Fiji Mineworkers Union records 19-years strike [1]
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - 14:00. Updated on Thursday, May 1, 2014 - 15:02.
In a press statement issued today, 9 February, the Union said they had no option but to send a formal communication with documentary evidence of violations of the International Labour Organization Conventions which Fiji has ratified, as well as human rights breaches, to the international bodies. They had no other avenue left in Fiji to explore because their grievances have been ignored by successive governments since they first went on strike in 1991.
The FMU members are still picketing at Vatukoula on their picket site. Attempts to have the striking miners evicted from their homes as well as their picket site at the mine have so far been unsuccessful. Some FMU members had received notices from the Housing Authority, whose houses they still occupied at Vatukoula, but appeals by their lawyer to the Authority have put off the notices for the time being. However, the FMU are fearful that their members are living on borrowed time and that only their communication to the ILO and Human Rights Council will prevent them from being forcibly removed from the area.
The Vatukoula Goldmine has changed hands a number of times in recent years and the Deed of Settlement between the new company and the government does not intend to cover the striking members of the FMU.
The ILO has written to the FMU to acknowledge that their communication has been received for consideration by the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations and the Committee on Freedom of Association. Due process procedures for addressing the communication will follow.
The FMU last week sent a similar communication to the relevant committee of the Human Rights Council in relation to human rights issues arising from the strike, especially the right to life, liberty, freedom of association and freedom of expression, fair labour relations, as well as the right to health, housing, education and to a safe and adequate water supply. The Human Rights Council is to examine Fijis human rights record on February 11th in Geneva.
The FMU communication to these bodies includes a chronology of events in relation to their grievances and annexures in support. The chronology and annexures outline events from the mining history of Fiji from 1908 to December 2009 when the FMU communication was delivered to the ILO. The chronology reveals the dark side of mining activities at Vatukoula including poor labour conditions, substandard housing, serious damage to the environment, lack of protection for workers, and failure of the legal system as well as the government to deal with these issues over such a long period of time.
Mr Sadreu said that the passing of the secretary of FMU, the well-known and staunch Mr Kavekini Navuso, in 2009 had left a significant gap in his members representation. They had therefore decided to send their communication to the international fora for resolution as, despite repeated requests and their patient wait for so many years, the miners labour grievance clearly could not be resolved nationally.
He said that in the past they had taken their grievance to Government through the Ombudsmans Office and the Human Rights Commission but the change in law in 2009 allowed them to try another tack. He said the members of the FMU were growing older and their children needed immediate and urgent assistance with education, housing and other entitlements that they had been denied as a result of being on strike; they were therefore compelled to seek assistance from the relevant ILO and human rights bodies in Geneva, Switzerland.
The FMU is now awaiting the results of deliberations from both ILO and the relevant Human Rights Council committee before deciding what further steps to take. In this regard, they have sought advice from human rights lawyer and academic Dr Shaista Shameem with respect to the legal avenues they can pursue in relation to their human rights and labour rights violations over the long period of more than 19 years. FMU, 09?02?2010.