcefully against corruption and for a society based on the rule of law. Although the transfer of power is seen as a democratic triumph, the new government of Mikhail Saakashvili inherits daunting challenges. The treasury is empty, corruption is pervasive and foreign investment virtually nonexistent. Wages are miniscule and months overdue, and electricity is often scarce.
Despite these obstacles, the FTUTG has made remarkable progress. Organized in 2000 in Kutaisi, Georgia's second largest city, this new independent teacher union fought successfully for payment of back salaries, against corrupt education officials and for improved working conditions for teachers. The union continues to attract new members, and new local organizations are springing up throughout the country. FTUTG has received considerable attention in the Georgian media and is recognized as an important force in civil society.
