A-Infos (en) Child labour in Surgical goods industry

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    Child labour in Surgical goods industry

Brussels. May 15. (ICFTU Online): On the eve of
the Second World Trade Organisation Ministerial
Meeting in Geneva (May 18/19), international trade
unions are releasing video footage entitled "Under
the Knife" which shows extensive use of child
labour in the production of surgical goods, in
Sialkot, Pakistan, where children operate heavy,
dangerous metal-working equipment, without any
protection,.

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   Forwarded News 'of interest to anarchists'
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An independent cameraman sent by the trade unions
filmed children, aged eight to 14 years, crouching
in cramped workshops, grinding scissors, and
polishing, cutting, and filing other surgical
instruments. In some of the workshops, metal dust
particles fill the air, and the polishers' faces
are coated in metal dust thrown up by grinding
wheels, operated without using masks, gloves, or
any form of protection. Workers suffer frequent
injuries on this machinery, burns from hot metal,
and respiratory problems from inhaling poisonous
metal dust.

Most surgical instruments will be exported to
industrialised countries for use in hospitals,
dental surgeries and doctor's surgeries. According
to the Pakistan government over 69 million units'
of surgical goods were exported in 1994, with
around 80% to OECD countries, with the USA as the
largest importer. The surgical instruments are
stamped out of sheets of steel imported from
France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.
"Top hospitals in the world could at this moment
be carrying out operations using equipment made by
underage workers in the backstreets of Pakistan,"
said ICFTU General Secretary Bill Jordan. "People
will pay thousands of dollars for medical
treatment. Would they be happy to know that
medical work is being undertaken using equipment
produced by children paid a pittance, working in
terrible conditions?" he asked. Out of a total of
50,000 workers in the surgical goods industry in
Sialkot, 15% (7,700) are children, according to
research by the Punjab Provincial Government and
the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Child
labour continues in surgical goods production even
though the Pakistan government has ratified ILO
Convention 59, which bans children from working in
industry, says the ICFTU.

Interviews on video with the child workers, of
whom all were boys, disclosed that they had had
only minimal schooling, and had been working for
several years. In fact, the video also shows one
positive move to combat child labour - a school
for ex-child labourers, set up by the local
textile workers union. While this is a welcome
step, say the unions, thousands more school places
are needed.

At the forthcoming World Trade Organisation
meeting, ministers will look at ways of easing the
flow of goods and services between countries, and
breaking down trade barriers. The use of child
labour in this industry shows how multinational
companies will seek out the cheapest labour to
produce their goods, at the expense of local
workers and often employers, and how countries are
forced to accept this, in order to preserve the
competitive edge in trade.  At least 15 million
child labourers worldwide are producing goods and
services for international markets.

At the WTO meeting the ICFTU will be asking
Ministers to look at means of linking labour
standards with trade, to ensure that abuses such
as the extensive use of child labour are not
allowed to continue. In Sialkot, the ILO is
preparing a project for the withdrawal and
rehabilitation of children in surgical instrument
manufacturing. The project will be implemented in
close collaboration with trade unions and
employers in Pakistan, and will be financed by
funds raised by Italian unions and employers.  The
ICFTU is asking governments in industrialised
countries to support further activities needed for
the total elimination of child labour in this
sector.

The International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF)
and its affiliates in Pakistan believe it is
mainly through strong unions that workers' rights
issues such as child labour and poor working
conditions can be overcome. To this end the IMF
and its Pakistani affiliates are discussing and
planning to start an urgent organising campaign in
Sialkot.

The Public Services International (PSI), which
represents public health workers, will be working
with its health union affiliates to get agreements
from the major suppliers internationally to
support the ILO project and other activities to
abolish child labour in this sector.

The ICFTU website is carrying background
information and photographs.
http://www.icftu.org/campaigns/childlabour/esurgical.html

For further information, please contact the ICFTU
Press Office on: 322 224 0212 Visit our website at
http://www.icftu.org

Source: INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE
UNIONS (ICFTU) ICFTU OnLine 118/980515/DD
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO FOOTAGE SHOWS CHILD LABOUR IN THE
SURGICAL GOODS INDUSTRY


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