NEWS & LETTERS, August - September 2008
Israeli-Palestinian trade union solidarity
According to the International Trade Union Confederation, a significant agreement was reached on Aug. 6 between the Israeli trade union congress, the Histadrut, and the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU). The agreement involves protecting the rights of those Palestinians who work for Israeli employers.
Included will be the reimbursement by the Histadrut to the PGFTU of legal and union representation fees that have been paid by Palestinian workers with Israeli employers since 1993. In the future, at least 50% of such fees will go to the PGFTU to enable both organizations to provide representation and legal services.
Implementation of this agreement will be overseen by a joint committee of both organizations. Both organizations also pledge to base their future relations on dialogue, negotiations and joint initiatives to advance "fraternity and coexistence between the two peoples."
The 250,000-member PGFTU, close to Fatah, has been criticized by many Palestinian labor activists, like those of the Democracy and Workers' Rights Center (DWRC), for a lack of internal democracy. Up to 50,000 workers in the West Bank and Gaza were represented last year at the founding of a new independent labor coalition, the Federation of Independent Unions-Palestine. Unions represented ranged from education, medical, and financial workers to the Unemployed Workers' Federation. This new coalition operates outside the structures of the existing political parties.
The new coalition had advocated an agreement like the one just signed by the PGFTU. As Hasan Barghouthi of the DWRC has noted, freedom of association and the right of workers to organize has been expanding, and a vibrant labor movement is growing up among Palestinians.
--Gerry Emmett
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