Ei-iE

Education International has called on its affiliates to raise their voices and mobilise for the Global Action Day for the Right to Strike, a right that is increasingly being challenged by employers and governments worldwide.

Together with Public Services International(PSI) and the International Transport Workers' Federation(ITF), Education International (EI) is supporting the Global Action Day for the Right to Strike on February 18, an initiative of the International Trade Union Confederation(ITUC) and the Workers’ Group at the International Labour Organisation(ILO).

Actions around the globe

Education unions worldwide, from the Unión nacional de educadores(UNE) of Ecuador, to the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), as well as the All India Federation of Teachers’ Organisations (AIFTO) and the Federación de Trabajadores de la Enseñanza de la UGT(FETE-UGT) of Spain, have already planned actions on that day.

The right to strike is “a cornerstone of democracy and social justice which has been recognised internationally for over 50 years,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen.

About 90 countries have incorporated the right to strike in their national constitutions, even though governments often prohibit public servants from exercising it.

Attack from the ILO Employers’ Group

Education International condemns the fact that, in recent months, employers’ representatives at the ILO have challenged the very legal foundation of the right to strike and its transposition into national law, to the point of disrupting the functioning of the ILO’s supervisory mechanisms.

The Employers’ Group seems intent on finding ways to eliminate the right to strike altogether and prevent national courts from using ILO jurisprudence in the matter to rule on the legality of industrial actions.

“Meanwhile, social protests are being increasingly criminalised in a number of countries where workers are already suffering from austerity measures imposed by their government,” said van Leeuwen.

A key ILO tripartite meeting on 23-25 February will discuss the right to strike and report to the ILO Governing Body in March 2015. If no tripartite consensus can be reached on how to interpret Convention 87 on Freedom of Association, which covers the right to strike, the Workers’ Group will recommend that the dispute be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as foreseen by the ILO Constitution. The Employers’ Group is likely to oppose the referral, while many governments still seem undecided.

Call to action

Education International invites all member organisations to join with national trade union centres in their respective countries to lobby governments, particularly those with a representative on the ILO Governing Body, and to organise a dedicated event on 18 February.

If there is no consensus in the ILO Governing Body on a recognition of the right to strike by all three groups (workers, employers and governments), EI believes that there must be a recommendation to refer the dispute to the ICJ, a view shared by ITUC.