Hong Kong, Korean unions demonstrate against escalating anti-union attacks in Fiji

On November 24, the IUF-affiliated Hong Kong catering and hotel workers’ union CHIEGU and the HKCTU, the national center of which it is a member, held a protest action in front of the Honorary Consulate of Fiji to highlight escalating attacks on human rights and growing repression of the trade union movement by the military government of Commodore Bainimarama.

The union demonstrators called on the government to withdraw all laws curtailing civil liberties and trade union rights and drop all legal cases against trade union leaders, including Daniel Urai and Felix Anthony, who head the IUF-affiliated sugar workers and hotel/tourism unions as well as the national center FTUC.

Fiji has become a major destination for tourists from Hong Kong and the mainland, with traffic rising rapidly since Air Pacific began direct flights from Hong Kong last year.

On November 25, the IUF-affiliated Korean Federation of Private Service Workers’ Unions (KFSU) and the national center KCTU and some of its major affiliates held a similar action and press conference outside the Honorary Consulate in Seoul.

The IUF has called upon the global hotel chains with operations in Fiji – a major tourist destination for vacationers in the Asia/Pacific region in particular – to explain their positions regarding the growing crackdown on unions generally, and the government’s attacks on the leader of the hotel and tourism union, in the light of their international human rights commitments and the obligations set out in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.