Since the advent of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, there has been a proliferation of international “free trade” deals, the most recent of which is the still-unsigned Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Like its predecessors, the TPP is a deal aimed at the mass shifting of jobs from North America to third world locations.
The only real beneficiary of these deals is big business, which is able to take advantage of the cripplingly low wages and the absence of benefits or health and safety regulations in parts of Asia and Africa. It’s easy to remember the tragic collapse of the Savar Building in Bangladesh (pictured below) in 2013, where 1129 people lost their lives. The company, Canadian retailer Loblaws, was manufacturing its Joe Fresh brand clothing and refused to close the plant even though it had been warned that the building’s foundation was cracked.
In these environments, Unions are weak or non-existent, often hobbled by draconian labour laws that would be unconstitutional here. Sometimes, Unions are outright banned and people are thrown into jail just for being a member.
But that’s not stopping courageous individuals from organizing. In Argentina and South Korea, Kenya and Pakistan, on every continent and almost every country, Unions are building. Their leaders are fired and jailed without a hearing or trial. But they carry on and others take up the challenges. And they need our help.
It is very much in our interests and that of our children that these Unions succeed. The more workers are treated fairly in other parts of the world, the less advantage there is for big business to take our jobs away to those locations.
LabourStart is a London England based organization that monitors organized labour issues around the world. They also work to help out with those conflicts by using the internet and email systems to put pressure on local politicians to put things right. You can check out their website here. Their articles and campaigns are interesting, well written and topical. They are making a difference.
by Steve Bradshaw