|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Friday, 28 January 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Business | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Mobilise TUs in reconstruction - ICFTU by Channa Kasturisinghe Representatives of an international body of free trade unions who visited Sri Lanka on a fact finding mission following the tsunami have emphasised the need for maximum participation of civil society organisations in the task forces on reconstruction. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) recently sent a mission to Sri Lanka and Indonesia to draw up priorities in terms of the action needed to meet the most urgent reconstruction needs. The ICFTU in Brussels represents 148 million workers in 231 affiliated organisations in 150 countries and territories. ICFTU is also a member of Global Unions. The mission has reported that beyond the most immediate needs, the vital question is raised of what can be done to enable the millions of workers who have lost their livelihoods, particularly the fishing workers who have been greatly affected. The General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya, Tissa Devendra told the Daily News yesterday that he met the ICFTU mission and discussed ways of ensuring the maximum contribution of the trade union movement in the national reconstruction effort. "There is a multiplicity of trade unions here. The lack of an umbrella body of trade unions in Sri Lanka is one of the biggest challenges in utilising the maximum strength of the trade union movement in this kind of a national effort," Devendra said. M.R. Shah of the Ceylon Bank Employees' Union said that the government should ensure the maximum participation of trade union representatives in the national task forces for reconstruction. Recently the International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated that around a million people have been left jobless in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Backing the view of the ILO, which insists on the need for an "intensive job creation strategy to be integrated" into post-tsunami humanitarian and reconstruction programs, the Global Unions mission also insisted on the need to develop aid programs for occupational training and increased support for sustainable employment creation projects, through the creation of cooperatives. The mission has also stressed that ICFTU and its Global Union partners should exert pressure on governments to ensure that the aid is managed and distributed in a totally transparent and equitable manner. The Global Unions group is also pressurising the international community to honour its reconstruction aid commitments and to give priority to sustainable reconstruction of the economies and public infrastructure. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
