Joe Higgins TD

This is the first of a new series of articles reporting on the work Joe has been doing in the European Parliament. In this update we report on issues surrounding the Colombia hearings, Sri Lanka and Postal workers

Colombia hearings

Colombia is a killing field for trade unionists. Since 2002 500 trade unionists have been assassinated. It has been proven that these killings often occur at the request of multi national companies. The International Trade Union Confederation says that two thirds of all trade unionists assassinated worldwide have been in Colombia. This is a situation that is getting worse; in 2008 alone there has been a 25% increase in these murders.

A plethora of international reports have shown that Colombia has huge levels of torture, death threats, and forced displacement. Despite this the European Commission are in the process negotiating a trade deal with the regime.

There has been alot of opposition from the international trade union movement against a trade deal. In the past couple of months there have been various hearings in the European Parliament organised by trade union federations that have been attended and supported by the Socialist Party.

Joe Higgins MEP supports the ICTU call for an end to the trade negotiations. Unlike some who lend their support to the campaign, should a deal be done Joe Higgins MEP will also vote against it.

It is important that the multinationals based in Europe that are involved in these murders be called to account by the international trade union movement. The unions now need to urgently look at what actions can be taken in Europe to put pressure on these companies directly.

Sri Lanka

The issue of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka was discussed in the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee in January. The committee was debating the suspension of GSP+ status to Sri Lanka. GSP+ is a set favourable trade terms that benefitted firms based in Sri Lanka when exporting to the EU. This has meant a big boost to the profits of European companies involved in the garment trade in particular. This status was suspended following findings of human rights abuses late last year.

T.U. Senan from Tamil Solidarity, on the invitation of Joe Higgins MEP spoke in the debate in the committee. Tamil Solidarity is a group that has opposed the reactionary regime in Sri Lanka and that campaigns for the rights of all workers and oppressed in Sri Lanka.

During that debate T.U. Senan gave many examples of the continued abuses being suffered by the Tamil people following the end of the civil war. He described Sri Lanka as ‘a modern holocaust, with ethnic cleansing, murder and torture’. He noted that the UN has reported that the Sri Lankan government have killed over 7,000 civilians during the war. He also told the committee that more than one hundred thousand Tamil refugees are still being held in concentration camps. In these camps they live in awful conditions with no access to even basic facilities. Independent journalists are barred from entering these camps.

The Socialist Party will continue to use the position in the European Parliament to highlight human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and other countries and be a voice for the world’s workers and poor.

Postal workers

In 2011 the EU’s postal services market will be fully opened up to ‘liberalisation’. This will allow private operators to compete with national postal services in all postal services including regular mail.

This is a huge market with an estimated turnover of €90bn a year. This policy has been pushed by the EU for many years and will result in private operators being able to cream off the most profitable delivery routes. It will see huge pressure being put on postal workers’ jobs, pay and working conditions.

In anticipation of 2011 many national postal services have already attacked the conditions of postal workers. Across Europe there have been the introduction of more ‘yellow pack’ type contracts, increased working hours and job losses.

The private operators will not have any obligation to deliver mail throughout the country. They will concentrate on the more profitable business mail and residential mail in urban areas. This will lead to closures of post offices and a running down of postal deliveries in less populated areas.

Sweden was the first EU country to fully liberalise its postal market. This has resulted in the postal services’ workforce being cut in half and a quarter of all post offices being closed in that country.

In recent years workers across Europe have been defending themselves against these attacks. There has been recently in, Britain, Belgium and Germany. This year is an important one for postal workers’ in defending themselves and their services from liberalisation. Joe Higgins MEP and the United Left (GUE/NGL) group of MEPs will be hosting an event in early March to bring together postal worker activists from across the EU to discuss and plan actions to defend their jobs, conditions and the services they provide.

CHECK OUT OTHER RELATED ARTICLES:

1. Report from the plenary session of the European Parliament (March 2010)
2. GUE/NGL Press Release – Colombia’s human rights record demands investigation of GSP+ status
3. Report from the “Women and the Economic Crisis” meeting in the European Parliament
4. Report from European postal workers’ meeting organised by GUE/NGL
5. Report from the plenary session of the European Parliament (May 2010)