Globalisation and Irish Workers:how are workers in developing

countries coping with globalisation?

Croke Park Conference CentreApril 23, 2008 Sue Longley

Presentation

Introduce my organisation talk about the sector I know best - agriculture outline the problems facing workers in

agriculture how we are working on this ideas for strengthening TU co-operation

Who we are

IUF = international union of food, agriculure, hotel, restaurant, catering, tobacco and allied workerswww.iuf.org

377 affiliated unions in 122 countries - SIPTU & Unite; - worked with Mandate (bananas) ICTU on fair trade

Global union federations: BWI, EI, IFJ, IMF, ICEM, ITGLWF, ITF, PSI ,UNI

International trade union confederation (ITUC): www. ituc-csi.org ; Council of Global Unions; TUAC

IUF - what we do

Bring together workers throughout the food chain - from plough to plate

solidarity/defence of workers/rights equality TU development project - OHS build organising capacity along the

foodchain - TNCs - Nestlé, Coca Cola

IUF - what we do

Statutory commitment to work with like-minded organisation and broader civil society to achieve

equitable distribution of the world’s food resources

Working in agriculture

Total employment inagriculture 2007 (source ILO)

000s % of region'stotal employment

World 1,036,330 34.9

Developed economies and EU 18,468 3.9

East Asia 309,797 38.4

South Asia 286,085 48.0

Latin America 46,383 19.1

Sub Saharan Africa 192,007 64.7

Agriculture…... far from decent work lack of freedom of association/collective

bargaining 1 of 3 most dangerous industries high fatal accident rate 70% of all child labour in agriculture high number of migrant workers precarious conditions

- seasonal work & outsourcing

Agriculture…... far from decent work

We sow it

We reap it

We can’t afford

To eat it(NUAAW, 1980s)

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75% of world’s poor live in rural areas

Women in agriculture

women are farmers and workers - produce more that 50% of world’s food

agriculture = most important sector for women’s employment, especially in Africa and Asia

often in most precarious forms of employment/unpaid family work/seasonal contracts

Children in agriculture

70 % of all child labour most on small, family farms some in commercial agriculture many child migrant workers hidden by piece rates/task work worst forms - forced labour, dangerous,

deprives them of education

Agriculture & globalisation

Trade been dominated by TNCs for some yearseg bananas - 5 companies control 75 % of trade: 80% of grain distributed by 2 companies - Cargill and ADM;

similar dominance in tea, coffee, cocoa,

Agriculture & globalisation

Now increasing control of retailers - “rise of powerful global buyers, which can dictate terms to suppliers” (ILO, Best & Mamic - agri.food chains)

Increasing financialization of agriculture

How are these workers coping? moving to towns - especially youth - first

time in human history that more people live in urban areas;

migrating to another country; self-employment & survival informal

economy

IUF’s strategies

Organising, and more organising building union strength inside TNCs

- International Framework Agreements- guarantee rights throughout company Danone Accor Fonterra Chiquita

IUF’s strategies

not just stating the right but using it working with our affiliates to build

organisation within the companies strategic targets

- Hotels, restaurant, catering- Coca Cola - PROGRESS MEET 2 TIMES A YEAR- Nestlé - world’s biggest food company

The successes

IFAs so far achieved Elimination of child labour in tobacco

foundation International Cocoa Initiative New international partnership against child

labour in agric - ILO, FAO, IFAD, IFAP, IFPRI & IUF

Building of alliances - bananas and flowers commitment to organising migrant workers

Organising across borders

Key clauses from the Reciprocity Agreement

1. Members having workers for one month in a country other than their own are entitled tojoin the appropriate trade union organization of that country (“host country”). In whichcase no entrance fee shall be charged. A member may join the host union on thecondition that she or he has fulfilled all obligation as member of the “home union” up tothe time of departure.

2. Members so transferred shall enjoy the same rights to benefits as the host union’s ownmembers under the latter’s Rules and Regulations, subject to the same length ofcombined membership.

3. The dues to be paid by members so transferred shall be those fixed by the host union.

Host unions are requested to give every possible help andassistance to this IUF member

(IUF International Union Card)

The successes

Refocus of policy interest:no achievement of Millennium Development Goals- World Bank/World Development report 2008- UN Commission on Sustainable Dev- ILO 2008 - rural employment for poverty reduction

Global TU co-operation

Build our strength within companies - food and hotels

Identify global issues to campaign around - issues attractive to young workers - OHS; environment, fair trade

Co-operation on private equity, sovereign funds. financialization

Global TU co-operation

TU definition of “green jobs” - green jobs must be decent jobs - Food miles

TU perspective on food miles TU perspective on climate

change/global warming

Global TU co-operation

TU definition of “green jobs” - green jobs must be decent jobs - Food miles

TU perspective on food miles TU perspective on climate

change/global warming

“My breakfast and lunch is gramoxone. It`s very nice if you get use to it. Except it

caused I lost my baby 2 times cause`miscarriage, it

scratches your skin, and makes you difficult to breath in

the night”(Barjiah, Lonsum women workers, Bagerpang estate,

North Sumatera)

An Gorta Mór - parallels with today’s food crisis? Records food exported even during the worst years of the

Famine. When Ireland experienced a famine in 1782-83, ports were closed to keep Irish-grown food in Ireland to feed the Irish. Local food prices promptly dropped. Merchants lobbied against the export ban, but government in the 1780s overrode their protests; that export ban did not happen in the 1840s.

Cecil Woodham-Smith, an authority on the Irish Famine, wrote in The Great Hunger; Ireland 1845-1849 “no issue has provoked so much anger or so embittered relations between the two countries (England and Ireland) as the indisputable fact that huge quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England throughout the period when the people of Ireland were dying of starvation.”

An Gorta Mór - parallels with today’s food crisis?

Ireland remained a net exporter of food throughout most of the five-year famine.

Christine Kinealy, a University of Liverpool fellow and author of two texts on the famine, Irish Famine: This Great Calamity and A Death-Dealing Famine, writes that Irish exports of calves, livestock (except pigs), bacon and ham actually increased during the famine. The food was shipped under guard from the most famine-stricken parts of Ireland. However, the poor had no money to buy food and the government then did not ban exports.

An Gorta Mór - parallels with today’s food crisis?

Lack of political will not lack of food

We must make sure there is political will

People have good quality, fairly priced safe food