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UITBB calls for return to legality in Honduras |
Democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya has been victim of a military coup on June 29, 2009.
The UITBB expresses its solidarity with the workers and the people of Honduras whose civic rights have been trampled by the military coup against the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. The UITBB supports the resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations demanding the immediate and unconditional reinstatement of the ousted Honduran president. This resolution, initially presented by Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Salvador, Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, and backed by the USA, Canada and Colombia after inclusion of a number of amendments has been carried by acclamation by the 192 member States of the UN.
The UITBB condemns the acts of violence and repression perpetrated against individuals and organisations, in particular against the trade unions, which have staged demonstrations to claim the return to legality in Honduras.
See further the Appeal launched by FLEMACON, affiliated to UITBB and WFTU.
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June 18 2009 Meeting between a WFTU delegation and ILO Director General |
George Mavrikos and Juan Somavia
Meeting between a WFTU delegation and ILO Director General Juan Somavia
On 18 June 2009, a cordial meeting between a World Federation of Trade Unions delegation and International Labour Organisation Director General Juan Somavia took place during which Comrade George Mavrikos, General Secretary of the WFTU, expressed the opinion of the 70 million strong WFTU on a number of pressing issues:
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April 26-27 2009 UITBB delegates attended Hong Kong Asian Asbestos Conference |
 The conference brought together over 200 delegates from trade unions, victims' groups, non government organisations, researchers and academics to tackle the appalling wide spread use of this deadly substance in Asia.
UITBB delegate Pat Preston from the Construction Forestry, Mining and Energy Union of Australia gave an address outlining the 40 year struggle of the Australian union movement that finally yielded an asbestos ban in 2004.
Pat Preston played a key role in this campaign and was one of the authors of the Australian Codes of Practice that now regulate the safe removal and management of asbestos.
These Codes can be downloaded in  English at the following internet address ;
The high point of the Conference was the launch of "ABAN" the Asian Ban Asbestos Network and the UITBB was accepted as a founding member of ABAN.
Pat Preston was endorsed by the Conference as one of three advisers to ABAN alongside two highly regarded asbestos experts Laurie Kazan-Allen and Barry Castleman.
Many informative academic papers along with national reports were presented to the Conference and these will be available on the Conference website from the end of May 09.
The UITBB is committed to play its role in ABAN, campaigning for full compensation and justice for asbestos victims, as part of our global struggle against the asbestos industry.
Pat Preston
Seán Marshall
National Research / Policy Officer
CFMEU National Office
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Peru - No More Deaths, Dialogue! |
(Photo: AIDESEP)
Awajuns from the Peruvian Amazon have been protesting for more than two months against the invasion of their traditional lands by foreign oil companies after President Alan Garcia granted those with new unconstitutional concessions.
As a demonstration of solidarity with the struggle of the Amazon people in favour of national sovereignty and for revoking the government decrees intending to alienate the national assets by granting operation permits to foreign oil groups, the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers - CGTP has sent us a press release where they strongly condemn the killing of over twenty Amazon community leaders, settlers from the Bagua and Utcubamba Province, in the High Amazon, and members of the National Police, after the government of President Alan Garcia decided to resort to violence instead of dialogue.
See the full note in Spanish here
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12-15 May UITBB Regional Meeting - Africa |
From left to right Moussa Kanouté, General Secretary of Synibabcom, Mamadou Igor Diarra, Minister of Energy and Water, UITBB President John Sutton, R.Gelmi
From May 12th to May 15th, a Training Seminar for Trade-Unionist on "Decent Work: Social Protection and Safety on the Work Sites in the Construction Industry" was held in Bamako, Mali. President John Sutton, in his speech recalled the special attention granted to Africa by the UITBB and he set the context of meeting. Dr Cisse Abdourahmane introduced the "Social Protection and Social Security" in Mali and spoke about "Assessing Professional Risks within Undertakings". Those contributions are available in French.
The meeting drafted a series of recommendations and resolutions, available in Documents .
It was also the occasion to define the responsibilities for the new UITBB Africa Coordination. Those were set as follow:
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4th and 5th of May 2009 UITBB Regional meeting - Europe |
 UITBB member of Secretariat Yannis Pasoulas made an important contribution to the 3rd UITBB EUROPEAN MEETING OF CONSTRUCTION AND WOOD WORKERS UNIONS, held in Tenerife, Canary islands, on 4 - 5 May 2009. Yannis Pasoulas is the President of the Federation of Construction Workers and Allied Trades of Greece. In his speech, he calls for clarity of vision and analysis in the wake of the brutality of the capitalist crisis, calling a spade a spade.
No to EU, built on ultraliberal premisses
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4th and 5th of May 2009 UITBB Regional meeting - Europe |
Hosted by the Intersindical Canaria, the 3rd UITBB Regional meeting of Construction and Wood Workers Unions from Europe convened in Tenerife (Canary Islands) on the 4th and the 5th of May.
From left to right Pieris Pieri, Yiannis Pasoulas, José Dinis, interpreter & Lucy Rodriguez
Follows the speech pronounced by José Dinis, UITBB Secretary General, on the current capitalist crisis:
Dear Comrades and Friends,
The capitalist crisis exploded with great force in the fall of 2008. The defenders of the system can no longer hide its enormous dimension and its consequences will last for several years. Having had its epicentre in the United States of America, it is rocking the whole capitalist economy, notably in Europe and it is bringing to light that this system is corroded by deep contradictions, provoking successive crises, with devastating effects the word over, particularly for many million workers. The present crisis shows the limits and the deep hypocrisy of the capitalist system and of neoliberal thinking. Imperialist globalization and wild capitalism are now more exposed.
Having transferred enormous sums to speculative activities, to the detriment of the productive sphere and promoted increased financial activities and easy access to credit, instead of decent salaries, capital entered a phase of overproduction and restriction of consumption, which brought a major economic and social disaster for mankind.
This crisis also results from capitalism having developed, over the last decades, increasingly free from any regulation or barriers. Free market was placed in a shrine by several political forces and governments from capitalist countries.
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April 28th -ILO World Day for Safety and Health at Work |
 Many of you will know that April 28 th is also an International Workers Day of Mourning to commemorate workers who have died on the job. On construction sites around Australia, construction workers will stop for a minute's silence to remember their work mates. We suggest to all those who shall join in a minute's silence to show thy solidarity with Australian constructors by watching this video on YouTube at this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnfJBX2piXY&feature=channel_page
Australian construction industry is one of the toughest industries to work in and statistics show that one construction worker is killed a week in Australia. Hundreds more are injured. But each year millions of dollars is spent on the Australian Building and Construction Commission, an organisation which undermines workers rights and safety. That's why Australian constructors are campaigning to get rid of the ABCC and the laws that keep in place.
Show your support and join the campaign at www.rightsonsite.org.au
Gemma Swart |Client Manager
(P) +61 2 8280 9100
(F) +61 2 9283 4948
(M) +61 (0)414 873 291
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www.essentialmedia.com.au
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UITBB Statement on the 1st of May |
May Day 2009 - Workers' response to the crisis of capitalism!
 In 2009 the global capitalist economy is in deep crisis with dramatic consequences for the overwhelming majority of the world's population and the environment. We are witnessing massive lay-offs pushing hundreds of millions of human beings to the margins of society, the closure of profitable enterprises and the destruction of national industrial and scientific heritage. Developing countries and their populations are being sacrificed, the environment is being plundered and global natural resources privatised, the world's wealth is being redistributed among a handful of multinational oligarchs, human and natural resources are being exploited – in short, capitalism, a 500-year-old system based on private ownership and the supremacy of private interests to the detriment of everything that is based on collectivism and solidarity, is desperately trying to find a way out of the crisis using the only method it knows: increased exploitation of the work force and the accumulation of profits.
According to the International Labour Office, the construction sector is particularly harshly affected. It is estimated that during 2008 at least 5 million construction workers lost their jobs: 500,000 in Spain; 50,000 in Ireland; 100,000 in the United Kingdom; 150,000 in the Gulf State; 20,000 Turkish construction workers sent home from Russia, and so on. And the forecasts for 2009 aren't promising. According to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, in the UK 300,000 construction workers, equivalent to roughly 10 per cent of the sector's workforce, will be out of work; in Germany 100,000; in Indonesia 1.5 million; the list is endless… Countless construction projects, including social housing, have been frozen, waiting for better times.
And this is despite the thousands of billions of public money generously granted by political decision-makers to the banks, national corporations and multinationals.
Workers, their families, their children, as well as the world's poor, are being made to pay for a crisis they did not cause.
But they are not taken in. In every corner of the planet, they are mobilising in various resolute actions showing the potential for change inherent to militant grassroots and trade union commitment.
On May Day tens of millions of workers, men and women on all continents, will take to the streets in cities and towns, urban and rural areas, determined to put forward their just demands: jobs, social justice, humanitarianism, democratic and labour rights and freedoms, respect for human beings and nature, equality between men and women, peace and disarmament – a different world, a world without capitalist exploitation.
On behalf of millions of men and women construction workers, the UITBB calls upon fellow workers to unite with courage and optimism and to take part in May Day demonstrations, transforming them into a climax of militant trade union and popular action, a strong expression of international workers' solidarity – a real May Day celebration!
The UITBB Secretariat
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April 1st - Day of action in Peru |
WFTU : March for labour rights and against exploitation
On 1st April, in accordance with the decision taken by the National Assembly of trade union delegates on March13 and following the call launched by the WFTU, construction workers staged one of the biggest and most militant demonstrations of recent times in Peru. In Lima alone, over 35 000 workers marched to the Ministry of Labour to hand over the List of claims for the collective agreement 2009. At the same time, local unions of the FTCCP (Construction Workers Union of Peru) mobilised all over the country more then 150 000 workers in support of their own heroic National Union. Many other unions joined the FTCCP march: the leaders of the Dock Workers Union, the Unions Topi Top and SUTEP, delegates of the unemployed, representatives of the Political and Social Coordinating Committee and several members of parliament.
Family members of Pedro Huilca and of the victims from Barrios Altos and La Cantuta join the demonstration. Pedro Huilca an outstanding Peruvian and international trade-unionist figure, was the victim of an extra judicial execution on December 18, 1992. The onslaught of 15 persons in Barrios Altos, a district in the centre of Lima, as well as the forced disappearance and murder of Professor Hugo Muñoz Sanchez and nine students abducted on July 18, 1992 from the Universidad Nacional Enrique Guzmán y Valle, La Cantuta, were perpetrated by "Grupo Colina", death squadron from the Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional in charge of physical elimination of alleged terrorists during Alberto Fujimori's presidency. All together, in a spirit of unprecedented solidarity and unity, they demanded justice and punishment for Alberto Fujimori and his accomplices’ crimes.
see more in the FTCCP Bulletin (in Spanish) ftccp-informativo_2009_04
Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru between1990 and 2000, was found guilty of ordering the murder of 25 people and two abductions. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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