American counterparts back Lankan trade unions’ resistance to DDO impacting social security savings

 The IMF’s debt restructuring program with private international creditors and bi-lateral creditors which will affect worker welfare funds in Sri Lanka, is shrouded in secrecy with no worker representative or voice in the negotiation process

• The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organisations in the 17th Biennial Convention in Seattle, Washington have passed a resolution to support Sri Lankan trade unions to resist domestic debt restructuring impacting social security savings

The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) on 6 August in its 17th Biennial Convention in Seattle, Washington passed a resolution in support of the trade union movement and its struggle against the ongoing labour reforms and attack on workers’ rights in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1992, APALA is an affiliate of the American Federation of Lab or and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and is the first and only national organisation of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers. 

The resolution called for action through AFL-CIO and its labour allies “to make representations to the IMF …and the Sri Lankan State to immediately halt the decision to use social security funds of the Sri Lankan people for Domestic Debt Restructuring and that no debt restructuring negotiation will be done in the absence of worker representatives in the negotiation process.” 

Resolution specifically notes the anti-union practices by companies such as the ATG Group of Companies operating in the Free Trade Zones and Trade Union suppression by the State against Trade Union leaders including a Union leader at the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation when he was engaging in organising workers inside a State Owned enterprise.

The Resolution on Sri Lanka in full reads as below:

Whereas we the members of the APALA watch with concern the impact the economic crisis in Sri Lanka has had on workers, where over one million jobs have been lost. Sri Lankan workers are facing unprecedented and unbearably high cost of living, collapsing real wages and deteriorating living conditions. The human cost of this economic crisis rendered more than half of the Sri Lankan population reduce food intake and over half a million families cease consuming electricity. Despite these stark figures, the Sri Lankan Government under the pressure of international creditors and the IMF passed the entire burden of the crisis on the working people. 

Whereas, we are concerned that despite the stark numbers of people in crisis, the economic reform program taken forward by the Sri Lankan Government at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, has singularly focused on debt servicing, while contributing to worsening human conditions. We are also conscious that the IMF’s debt restructuring program with private international creditors and bi-lateral creditors which will affect worker welfare funds in Sri Lanka, is shrouded in secrecy with no worker representative or voice in the negotiation process.

Whereas we are aware that the Sri Lankan Government has embarked on an untimely effort to reform labour laws seemingly under local employers’ lobbies which unions have called as a move towards ‘slave like work conditions’, while dismantling the existing tripartite National Labour Advisory Council, removing non-party affiliated unions and female representation, and likely leading to dismantling existing internationally accepted labour protections for Sri Lankan workers including the eight-hour work day, protections for women including maternity benefit and the right to a safe work place, a right to job security and a living wage and freedom of association including the right to form and join a trade union without reprisal;

Whereas we are also aware that recently the Sri Lankan Government has passed a resolution in Parliament to restructure Domestic Debt under the pressure of the IMF and the International Private Creditors. However the Sri Lankan Parliament has placed the entire burden of the Domestic Debt on the social security funds of the workers. 

Whereas we are aware of the continuous anti-union practices by the Sri Lankan Government and companies on Sri Lankan workers, including the recent harassment and intimidation of a Union Leader of Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation when he was engaging in organising workers inside a State Owned enterprise, the arrest and detention of a Union leader of the Ceylon Teachers Union, the suspension of Union leaders of the Petroleum Corporation when they engaged in strike action and the dismissal of 16 workers in 2021 in the ATG Group of Companies in an export processing zone in Sri Lanka, all of which indicate the suppression of union rights which are constitutionally protected in Sri Lanka;

Be it resolved, that the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA): 

1. Re-affirms its continuing solidarity with the Sri Lankan labour movement and supports the struggles of Sri Lankan workers as they confront intensified repression of labour rights including Trade Union rights;

2.Works and coordinates to build awareness amongst constituents of the APALA regarding Sri Lankan people’s movement in 2022, the role of Sri Lankan Unions in this peoples’ movement and 

Works and coordinates with the AFL-CIO and other labour allies to write a letter of concern to which APALA and its member unions can sign to the Sri Lankan Government, the USA State and the USTR raising concerns about the increasing State repression on trade union leaders and trade union rights of workers which is currently ongoing in Sri Lanka and the Labour Law reform process which will result in dismantling labour protection for workers; 

3. Works and coordinates with the AFL-CIO and other labour allies to take continuous steps to advocate with the USA State and particularly the USA Customs and Border Protection Agency on importing Sri Lankan products manufactured in companies violating ILO Labour Standards, in particular companies manufacturing in Sri Lanka acting in violation of ILO Convention 87 and 154

4. Write a letter to the ILO Mission in Geneva to take a proactive role in protecting ILO Labour standards in the Sri Lankan Government’s labour reform initiative including advising the Government against dismantling existing labour protections for workers;

5. Works and coordinates with AFL-CIO and other labour allies to make representations to the IMF including writing a letter of concern to which APALA and its member unions can sign to the IMF and the Sri Lankan State to immediately halt the decision to use social security funds of the Sri Lankan people for Domestic Debt Restructuring and that no debt restructuring negotiation will be done in the absence of worker representatives in the negotiation process. 

(Submitted by the APALA International Solidarity Committee.)