UnionAID has established the following priorities for our project work in 2011:

1. The FTUB Mae Sot project

The establishment of the skills training centre for Burmese migrant workers is our first priority for the year. Funding from the Government’s new Sustainable Development Fund will assist with this desperately needed facility.

2. The Tamil Nadu Labour Union project

Our existing 3 year project ends on 30 June 2011 and our strategy for this project is to work with our partners to develop:an economic development project which meets the Sustainable Development Fund criteria, based on the existing cooperatives, skills training and micro-enterprise work in the present project.a restructuring of the present union organising project so that it moves to self-funding, and to have a stronger focus on the inclusion of new Dalit (untouchable) communities in Tamil Nadu. This project would be funded out of our Solidarity Member donations and fundraising.

3. A Pacific project

A UnionAID Pacific project, with a skills development focus, and possibly a health/education component will be developed if a suitable union partner, opportunity and need is identified.

4. Burma young community leaders project (BYLP)

The BYLP now has 12 alumni and 2011 will see the third intake of six young Burmese students. This programme, which is funded by NZAid, and delivered in conjunction with Victoria University, focuses on English language and development studies to prepare the students for increased responsibilities in their organisations both inside and outside Burma. We intend to build a network of interested organisations to provide ongoing support to the graduates from our programme.

Ross Wilson talking to Chris Laidlaw on Radio NZ’s Sunday Morning Ideas show, 24 October 2010 (Labour Day).

Encouraging economic development and the independence of workers through co-operatives is an important strategy for the Tamil Nadu Labour Union (TNLU).

Credit unions encourage members to save for the establishment of small businesses, providing low interest loans. Other co-operatives focus on the production and marketing of local products, such as the Madurai Women’s Handloom Weavers Co-operative, while the Labour Contract Co-operatives have enabled the quarry workers to tender directly for government and other contracts.  In this way a greater proportion of the financial gains are captured for the workers themselves.

But the TNLU has not limited itself to the more familiar worker co-operatives such as credit unions and production co-operatives. In keeping with its inclusive way of operating, the union has set up housing cooperatives for women, and also cooperatives for particularly marginalised groups, who for various reasons may be excluded from other sources of support.

The Women’s Housing Co-operatives aim not only to provide assets but also to give security to women through home ownership or rental housing in the woman’s name. In a country where women have few rights traditionally this is a significant improvement in status. The first of the Special Purpose Co-operatives was established for hijra, or transgender, women who are extremely vulnerable to exploitation.

The TNLU project leaders, Manohari and Edward Doss, must be congratulated for all that they achieve for their members and the union’s sister organisation, the Women’s Development Resource Centre.

The UnionAID project in Tamil Nadu is a really good example of life-changing benefits for a relatively modest investment.

A recent evaluation of the project has confirmed that, not only is the project enabling dalit workers to achieve impressive monetary gains, it has also given these traditionally oppressed communities a dignity and respect which they have previously been denied.

The collective strength of more than 30,000 Dalit and tribal workers is achieving impressive results:

• Most importantly, they say, they now have recognition as human beings and workers, after centuries of discrimination and oppression.
• Minimum wages and conditions of employment have been negotiated, in many cases for workers who have been traditionally expected to undertake their work (such as cremating the dead) for no payment and then beg for food.
• Their collective strength has given them the ability to protect their children from being taken for child labour by dominant castes.
• As a group to be reckoned with, union members are now approached by local body candidates to canvass their voting strength, whereas previously they were ignored.

The UnionAID Tamil Nadu project is, for the first time, giving some meaning to fundamental human rights for Dalit and tribal workers. The indicators of this are:

Gender equality and women’s empowerment

Improved women’s access to entitlements under government and union agreements,

strong participation and leadership by women within the union,

a reported reduction in domestic violence from 25-15%

increasing education of girls in Dalit and Tribal families.

Reduction in discrimination against tribal people

Union membership has reduced discrimination and engendered respect from dominant castes.

Reduction in forced or bonded labour

The project work has significantly reduced bonded and forced labour.

Reduction in child labour

Child labour is being reduced mainly because collective power has prevented dominant castes from forcing their children into their homes to provide unpaid domestic labour,

Right to organise and bargain collectively

This right is being exercised through union membership and the collective bargaining which is occurring.

Equal pay

The project is committed to equal pay and the negotiated pay agreements reflect this.

The right to life and security of person

Union membership has given them protection against both violence from “dominant castes” and harassment and violence from the police.

The right to work

Union cooperatives have been established to create and maintain viable employment in the production of products and services where union members have skills.

The right to education

Improvements in pay and work conditions have enabled a greater number of Dalit and Tribal families to send their children to school.

TNLU Youth Group Band

Union identity cards have put a stop to police harassment of cremation workers, according to Allahasami, the Cremation Workers’ Union President. Since joining the Tamil Nadu Labour Union (TNLU) these illiterate workers asked for – and designed themselves – a union membership card.

The cremation workers carry these ID cards at all times as a safeguard against police intimidation and harassment.

At a field meeting with UnionAid Executive Chair Ross Wilson, a crowd of at least fifty workers sheltering from the rain under a spreading banyan tree flourished their ID cards with obvious pride. For them, the card is not only proof of union membership but a concrete symbol of their new status as human beings.

In a country where the majority of Dalit and Tribal workers suffer gross exploitation and discrimination, cremation workers are considered the “most oppressed” of all. Born into the job, these people languish at the bottom of a caste system which imposes a rigid occupational hierarchy on all Hindus. Because they deal with dead bodies, cremation workers are considered dirty and ‘untouchable’. Traditionally they had to beat drums to warn higher caste people of their approach because even their shadows were thought to contaminate anyone they touched.

In spite of their critical importance to the community, rural cremation workers have often not been paid for their labour or for the fuel to burn the bodies. Instead, they had to go from house to house to beg for food and materials.

Today, through the UnionAID project,  union organising and collective action has changed  the lives of these cremation workers. Those in authority now listen to their demands and treat them with dignity. They are no longer beaten or harassed. They are now paid a small monthly wage by the village council, and they can afford to send their children to school. Like parents everywhere their hopes are that education will give their children the choices and opportunities that they have never had.

Helen Wilson

Late last year I took part in a participatory evaluation of our UnionAID projects in South India and on the Thai-Burma border.

I spent a week with each project and, after meetings and visits with many participating workers, it’s great to be able to assure donors that your contributions are bringing huge benefits to these very vulnerable workers.

In Tamil Nadu the Dalit and tribal workers spoke movingly, and with great pride, about the benefits they have been able to achieve through their union which now has more than 30,000 members, and their gratitude to New Zealand workers for your solidarity.

For these workers and their families, gaining respect as well as monetary gains has been a life-changing experience.

On the Thai-Burma border, in the very difficult conditions for migrant workers in cheap labour sweatshops, the project is bringing knowledge of labour rights and the collective strength to exercise them. Most of these workers are young women and the project is also providing leadership and vocational skills training.

The whole experience made me very proud of what UnionAID has already helped these workers to achieve. And of course our donors should share that pride because we can’t do it without your financial support.

So thanks again for making your commitment. Your money is already making a huge difference to many thousands of some of the most vulnerable workers in the world.

Ross Wilson
Executive Chair
UnionAID

The UnionAID project works closely with the Madurai Women’s Development Resource Centre (also supported by NZAID through Christian World Service) which has achieved remarkable success over many years in supporting  and inspiring Dalit women to organize collectively and to form sangham and women’s micro-banks. As well as being a leader of the Tribal Agricultural Women’s Union, Kaleeswari is also President of the Tribal Women’s Federation and her local sangham. At a meeting with UnionAID  union delegates said that the greatest benefit of the projects has been pride and confidence. A DVD on the MWDRC, “Now We are Fearless” and education kit are available from Friends of MWDRC, wdrc.friends@delta.net.nz (Cost $25).

My name is Kaleeswari and I live with my family in a small village on the lower hills of Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu in South India.

There are 32 families in our village and we are all poor and own no land to grow our own food.

We work for higher caste people, collecting and selling wild grass, berries, honey, gum, nuts and herbs.  We also collect and sell firewood.

Our village has many health problems and many children die before the age of five due to malnutrition.

In India 85 children of every 1000 die before the age of five. In NZ only 6 out of every thousand children die before 5 years of age. Indian children die of diseases that can easily be prevented by clean water and enough good food.

We felt that no one cared about us because we are untouchables.

But now things have changed.

Untouchables must not let even their shadows touch others. Dalits (“crushed underfoot”) as they prefer to be called, exist at the bottom of the ancient Hindu caste system. Dalits have to do the work no-one else will do; the dirty jobs like scavenging for rubbish, cleaning toilets, and handling dead bodies for cremation. Most Dalits and Tribals have no land of their own and often work for landowners as bonded labourers. Very few can read or write and they face abuse, violence and discrimination despite legal rights in the Indian Constitution.

I am President of the women’s committee, or sangham, and  we  meet regularly to discuss and make plans to solve village problems.

We learn about basic rights and the government services which can help them.

We organise rallies and protests to demand equal wages, education for children, health care services and clean drinking water.

We have also formed a woman’s bank so we don’t have to borrow at high interest rates from money lenders.  We now have a voice and we are changing our lives.