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Interview with carpenter Karin Pedersen Pryn |
"The biggest problem for women in this sector is the mistrust of employers, colleagues and even customers"
Karin Pedersen Pryn interviewed by Andrianna Mihail, journalist at "WORKERS STEP", the weekly newspaper of PEO
Karin Pedersen Pryn is from Denmark and has been working in the Woodwork industry since 1982. She talks here about the nature and difficulties of her job.
How many years have you been working in this specific occupation?
I began working in the Wood industry in 1982. Before that, I was a student for four years at a special faculty where we had theoretical and practical lessons on carpentry. So actually, I am in this occupation since 1978.
How did you get involved in this job?
I really liked the construction sector in general and so I decided to find an occupation that is related to it. What enthrals me is that you can see the result of your work. It is a beautiful feeling after finishing a hard day's work to see the results of your labour.
Tell us a few things about the nature of your job…
To do this job we must first be very careful, to know how to use your strengths so as not to do damage to yourself and to be quick and productive. My work is difficult and very tiring, for both men and women. However, women face another difficulty - the prejudice of their colleagues at work.
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UITBB release on the 8th March 2010 |
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
On this 8th March - International Women's Day, the Trade Unions International of Workers in the Building, Wood and Building Materials Industries (UITBB) addresses warm militant greetings to working women all over the world and wishes them every success in their struggles for peace, social justice and equality.
100 years have elapsed since Clara Zetkin proposed the 2nd International Conference of Socialist Women in 1910 in Copenhagen to mark all over the world an International day of women’s struggle for a better and dignified life, and in particular for their right to vote, a proposal that was unanimously accepted. Despite the fact that so many years have elapsed, the message of this day remains as never before timely. It inspires and guides women workers and the trade union movement in their small and big struggles for peace, equality and the eradication of every form of violence and discrimination.
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PBKLU success is seen by union activists with pride |
PAKSITAN BRICK KILN LABOUR UNION-PBKLU and its parent organisation the All Pakistan Federation of United Trade Unions-APFUTU in the front line against forced labour , traffic of human beings and child labour
This happily reunited family has put behind their backs the ordeal of seeing their children Robeia, Robeena, Sarfraz, Usman Ali and Nani being sold by their employer for 3000 euros.
Employers with feudal mindsets see employees and their families as no more than machines, as means of production they think they own. Illiteracy and deprivation do the rest and make it straightforward to understand why the most precarious of our brothers are pushed into appalling conditions. Having said that, the fate of our sisters is even more outrageous. We have been informed of a case of bonded labour and children overexploitation where sisters were deprived of their freedom by private entrepreneurs, where a wife and children were sold. This is a case of gross violation of human rights where no considerations whatsoever were given to the traumas inflicted. Yet when organised labour is able to claim respect for the people through respect for the law we feel fulfilment and we feel pride.
PBKLU, a UITBB affiliate from Pakistan, reported a recent successful trade union action to recover abducted family members of a brick kiln labourer, a story, which unfortunately reflects the reality of tens of thousands of workers in the brick kiln industry in Pakistan, victims of debt bondage, blackmailing and kidnapping.
These are the facts
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UITBB attending the NGO CSW Forum in New York |
2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the Beijing World Conference on Women. In recognition of this anniversary the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, NY  (A Committee of the Conference of NGOs in consultative Relationship with the United Nations) is organizing an NGO Global Women’s Forum.
The Forum will take place on February 27 & 28 2010 in New York. This Forum immediately precedes the 54th session of UN Commission on the status of Women, which will also undertake a 15 – year review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Our sister, Marina Stavrinou will attend the Forum as UITBB Women Commission's coordinator.
The Forum program will include two full conference days commencing with an opening ceremony and continuing with plenary sessions, panel discussions and workshops.
Some of the issues that are going to be discussed are:
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OHS - Handbooks in Spanish |
Anxo Perez Carballo sent us a copy of the latest production by the Technical Office on Occupational Health at the Inter-Union Confederation of Galicia –CIG, a handbook on occupational hazards in the field of natural stone processing, with a special focus on silicosis, which is regarded as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer IARC of the United Nations.
Entitled Identification of occupational hazards and guide to good practice in working with natural stone, this 350 pages handbook was published with funding from the Foundation for the prevention of occupational hazards. Follow the link to read on your screen this bookfile in Spanish.
See also the following pdf in Spanish:
A Practical Guide to the setting up of Shared Prevention Services published with funds from the same foundation, 138 pages.
A 262 pages Compilation of regulations and guidelines for good practices on asbestos published with funds from the same foundation. In Spanish.
These handbooks are available in Galician and Castilian. If you wish a copy of them, please request one from
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, who will be happy to send it to you.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: Gecamines and neoliberal policies' victims |
Lubumbashi artist Sammy Baloji creates photomontages with contemporary photos of facilities from the former Union Miniere du Katanga, Gecamines today, and archival photographs from the colonial era.
How to protect individual workers in the metallurgical plants of Gecamines in Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo? asks Alexander Kyungu Musheto, Secretary General of the Christian Trade Union of Congo Workers SCTC. International financial institutions continue to claim victims in the Third World, says he. Indeed, an employee of the General Company of Quarries and Mines, Gecamines, in Lubumbashi, has died of his burns in January 2010. He entered without protective equipment in a rundown electric cabin powered by 6600 volts in voltage, and a short circuit burned alive the unfortunate man. Despite initial first aid provided by his colleagues, he died a few days later in the emergency room of the company hospital, leaving his wife and children in distress. But what pushes an employee to sacrifice and go into high-risk facilities without being assured of personal safety? Is it because all the workers of this company, which they perceive as their foster mother, are overreacting because of what they call bad omen striking Gecamines?
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February 5th, Portugal: Massive demonstration |
More than 50 thousand workers from the Public Administration protested in Lisbon against another year of wage freezes, penalties on early retirement and destruction of rights, on the 5th of February.
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February 10, 2009 Militant strikers shut down Greece |
Greek society living forces were demonstrating in the streets of Athens claiming for a better and fairer life
Workers and their unions are determined not to pay for the crisis which
they have not created. They are resolved to continue this struggle to
defeat the anti-popular measures of the government.
On 10 February, tens of thousands of workers and employees both in the public and private sectors responded to the strike call of the All Workers' Militant Front (PAME), the parent organisation of class oriented trade unions in Greece. PAME staged mass rallies in 66 cities throughout the country, while 300 grass-root and regional trade union organisations decided to join the strike in protest against austerity measures announced by the PASOK government involving changes to income taxation, drastic cuts in the social security system, in particular pension schemes, freezing salaries and cutbacks in social benefits. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) expressed its full support and solidarity with the workers’ on strike.
The main demands of the workers are:
- stable employment for all
- 7 hour working day, 5 days a week
- 1 400 EUR minimum wage
- retirement age at 55 for women and 60 for men, respectively 50 and 55 for hazardous professions
- enhanced protection of unemployed and their families
- 1120 EUR unemployment benefit for the entire period of unemployment without any conditions
- free access to health care and medication
- drastic increase of taxation of company profits, up to 45 % and abolition of tax relieves and privileges.
Against antisocial and antipeople policies through fighting and resisting, chant the Greek demonstrators.
PAME has called on workers to take part in a 24-hour nationwide strike two weeks later, on February 24 that has been called by the General Confederation of Workers of Greece (GSEE).
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Join the campaign against military bases |
 The Regional Office for Latin America of World Federation of Trade Unions denounces the increasing US military presence in Latin America (as well as in other parts of the world) and appeals to join the campaign to make LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN A REGION OF PEACE. The WFTU supports demands to dismantle all foreign military bases. Follow the link to read the call and explanatory memorandum [in Spanish]. Send support messages, records of actions and pictures to:
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Interview with Professor Toshikazu Nagayama from Japan |
Professor Toshikazu Nagayama, Director of the Construction Industry’s Research Institute interviewed by Rober Brun with the help of an interpreter
Q: You have said that the wave of speculation changed the construction industry from top to bottom. Could you illustrate this upheaval?
A: There are two reasons behind it. Firstly, most people have neither the wealth nor earn enough money to buy a home and so they resort to borrowing. Their loans are dependent on the interbank market, the cost of housing is dictated by interbank lending rates, and as the loans are very high-risk, given the borrowers’ reduced means, they are also extremely profitable. Secondly, large commercial buildings, offices, etc. are also financed by the banking system through the same method of transforming bank credits into bonds negotiable on the stock exchange – the so-called securitization. This system has created both massive profits and huge losses. In the construction industry, the developers have been the means through which the banking system operates, and subcontracting has expanded in order to cut costs.
Q: You have also proposed a re-think of our industry’s policies for the future. In what way do you see this?
A: Governments should be the ones to invest in construction so as to limit speculation. Buildings could be sold with government help and a housing right should be installed facilitating access to housing and guaranteeing occupancy. Buildings endure and therefore have a long-term effect on the economic cycle. They therefore represent an element for development that can also be a stabilizing factor for both jobs and construction workers’ social conditions.
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