Hands off our right to strike!

18 February 2015 has been designated by the International Trade Union Confederation as a global day of action in defence of the fundamental right to strike, which is under attack at the International Labour Organisation (ILO). 

Today, 18 February, ahead of a key ILO meeting on the right to strike from 23-25 February, IndustriALL, the International Transport Federation, Public Service International and other Global Union Federations are calling for unions and workers around the world toprotest to safeguard this fundamental right, which was won through long and bitter struggle.

COSATU fully supports this call to action.

All over the world the right to strike is under attack. International Transport Federation unions confirm that exercising the right to industrial action is routinely met with repressive measures ranging from sackings, detentions and arrests to violence and even murder.

The ITUC's Global Rights Index shows that the right to strike is frequently restricted in law and violated in practice around the world. Now the ILO's mechanisms are under fire by employer groups at the ILO, which sets global standards on labour rights.

It is made up of employers, workers and governments, and the employers' group has questioned the very existence of the right to strike, established under ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association, which is ratified by 153 countries. Along with certain governments they are challenging the long-accepted belief that the Convention upholds the right to strike.

The workers' group and unions worldwide want the matter referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on the right to strike in international law. This key decision on this referral was due be made at ILO Governing Body in November. Instead, the Governing Body asked for further tripartite discussions on the right to strike, to be reported to its meeting in March for decision then.

Chair of the workers' group, Luc Cortebeeck, said: "Either we recognise the right to strike established under Convention 87, or we refer the dispute to the International Court of Justice".

Several government members oppose referring the issue to the ICJ - Algeria, Angola, Cambodia, China, Korea, Ghana, India, Iran, Kenya, Russia, Sudan, UAE, USA and Zimbabwe. They are joined by ‘deputy government members' which don't have a vote but do exercise influence. They are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brunei, Chad, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Jordan, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Pakistan, Tanzania and Thailand.

In South Africa too, employers and right-wing political parties are making similar calls, despite the SA Constitution's Section 23, which clearly states that "Everyone has the right to fair labour practices. Every worker has the right to form and join a trade union; to participate in the activities and programmes of a trade union; and to strike."

The DA, while always claiming to support the right to strike in principle, moved a Bill in Parliament in 2014 which would in practice severely limit this constitutional right. The Bill would:

 Require unions to:

Educate workers regarding violence and the prescripts of the law before their members go out on strike; and

Provide marshals for crowd control purposes and to prevent criminals infiltrating union ranks.

 Empower courts to stop a strike that has become excessively violent by forcing the parties into urgent arbitration;

 Empower courts to declare a strike that has become excessively violent as a de facto unprotected strike; and

 Empower courts to award damages judgments against unions that have not implemented measures for the limitation of violence as required by the Bill.

As COSATU said when the Bill was published:

"COSATU rejects with contempt the proposal from the Democratic Alliance on 7 July 2014 to move a law that ‘would force unions to take practical steps to prevent strike-related violence'.

"COSATU has consistently opposed violence, intimidation and damage to property during strikes and demonstrations, all of which are offences under existing laws, and therefore require no new law to deal with them. The federation and its affiliates have always done everything possible to ensure that its activities are peaceful, lawful and orderly. We have taken action against any members proved to be guilty of such offences. We already provide marshals to help with crowd control and we already educate workers about the law...

"The DA is however opportunistically using incidents of violence to bring in a law which, contrary to what they say, would fundamentally destroy workers` constitutionally guaranteed right to engage in strikes and lawful protest action. The law which they now propose would empower courts to force employers and unions into arbitration where strikes were excessively violent, or declare such a strike unprotected.

"Such a law would give unparalleled power to an arm of the state to undermine collective bargaining and the basic human right to withdraw one's labour. Forcing workers to work is nothing short of slavery, and almost certainly unenforceable if, as likely, the workers simply refuse to submit. 
"In cases where unions are deemed not to have taken certain measures to prevent violence and damage to property, the DA even wants courts to also have the power to award damages against that union.

"In particular, the threat to award financial damages against a union as a whole for offences committed by individuals would have the potential to bankrupt unions and force them to disband, which is surely what the DA, and its friends in business, actually want this new law to achieve, so that they can exploit their workers even more ruthlessly than they do already.

"Predictably as well, the DA completely ignores the fact that employers are at least equally responsible for strikes, and in many cases more so. Yet they say nothing about seeking damages against employers. Such draconian powers are almost certainly unconstitutional and contrary to ILO Conventions guaranteeing workers' rights to strike, which the South African Government has signed.

"COSATU will campaign relentlessly, thorough the alliance, in Parliament, at the Constitutional court, and in the streets, to ensure that such a law is defeated."

Eliminating this human right would have serious repercussions on us all. IndustriALL Global Union has given five key reasons why we need the right to strike:

1. Striking is a last resort but sometimes the only tool for workers to protect themselves.

2. To avoid being at the complete mercy of employers.

3. To give more of a balance between worker and employer power.

4. Without it, more and more governments will ban industrial action and punish people who dare to strike.

5. Most strikes are over pay and better working conditions. Without the threat of strike action, corporations will be able to make bigger profits, while working conditions will get worse.

Hands off our right to strike!

Statement issued by COSATU, February 18 2015

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