The issues that teachers, civil servants, transport and other workers are protesting about will sound very familiar to trade unionists in Britain. They are campaigning to defend their pay and pensions, but also for better education, health care and social security for all and for a labour code and constitution that respects the rights of the people and not just the interests of big business and a privileged elite.

The protests began peacefully, including mass participation in ‘Cacerolazo’- people coming into the streets to bang pots and pans together to show their discontent. However the government of president Pinera has responded with extreme force, deploying water cannon and tear gas and arresting hundreds of protestors.

The General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Sharan Burrow flew to Santiago to show the global union movement’s support for our Chilean colleagues. She was characteristically direct when she stated:

“‘in a real democracy, people have the legitimate right to demonstrate and demand change. There is no place for violence, and the authorities’ repression aimed at stopping the strike and demonstrations is totally unacceptable.”

The President of the CUT, Arturo Martinez, had predicted the likely government response saying,

“they will undoubtedly bring out the entire police force, but this will not stop us from demonstrating . . . the world will be observing the government’s conduct.”

With so much still happening in the Middle East and attention here still focused on the aftermath of the riots in London and other cities it is vital that we do indeed continue to watch what is happening in Chile and do not allow the forces of repression which have been rolled back in so much of Latin American in recent years to suppress the legitimate protests of the students and workers there.

The decision is expected to add impetus for campaigns by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) and others for a total world-wide ban of all types of asbestos.

The ILO Committee on the Application of Standards has told the Canadian government to adopt the “strictest standard limits for the protection of workers’ health as regards exposure to asbestos” and to engage in consultations with its worker and employer organizations on the application of sections of Convention 162 for reviewing national laws and regulations.

In noting that the ILO Convention “placed an obligation on governments to keep abreast on technical progress and scientific knowledge”, the Committee called on Canada to “take into account the evolution of scientific studies, knowledge and technology since the adoption of the Convention, as well as the findings of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the ILO and other recognized organizations concerning the dangers of the exposure to asbestos.”

The ruling introduces a new element for countries that have ratified ILO Convention 162, which requires periodical reviews in the light of technical progress and advances in scientific knowledge. It  more clearly identifies that information about the elimination of asbestos from the WHO, ILO and other competent authorities must now fall within the scope of such reviews, putting an end to a practice by governments like Canada’s to ignore such information.

But it also stresses the need to go beyond ‘traditional’ workers in ‘traditional’ workplaces. Inspections need to cover those whose employment status is disguised, through outsourcing, sub-contracting, bogus self employment and other dodges; workers in both the formal and informal economy; rural agricultural workers; those in global supply chains such as Economic Processing Zones; and groups such as home workers and domestic workers whose workplaces can leave them especially vulnerable.

When the ILO was founded in 1919, its tripartite character made it unique at global level. Now, as part of the UN family which it pre-dates, and with 183 member states, it is still the only global body made up of union, employer and government representatives. Some, like the International Development Minister Andrew Mitchell – who recently cut the DFID grant to the ILO – don’t appreciate that tripartite system of governance. But it was designed to offer a new and more inclusive approach after the slaughter of the First World War and the instability that followed. As the events of the Arab Spring, with workers taking the lead in the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and still struggling for justice in Bahrain and across the region show, the mission remains vital today.

Our own organisation for stronger unions remains the best way to to ensure justice and decent work. But effective labour administration and inspection systems can supplement union work and can be a vital safety mechanism in workplaces where the employers writ would otherwise run untrammelled.

The developing situation in the Middle East and North Africa formed the backdrop to the most ILO governing body meeting. The new Egyptian labour minister and the leader of the Tunisian trade union federation addressed the meeting, setting out the central role trade unionists had played in the ‘Arab Spring’ in those countries and calling for progress on the recognition of worker’s rights across the region. Whilst great progress has been made, attempts at outright repression are still ongoing in many countries including; Bahrain, Libya and Syria and, despite its almost total absence from the news, Iraq.

As other countries in the region move towards the creation of genuinely independent workers organisations, Iraq under Prime Minister Al-Maliki is moving in the opposite direction. Despite a long running campaign by Iraqi trade unionists to reform the Saddam era labour laws and introduce a labour code which is compliant with ILO standards, the Iraqi government and in particular its labour ministry now controlled by the political followers of Moqtada al-Sadr are launching an all out attack on the independence of the largest Iraqi union organisation, the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW).

A ‘Ministerial Preparatory Committee’ has been appointed to take over all union structures and assets and ‘oversee’ forthcoming union elections, whilst the proposed draft labour law would block white collar workers from union membership. As Brendan Barber (TUC General Secretary) explained in the Guardian yesterday:

“This is a dangerous recipe for breaking apart one of the few institutions left that unites people across tribal, ethnic and religious boundaries, and which is committed to women’s rights and the creation of a peaceful and prosperous Iraq.”

These moves are also a flagrant breach of ILO conventions. Matters will come to a head at next month’s ILO International Labour Conference where the Iraqi government has indicated that it will appoint its own workers rep – in direct contravention of the ILO’s constitution, which states worker delegates must come from the most representative bodies in a country. As the UK workers rep on the governing body I will work alongside the GFIW and the International Trade Union Confederation to ensure that these fake delegates are blocked from taking part.

I would of course much rather see a full and representative Iraqi delegation take part in the conference, but unless the government changes its position this is not an option. Until we hear that the attacks on the GFIW have stopped we need as much publicity and pressure inside and outside Iraq as possible. 

Our General Secretary has written to the Iraqi Prime Minister. Please add to the pressure by signing the Labour Start appeal calling on the Iraqi Prime Minister to back down and support for the rights of Iraqi workers.

Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell announced on 1 March that the support previously provided by the Department for International Development through a series of 3 year partnership agreements would be ended. The last of these agreements had between 2006-9 provided vital support for work on the elimination of child and forced labour in India, increased protection for migrant workers and large scale job creation through co-operative enterprise development in Africa. DFID support had also helped improve ILO work practices along the lines set out in the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness. An independent evaluation commissioned by DFID indicated greatly improved results based management systems and a greater emphasis on gender inclusion in all ILO work.

Not content with removing this support – widely criticised by Labour MPs such as Denis MacShane - during the ILO Governing Body’s biannual budget discussions this week the UK has taken the lead in opposing the proposal for a standstill budget, an increase of just 2.4% in government’s basic contributions (in line with inflation), and instead has called for an effective cut in government contributions to the ILO.

A series of governments from across the world – together with the workers and employers representatives - stressed the vital need to protect the ILO’s work. Speakers stressed the increased rather than decreased need to equip the ILO to work on job creation and implementing the Decent Work agenda as the effects of the economic crisis continue to bite. Several highlighted the fact that the eruptions of popular protest in the Middle East and North Africa were connected to increased unemployment and general lack of economic opportunity and noted that the ILO had rapidly moved to support the new governments of Egypt and Tunisia. Others noted that the ILO has now been effectively operating on standstill budgets for 12 years. However the British government continued to stride in the opposite direction.

It is sadly clear that the basic principle on which the ILO was founded – that ‘poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere’ – no longer holds true in the eyes of our government.