OPEN WORLD CONFERENCE OF WORKERS
In Defense of Trade Union
Independence & Democratic Rights

(c/o S.F. Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St.#203,
San Francisco, CA 94109. Tel: 415- 641-8616
Fax: 415-440-9297  Email: owc@igc.org)
 

JOIN THE CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE
RATIFICATION, IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT
OF THE ILO CONVENTIONS!

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

We are writing to urge your support for the
attached "Open Letter to the Heads of State
Attending the World Trade Organization Summit
in Seattle." The Open Letter calls on these
government leaders to ratify, implement and fully
enforce the Conventions of the International Labor
Organization (ILO).

Over the past 80 years, the ILO has adopted 176
Conventions under the constant pressure of the
mass movement of workers and their allies. When
ratified by a particular country, the substance of
the ILO convention must become the law of the
land.

These ILO Conventions represent a tremendous
gain for the workers¹ movement. They have set
the standard for labor rights worldwide. The
binding constraints for national labor legislation in
the ILO ratification procedure, in particular, make
them both a reference point and a rallying point
for the independent trade union movement in
every country.

Beginning in 1991, the IMF and WTO called for a
"reform" of the ILO. IMF top officials said the ILO
conventions had to be made more "flexible" and
more "adapted" to the needs of the global
economy in the new millennium. It was necessary
to create a "less constraining framework for
ensuring international labor standards."

In 1994, top officials in the WTO pressed further,
explaining that the countries that had ratified and
implemented the ILO conventions on labor rights
were at a "comparative disadvantage" in relation
to countries that had not done so. It was
necessary, they said, to move toward the adoption
of a new ILO charter on fundamental workers¹

rights that could outline general principles
without imposing on the ratifying countries the
mandatory and legal constraints required by the
adoption of ILO conventions.

And this is precisely what happened in June 1998
with the adoption by the ILO of a new "Declaration
of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work."
The principles and rights contained in the
declaration became disconnected from the
ratification process. This means a country can
adopt these principles ‹ even though it has not
ratified any of the ILO conventions ‹ without the
requirement that these principles find their way
into national laws.

Not surprisingly, the new ILO declaration has been
hailed loudly by Clinton and the leaders of the G8.

The Open Letter issued by the Organizing
Committee of the Open World Conference in
Defense of Trade Union Independence and
Democratic Rights (OWC) demands that the
existing ILO Conventions become the law of the
land in every country. It rejects government or
corporate pledges to support hollow principles and
rights detached from concrete implementation in
national labor legislation.

The Open Letter also rejects support for watered-
down agreements that would supplant the existing
ILO Conventions. This is a reference to the 1999
ILO declaration opposing the "worst forms of child
labor" ‹ a document which Clinton supports and
has vowed to take to the U.S. Congress for
ratification.

This new agreement is presented by its defenders
as a "bridge" to ensure wider acceptance of ILO
Convention 138, which bans child labor altogether.
In reality, it is being deployed by governments
beholden to the corporate agenda to legalize the
"least offensive" forms of child labor. In Europe,
for example, the European Union is projecting
lowering the ban on child labor to 12 years of age
on the basis of this new agreement.

Another ILO Convention slated to disappear
before long is ILO Convention 103, which deals
with maternity leaves for working women.

The OWC Open Letter concludes by calling
specifically on Bill Clinton and the U.S.
government, who are hosting the Seattle WTO
Summit, to ratify and implement these ILO
conventions.

Though the U.S. government claims to champion
workers¹ rights at work, in reality it has an
"appalling record on workers¹ rights" and "one of
the worst ratification records [of ILO Conventions]
in the world." This was the conclusion reached by
the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions (ICFTU) in a 15-page report published July
14, 1999. [See attached ICFTU report summary.]

The OWC Open Letter supports the ICFTU¹s call on
the U.S. government to ratify and implement the
seven core conventions of the ILO, which are: (1)
ILO Convention 87 concerning freedom of
association and the protection of the right to
organize, (2) ILO Convention 98 concerning the
right to organize and to bargain collectively, (3)
ILO Convention 29 on forced labor, (4) ILO
Convention 105 banning forced labor, (5) ILO
Convention 100 on equal wages for work of equal
value, (6) ILO Convention 111 on discrimination in
employment, (7) ILO Convention 138 on the
abolition of child labor (1973).

A campaign for the U.S. government to ratify and
implement these core ILO conventions is a
campaign for labor law reform in the United
States. It is a campaign to ban striker
"replacements" and enact legislation that would
restore workers¹ rights to organize (free from
employer harassment and intimidation), bargain
collectively (free from employer and/or
government interference), and strike (free from
all the undemocratic restrictions created by
injunctions and legalized scabs).

We hope you will endorse this appeal and help
circulate it widely in your union, workplace
and/or community organization. Please contact us
if you wish more information about this campaign.

In Solidarity,
Organizing Committee,
Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union
Independence and Democratic Rights
 

OPEN WORLD CONFERENCE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE MEMBERS:

Jack Henning, Secretary-Treasurer-Emeritus,
California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO);
Walter Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer, San
Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO); Baldemar
Velasquez, President, Farm Labor Organizing
Committee (FLOC-AFL-CIO); Mya Shone, Co-
Coordinator OWC and member OPEIU Local 3; Ed
Rosario, Co-Coordinator OWC, Coordinator WHC
and President, San Francisco LCLAA; Daniel
Gluckstein, Coordinator, International Liaison
Committee for a Workers¹ International (ILC);
Patrick Hébert, General Secretary, CGT-Force
Ouvrière Labor Federation (Loire-
Atlantique/France); Nancy Wohlforth,
Secretary-Treasurer, OPEIU Local 3 (AFL-CIO);
Frank Martin del Campo, National Executive
Committee, Labor Council for Latin American
Advancement (LCLAA); Alan Benjamin,
Assistant Coordinator WHC, member OPEIU Local 3
and SF LCLAA)

OPEN LETTER TO ALL HEADS OF STATE
Attending the World Trade Organization
Summit in Seattle:

The Conventions of the International Labor
Organization (ILO) Must Be Ratified,
Implemented and Fully Enforced in Every
Country!
 

Dear Heads of State and Government:

We, the undersigned trade union leaders, union
activists and supporters of labor rights the world
over, address you this Open Letter on the occasion
of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Summit in
Seattle in November 1999.

In recent months, U.S. President Bill Clinton and
the heads of state of the G8 countries have issued
countless declarations professing the need to
uphold workers¹ rights in all "free trade" pacts and
to put a "human face on the global economy."

As trade unionists and supporters of labor
rights, we have reached the conclusion ‹(based on
years of bitter experience)‹ that the "free trade"
agreements and Structural Adjustment Programs
promoted by the WTO, as well as by the IMF and
World Bank:

o     are an assault upon our rights and upon our
working and living conditions, and stand as
barriers to social progress and democracy,
o     elevate the multinational corporations and
their interests above those of the peoples of
each country,

o     have, at their core, the aim of destroying our
public services, collective bargaining
agreements, and national labor codes,

o     are an assault on our right to employment,
insofar as they destroy jobs for the many
while creating work for only a few,

o     are a means through which the governments
and employers seek to undermine the
independence of trade unions that stand for
the defense of working people and our
interests.

As trade unionists and activists, we
consider that any government leader that
today professes to uphold and defend
workers¹ rights must begin by ensuring
that his or her own country ratifies,
implements and fully enforces the
conventions of the International Labor
Organization (ILO).

The ILO, which was founded in 1919, has
codified into 176 ILO Conventions the gains won
through struggle by the workers¹ movement over
the past century. When a country ratifies a
Convention of the ILO, it must bring its own
national legislation into conformity with the ILO
convention. The substance of the ILO convention
therefore becomes the law of the land.

These ILO Conventions have set the standard
for labor rights worldwide. On every continent
they have laid the basis for national labor
legislation and labor codes ‹ all which are under
assault today in the name of "globalization."

In June 1998 ‹ under pressure from the WTO
and IMF to create a "less constraining framework
for ensuring international labor standards" ‹ the
ILO adopted a new "Declaration on Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work." The principles and
rights promoted in this declaration correspond to
seven of the existing ILO Conventions. On June 20,
1999, the G8 Summit in Cologne, Germany, issued
a communiqué pledging to "promote effective
implementation" of this new ILO declaration.

We, the undersigned, state categorically: If this
ILO "Declaration on Fundamental Principles and
Rights at Work" is to be of any value to working
people the world over, the seven corresponding
Conventions of the ILO must be ratified,
implemented and enforced fully by every
government participating in the WTO Summit in
Seattle!

These seven core ILO Conventions are:

1. ILO Convention 87 concerning freedom of
association and the protection of the right to
organize (1948)

2. ILO Convention 98 concerning the right to
organize and to bargain collectively (1949)

3. ILO Convention 29 on forced labor (1930)

4. ILO Convention 105 banning forced labor
(1957)

5. ILO Convention 100 on equal wages for work
of equal value (1951)

6. ILO Convention 111 on discrimination in
employment (1958)

7. ILO Convention 138 on the abolition of child
labor (1973).

We will not accept any substitutes for the
existing conventions of the ILO. We will not accept
support for hollow principles and rights at work
detached from concrete implementation in
national labor legislation. We will not accept any
watered-down agreements.

Finally, we wish to issue a special appeal to the
government that is hosting the November 1999
WTO Summit ‹ that is, the U.S. government:

U.S. officials proclaim loudly in every
international arena that the United States is a
staunch defender of workers¹ rights. Bill Clinton
addressed the yearly assembly of the ILO in June
1999, where he trumpeted his support for the
new ILO "Declaration on Fundamental Principles
and Rights at Work."

But the truth of the matter is that the U.S.
record on workers¹ rights is abysmal.

On July 14, 1999, the International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) issued
a 15-page report that fully documents the
"massive, ongoing, and appalling violations in the
United States of the right to freedom of association
and the right to organize."

"The United States," the report continues, "has
ratified only one of the seven core labor standards
‹ ILO Convention 105 opposing forced labor. ...
This is one of the worst ratification records in the
world."

The ICFTU report reviews in great detail how
the core ILO conventions ‹ including those on
child labor, forced labor, discrimination in the
workplace, and the right to strike ‹ are violated
daily in the United States. The ICFTU report
concludes with these words:

"The United States needs to take a series of far-
reaching measures to establish genuine respect for
core labor standards in the United States. In areas
of compelling violations, ILO Conventions 87
(Freedom of Association) and 98 (Right to
Organize) should be ratified and the country¹s
laws brought into conformity with these
Conventions, because major reforms are needed to
protect workers who try to organize and bargain
collectively from employer interference and
intimidation.

"The United States should also ratify
Conventions 100 and 111 against Discrimination,
Convention 138 on Child Labor, and Convention 29
on Forced labor, and work to put these
Conventions into full effect."

We, the undersigned, fully concur with this
ICFTU report and its conclusions. Any government
that pretends to uphold workers¹ rights must
begin by ratifying the Conventions of the ILO!

[This Open Letter was prepared by the
Organizing Committee of the Open World
Conference in Defense of Trade Union
Independence and Democratic Rights (OWC),
which will be held in San Francisco in February of
2000 with the participation of trade unionists and
activists from 86 countries.

[The call to organize an international campaign to
ratify the ILO conventions was first issued by the
Seventh Annual Meeting of Trade Unionists in
Defense of the ILO Conventions, held in June 1999
in Geneva at the time of the yearly assembly of
the ILO. The meeting was convened by the heads
of 17 African trade union federations and the
International Liaison Committee for a Workers¹

International (ILC). The ILC is a co-sponsor of the
OWC, along with the San Francisco Labor Council
(AFL-CIO) and the Continuations Committee of the
Western Hemisphere Workers¹ Conference Against
NAFTA and Privatizations (WHC).

[For more information about the Open World
Conference, write to OWC, c/o S.F. Labor Council
(AFL-CIO), 1188 Franklin St. #203, San Francisco
94109, or tel. (415) 641-8616, or fax (415) 440-
9297, or email <owc@igc.org.]

Initial list of Signatories:

Organizing Committee of the OWC:

Jack Henning, Secretary- Treasurer-Emeritus,
California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO);
Walter Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer,
San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO); Baldemar
Velasquez, President, Farm Labor Organizing
Committee (FLOC-AFL-CIO); Mya Shone, Co-
Coordinator OWC and member OPEIU Local 3; Ed
Rosario, Co-Coordinator OWC, Coordinator WHC
and President, San Francisco LCLAA; Daniel
Gluckstein, Coordinator, International Liaison
Committee for a Workers¹ International (ILC);
Patrick Hébert, General Secretary, CGT-Force
Ouvrière Labor Federation (Loire-
Atlantique/France); Nancy Wohlforth,
Secretary-Treasurer, OPEIU Local 3 (AFL-CIO);
Frank Martin del Campo, National Executive
Committee, Labor Council for Latin American
Advancement (LCLAA); Alan Benjamin,
Assistant Coordinator WHC, member OPEIU Local 3
and SF LCLAA.

ENDORSEMENT FORM:

PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THE LIST OF SIGNATORIES
OF THIS OPEN LETTER TO THE HEADS OF STATE

NAME
EMAIL
ADDRESS
CITY
STATE
ZIP
UNION/ORG:
TITLE (for id. only)

(Return to OWC, c/o S.F. Labor Council (AFL-
CIO), 1188 Franklin St. #203, San Francisco 94109,
or email: <owc.igc.org>)

ATTACHMENT NO. 1

SUMMARY OF THE ICFTU REPORT ON WORKERS¹

RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES

On July 14, 1999, the International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) issued a report
slamming the United States¹ "appalling record on
workers¹ rights and calling on the U.S. to ratify the
core conventions of the International Labor
Organization (ILO).

It is worth examining in greater detail the content
of this 15-page ICFTU report, which was issued
the same day the WTO released its trade policy
review on the United States.

The ICFTU press release that summarizes the
report states in part:

"Violations in the United States of the right to
freedom of association and the right to organize,
are Œmassive, ongoing, and appalling.¹ ... ŒIt is
shocking to see that in the United States both
government and employers harass and persecute
those who exercise their rights at work,¹ said the
ICFTU General Secretary Bill Jordan.

"The United States has ratified only one of the
seven core labor standards, which cover the right
to organize a trade union, to bargain, the
prohibition of discrimination and child labor, as
specified by the UN¹s International Labor
Organization (ILO). This is one of the worst
ratification records in the world, says the ICFTU."
The ICFTU report details how the right to freedom
of association and collectively bargaining are
severely restricted.

"[F]orty percent of American public service
workers ‹ nearly seven million ‹ are denied the
right to collective bargaining. Over two million
federal government employees are denied the
right to strike and to bargain over hours, wages,
or economic benefits. ...

"In the private sector, workers are not adequately
protected from employer interference in the
fundamental right of workers to organize a union.
Where limited protections exist, penalties for this
form of corporate lawlessness are often weak and
ineffective. At least one in ten union supporters
campaigning to form a union is sacked illegally
each year. Employees who support trade unions
are often harassed, intimidated, and isolated from
other workers. Many employers use consultants,
detectives and security firms in anti-union
campaigns.

"In addition to trying to block union organizing,
many companies attempt to destroy unions where
they exist. Unfortunately, enforcement of
protections for worker rights which exist in the
law is weak, both because penalties are light and
because procedures are long and often difficult.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which
administers the law covering most industrial
relations in the private sector, has a backlog of
25,000 cases. For example, it took 62 workers who
were fired in 1979, 19 years to receive financial
compensation.

"Union representatives are often threatened with
arrest when they try to help workers organize
unions and are denied access to the workplace.
Union solidarity is restricted by the law which
makes secondary boycotts and sympathy strikes
illegal.

"When workers vote to have a union, employers
regularly challenge the results. For example, 5,000
workers at the Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans
are still being denied the right to form a union,
although they voted for one in 1993.

"An increasing number of employers deliberately
provoke strikes to get rid of trade unions. In
1995, Detroit News and Knight Ridder unlawfully
provoked a strike involving 2,600 employees. The
newspapers were ordered to reinstate the striking
workers by the NLRB, but have appealed against
the decision and are still refusing to rehire most of
them. Other companies have locked out workers
as part of a strategy to destroy unions.

"Multinational companies refuse to bargain in
good faith or drag out and delay the process. For
example, the German multinational Continental
Tire, after not seriously engaging in bargaining,
hired permanent replacements for striking
workers at its facility in Charlotte, North Carolina.
This practice of permanently replacing strikers
has a devastating effect on industrial relations.
The threat of permanent replacement is used to
scare workers during organizing campaigns, to
intimidate them at the bargaining table, and as a
tool to eliminate union representation altogether."
The ICFTU goes on to report on discrimination at
work in the United States:

"Surprisingly, for a country where the law
provides for equal rights regardless of race, sex,
age or religion, the United States has ratified
neither ILO Conventions 100 nor 111, which deal
with discrimination at work.

"Also, in a country with such a high proportion of
female workers ‹ the percentage now stands at
45% ‹ women on average earn only 75% of men¹s
earnings, Black women 65% of men¹s earnings, and
Hispanic women, 57%."

The ICFTU continues its report with a section of
child labor and forced labor:

"Again, surprisingly for a government which has
taken a strong stand against child labor
internationally, it has not ratified ILO Convention
138 itself, banning child labor. A 1997 survey,
based on federal government data, found that
290,000 children were working illegally. 14,000
were under the age of 14, and some nine-year-
olds were working in garment sweatshops.

"There are also a large number of children of
migrant workers, whom the survey was not able
to document fully, the majority of whom work in
the agricultural and horticultural sectors. This
sector is one of the most dangerous, and between
400 and 600 children working in agricultural
suffer work-related injuries, and many are killed
in accidents each year.

"Regarding forced labor, the United States has
ratified one out of the two ILO Conventions
dealing with forced labor (No. 105). However
there is evidence of a considerable amount of
prison labor being carried out for profit by the
prison authorities, which prisoners are penalized
for refusing.

"Prisoners work for between $0.23 and $1.15 a
day in sectors including telemarketing and
telephone reservation systems for hotels and
airlines (including Trans World Airlines, which
uses prison labor extensively). They also work in
computer circuit board assembly, clothing, and
food. At least three states are exporting prison-
make goods.

"Prisoners who refuse to work lose their chance of
early release, are deprived of privileges or sent to
high-security prisons and may be locked up in
their cells as a punishment.

The ICFTU report then concludes:

"The United States needs to take a series of far-
reaching measures to establish genuine respect for
core labor standards in the U.S. In areas of
compelling violations, ILO Conventions 87
(Freedom of Association) and 98 (Right to
Organize) should be ratified and the country¹s
laws brought into conformity with these
Conventions, because major reforms are needed to
protect workers who try to organize and bargain
collectively from employer interference and
intimidation.

"The United States should also ratify Conventions
100 and 111 against Discrimination, Convention
138 on Child Labor, and Convention 29 on Forced
labor, and work to put these Conventions into full
effect."

The ICFTU report fails to mention a fundamental
workers¹ right that is being trampled upon daily
in the United States ‹ and that is the right to
strike. While there is no ILO convention that
upholds explicitly the right to strike, ILO
jurisprudence has established that the right to
strike is covered by ILO Conventions 87 and 98.

The ILO's Commission on Freedom of Association
(CFA), in fact, has ruled that the United States
persistently violates the workers¹ right to strike.
The CFA has taken issue, in particular, with the
hiring of permanent striker "replacements" and
the various laws restricting workers¹ rights to
picket.