Rhetoric or reality - the relevance of ILO standards‏

The Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV) at the International LabourOrganisation (ILO) has published the outcome of a recent symposium on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining in the 21st Century. The symposium noted that full respect of the right to organise and collective bargaining, including the right to strike and protection against anti-union discrimination, is the pre-condition for the realisation of democracy at the work place and in society: http://www.ilo.org/actrav/info/docs/lang--en/docName--WCMS_118115/index.htm

In Counterpunch Jeff Ballinger's article 'helping dictators look good' offers a sobering critique of the ILO's 'best of intentions' in launching decent work programmes in several countries to improve working conditions of garment workers. Ballinger refers to the gulf whiche xists 'between feel-good rhetoric and reality' and argues that for the ILO to "endorse 'jointness' in oppressive circumstances is worse than merely papering over the misdeeds of thousands of supplier factories producing for the big brands. It works to deprive the developing world's citizens of a key weapon in the arsenal of resistance, the independent and aggressive union": http://www.counterpunch.org/ballinger11032009.html