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International Development Matters Issue 136 December 2014

IDM - Monthly newsletter reporting international development matters and issues affecting trade unionists around the world. Including reports, statements, interviews and events.

TUC News

TUC oppose net migration cap

TUC Aid Appeal: Gaza plant nursery

Other International News

Home office releases new strategy to combat modern slavery

Brazilian paper industry union president murdered

Striking workers in Qatar find labour laws working against them

IFI News

Finance ministers say no to watering down Robin Hood Tax

0.7% overseas aid bill to get third reading

Unions describe G20 Summit as a missed opportunity

Calls to Action

ACT NOW! Attack on trade union rights on eve of climate change summit

Focus on Trade Unionists

Trade Union leader nominated for prestigious award

Colombian trade unionist Darío Cárdenas acquitted and released

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TUC News

TUC oppose net migration cap

Today’s ONS figures reveal that there had been an increase in net migration to 260,000 meaning the government’s pledge to cap annual net migration to under 100, 000 will not be kept by the General Election next year. The TUC has consistently opposed this annual net cap on migration, partly, because it is an impossible policy. Read more here.

TUC Aid Appeal: Gaza plant nursery

TUC Aid is appealing for donations to rebuild the Beit Lahia Plant Nursery in Gaza, which was badly damaged during the Israeli offensive earlier this year.  Read more on this appeal and how you can donate here.

Other International News

Home office releases new strategy to combat modern slavery

A new strategy has been released by the Home Office to help combat modern slavery and forced labour in Britain and abroad. The strategy however has not included any input from trade unions despite them being at the forefront of combating forced labour. Read more here

Brazilian paper industry union president murdered

Ozano Pereira da Silva, 77, president of the Guarulhos, Aruja and Itaquaquecetuba Union of Paper Industry Workers, was strangled at the union office. Read more here.

Striking workers in Qatar find labour laws working against them

TUC’s Playfair Qatar campaign demands that Qatar make life better for its 1.5m migrant workers by applying the laws designed to protect them as rigorously as it applies the laws designed to control them. As the Gulf state crushes striking workers standing up for their rights. Read more here.

IFI News

Finance ministers say no to watering down Robin Hood Tax

Last month Europe’s finance ministers met as ECOFIN. There was pressure from the French and Spanish finance ministers to water down the 11-country Robin Hood Tax. You can read more on the outcomes of this meeting here.

0.7% overseas aid bill to get third reading

On Friday 5 December, Michael Moore MP’s bill to make it a legal requirement for the UK government to spend 0.7% of gross national income on overseas aid faced its third reading, the final stage in its passage through the Commons. Read more here.

Unions describe G20 Summit as a missed opportunity

The G20 Summit held in Brisbane, Australia over the weekend has been described as a “missed opportunity”, with unions lamenting that world leaders failed to deliver a concrete plan for a jobs and wages-led global economic recovery. Read more here.

Calls to Action

ACT NOW! Attack on trade union rights on eve of climate change summit

Public Services International and the International Trade Union Confederation are urgently calling for letters of protest to be sent to the Peruvian Minister of Labour in support of Luis Isarra, the general secretary of Federation of Unions of Water Workers of Peru (FENTAP). Luis's permanent union leave has been revoked by the Peruvian Government just before the United Nations Climate Change conference (COP20).

Focus on Trade Unionists

Trade Union leader nominated for prestigious award

Huber Ballesteros, the imprisoned CUT executive member, has been nominated for the Silver Rose award for people who advocate and campaign for the rights of the most vulnerable in society. The award is given by the Solidar network of European NGOs that seeks to advance the cause of social justice in Europe and across the World. Read more here.

Colombian trade unionist Darío Cárdenas acquitted and released

After spending one year and three days in detention as a result of a campaign calling for the nationalization of the Rubiales oil field, Darío Cárdenas, vice-president of the Meta branch of the Colombian oil workers’ union, Unión Sindical Obrera (USO), has been released from custody. Read more here.

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