Campaign for Trade Union Freedom

The Campaign For Trade Union Freedom was established in 2013 following a merger of the Liaison Committee For The Defence Of Trade Unions and the United Campaign To Repeal The Anti Trade Union Laws. The CTUF is a campaigning organisation fighting to defend and enhance trade unionism, oppose all anti-union laws as well as promoting and defending collective bargaining across UK, Europe and the World.

Category: New Generation Of Trade Agreements

UK-GCC Trade Deal: Big Questions Over Trade Union & Human Rights

Posted on By Tony Burke
The Labour Government have made a trade deal with the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council),  a priority which many employment rights specialists and trade unions will be watching closely.
The GCC consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. A trade deal with the GCC would be worth £1.6bn but the fallout for Labour in signing a deal with the GCC could have considerable ramifications.
The TUC has expressed its reservations. General Secretary Paul Nowak said that the TUC “have raised concerns re a trade deal with the Gulf States with Douglas Alexander”.
With the Government responding that “negotiations on a trade deal with the GCC are ongoing. Our priority is to get the right deal, and we’re not setting a deadline”.
Although the TUC says there are “active discussions” between the TUC and the government on the deal, trade unions, human rights groups and grass roots Labour Party members will be concerned given the well-publicised human and union rights problems in the Middle East.
Even the last Tory government saw problems ahead, with the previous trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan promising parliament the deal “will not come at the expense of human rights”.
Tom Wills, the director of the Trade Justice Movement, said in The Guardian: “The UK-GCC trade deal is a values-free agreement that will offer minimal benefit to the UK economy while signalling that human rights and environmental protections are not a priority in UK trade policy.”
In the House of Lords on 3 June, the focus was on human rights with no direct reference to union rights from government minister Baroness Gustafsson.
Many trade agreements rely on International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions. There are 191 conventions in total, though not all are in force and some are no longer relevant. Of the 10 core conventions, two each dealing with freedom of association (trade union rights), forced labour, child labour, discrimination, and health and safety.
The United Kingdom has ratified 89 conventions, including nine of the 10 core or fundamental conventions (the UK did not sign the health and safety convention).
By contrast, in the GCC:
▪Bahrain has ratified six core conventions and 10 in total
▪Kuwait has ratified seven core conventions and 19 in total
▪Oman has ratified four core conventions and five in total
▪Qatar has ratified five core conventions and six in total
▪Saudi Arabia has ratified seven core conventions and 19 in total
▪UAE has ratified six core conventions and nine in total
In terms of the core conventions dealing with trade union rights (conventions 87 and 98), only Kuwait has ratified both. As a result, Kuwait is subject to scrutiny by the ILO Committee of Experts. No other GCC country has ratified either.
The International Trade Union Confederation which identifies issues relating to trade union rights in every country on the planet is worth referring to. The government would do well to study their recommendations.
The only current freedom of association (trade union rights) case lodged is against Saudi Arabia and remains confidential.
Labour relations and trade deals under Labour
There is also the legacy of the Qatar FIFA World Cup which made labour standards a real issue with a global campaign on workers’ rights led by the Building Workers International with significant support from Unite in the UK.
At the ILO meeting last week, an International Trade Union Confederation complaint regarding Saudia Arabia was supported by unions from 36 countries.
Professor Keith Ewing is professor of public law at King’s College London and is recognised as a leading expert in international trade union rights said: “Even the previous Conservative governments paid more attention to workers’ rights than the current Labour government. “The UK-EU Brexit trade agreement [negotiated by Boris Johnson – though the EU drove a hard bargain on this] has labour chapters; the UK-Australia trade deal, negotiated by Liz Truss’s government, contains a labour chapter although it is very weak.
“Labour standards are something Sir Keir Starmer should be able to easily understand. What price fundamental labour rights? Are we really prepared to surrender workers’ human rights for £1.6 billion’s worth of trade and political ambition?”

ETUC & CCSCS Unions Demand Enforceable Labour Rights Clauses In New  EU & Mercosur Deal  

Posted on By Tony Burke

The European TUC and unions in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay & Uruguay have called for the EU – Mercoosur trade deal to contain enforceable commitments to International Labour Organisation rights – with penalties for violations.

In a letter to the European Commission Esther Lynch, ETUC General Secretary and Quintino Marques Severo, CCSCS President say the ETUC and the Coordinadora de Centrales Sindicales del Cono Sur (CCSCS) they do not support the EU-Mercosur customs union agreement as it currently stands because it fails to provide guarantees for workers’ rights and their jobs.

The ETUC and CCSCS say before reconsideration of the agreement resumes later this year crucial aspects of the agreement need to be addressed if workers are to support a deal.

  • Firstly, for transparency and democratic legitimacy, trade unions, represented by the ETUC and CCSCS and the Labour Forum they have set up, must be consulted in these negotiations and have access to the texts that will profoundly affect their members.
  • Secondly, a voluntary and non-binding approach towards labour rights in trade agreements does not protect workers from violations of labour and trade union rights, nor does it guarantee a balanced representation of social partners and civil society organisations in the monitoring mechanisms of the agreement. This non-binding approach has demonstrably failed and is also counterproductive for an agreement.  ETUC and CCSCS have asked for binding labour clauses in the deal including sanctions, taking into consideration ILO recommendations, and the role of trade unions in monitoring and enforcement. The unions says they will continue to press for a trade and sustainable development chapter that prioritises jobs and workers’ rights as well as the preservation of the environment, and is binding on all the parts of the Association Agreement.

Unions have suggested the integration and expansion of the Labour Forum to tripartite participation of States, Employers and Unions and called for the same financial support that would be put at the disposal of SMEs to meet environmental requirements, to be put towards social partners’ capacity building and  compliance with labour laws and ILO conventions.

Unions say they are following with growing concern the policies and measures that are taking place in EU-Mercosur talks, tending to drastically deregulate the State, subjugate acquired labour, trade union and social rights such as freedom of expression and the right to free protest, that are underpinned by very well-established jurisprudence, including at international level.

They say these measures seriously threaten the legitimacy and solidity of democracy in the region. Trade union organisations, that clearly expressed their disagreement in the past with similar measures, reiterate their solidarity with the affected sectors and demand unrestricted respect for democracy and fundamental rights.
A binding sustainable development chapter with sanctions would be a credible and effective tool to limit the ability of any party to the agreement undermine democracy and fundamental right as there would be consequences.

  • Thirdly, unions say they support the exclusion of public procurement from the agreement and would advocate for ring fencing public services and the parties’ right to regulate in the public interest and the right to develop. Moreover, we believe the agreement must have a positive impact on employment in industries – particularly in clean industries – with good working conditions and union agreements.
    The Labour Forum, created by the ETUC and the CCSCS should be tasked with monitoring the social, employment and sector dimension of the agreement. A new generation trade and sustainable development chapter should seek to ensure an equitable distribution of the positive effects of increased trade between our regions, and should also foresee support measures to cushion the negative impact on certain sectors.
  • Finally, the agreement needs to be coherent in all of its parts, with political cooperation on a par with the commercial arrangements and adopted simultaneously. As trade unions, we oppose the splitting of the agreement and the exclusive adoption of its commercial part, leaving behind the aspects relating to political cooperation. It should also support and allow parties the policy and economic space to pursue a green re-industrialisation of both regions based on a just transition with full participation of trade unions, workers and decent jobs at the core of the process.

The ETUC and CCSCS say they encourage the negotiators to reconsider these aspects, which in our views have been neglected, and demand a deeper discussion.

International Unions Demand Union Rights In Trade Policy

Posted on By Tony Burke

The International Trade Union Confederation has brought the interests of working people and trade unions to the heart of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by demanding that labour rights are embedded in global trade policy. 

At this year’s WTO Ministerial Conference, held in Abu Dhabi, the ITUC pushed for a trade framework that prioritises workers’ rights and promotes social justice, while supporting a development agenda for emerging economies to retain policy space to pursue structural transformation without constraint.

ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle said: “Since its creation, the WTO has facilitated trade at the expense of labour rights. The inclusion of the basic rights of working people in trade policy is long overdue.”  

During the conference, the ITUC organised a panel discussion with the United States’ trade representative, the European Commission’s executive vice president and South Africa’s trade minister on delivering social justice and labour rights in trade policies.

Luc Triangle stated during the discussion that: “The ITUC considers that the respect of labour rights is implicit at the WTO, as the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work applies to ILO members who are WTO members. We call for greater cooperation between the WTO and the ILO to pursue the inclusion of labour standards in the work of the WTO, in line with the ILO Global Coalition for Social Justice.”  

In the discussion, proposals were made regarding the creation of a specific working group on labour and trade charged with working towards the inclusion of labour rights in the WTO agenda.

The Ministerial Conference, however, concluded with minimal concrete outcomes and was marred by concerns over free speech violations, including the detention of participants and restrictions on civil society organisations.