Address by Mahendra P. Chaudhry
 Parliamentary Leader Fiji Labour Party 
and General Secretary National Farmers Union
To mark the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations,
Fiji Public Service Association
Suva Civic Auditorium
26 September 2003

(posted 26 September 2003, 21:00)

Sharan Burrow, President ACTU,
Members of the FPSA National Council,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends and Colleagues.

It is with much pleasure and deep feelings of nostalgia that I stand before you today to mark the diamond jubilee celebrations of an organisation that my own life has been so intricately bound with.

Of the FPSA's 60 years of existence, I was its general secretary for 30 years and helped steer the Association through developments and growth that have seen it to its present stature.

However, I must suppress the tendency to linger over the past, no matter how inviting it is. As a postscript, let me add that it was in the office of the general secretary at the FPSA headquarters that Dr. Timoci Bavadra and I first conceived the idea of a political option for trade unions which led to the birth of the Fiji Labour Party. The rest, as you all know, was the beginning of a new chapter in Fiji's history...

Today, I wish to share some thoughts with you on the Association's theme to mark the occasion "Celebrating 60 years of Workers Rights, Dignity and Justice".

This is of course what trade unionism is all about and there is no doubt the FPSA has, over the past 60 years, effectively administered its responsibilities to its members in this respect. As it celebrates its 60th, the Association can be proud of having achieved a number of milestones:

• it is the largest trade union in the country
  
• it is one of the richest, having wisely invested members' funds
  
• it provides one of the best range of mutual benefits and privileges to its members
  
• It is one of the most professionally run trade unions and one that is constantly conscious of improving the pays and working conditions of its members

Indeed, the FPSA can be counted among the pioneers in establishing a full time secretariat in order to serve its members better and in extending the range of mutual aid benefits available to them.

Having said that, I must caution that the FPSA must not rest on its laurels. It should now look ahead into the future and see how it, along with other trade unions, can continue to improve on the benefits and services they provide to workers in this country.

That brings me back to the theme for this year's convention: the struggle for workers' rights, dignity and justice. With equal emphasis on all three, I hope!

In this respect the challenge facing you as trade unions is perhaps greater today than it has ever been in the past.

I say this because post coup Fiji society is in the throes of deep social distress. On the surface we see everywhere around us the trappings of wealth, but behind this façade of well being, the grim truth is that the vast majority of our workers and the ordinary people are not living in dignity.

This is borne out by government's own statistics which show that:

• 100,000 of our people (that is close to 12% of the population) line up every month for the State's paltry destitute allowance. This is apart from the hundreds who queue up for relief rations given out by charitable organisations
  
• 60,000 live in squatter settlements around the country under the most abject social conditions-often lacking water, electricity, sanitary and other conveniences
  
• although there is no updated data on poverty levels in post coup Fiji, most researchers believe it hovers around 40%. An academic group at USP puts it as high as 60% taking account of hundreds of displaced farmers and their families driven to destitution following non renewal of their native leases.

In a depressed post-coup economy, unemployment is at record highs and there is little prospect for jobs for the 17,000 school leavers who join the market each year. Evidence of rising unemployment is everywhere - escalating crime rate, the increase in street kids and child labour, growing numbers of men, women and children who roam the streets begging, increasing prostitution particularly among teen-age girls, growing numbers of drug peddlers.

Yes, it is a grim picture of a society in distress. The plight of the ordinary people has been made worse in the past three years under a government that leans towards big businesses and has shown its complete insensitivity to the suffering and hardship of the ordinary workers and the poor.

By way of evidence, I point to government's:

• reluctance to bring in a minimum national wage despite signs of growing poverty and social distress
  
• its decision post-2000 coup to re-impose VAT on essential food items and remove price controls, that had been introduced by the People's Coalition Government, on every day household goods .
  
• Its grossly insensitive decision to hike VAT from 10% to 12.5% thus making everything more expensive despite the increasing suffering of our people

There is no doubt about the hardship and suffering prevalent out there. The question we need to ask is : Are trade unions doing enough to protect the rights of workers, to ensure them social justice so that they can live and work in dignity as human beings?

By workers I mean all workers, organised, and more particularly, the unorganised who remain the most vulnerable to employer exploitation.

The Fiji Constitution is unique in that it provides guarantees for the rights of workers under Section 33 on Labour Relations, and I quote:

(1) Workers have the right to form and join trade unions, and employers have the right to join and form employers' organisations

(2) Workers have the right to organise and bargain collectively

(3) every person has the right to fair labour practices, including humane treatment and proper working conditions

These are noble provisions but we all know that they are paper guarantees only. Workers, their rights and dignity, have been subtly and systematically under assault for the past three years.

The task confronting you is not easy because one cannot ignore the current unfavourable political environment in which trade unions are being forced to operate.

Government's anti-union stance is evident from:

• the alacrity with which it declares every strike action illegal without taking account of the merits of the case;
  
• by its support and encouragement to a splinter group of the FTUC

Is it not obvious that there is a clear attempt to split the national movement, particularly along racial lines, so as to keep it weak?

Trade unionists who support the splinter group are guilty of betraying the workers by undermining their solidarity and making them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers.

You must learn from own past: the racial split encouraged among FPSA members of CAAF after 1987, the establishment of the Viti Civil Servants Association and in 1990, the formation of an in-house union in the Post and Telecom sector are all instances of attempts to undermine union solidarity.

You need to be conscious of the threat to unionism from entrenched interest groups who will stoop to anything, even breaking the law, in order to promote their own selfish interests and greed.

To survive in such a hostile environment, trade union solidarity becomes even more imperative. It is your responsibility to ensure that the national movement is kept strong and united because individual unions are only as strong as the national body.

Strength comes from increased numbers and an effective leadership. Statistics show that only 30% of the work force enjoy decent working conditions. The rest: 70% is deprived of fair pays and conditions.

Remember that this 70% comes from the most vulnerable and marginalised sector of society. A large proportion are women from extremely poor families, abandoned wives with children to bring up, heads of households where husbands are disabled or sickly.

From experience we know that organising this group of unorganised workers is a formidable task, requiring a tenacious campaign because employers do not allow membership to rise to the 50% required for unions to be recognised. They either deter membership by sacking activists, intimidating workers or forcing them to sign individual contracts.

In this respect, I must commend the women workers of PAFCO who remained on strike for weeks to fight for better wages and work conditions. This is despite intense pressure put on them through their cultural and traditional sources. This is the kind of determination that is needed among workers today. It is sad that workers are subjected to such traditional and cultural constraints from vested interest groups in the Fijian society who join forces with employers to suppress their own people.

Well established unions, rich in resources, such as the FPSA, have a moral responsibility to use their strength and resources to actively engage in the campaign to organise such vulnerable workers.

Trade unions need to build secretariats are professionally competent in order to match the modern technical resources of government and the employers; and train and organise youths to ensure a brigade of activitists out in the field.

These are some ways through which the trade union movement can be strengthened and made more effective in its fight for the rights of workers.

An organised campaign to police adherence to Labour laws and regulations is another. This task becomes the responsibility of trade unions in an environment where government departments are not effectively policing contraventions. We are all aware that there has been marked government negligence in this area either due to corrupt practices, a shortage of staff or sheer insensitivity.

Finally, I must exhort trade unions, as social partners in development, to become more vocal on national issues. Trade unions must not remain passive to government policies that perpetrate injustices against the weak and disadvantaged in society, that accentuate inequity and discriminate against sections of our community.

Trade unionism is not confined to a focus on just industrial relations: it should have a broader horizon that encompasses all aspects of workers' lives be they political, social, economic or environmental.

I would like to see the trade union movement become much more vocal on national issues. It should encourage public debate, hold workshops on developmental issues, national policies, areas of concern such as crime, corruption, poverty, housing, environmental pollution.

To do this effectively, it needs to engage in coalition building with other concerned NGOs, and maintain close liaisons with the international fraternity in order to gain solidarity support, training, information and advice.

We in Fiji owe a lot to the international trade union movement which stood by us in our struggles for the restoration of democracy both after the 1987 coups and the 2000 coup. We take this opportunity in the presence of Sharan Barrow to acknowledge our deep indebtedness to the ACTU and its affiliated unions for their practical help and solidarity support in our darkest hour.

Apart from a show of brotherhood, such solidarity was no doubt based on the realisation that trade unions can only operate effectively in an environment that shows respect for democratic values such as the rule of law, individual rights, and more specifically, freedom of speech and freedom of association.

Yes, the onus is on you to zealously protect our democratic rights and institutions and in doing so, to ensure that trade unions themselves remain firmly rooted in strong democratic principles and practices.

Friends, with those words, I wish you all happy celebrations this evening and I wish the FPSA and the trade union movement, both of which are very dear to my heart, continued success in their fight for workers' rights, social justice and the dignity of the working people of Fiji.

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