Improving the Organization and Voices of Fish Workers
October 2008 – December 2011
The Canadian Labour Congress runs this project which supports the Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union (APVVU) to strengthen the unionization of fish workers and to address the problems of hunger, poverty and displacement and promote equity and social justice.
The APVVU represents agricultural workers and small farmers in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Through this project, they have been working to promote land rights, wages, employment programs and sustainable economic alternatives to ensure the rights of agriculture workers and marginal farmers.
Since the project began, we see the largest impact on women and youth; there is evidence of unequal access for women to social programs and a great need for adequate child care to ensure the full participation of women in the union.
As a result of this project, we now see women leaders understanding legislation on domestic violence, pay equity and the anti-dowry act. They have acquired new skills in marketing, net knitting and disaster preparedness. The Government of India has increased minimum wages and is also in the process of developing a bill on a Coastal Zone Regulation Act which addresses development activities on the coast: aquaculture, mechanised fishing, etc., that all pose varying degrees of threats to the coastal environment and thus in turn, threats to the fishworker's livliehoods.
The CLC works with the APVVU in India and the Canadian Auto Workers Union –Social Justice Fund (CAW-SJF).
Child Labour Schooling & Organizing Project
October 2007 – September 2012
We have all heard stories of child labour in the news, well this is a reality in parts of India. The CLC heads up this project with the goal to expand 'child labour free' villages and erradicate child labour in the brick kiln and quarry industries inIndia. Trade unions have the ability to address and help remedy the economic conditions which lead to child labour. They do this by negotiating better wages for workers (thus reducing the need for children to perform labour), and by entering into collective bargaining agreements with employers' associations at district/state or national levels.
As part of the project, activists have set up a cultural wing within the unions, for the purpose of creating trade union and child rights awareness among the unorganized workers through street-plays, video-films and other dynamic and engaging means.
This project has successfully had partner unions sign agreements at 297 brick kilns with a clause on no usage of child labour. We also see 12 villages now designated 'child labour free' and 293 work site committees have been formed to closely monitor that children do not drop out of schools and get re-absorbed into the workforce.
Approximately 796 children have been transfered from child labour schools to government schools where they can get a proper education and stay out of the workforce.
The CLC works with the Building and Woodworkers International Union (BWI) in India to achieve these results. For more on child labour, see our 'minimum wage campaign'.
India