US trade union alleges violation of labour rights

16 Aug '10

2 min read

Today morning, Fibre2fashion reported that the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is planning to petition the Obama administration to investigate whether China's unfair competition is related with the low wages paid to its workers.

In a similar development, AFL-CIO has charged the top exporting Sri Lankan garment sector companies in the Sri Lankan garment sector of violating internationally recognised worker rights. The charges have been made in a petition to support a move to stop Sri Lanka from continuing to be a recipient of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) status.

The petition alleges that, union officers and members are terminated, demoted or suspended and in many cases, employers have promoted non-union employees councils, so as to reduce the influence of the unions and that in court hearings, the employers bunk the hearings and in cases a judgment is delivered, they rarely adhere to the court orders.

It may recalled here that, Sri Lankan trade unions had earlier sent a petition to the AFL-CIO, charging the Sri Lankan garment sector for violating labour rights and to persuade the US garment retailers to pressurize the Sri Lankan apparel sector to implement labour welfare measures.

In defense, the garment exporters have said that the AFL-CIO had filed the petition before the United States Trade Representative (USTR), two years back and it was only recently that the USTR has taken up the matter and in the meantime a lot has been done in the direction of labour welfare.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India