Home

Back to 2nd StreetNet Congress 2007

ICC at INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE

ILO Geneva 28 May – 15 June 2006

StreetNet participation:

Kim Heung-Hyun (President) with interpreter Wie Jang-Shim

Beauty Mugijima (from ZCIEA Zimbabwe)

Pat Horn (International Co-ordinator)

Other ICC and WIEGO participation:

        Jose del Valle (CROC Mexico)

        Kofi Asamoah (Ghana TUC) 4 – 9 June

Chris Bonner (WIEGO Organisation & Representation) 4 – 9 June

Karin Pape (Global Labour Institute and DGB Germany)

Anneke van Luijken (IRENE Netherlands) 7 – 9 June

1) Employment Relationship Discussion. The final outcome was adoption of the Recommendation of the Committee, but without the support of the employers group- see Report and Recommendation of the Employment Relationship Committee in Provisional Record No 21 and 23: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc95/records.htm

2) ICC Meeting on organizing in the informal economy. The meeting was held at lunchtime to report on activities and progress made by the ICC since 2004. It was well attended with over 50 people present, primarily from unions. Some interesting new attendees e.g. from Afghanistan. Kofi Asamoah (Ghana TUC) chaired the session and took the opportunity to encourage unions to attend the forthcoming ICC international meeting in Ghana.

3) ICC planning meetings. Progress was made in planning for the Ghana meeting.  We drew up a draft programme and confirmed the list of organisations/people to be invited and paid for. WIEGO needs to decide on which waste collector organization from Latin America to invite.

4) Meetings with ILO people:

• Azita Berar Awad, Director, Employment Policy Department and coordinating the new In Focus Programme on the Informal Economy. She emphasized that the ILO has been working with Wiego and intends to continue collaboration. She is keen to work with StreetNet, ICC in the collection of information on organizing and organizations. There is overlap in the ILO programme and our work e.g. collecting good practice examples.

• Assane Diop, Executive Director, Social Protection and Emmanuel Reynaud, Senior Advisor on the Informal Economy Social Protection Sector. We were joined in this meeting by Abdullah Diallo (OATUU consultant and facilitator of the ICC seminar in Senegal last year). The Social Protection department jointly coordinates the In Focus Programme on the Informal Economy. They expressed a keen interest in working with us on new initiatives (they specifically asked about Indonesia where they intend to run a project ). One area of interest is Occupational Health and Safety in the Informal Economy.

• Regina Aamadi-Njoku, ILO Africa Regional Director (based in Addis Ababa) regarding participation in the Ghana meeting.

• Leroy Trotman, President of the Workers’ Group. The discussion centred around how to make progress in arranging the ICC regional workshop in the Carribbean.

• Jim Baker, Head of ACTRAV, with Francois Murangira, head of ACTRAV in Africa.  

5) Meeting with the General Secretary of the WCL, Willie Thys.

Note: The formation of the new confederation could provide new opportunities. However, this will depend on the balance of power amongst affiliates and those in key positions. Our impression was that, whilst old attitudes persist amongst certain key people, there is growing support for organizing in the informal economy from affiliates and other key people. We proposed to GEFONT that they put forward a resolution to the new body prioritizing organizing in the informal economy and the setting up of a department. 

The forthcoming affiliation of SEWA to the ICFTU had caused a stir among trade unionists and everybody was talking about it, mostly in a very positive light.  We did not meet with Guy Ryder but from all accounts his mission to SEWA had cemented his views on their affiliation.

6) Domestic workers. Anneke van Luijken from Irene attended the ILC for a few days to promote the idea of an international seminar on organizing domestic workers. She made at least one good contact at the ILO who provided information on work done in Latin America and contacts there.  

7) Sex workers and trade unions. The union movement is clearly divided on whether to organize sex workers – and in fact whether sex workers are indeed workers! Sex workers can expect an uphill struggle. There will be an ongoing discussion on strategy and collaboration.

Finally, Beauty Mugijima from ZCIEA was threatened by one of the Zimbabwean Government delegation. This was reported and raised publicly in the Standards Committee the following day where Zimbabwe government was under scrutiny for repeated breaches of Convention 87 on Freedom of Association.

 Home