18214: Esser: World Bank's IFC Approves Haiti/Dominican Republic Loan (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com


ICFTU ONLINE...
World Bank's IFC Approves Haiti/Dominican Republic Loan, with Union
Rights Conditions


Brussels, 20 January 2004 (ICFTU OnLine): The World Bank's private
sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has
finally approved a loan of US$20 million to Dominican Republic free
trade zone operator Grupo M, with an explicit condition that the
company recognise its employees' freedom of association and
collective bargaining rights. The approval, for a new free trade zone
development in Haiti on the Dominican Republic border, follows
investigations launched by the IFC into violations of workers' rights
by Grupo M in its other factories in the Dominican Republic.

In August and September 2003, the ICFTU and ITGLWF, the Global Union
Federation for the textiles sector, released video evidence and
documentation on anti-union actions by Grupo M, including threats,
discrimination and violence against workers seeking to organise
unions. In a letter to IFC Executive Vice-President Peter Woicke, the
ICFTU called on the IFC to require that Grupo M cease violating
workers' rights and respect the core labour standards of the
International Labour Organisation (ILO)* before awarding the loan.
After determining that many of the unions' allegations were
substantiated, the IFC decided last week to include the obligation to
respect freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining
as a loan condition, such that the company will be considered to have
defaulted on the loan if these rights are not respected. The IFC has
also made public a "remedial action plan" that includes several
measures for monitoring observance of trade union rights at Grupo M
facilities.

"This is a very significant step, and we encourage the IFC to move
forward with proposals to include respect for the core ILO standards
as a component of its safeguards policy, applied to all IFC loans in
the future", said Guy Ryder, ICFTU General Secretary, adding
"violations of these standards are widespread around the world,
especially in free trade zones, and the IFC decision should be seen
as a clear signal for the future by all employers". Ryder furthermore
offered the ICFTU's assistance to the IFC in upgrading the labour
component of the its safeguards policy, for which IFC management
recently initiated a process of revision.

The international trade union movement is campaigning for the
international finance and trade institutions to ensure that the core
ILO standards become benchmark criteria across the range of global
economic policies, as part of a broader effort to transform
globalisation, putting social concerns at the centre rather than at
the margins.

http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991218878&Language=EN