Uni Commerce Child Labour Pages

3 January 1999

Uni Commerce and the global campaign to abolish child labour

How the campaign came about

Combating child labour has been high on FIET’s agenda for many years, and now continues to be a priority for Uni. Already before the issue became a focal point of widespread interest outside the specialised agencies working with the problem, FIET started developing its own approach for awareness-creation and concrete action.

In a resolution from the 23rd FIET World Congress in Lomé, Togo in 1987, FIET demanded that the abolition of child labour be accepted as a "central goal in efforts to achieve a fairer economic and social order in the world" and that "ILO Conventions and Recommendations are applied to the full in all workplaces, even when child labour is involved." The resolution pointed at social clauses in international agreements on free trade as one of the ways to go about this and also called for awareness creation and a plan of action to be drawn up.

Guinea in West Africa is one of the countries all over the world where FIET conducts extensive organisation development and education activities. To combat child labour is an important issue in this work.

Following up on this first policy decision, the FIET Youth Committee initiated a campaign to combat child labour. The Committee called for action to be taken by the international community to create better education opportunities for children, to reduce poverty and to curb child labour.
FIET and its affiliates were called upon to intensify their efforts to prevent the sale and purchase of goods and services produced by children. Child labour has been a major item on the Youth Committee’s agenda all through the 1990’s.

FIET Commerce takes concrete action

Euro-FIET Commerce responded to the challenge of the Youth Committee and placed child labour on its agenda. In 1994, the issue was raised by us in the European Social Dialogue for Commerce. There, we took the initiative for joint action by the social partners, Euro-FIET Commerce and EuroCommerce.

In 1995, an agreement on combating child labour was concluded by the social partners. They agreed to try to speed up the process of eliminating child labour. This was done by recommending that all goods produced through exploiting children as labourers be removed from European markets. At the same time, they called for measures to provide support and alternatives for children and their families in the countries concerned.

The Joint Statement was followed up by Euro-FIET Commerce and EuroCommerce in a 1999 agreement on fundamental principles and rights at work, which also addresses child labour. This agreement is based on a similar declaration of the International Labour Organisation from 1998.

Many of FIET’s affiliates have already negotiated and concluded child labour agreements with employers and employers’ organisations. They have also participated actively in developing codes of conduct in major enterprises.

In the European social dialogue, child labour remains on the agenda. Late 1999, a report was published on how retail and wholesale trade in Europe can support the global campaign. This will be followed up by Uni Europa Commerce and EuroCommerce in 2000, when further measures will be agreed.

The FIET World Congress in Vienna spoke out against exploitation of children

Child labour was one of the major issues discussed by the thousand trade unionists representing the 11 million FIET members in 110 countries from both industrialised and developing countries in all parts of the world, at the FIET World Congress in July 1995 in Vienna, Austria.

Also Uni Commerce affiliates are actively participating in the fight against child labour. The commercial workers' union in Sao Paulo, Brazil works with the city's thousands of street children. The mobile clinic is an important part of this work, giving medical and dental services to street children all over Sao Paulo.

As a world organisation, much of Uni's activities will take place in the developing world. In many of these countries, where distribution and services play a major role, the Uni Commerce affiliates and their members are important opinion leaders in their trade union
movements and communities. Through extensive education and organisation activities, can mobilise workers to support the combat against child labour. Therefore, child labour is an issue which has been integrated in the contents of training courses and meetings in different parts of the world.

FIET concludes agreements with manufacturers, together with other labour organisations

In 1995, FIET and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation signed an agreement on joint action to curb the sales of textile, clothing and leather items produced through the use of child labour. This agreement has been followed up by the two organisations, in close co-operation with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

In September 1996, at the initiative of these three organisations, an agreement was reached with the International Football Federation FIFA about requirements concerning socially acceptable production circumstances for products bearing a FIFA label, including the prohibition of use of child labour.  In the negotiations with the International Football Federation, much attention was paid to monitoring the situation at the production sites and to initiating action to provide education, training and other alternatives for the children involved.

FIET's initiatives have included agreements with other sporting federations as well, such as the one concerning rugby clothing and equipment.

FIET’s serious and long-standing commitment to the struggle to eliminate child labour will now be followed up by the new International, Uni. As part of this International, Uni Commerce will continue to keep the issue high up on its agenda.

e-mail addresses:
Geneva:
jan.furstenborg@union-network.org
frieda.gazzini@union-network.org
Brussels:
marie.simonsen@union-network.org
Bonn/Sarajevo Project Offices:
alexruedig@aol.com