Contradictions of ILO conventions

Hartford Web Publishing is not the author of the documents in World History Archives and does not presume to validate their accuracy or authenticity nor to release their copyright.

  World history of labor rights and labor standards

ILO Proposes New Measures To Promote Labor Rights

AFP, 22 April 1997. The ILO proposes a set of concrete rules in support of social progress and trade liberalization. It offers an alternative to other projects to improve working conditions, which have divided workers, because independent of any particular interests. The proposal also suggests the ILO create a new Declaration and monitor compliance with it.

ILO Fight On New Worldwide Labor Standards

By Richard Saunders, Mail and Guardian, 7 June 1997. The ILO meeting in Geneva. Opponents of linking a social clause with WTO agreements now propose alternative initiatives under ILO leadership. In the absense of labor solidarity, cheap labor hurts workers in more developed countries, while their notion of labor rights would impoverish workers in less developed circumtances.

"Trade Union Rights are Human Rights"

ICFTU Online..., 10 December 1997. The ILO's Convention 87 grants workers the right to organise and provides international recognition of trade union rights. Yet almost one third of the world's countries have refused to ratify it, including the USA. ICFT's Bill Jordan notes that the non-ratifiers tend to the countries that most violate trade union rights.

Fundamental Rights Declaration Clears Final Hurdle: ILO Conference Seeks End to Child Labour Abuses

ILO press release, 18 June 1998. Delegates adopt the ILO's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Its impetus was a concern over globalization and the social consequences of trade. The ILO considered the competent body to deal with and set labor standards.

ILO Offers Social Support to World Economy

By Gustavo Capdevila, IPS, 26 March 1999. New director general says ILO offers social support for world capitalism. As for the social clause, he will pursue a compromise position. The ILO's Declaration on Fundamental "Principles and Rights at Work" (1998) rejected the linkeage with the WTO desired by the developed capitalist countries.