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Trade Union Rights Centres
- legal action centres to defend union rights
Trade Union Rights Centres connect trade
unionists with lawyers, academics and human rights organisations
to defend trade union rights and prom ote international law. A report setting out key accomplishments of the TURCs over the first years of operation was published in June 2007. The report is in four languages and serves to share expertise, ideas and experiences between the TURCs.
The
TURC centres are legal action organisations staffed by professionally
qualified lawyers providing technical legal expertise to the trade
union movement around labour, legal, and human rights issues. The TURCs have been established in key countries where trade union rights are
most at risk or where unions lack the capacity to produce independent
analysis and research on legal and organisational issues.
Speaking on 4 November 2005 at a round-table meeting to discuss
the TURC project ICTUR President and President of the Australian
Council of Trade Unions Sharan Burrow said: "the work of ICTUR's
lawyers was very valuable to the unions in Australia when industrial
relations law came under attack from the conservative government.
To replicate their work in other countries will be a great help
to trade unions".
The project is inspired by the success of TURC Indonesia that opened
in 2003 at the initiative of a group of Indonesian labour lawyers
with support from ICTUR's Australian National Committee. Indonesian
labour lawyer and TURC Director Surya Tjandra said: "TURC helps
union activists understand and challenge the so-called labour law
reform process that is damaging to workers' interests. This process
is happening in many countries".
TURCs opened in Colombia
and Iraq in 2006. Soraya Gutierrez, President of the CAJAR lawyers'
collective in Colombia said: "The Trade Union Rights
Unit at CAJAR will help us to challenge impunity and to seek and
guarantee the rights to truth, justice and compensation for trade
unionists and their families who are the victims of human rights
violations".
Trade Union Rights Centres have the following
priorities:
· legal analysis and critique of the labour law
· providing a legal advocacy and activist service for unions
dealing with union rights issues
· providing education and training on labour rights
· the collection of data on union rights issues
· campaigning on union rights issues
· documentation of cases of violations of freedom of association
· provision of information on union rights and international
labour standards
ICTUR will establish a structure to promote the TURC concept to
lawyers' organisations, trade unions, and human rights groups in
many countries. ICTUR will support the design, opening and early
operational costs of TURC centres and provide a framework through
which these groups can work with TURCs around the world.
TURCs will be fully independent organisations with strong informal
ties to ICTUR's global networks of expertise on labour law, trade
union matters and human rights.
Australian lawyer Mordy Bromberg SC said: "A
TURC is a legal resource centre, staffed by lawyers that is available
for the trade union movement in that country to utilise, hopefully
on a free basis in most cases".
British lawyer Professor Keith Ewing said:
"the law is often used to restrict trade union rights and so
trade unions in all countries need to have access to legal capacity".
More details about TURC centres, including
sample copies of publications produced by TURC Indonesia, can be
downloaded from the ICTUR website:
TURC Indonesia
(includes links to publication downloads)
TURC Colombia
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