Anti-union repression exposed
Repression of trade unionists is increasing worldwide, with 92 killed last year, says the International Federation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in a report published on April 28. The report says that some 2300 trade unionists were arrested, 1000 attacked or tortured and more than 6500 sacked for trade union activities during 1993.
ICFTU general secretary Enzo Friso told a news conference in Brussels that the number of trade unionists killed, arrested, tortured or sacked was lower than the figure for 1992. "But this is almost exclusively due to South Africa, where the situation has improved considerably", Friso said. In 1992, 260 unionists were killed, about two-thirds of them in South Africa.
"If we exclude South Africa, the situation has worsened", he said. The annual report says that 91 countries were guilty of violating rights set out in conventions of the International Labour Organisation.
Violations ranged from declaring trade unions illegal, as in Saudi Arabia, to large scale dismissals of people who joined unions. In the Philippines more than 800 trade unionists were sacked for taking part in trade union activity last year. In Morocco hundreds of workers are dismissed each week for being members of trade unions.
Friso said that a worrying factor was the number of countries with democratic traditions, such as Britain, Germany, Greece and Japan, which had taken harsh measures against trade unions. He also criticised China for repression against independent union federations.
The ICFTU said that Latin America remained the most dangerous place for trade unionists, with 60 murders last year. Of these 46 were killed in Colombia, and 33 went into hiding or fled the country after death threats. The murdered Colombian unionists included Nicomedes Gutierez, a leading unionist at the Ecopetrol plant, found dead in January 1993.