Thailand

On 29 July 2008, the president of Triumph International Labour Union Thailand, Ms.Jitra Cotshadet, was fired by Body Fashion factory or Triumph International Limited Thailand. The excuse of the dismissal was that Ms.Jitra wore a campaign T-shirt defending not to stand up during the King’s Royal Anthem in the cinema. The management was believed to have seized this opportunity to use Thailand’s Lese Majesty Law to have Ms.Jitra dismissed. Supporting their leader, all of the 3,700 workers organised a strike demanding the reinstatement of Ms.Jitra. The management tried to dismiss all 20 union leaders and mete out disciplinary punishment to other strikers. CAW issued an urgent appeal letter and called for an international campaign to support the union. However, Triumph denied the violation and refused to reinstall Ms.Jitra. More and more labour organisations and activists have joined to fight with the workers. [read more]

The Philippines

Marcellana, the Karapatan-Southern Tagalog secretary general and Gumanoy, local peasant leader, were abducted and killed in April 2005. Witnesses believed that the commander of the killing was related to Arroyo’s government. On March 9, 2006 husband of Marcellana and son of farmer leader Gumanoy filed a complied with UN Human Rights Committee. In December 2008, the Committed said that the Philippine government must provide the complainants with an effective remedy and take measures to ensure that such violations do not recur in the future. [read more]

 China

In 2004 the Jilin state-owned petroleum corporation started to lay off workers. One of those laid off, Chen Yuping, was elected as a workers’ representative and he applied to the ACFTU to set up a trade union, but the application was rejected. The workers’ representatives then circulated a report on the company’s lay off plan and the union application amongst employees and released it to several overseas media. On 10 April 2008, Chen was detained and on 6 May 2008 he was sentenced to one and a half years of re-education through labour, for “disturbing social order”. Two other workers’ representatives were detained for ten days for talking to overseas media. All these workers’ leaders are still detained despite protests of workers and labour groups. [read more]

 Malaysia

Irene Fernandez, director of a Malaysian women’s rights organisation Tenaganita, was arrested in 1996 after revealing details of torture and abuse of migrant workers held in detention camps. The report also described the sexual exploitation of women, unpaid wages, beatings, malnutrition and poor medical care. The government has refused to acknowledge the deaths or permit independent inspection of the camps. Instead, it charged Fernandez with “maliciously publishing false news,” and criminal defamation a charge that could lead to three years in prison. In the past five years, she has appeared in court more than 150 times. After 13 years of struggle, social activist Irene Fernandez was finally freed.

Tenaganita is a member of CAW. [read more]

Sri Lanka

After the peace talks between the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forces broke down, fighting had intensified and been brought closer to town. In Kilinochi town, the people have vacated due to bombing and shelling. Shops were all destroyed and hospitals are full of injured people. The Catholic priests who usually reside in the town were leaving. Since aid agencies have also become a target, a week ago the UN and other agencies pulled out of the area of Vani, where more than 200,000 people are displaced by fighting. [read more]

 

 

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matters.�
– Martin Luther King Jr.

 

 Thailand

�
On 29 July 2008, the president of Triumph International Labour Union Thailand, Ms.Jitra Cotshadet, was fired by Body Fashion factory or Triumph International Limited Thailand*. The excuse of the dismissal is that Ms.Jitra wore a campaign T-shirt defending Chotisak Onsoong who refused to stand up during the King’s Royal Anthem in the cinema. The campaign T-shirt which reads ‘Not to stand is not a crime. To think differently doesn’t make one a criminal’ became a subject of attack by the pro-monarchists. Ms.Jitra wore the T-shirt in a local television programme in April, where she was interviewed on unwanted pregnancy among Thai workers and rights to abortion.

 We believe that the management of Body Fashion garment factory actually seized this opportunity to use Thailand’s Lesse majeste Law to have Jitra dismissed. The incident followed a successful negotiation for wage increase and benefits for the women workers in the factory. When the television interview was aired Ms.Jitra merely wore the T-shirt in question, she did not refer to the issue in any way; neither was she representing Body Fashion or Triumph International Ltd.in the interview. Initial investigation by the Body Fashion management dismissed the controversy as having no relation to her work or to the company. After successful wage increase and benefits have been agreed between the management and the workers, Body Fashion sought the Court’s aid in determining there was defamation of the company image by the wearing of the t-shirt. Ms. Jitra was never informed of this legal action nor sought by the Court for her submissions, until the final decision allowing the dismissal was made.

 A strike by virtually all of the 3,700 factory workers of Body Fashion had begun on 30 July demanding the reinstatement of Ms.Jitra. Instead of communicating with the workers, the management tried to dismiss all 20 union leaders and mete out disciplinary punishment to other workers. The factory has played the King’s anthem in the factory three times each day forcing workers to stop and stand much like prisoners in a war camp. Workers accused Body Fashion of union-busting through the malicious use of the Lesse majeste law.

 This is not the first time that Triumph violated labour rights. In 2001, Triumph was reported by the Federation of Trade Unions-Burma, the exiled trade union federation, to be supporting the Burmese military junta by directly investing in a company controlled by a repressive and genocidal government, which would surely force slave like conditions on its workers. International labour support group the Clean Clothes Campaign launched an international campaign to urge Triumph to quit Burma. Under public pressure, Triumph decided to close its factory in Burma a year later.

 

 One week after the dismissal of Ms. Jitra, the president of Triumph International Labour Union Thailand, workers were able to negotiate with the regional representative of Triumph International Limited in a tripartite meeting. However, this meeting on August 9 had made little progress. On August 11, the union again called for a strike. About 1000 workers, one third of the company’s labour force, blocked the entrance of the factory. Hundreds of workers blocked the industrial zone intersection. They demanded Body Fashion, Triumph International’s manufacturing arm, reinstate union president Ms. Jitra Kotchadej, refrain from taking legal and disciplinary action against striking workers and remove company executives who tried to disrupt union activities. Facing the continuous strike, the company threatened the workers that they would fire all current workers and start new recruitment.

 The governor of Samut Prakarn city, where the factory located, visited the striking workers and claimed that the company had followed legal steps to dismiss the union leader. There is nothing he could do. He also said Thai executives of Body Fashion had softened their stance and wanted to compromise with workers in the negotiation, but foreign executives were strongly against complying with workers’ demands.

 On August 14, Committee for Asian Women (CAW) received official replies from Triumph International Company in Switzerland (see attached document).  The company denied the dismissal of Ms. Jitra Kotchadej is an act of busting the trade union. According to the company, it is merely a legal disciplinary action against a breach of company work regulations. The company claimed that it had never the intention to fire any union leaders and they had not made any charge under Lese Majeste Laws against any employee. 

 The denial and the explanation of the company are basically lies.  Neither we nor the workers accept these excuses. We are strongly against the company’s behaviour and very disappointed with the local government. The workers had vowed to strike until their demands are met. We will keep supporting the workers to fight for justice.

 * Triumph International is a German multinational company and manufacturer of lingerie and sleepwear founded in 1886 owned by the Spiesshofer and Braun families. The Switzerland-based company is one of Europe’s main retailers of lingerie. Its products are marketed under such brand names as Form & Beauty, Amourette, BeHappy, Triaction, Slipi, Sloggi, Mamabel, Night & Home, BeeDees and HOM.

 

 

The Philippines

UN Human Rights Committee Says Arroyo Gov’t Guilty of Violating Rights on Marcellana-Gumanoy Case

Bulatlat.Com, November 22, 2008

The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee has found the Arroyo government guilty of violating the rights of human rights defenders Ms. Eden Marcellana and Mr. Eddie Gumanoy.

Marcellana, then Karapatan-Southern Tagalog secretary general and Gumanoy, local peasant leader, were abducted and killed in April 2005. Witnesses point to the “Bonnet Gang,” a paramilitary group linked with the Philippine Army’s 204th Infantry Battalion of which then Col. Jovito Palparan Jr. was the commanding officer. Their bodies were found in Bansud, Mindoro Oriental.

The UN Human Rights Committee is the body monitoring the States parties’ compliance to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The Committee said the facts reveal violations by the Philippine government of the right to life of every person, the right to liberty and security of persons and the rights of violated persons to effective remedies and the State ensuring that such remedies are provided and enforced as stated in the provisions of the ICCPR. The 12-page UN Human Rights Committee’s decision was put out on October 30 during its 94th session held in the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. The official communication tabbed as CCPR/C/94/1560/2007 and dated 11 November 2008 was received by Karapatan November 21.

Complaints were filed with the UN Human Rights Committee on March 9, 2006 by Orly Marcellana, husband of Eden Marcellana and Daniel Gumanoy, son of farmer leader Eddie Gumanoy. Both were represented by Karapatan National Secretary General Marie Hilao-Enriquez. Laywer Edre Olalia, president of the International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), assisted the victims’ relatives and Karapatan in filing the said complaint.

The Committee further said that the Philippine government “is under an obligation to provide the authors [complainants] with an effective remedy, including initiation and pursuit of criminal proceedings to establish responsibility for the kidnapping and death of the victims.”

The Philippine government, said the Committee, must also provide the complainants appropriate compensation.

The Committee asked the Philippine government to submit, within 180 days, information about the measures taken to give effect to the Committee’s Views.

The Committee said the Philippine government should also ‘take measures to ensure that such violations do not recur in the future.’

 

China

Over the last two decades of economic reform, millions of workers have been laid off without due compensation, while millions of others continue to be exploited, working long hours in hazardous conditions. Many legitimate workers’ protests seeking redress for these rights violations have been branded as “illegal demonstrations.” And, as a result, many ordinary workers have been arrested, detained and sentenced to long prison terms.

A workers’ leader, Chen Yuping was sentenced to re-education through labour, for organizing an independent trade union. In 2004 the Jilin state-owned petroleum corporation started to lay off workers. One of those laid off, Chen Yuping, was elected as a workers’ representative. In February 2008 Chen and other workers applied to the Songyuan city ACFTU to set up a trade union but the application was rejected. Workers’ representatives also circulated a report on the company’s lay off plan and the union application amongst employees. As a result, Chen was threatened and was put under surveillance by the Songyuan public security bureau. In April 2008, Chen released the report to several overseas media organizations. On 10 April 2008, Chen was detained and on 6 May 2008 he was sentenced to one and a half years of re-education through labour, for “disturbing social order”.

Two other workers Zhang Fuhui and Huang Jingzhe were detained for ten days for talking to overseas media.

As the economic crisis rages around the world, there is no escape for China. Thousands of factories in China have been closed, leaving millions of workers jobless.  On October 15 this year, two large toy factories located in South China declared bankruptcy, leaving about 7,000 people out of work. Most laid-off workers do not get their compensations, neither do they have the rights to organise and protect themselves.

Source: China Labour Bulletin

Compiled by CAW

 

Malaysia

After 13 years of struggle, social activist Irene Fernandez was finally freed from a charge of publishing false news about the abuse of migrant workers in a detention camp.

 The 62-year-old director of Tenaganita, which she set up in 1991 to fight for migrant workers’ rights here, had her conviction set aside by the High Court on Monday.

 Irene Fernandez, a prominent Malaysian human rights activist, has appeared in court more than 150 times in the last five years.

Why? In 1995, “Tenaganita,” the women’s rights organization that Fernandez directs, published allegations of widespread abuse against migrant workers detained by the Malaysian authorities as illegal immigrants.

 She was arrested in 1996 after revealing details of torture and abuse of migrant workers held in detention camps. The report also described the sexual exploitation of women, unpaid wages, beatings, malnutrition and poor medical care.

  There are believed to be more than a million illegal immigrants in Malaysia, mainly Indonesians and Bangladeshis. With a collapsing economy the corrupt government of Mahathir bin Mohamad has pledged to drive the illegal immigrants out of the country. They are not too choosy on the methods used. Illegals are rounded up and held in overcrowded insanitary conditions in detention camps. Many detainees have died through typhoid and lack of medical care. Riots have broken out in the camps.

 The government has refused to acknowledge the deaths or permit independent inspection of the camps. The government didn’t investigate. Instead, it charged Fernandez with “maliciously publishing false news,” and criminal defamation a charge that could lead to three years in prison. Irene Fernandez was relaeased on bail was under constant surveillance by the state security apparatus.

 Amnesty International has been campaigning ever since to have the charges dropped and the reports of abuse independently investigated.

 The relentless prosecution has damaged Irene Fernandez’s health and hindered the work of Tenaganita. But she continues to be a courageous voice for human rights in Malaysia – and Amnesty International members are proud to stand with her and other members of Tenaganita.

 In a recent note to Amnesty, Irene Fernandez says: “I want you to know how much your work makes a difference. Your efforts have given me strength to continue.

 “You have also given strength to the migrant workers and victims of abuse …. Even the witnesses testifying at my trial express their appreciation when they see [your] letters in my office.

 “Global support is so important. Please keep up the good work.”

 Tenaganita is a member of CAW.

 

Sri Lanka

Miserable experience of Vanni

 

I traveled to the Vanni on 17th September, with the hope of getting a lorry load of foodstuff from Vavuniya to Vanni, but it was impossible as the Kilinochi’s Government Agent’s convoy had been stopped at that time. 

From Omanthai exit- entry point to Kilinochi, the situation was very different than when I had traveled in the previous months. There were no people on the road up to the Kilinochi hospital. 

As I approached Murikandy I observed that everything was burnt and smashed. While I was passing this place last week, it was full of people and the place looked very busy, but now it has become a no man’s land. The people have vacated from there due to bombing and shelling and the shops were also destroyed. There was heavy traffic in the Kilinochi town, as people were crossing the A 9 to Vattakachi and Tharampuram areas. Hospitals are full of injured people, including in the outer areas such as the veranda.

The Catholic priests who usually reside St. Theresa church and Caritas -Vanni in Kilinochi were about to leave from there with all their belongings. At night, the Kilinochi town was in darkness as there was no electricity. All the shops were closed and some were packing available stocks to be taken away from Kilinochi.

The people now staying at Vattakachi and Tharmapuram areas are requesting to announce these areas as “safe zones” for the civilians. The food and shelter are desperately needed, as people are suffering without anything to eat and nowhere to rest. Bombing, which is even amongst civilians has created a situation of panic amongst the people.

 

This article is from BBC.

‘Pain’ of Sri Lanka aid pullout

Fears of a humanitarian crisis are mounting in northern Sri Lanka as troops press ahead with an offensive to capture territory from Tamil rebels. A week ago the UN and other agencies pulled out of the area, where more than 200,000 people are displaced by fighting. Here one aid worker describes how hard it was to leave.

During my last weeks in Kilinochchi there was a foreboding sense of a massive army approaching from the south-west.

The escalating war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government was bringing fighting closer to the town. It led to a massive movement of civilians in the region, known as the Vanni.

I never heard gunfire or sounds of close-quarters fighting, instead day and night there were constant thuds and booms of artillery and rockets fired from multi-barrel launchers landing in the distance.

Day after day, the constant rumble of heavy artillery got closer and closer. Twenty-four hours a day my office, bedroom, kitchen and bunker would be shaking with the thumps of shells landing. The sensation of the approaching doom was all too real with this kind of warfare.

As an aid worker I had been struggling to provide greatly needed assistance to the ever increasing number of people who had been displaced by the fighting.

They had fled from the unbearable noise and fear of the approaching artillery – at first this was happening mostly in the south-western areas of the Vanni. With few transport facilities families couldn’t go far, just a few tens of kilometres, before they sheltered under trees.

As the military advanced the shelling caught up with them and often they had to move again after a couple of days. Many of these areas to the south-west of the Vanni were out of bounds for us as aid workers because of the high danger. But as the military advanced further the people moving ahead of them came closer to Kilinochchi, and we began to meet them and hear their stories of multiple displacements.

I saw children shaking with fear and mothers trying to calm them while they themselves were shaking with fear.

They were hungry, tired, afraid and traumatised. The children had not attended school for months, fathers had lost their means of making a living, such as fishing boats, nets and engines. Mothers were dealing with the raw emotion of just not being able to protect, feed and educate their families.

As aid workers we tried our best to provide shelter, water and sanitation facilities to the people; we built emergency camps in areas that we predicted would be safe havens for people to gather, but as the days went by and the army approached Kilinochchi, the distant rumble of artillery rapidly escalated into a constant roar of shells raining down, in and around the town. Our own security was jeopardised and we were unable to continue to provide further assistance.

The security situation spiralled to emergency levels; artillery and air attacks on Kilinochchi became a frequent event. The Sri Lankan government had put pressure on us to leave as they could not ensure our safety any more in the town. We were 10 international staff there by that time and we had to begin the heartbreaking task of trying to close our offices and relocate to government-controlled areas.

Sheer panic

Emotions were very high through those days, we were dealing with the guilt and frustration of having to leave at the time when humanitarian assistance was needed the most by the community that we had all got to know and develop strong relationships with. Stopping our programmes was professionally hard, but our staff became the focal point of our emotional state.

The LTTE has a pass system for those who want to leave the Vanni for government areas. Many of our staff members were simply refused a pass for one reason or another.

The passes are granted to individuals, not families, so those who were granted one had a heartbreaking decision to make, whether to leave their spouse and children behind under a barrage of shells and air attacks to come with us to continue to work and earn money, or to stay behind with their family and face the possibility of being forced to join the LTTE and sent to fight.

To manage, advise and counsel our staff through this process was the hardest thing emotionally I and many of us had ever dealt with. As the roar of the shells got ever closer to Kilinochchi the urgency of the decision-making increased and staff had to begin to move to government areas, leaving their loved ones behind.

I remember one morning when an air attack happened very close to me. I managed to get into the bunker quickly and narrowly escaped being hurt. I will never forget the noise of that fighter jet, the unbelievable sound of the engine as it swooped from the sky and the explosions of the bombs dropped close by.

But the lasting image I have is of the sheer panic and traumatised people when I emerged. As aid agencies we have concrete fortified bunkers, but the population of Kilinochchi has muddy holes in the ground. I saw children shaking with fear and mothers trying to calm them while they themselves were shaking with fear.

We shared tears, we shared the feelings of terror and intense guilt, and we left.

We were scheduled to leave Kilinochchi on Friday, 12 September but large-scale protests were held outside our compounds. The people were chanting “Don’t Leave, Don’t Leave”.

The demonstrators were so polite and respectful to us. They were not angry, they were desperate. They understood that we needed to end our operations, and told us that they would manage themselves with shelter and water.

It was the prospect of our physical departure that terrified them. With no international presence and no witness to the conflict, they believed that many atrocities would occur and no one would see this.

For three days the protests continued. We all understood and felt their fear but our hands were tied. The situation was becoming incredibly dangerous; some international aid workers had to leave their compounds and move to “safer areas” as artillery shells were landing within a few hundred metres of our compounds.

For the final two days in Kilinochchi we spent much time in our bunkers as the artillery and air attacks intensified in and around the town. The sound through these days was tremendous, everything would shake and the air implode as the shells landed. In the near distance we could hear the terrifying sound of helicopter gunships, firing rockets.

The residents of Kilinochchi town began to leave, moving further north, away from the approaching artillery. It was clear we would have to go too the following day or we would be stuck there.

Shame

On the morning of 16 September we lined our vehicles up at our compound and under heavy shelling and air attacks, wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets, we drove out of Kilinochchi town and headed for the government areas.

We left a number of our staff, who could not get passes, behind. We shared tears, we shared the feelings of terror and intense guilt, and we left.

I remember feeling deep shame as I drove past civilians who were watching me from the side of the road, in my ballistic vest, heading for safety, as they stood there in their trousers and shirts and saris. We drove through the site of a fresh air attack on the A9 road and once again saw the devastation it caused and understood what may come for Kilinochchi and its civilian population.

Although I appreciate and respect the security rules that govern aid workers and understand why we had to leave, I still have to deal with a great sense that I abandoned those people. There is the pain and guilt of saying goodbye and good luck to our staff who had worked so hard and with such passion for the victims of war in the Vanni – and leaving them behind.