Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 6)
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- Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 6)
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Tilt
I
Trade Unions Reunited
Q a
i]
This year Palestinians are celebrating May 1st, International Work-
ers’ Day, with particular enthusiasm in view of the reunification of
the West Bank trade union movement.
On March Ist, the reunification of
the General Federation of Trade
Unions in the West Bank, occupied
State of Palestine,was announced. This
healed the division that had prevailed
since the 1981 split in the federation.
While the division corresponded to
political differences in the Palestinian
arena and was basically caused by the
right wing, it was also rooted in chang-
ing realities in the 1967 occupied ter-
ritories, and the failure of the existing
trade union movement to respond
adequately to the new situation. Since
the 1967 occupation, land confiscation
has pushed more and more Palesti-
nians to work in industry and services;
with the subordination of the local
economy, increased numbers of them
were driven to work in Israel. But
while the Palestinian working class was
growing, the occupation authorities
imposed a series of restrictions to hin-
der the process of unionization. Obvi-
ously, Palestinian trade unions were
not authorized to negotiate on behalf
of Palestinians working in Israeli con-
cerns and, in official terms, these
workers could not be unionized. The
formation of a new union, as well as
the list of candidates for office in exist-
ing unions, had to be approved by the
military government. Just to give one
example of the consequences of this,
of 50 applications to form new unions
since 1967, five were approved(Al
Fajr, February 6, 1989). Many unions
refused to submit to this illegal inter-
ference, and thus functioned without
permission.
The West Bank Trade Union Fed-
eration has traditionally been led by
the Palestinian communists who
deserve much credit for the first efforts
to unionize the Palestinian working
Class. However, with the expansion of
the working class, other progressive
forces began protesting that they were
not accorded just representation in the
existing trade unions. At the same
6
time, the various Palestinian political
contingents formed labor blocs to
Organize more workers in the context
of the overall rise of the mass move-
ment in the occupied territories in the
early eighties.
Democratic reorganization
The March reunification of the
federation was preceded by _ four
months of intense dialogue to find
means of overcoming these problems.
A 16-member executive committee was
formed to reorganize the trade union
movement according to a new internal
charter. The aim is merging all the
existing unions on a district basis. This
means regrouping about 100 unions
into 20 general unions to be based in
Jenin, Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron,
Bethlehem, Tulkarm, Qalqilya and
Jerusalem. These unions will be open
to all workers, and elections will be
based on principles of democracy and
proportional representation of all the
participating forces. General elections
are to be held within one year or, if
this proves unfeasible, within two
year’s.
With the March ist reunification,
the various trade unions and labor
blocs were represented in the federa-
tion’s executive committee, save for
the Workers’ Unity Bloc which was
accorded two seats, but initially failed
to join, saying that proportional rep-
resentation had not been correctly
implemented. In addition, a general
secretariat was formed as the highest
decision-making body. The secretariat
is composed of five members: two rep-
resenting the Youth Movement and
one each representing the Front for
Trade Union Action, the Progressive
Bloc and the Workers’ Unity Bloc.
The general secretariat is charged with
drafting a new constitution and inter-
nal charter for the federation as soon
as possible. Once approved, these
documents cannot be amended without
the agreement of all the signatories.
Thus, the federation has been opened
to all nationalist political trends and
labor blocs. It is in the process of reor-
ganization on a firmer, more democra-
tic and unified basis. All progressive
and nationalist forces are called upon
to join in this process to ensure its suc-
cess.
The intifada and the federation
While much of the reunification
process focused on organizational mat-
ters to rectify the problems of the past,
there is no doubt that the driving force
for the new labor unity is the intifada
itself. More than anything else, the
intifada has tangibly proved what great
gains can be made via united mass
struggle and democratic, collective
leadership. From the onset, workers
have been on the frontlines of the
intifada, bearing credit for some of its
major achievements. Statistics released
by Israel’s biggest bank, Hapoalim, in
early 1990 estimated the direct losses
to Israel in production and economic
growth during the first two years of the
intifada to be $800 million to $1 bill-
ion. Along with the Palestinian boycott
of Israeli products, the main cause of
these losses was Palestinian workers
going on strike. In addition, Palesti-
nian workers stood on the frontlines in
the battle against the imposition of the
new magnetic ID cards. The trade
unions reuniting enables further con-
solidation of the working class role in
the intifada.
The March 1st announcement reit-
erated the federation’s commitment to
the resolutions of the 19th PNC. The
reunification of the federation is a sig-
nificant contribution to the consolida-
tion of national unity in the framework
of the PLO. Here it is relevant to note
that the federation was the first mass
organization in the occupied territories
to declare adherence to the PLO when
it broke away from the Jordanian fed-
eration after the 1970 Black September
massacre.
The reunification declaration
pledged the federation’s intent to make
«efforts to develop the trade union
movement to fulfill its vanguard role
Democratic Palestine, March-April 1990 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 38
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