By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Aug 27 2003 (IPS)

Trade union campaigners in Sri Lanka’s export processing zones are relishing two recent victories: their success in securing unionisation through referendum and the European Union’s decision to defer tariff reductions on the country’s exports due to concerns about workers’ rights.

Labour activists are still celebrating the first successful referendum in the history of the country’s trade union movement, which took place on Jul. 30 in Polytex garments factory in the southern part of the country.

The vote was especially relevant because the free trade zones, responsible for bulk of the country’s dollar-earning exports, have traditionally frowned on trade unions.

As a result of that win, Anton Lodwick, general secretary of the All Ceylon Federation of Free Trade Unions, said his union is now planning to hold government-organised referendums in at least 15 other factories in free trade zones, where most of the employees are women, in coming months.

”The Polytex referendum was a fantastic victory,” he said, speaking of the union vote in Polytex Garments Ltd, which ships clothes to the United States and Europe. ”We needed just 40 percent of the vote to gain recognition as a union and for collective bargaining rights with the management. In this case however we got 83 percent of the vote,” he said.

”It was a historic victory since unions have not been recognised in the zones (since its formation in the early 1980s),” Lodwick added.

In the Polytex referendum supervised by the labour department, 754 workers out of a workforce of 925 voted for recognition of the union, 115 opposed it, while eight ballots were rejected.

This came after a development that had initially discouraged many – labour unions had earlier protested the intimidation by the Jaqalanka garment factory of its workers during a Jul. 9 vote on its union formation.

The following week, news came that the European Commission at the last minute deferred taking a decision on duty reduction on Sri Lankan garment exports, pegged to compliance with labour regulations and international worker conventions.

Activists now say that the EU move prompted owners of Polytex, weeks later, to permit an orderly referendum where workers voted for the formation of a union.

Unions alleged that the management of the Jaqalanka factory at the Katunayake free trade zone, near Colombo, intimidated workers so much that only 17 of its 399 workers turned up for the vote.

Garment exports are Sri Lanka’s biggest foreign exchange earner with the bulk of the exports to the United States. The country’s free trade zones employ some 150,000 workers, 90 percent of whom are women.

Sri Lanka enjoys a 15 percent rebate on duty for garment exports to EU countries. Under the proposed concession, Sri Lanka would have been entitled to a further 20 percent off the initial rebate in return for compliance with labour rules, making it a significant 40 percent off the main duty waiver.

But while the Polytex vote was good news, labour rights groups say that a lot more remains to be done on the ground to ensure freedom of association in the free trade zones. ”While the recent developments are encouraging to recognition of unions, we have to wait and see how effective it gets on the ground,” said one activist who declined to be named.

Holding referendums in free trade zones to recognise unions came in new laws presented to parliament in 1999. However, several applications made by unions to hold votes to recognise them had been turned down by the labour ministry, until international pressure led to the holding of the first referendum in the Jaqalanka factory.

Surprisingly, the tensions in the recent union votes have brought labour authorities and unions closer.

Labour Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe criticised his officials for the Jaqalanka referendum, held in the presence of international observers, and urged industrialists to recognise unions.

The three observers included Earl Brown, legal counsel covering Asia for the American Federation of Labour-Congress of Industrial Organisations Solidarity Centre (AFL-CIO). He had earlier visited Colombo to study labour reforms and its impact on workers.

Top garment manufacturers now concede that Jaqalanka should have allowed the referendum to be held without a fuss.

”It is a matter of concern because a lot of international trade concessions are now tied to labour conditions and workers’ rights,” said a spokesman for the Joint Apparel Associations Federation (JAAF), which includes manufacturers and unions.

”But this is negative news to the industry particularly in view of negotiations with the United States on a free trade agreement,” he said.

The government is negotiating a fast-track free trade agreement with the United States that would save sections of the country’s giant garment industry from collapsing when U.S. quotas are discontinued under world trade rules in 2005. U.S. negotiators are pressing for compliance on labour regulations as part of the deal.

The AFL-CIO has filed a petition under the U.S. Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) against Sri Lanka for failing to allow freedom of association and formation of trade unions in the free trade zones.

Labour Minister Samarasinghe told IPS he has ordered his officials not to allow any interference or intimidation in the conduct of referendums. ”They should be independent and fair. Trade concessions are now linked to compliance with labour rules and our industrialists must understand this,” he said.

He said a fresh poll has been ordered at Jaqalanka, a decision accepted by the management, but not the union.

”I am helpless here because of the stalemate,” Antonio Marcus, president of Sri Lanka’s Free Trade Zone Workers Union, said, adding that they were not in favour of another poll because of fears of further intimidation by Jaqalanka owners. ”After all the intimidation, they should now recognise the union,” he said.

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