Geneva, 17 December 2005: In honor of International Migrants Day on 18 December 2005, Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) invites all affiliates worldwide to observe this important day by carrying out activities which highlight issues faced by migrant workers and their families.
For the BWI, the increasing exploitation of workers in connection with migration and cross-border work in its sectors represents a challenge that must be tackled. Mostly present in construction, migrant workers are frequently exploited and face very difficult and dangerous working conditions and their human and trade union rights are generally violated. Where they are not organised in trade unions, migrant workers are paid low wages and are not covered by social and labour legislation. Very often, they are recruited by smuggling networks. Organising migrant workers remains the best weapon against unscrupulous employers only seeking cheap labour.
We have been actively involved in the adoption of an ILO multi-faceted plan of action at the ILO conference in 2004 and in the Tripartite Meeting of Experts on the Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration held in fall 2005.
The objective of the fall meeting was to draft an ILO non-binding multilateral framework on labour migration to be submitted to the next ILO Governing Body. For Anita Normark, "it is crucial to seek to bind organisations like the World Trade Organisation to a workers' rights approach in order to restrain their influence on temporary migration and ensure equal treatment and equal opportunity between migrant workers and nationals." Such a framework is particularly relevant to our organisation in light of the WTO meetings in Hong Kong on GATS Mode 4 - the temporary movement of natural persons - and the potential increase in the temporary migration of unskilled workers.
Therefore, affiliates are invited to raise awareness in their unions by organising information campaigns and to fight for migrant workers' rights to join unions by organising them directly at their worksites. You are also urged to sign agreements on the transfer of membership and /or to lobby your government for the ratification of ILO Conventions 97 and 143 on migration for employment. International Migrants Day is an opportunity to recognize the need to ensure protection for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants.
The UN General Assembly proclaimed 18 December as International Migrants Day in 2000. It had adopted the International convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members and their families in 1990.
