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on-line: http://www.world-psi.org/en/right-strike-re-affirmed-ilo
After more than two years of conflict, the right to strike was
re-affirmed at the International Labour Organization on 25 February during the Tripartite Meeting on the
Freedom of Association.
Employers brought the ILO’s supervisory mechanism to a standstill by
challenging the existence of an international right to strike and the authority
of the ILO. This conflict also endangered decades of ILO jurisprudence on the right
to strike.
“Today governments and social
partners have re-affirmed the right to strike as a fundamental right at work,
and the role of the ILO supervisory mechanism,” said Rosa Pavanelli, PSI
General Secretary. “These same governments are currently negotiating the Post
2015 Development Agenda and international trade agreements. We need to make
sure that they show the same commitment to international labour standards
across the board. While the recognition of an international right to strike is
essential, attacks on the right to strike at national level are widespread.
Therefore PSI will continue its campaign for the right to strike for all
workers,” she added.
Sharan Burrow, ITUC General
Secretary, said, “Having created the crisis, employer groups and some
governments were refusing to allow the issue to be taken to the International
Court of Justice even though the ILO Constitution says it should be. We have
now managed to negotiate a solution which protects the fundamental right of
workers to take strike action, and allows the ILO to resume fully its work to
supervise how governments respect their international labour standards
obligations.”
Union and employer
representatives have now reached an understanding at a special ILO meeting this
week to end the impasse, based on recognition of the right to take industrial
action, backed by explicit recognition from governments of the right to strike,
linked to ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association. This agreement is the
result of a successful international union mobilisation on 18 February in
support of the right to strike and months of lobbying governments and employers
around the world.
Steve Cotton, ITF General Secretary, commented, “There is no doubt that
without the huge mobilisation efforts of the global union federations and trade
union organisations worldwide, the basic human right to withdraw your labour
could have been removed. It is down to all of our efforts that the attempt was
defeated – and it will be down to all of us to ensure that it is protected."
Outcome document of the Meeting: Tripartite Meeting on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), in relation to the right to strike and the modalities and practices of strike action at national level.
Outcome document of the Meeting: Tripartite Meeting on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), in relation to the right to strike and the modalities and practices of strike action at national level.
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