Trade unions worldwide increase pre

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ICFTU ONLINE...

Trade unions worldwide increase pressure on Burmese junta

Brussels October 31 2000

Stepping up its campaign for the elimination of forced labour in Burma, the 
International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has called for solidarity to 
help ensure that
the International Labour Organisation (ILO) takes swift action against the 
Burmese junta.
In an appeal issued last week to its membership, the ICFTU was clear that 
the time has
come for Rangoon to take international warnings seriously.

Meeting in Geneva over the next two weeks, the Governing Body of the ILO 
will decide
whether or not to put into action a Resolution on Burma adopted last June. 
The Resolution
aimed at ensuring that the junta complies with recommendations by an ILO 
Commission
of Inquiry into Burma?s violations of the Forced Labour Convention (N° 29), 
which it ratified in 1955.

The measures, if taken, would include calls for UN agencies, governments, 
employers and other parties
concerned ?to review relations with Burma and cease any relations or 
co-operation? with the regime which
might have the effect of encouraging forced labour in the country. In other 
words, the measures would open
the way for economic pressure to be put on the junta, such as, for 
instance, a ban on Burmese investments
by foreign companies, including multinationals.

The actions that ICFTU partners are invited to take, in close consultation 
with the independent Federation of
Trade Unions - Burma (FTUB), include:

lobbying governments prior to the Governing Body?s meeting (starting on 2 
November);
organising a picket in front of Burmese embassies;
stepping up pressure on the SPDC - State Peace and Development Council, 
official name of the junta - by
disrupting the supply of services to their embassy (e.g. mail, energy, 
garbage collection, telecommunications);
?Fax pickets?: flooding the embassy?s fax number with faxed protests 
against forced labour in Burma;
?Cyberpickets?: sending repeated protest messages to the SPDC website.

Information on unions? initiatives will be soon featured prominently on the 
organisation?s website. The ICFTU
has pledged it will regularly post fresh evidence on forced labour in the 
run-up to the ILO?s decision,
expected November 16.

The military junta has been under close observation by the ILO ever since 
the ICFTU, the world?s largest trade
union body, lodged a complaint in 1994 against the forced labour practices 
regularly imposed in the country.
In 1996, the ILO appointed a Commission of Inquiry which found the use of 
forced labour to be ?widespread
and systematic?. Last June, the ILO gave Burma an ultimatum to comply with 
Convention N° 29 by
implementing ?concrete legislative, executive and administrative 
programmes? by November 30 or face
international action.

At Rangoon?s invitation, an ILO technical co-operation mission visited 
Burma last week to check upon the
regime?s dubious efforts to comply with international norms. The ICFTU is 
presently compiling evidence that
continuous and recent use of forced labour, backed up by hundreds of recent 
?forced labour orders?, issued
by the local military commanders, is still common in Burma.

If the Governing Body of the ILO decides that no clear framework has been 
adopted by the military, the
measures should follow. It would be a unprecedented step in the ILO?s 81 
years of existence and should
hopefully force Rangoon to reform its dictatorial practices against its own 
population.