Vote for Vale as World’s Worst Multinational
Brian Finnegan, in the AFL-CIO International Department, sends us this.
Vale, the largest iron ore company in the world with locations in 38 countries is one of six finalists for the Public Eye Award, which annually elects the worst company in the world by popular vote. The winner will be announced during this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It is the first time that a Brazilian-based company is in the running for the award.
Vote here. The deadline for voting is Jan. 26.
The International Network of People Affected by Valen nominated the company for the 2012 Public Eye Award, through the Brazilian organization “Justice on the Rails,” and in partnership with the international NGOs Amazon Watch and International Rivers. The organizations say Vale deserves the award because of its many detrimental environmental, social and labor impacts in Brazil and worldwide over the past decade.
Campaign Launched for Decent Work at Olympics, World Cup
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For the first time in history, the world’s two biggest sports events—the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics—are being held in the same country, within two years of each other. This month, hundreds of workers and activists met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, site of the events, to launch a campaign to ensure that all the workers involved in the construction of facilities and manufacturing of event products work under decent conditions.
The global Play Fair campaign includes several international trade union groups, such as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Global Union Federation for the Textiles, Leather and Garment industry (ITGLWF), the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), and other groups, such as the Clean Clothes Campaign.
“It is paramount that the principles of the decent work agenda are applied during the works for the World Cup and Summer Olympics in Brazil,” said ITUC Deputy President Nair Goulart.
Trumka: Grow America’s Economy by Investing in Infrastructure, Job Development
U.S. economic and trade policies over the past three decades have led to jobs lost offshore and a shrinking middle class, and the United States must address this economic bleed through trade policies and investment in infrastructure and manufacturing, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today.
Speaking this morning to the International Economic Development Council, Trumka said the United States must invest in building the 21st century infrastructure necessary for our future, including high-speed mass transit, smart utilities and universal high-speed broadband. That investment, in turn, would boost manufacturing because we will then:
buy what we need in America—from concrete, wire, steel and pipes to high-speed trains. And all this will restore revenues for crucial state and local services.
Brazilian Workers Back U.S. Public Employees
Six Brazilian labor confederations expressed their solidarity with public employees in Wisconsin and other states who are struggling to defend their right to bargain for middle-class jobs. In a letter to President Barack Obama, who is visiting South America, the trade union leaders called on the United States to guarantee “full freedom of association, collective bargaining, and freedom of expression and assembly” for public employees.
The letter states that the Brazilian workers protest the way some U.S. state governments are limiting and even extinguishing basic rights won by public employees.
The six national confederations that signed the letter are the CUT, Forca Sindical, CTB, UGT, Nova Central, and CGTB. The signees represent nearly 5 million affiliated workers, while bargaining for some 50 million workers in the country.
Brazil’s CUT, AFL-CIO Working Together to Address Global Jobs Crisis
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In a global economy, workers must come together across national borders to deal effectively with issues that affect more than one nation and to balance the power of multinational corporations.
Meeting today in Washington, D.C., AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Brazilian CUT President Artur Henrique da Silva Santos discussed a joint strategy for addressing the current global jobs and financial crisis and how best to support financial reforms and policies that lead to the creation of decent work. CUT is the largest labor union federation in Brazil. Read the joint statement here.
CUT, the AFL-CIO and the international trade union movement support the crucial need for coordinated government action to maintain economic stimulus, avoid a double-dip recession and create badly needed jobs for the estimated 34 million workers whose jobs have been destroyed by the crisis.
Violent Repression Continues in Honduras
In the wake of the June 28 coup in Honduras that forcibly deposed and expelled President Manuel Zelaya, thousands of trade unionists—following the call of the three national labor centrals (CUTH, CTH and the CGT)—joined tens of thousands in nonviolent protests, demanding the immediate restoration of democracy in their country.
In response, the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti directed the military and police to violently repress the legitimate protests. National and international human rights organizations report widespread human rights violations by state security forces, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, severe beatings, sexual violence, imprisonment and torture, and killings of Zelaya’s supporters.
Following the president’s return to the capital city of Tegucigalpa on Sept. 21, the situation deteriorated rapidly. The de facto government stepped up its offensive against democratic civil society organizations, including the trade union movement. A report by Honduran Radio Progreso confirmed the killing of a trade unionist from the National Agrarian Institute shortly after Zelaya’s return. Three members of the teachers union—Felix Murillo Lopez, Roger Vallejo and Martin Florencio Rivera—were killed while mobilizing trade union opposition to the coup.
Global Support Growing for Employee Free Choice
Since Friday, when we wrote about international union support for the Employee Free Choice Act, more letters backing this critical legislation have poured in from around the world.
In separate letters to United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard, leaders of unions in eight countries, along with an international union federation, have expressed solid support for the bill. The latest letters come from all corners of the world: Paraguay, Japan, Ghana, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand and Togo, the base of the 13-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM).
Brazil’s President, Sweeney Discuss Global Economy
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AFL-CIO President John Sweeney met with Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this past weekend, prior to Lula’s White House meeting with President Obama.
Lula, a metalworker and internationally recognized trade union leader before he was elected Brazil’s president in 2002, was re-elected in 2006. He has met frequently with the AFL-CIO on his visits to the United States since his election.
During their meeting Saturday, Lula and Sweeney discussed ways the international union movement and coordinated economic recovery policies can benefit workers in Brazil, the United States and around the globe.
Sweeney emphasized that strengthening the collective bargaining rights of U.S. workers by enacting the Employee Free Choice Act will benefit workers internationally by contributing to demand-driven growth in the global economy.
