[news] Fw: [R-G] Union-busting U.S. law firm drawing up Afghan labour law

[Paul Browning]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <shniad at sfu.ca>
To: <shniad at sfu.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 3:49 PM
Subject: [R-G] Union-busting U.S. law firm drawing up Afghan labour law


> http://workers.labor.net.au/184/news5_awe.html
>
> Workers Online   June 27, 2003
>
> Now For Industrial Shock and Awe
>
> A US law firm that prides itself on busting unions and breaking pickets
has
> been handed a key role in drafting labour laws for post-Taliban
Afghanistan.
>
>
> General secretary of Union Network International Phillip Jennings this
week
> called on the International Labour Organisation to explain how private
> lawyers had taken control of the legal process and to ensure a similar
> process does not occur in Iraq.
>
> The firm, Dechert, supplies one of the lead lawyesr to the Afghanistan
> Transitional Commercial Law Project, which was initiated by the Center for
> International Management Education and the American Bar Association.
>
> Dechert prides itself on its anti-union credentials, crowing on its
website
> that:
>
> We help employers maintain a union-free environment, conduct collective
> bargaining negotiations, secure injunctive relief from strikes, boycotts,
> and mass picketing, and develop compliance programs.
>
> We regularly handle labor arbitrations and defend employers facing unfair
> labor practice charges.
>
> It also proudly cites its work representing Big Tobacco, overturning a
$145
> punitive damages claim in a Florida case that puts at risk all damages
> actions against tobacco companies.
>
> Speaking to the ILO Conference in Geneva, Jennings also raised concerns
the
> World Bank was trying to promote investment in Afghanistan by slashing the
> minimum wage by 10 percent.
>
> "In both nations we want to see the emergence of a free and independent
> trade union movement," he said.
>
> Federal ALP IR spokesman Robert McClelland expressed concern that
> Afghanistan and potentially Iraq might end up with labour laws that fall
> short of international standards and contain no effective right to
organise
> and bargain collectively.
>
> "Such rights have always been essential to enable working people to raise
> and maintain their living standards at dignified levels," McClelland says.
>
> McClelland says Australia, as a long-standing member of the ILO, should be
> seeking that the ILO plays a role in assisting these nations, which are
> emerging from the trauma of war, to develop labour laws that meet
> internationally agreed minimum standards.
>
> He says it was a disgrace the Howard Government had all but ignored the
ILO
> for seven years, and would be raising the matter of Afghanistan and Iraq
> with Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister
Alexander
> Downer through the Parliament.
>
>
>
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