Building Decent Work in the West Bank

Building Decent Work in the West Bank

Amid a flicker of calm in the West Bank, a TUC-supported project will help Palestinian workers rebuild their own lives.

This week the TUC and the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) signed an agreement to run training throughout factories and workplaces in the West Bank, beginning in October. From milk factories to sewing workshops, the project will teach 300 mostly women workers about their work rights and how they can work together to defend them.

Signs of recovery

The West Bank is a difficult place to be a worker. Israeli restrictions on movement, land confiscated for settlements or by the separation wall, and the ever present threat of fundamentalism can ruin livelihoods and choke off businesses and the jobs that come with them.

'But things are better than this time last year,' says Fathy Naser, the PGFTU's legal advisor and project coordinator. 'The Palestinian Authority has put in place some stability and tranquillity, and the Israelis have removed some of the internal checkpoints. So instead of it taking three hours to get from Ramallah to Nablus, now it only takes an hour.'

As a result, the green shoots of Palestinian business are emerging, and with that, 'a healthier economic environment for workers,' comments Fathy. These businesses cover food processing, cosmetics, telecommunications and banking, sewing and textiles, and paper and printing.

'So we decided to target our organising among these new investments in Nablus, to educate the workforce on their basic rights, the role of unions and workplace democracy in defending them, and how to encourage positive negotiations and relationships with their employers.'

Building on a successful series of workshops supported by the TUC in early 2009, other topics in the training include occupational health and safety, the ILO's Decent Work Agenda and critically, gender equality.

The project's goals are ambitious but achievable: to get at least 10% of the un-organised workforce to join unions, and to form an extra five workers' committees in workplaces. The project will initially train 300 workers to kick start this effort. Importantly for the PGFTU, at least half of those organised and those trained will be women.

Helping women to take the lead

The federation has made great strides in representing women since 1975, when only 0.2% of its members were female. After deciding to turn this around in 2004, the number of women in unions rose to 9% in 2007, and is expected to hit 15% by the end of this year. To aid this effort, the project explicitly targets worksites employing mostly women.

The burden of occupation has hit Palestinian women the hardest of all. Discriminatory and repressive social attitudes have also held them back in the workplace. 'We are working hard to tackle the traditions that hold women back,' notes Fathy. 'A key way of doing this is to get women's voices heard within their unions.' And they are starting to see results: 'Before, our executive bureau previously only had one woman on it. We now have four women.' Says Fathy proudly.

'We have worked hard in the area of educating women trade unionists and we are now starting to see the initial results in terms of the presence of women in decision-making posts,' commented Amna Abdel Jabbar Mafarja, a member of the PGFTU executive bureau and president of the Agriculture and Food Industry Union, to the ITUC. 'We can no longer be ignored or sidelined'.

Peace and solidarity in practice

The livelihoods of workers in the West Bank do depend on the fragile peace in place. Should the Israelis bring back the checkpoints, workers will suffer again, as a recent ILO report makes clear. And then there is Gaza: caught between the Israeli blockade and Hamas extremism, the PGFTU find it almost impossible to represent workers there.

'For our part', says Fathy, 'we are working to ensure that democracy and peace touch all levels of the Palestinian workforce'. International solidarity is key to this. The situation of Palestinian workers is a huge priority for British trade unions, with many of them contributing to a TUC Aid appeal in 2008 which is making this work possible. 'We are very proud of our long standing relationship with the TUC and its affiliated unions, and appreciate their assistance to help us meet the difficulties we face' says, Fathy.

For more information see:

TUC (2008) TUC's practical solidarity with Palestinian trade unionists begins.

ITUC (2009) Spotlight interview with Amna Abdel Jabbar Mafarja (PGFTU - Palestine)

ILO (2009) Report on the situation of workers of the Occupied Arab Territories