[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6907-S6910]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

                ILO DECLARATION ON CORE LABOR STANDARDS

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise to report to the Senate 
that on June 18, 1998 in Geneva, at the conclusion of the 86th 
International Labor Conference, the International Labor Organization 
adopted by an overwhelming margin an important new ``Declaration on 
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.'' The vote was 273 in favor 
of the new Declaration, zero opposed, with 43 abstentions. The adoption 
of this measure is a singular achievement and holds great promise for 
advancing core labor standards in the international community.
  Our distinguished Secretary of Labor, the Honorable Alexis M. Herman, 
deserves much credit, as does Andrew Samet, her able Deputy Under 
Secretary for International Labor Affairs. Over the last three weeks, 
Secretary Herman energetically pursued this agreement throughout 
difficult and long negotiating sessions, and in critical corridor side-
bars. Ultimately, she succeeded.
  Secretary Herman has characterized the new Declaration and its 
follow-up mechanism as ``a big step forward for the ILO and its members 
as we enter the 21st Century.'' In the statement that she issued on 
June 18, 1998, upon the adoption of the new Declaration, she said:

       With the passage of this declaration, the ILO underlined 
     and clarified the importance of the fundamental rights of 
     workers in an era of economic globalization. It firmly 
     demonstrates that we can and will move forward in an effort 
     to see trade and labor concerns as mutually supportive--not 
     mutually exclusive.

  Another of the United States' Delegates to the International Labor 
Conference, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney, called the Declaration 
``an historic breakthrough that dramatically underscores the importance 
of basic rights for workers in the global economy.'' And to emphasize 
the tripartite nature of the ILO, it should be noted for the record 
that the U.S. Council for International Business, which is the United 
States' employer representative to the ILO, was a principal supporter 
of this new initiative, and has been from the beginning. The Council's 
President, Abraham Katz, called the new Declaration ``a major 
achievement for the ILO.''
  In essence, the ILO has bunbled together, in a single declaration, 
four sets of fundamental rights--the core labor standards embodying the 
broad principles that are essential to membership in the ILO. Having 
declared that those rights are fundamental, the document then provides 
for a monitoring system--a ``follow-up'' mechanism, to use the ILO's 
term--to determine how countries are complying with these elemental 
worker rights.
  The four sets of fundamental rights are: (1) Freedom of association 
and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; 
(2) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; (3) the 
effective abolition of child labor; and (4) the elimination of 
discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
  These rights flow directly from three sources. First, from the ILO 
Constitution itself, which was drafted by a commission headed by Samuel 
Gompers of the American Federation of Labor and became, in 1919, part 
XIII of the Treaty of Versailles. Second, from the immensely important 
Declaration of Philadelphia, which reaffirmed, at the height of World 
War II, the fundamental principles of the ILO, including freedom of 
expression and association and the importance of equal opportunity and 
economic security. Adopted in 1944, the Declaration of Philadelphia was 
formally annexed to the ILO Constitution two years later. And, not 
least, these four groups of core labor standards flow from the seven 
ILO conventions that are recognized as Core Human Rights Conventions.
  These seven conventions are not the highly technical agreements that 
make up the vast majority of the ILO's 181 conventions. Rather, they 
directly address the rights of working people.
  They are:
  No. 29--the Forced Labor Convention of 1930;
  No. 87--the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right; to 
Organize Convention, 1948;
  No. 98--the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, 
1949;
  No. 100--the Equal Remuneration Convention of 1951;
  No. 105--the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, 1957;
  No. 111--the Discrimination in Employment and Occupation Convention 
of 1958; and
  No. 138--the Minimum Age Convention of 1973.
  They are extraordinary conventions. The Social Summit in Copenhagen 
in

[[Page S6908]]

1995 identified six of these ILO conventions as essential to ensuring 
human rights in the workplace: Nos. 29, 87, 98, 100, 105, and 111. The 
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has classified them 
as ``International Human Rights Conventions.'' The Governing Body of 
the ILO subsequently added to the list of core conventions Convention 
No. 138, the minimum age convention, in recognition of the importance 
of matters relating to child labor. These conventions embody the broad 
principles that are basic to membership in the ILO.
  But what makes this year's Declaration so significant, Mr. President, 
is its second component--the monitoring mechanism, the element that 
will, if implemented properly, ensure that something will come of all 
this. For example, the follow-up mechanism will take a look at how 
China is doing on prison labor, how Pakistan is doing on child labor, 
how the United States performs with respect to freedom of association. 
Yes, we will be examined, too.
  I spoke to the Senate at some length about this matter during our 
debate last Fall on the fast track legislation. Indeed, the fast track 
bill that the Finance Committee reported to the floor contained an 
explicit endorsement--which was included in the Administration's draft 
proposal at this Senator's suggestion--of the ILO's efforts in this 
regard. That section of the Committee's bill, S. 1269, reads as 
follows:

       It is the policy of the United States to reinforce the 
     trade agreements process by--promoting respect for worker's 
     rights by--(ii) seeking to establish in the International 
     Labor Organization . . . a mechanism for the systematic 
     examination of, and reporting on, the extent to which ILO 
     members promote and enforce the freedom of association, the 
     right to organize and bargain collectively, a prohibition on 
     the use of forced labor, a prohibition on exploitative child 
     labor, and a prohibition on discrimination in employment. . . 
     .

  In January of this year, I traveled to Geneva to discuss this new 
initiative with ILO Director General Michel Hansenne and his deputies. 
I did so because I believe that this new Declaration has great 
potential. Its monitoring mechanism could evolve into an effective tool 
for upgrading global compliance with these core labor standards. I have 
argued that the monitoring system ought to include inspections, an idea 
that could gain acceptance over time.

  The ILO is the only League of Nations organization that has survived 
into the era of the United Nations. It arose at a time when the idea of 
sending inspectors into a country to see whether that country was 
keeping an agreement would have been thought much too radical. That all 
changed in the aftermath of World War II, with the creation of the 
International Atomic Energy Agency in 1957.
  With the IAEA, inspections have become established practice over a 
range of international concerns and international organizations, 
including the ILO. Although not explicitly provided for in the ILO 
Constitution, several ``inspection'' mechanisms have in fact evolved in 
the organization since the early 1960's. Two are of particular note. 
ILO Commissions of Inquiry, which investigate members' compliance with 
ratified conventions in accordance with Article 26 of the ILO 
Constitution, have conducted on-site investigations since 1961. And the 
special procedures established under the ILO for examining matters 
relating to freedom to association have, since 1965, included on-site 
inspections. Thus it would seem reasonable to suggest that such 
inspections might eventually be an effective means of reviewing 
countries' compliance with core labor standards. With this Declaration 
and its follow-up mechanism, we have a very good beginning.
  In fact, this new Declaration and its follow-up mechanism might just 
be the key to getting our international trade policy back on track. 
Last November, the trade policy that has guided this country for the 
past 64 years--since the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934--was 
called sharply into question when the Congress considered the 
reauthorization of the so-called ``fast track'' negotiating authority 
for trade agreements. After a promising start in the Senate, where two 
procedural votes demonstrated strong support for the measure (68 votes 
in favor, including a solid majority on both sides of the aisle), the 
effort foundered in the House when it became clear that there were not 
enough votes to pass it.
  One of the central issues that surfaced during that debate was 
whether trade agreements should include provisions--in effect, 
statutory requirements--concerning labor and the environment.
  At first, this might should like a good idea. Upon reflection, 
however, it simply will not work. Developing countries will not accept 
the proposition that they must reduce their tariff and non-tariff 
barriers (discriminatory product standards, import licensing 
requirements, and the like) and, at the same time, willingly adopt 
stricter environmental and labor standards. Their reaction is 
understable: they view such proposals as putting them at a double 
disadvantage--lowering their protection against foreign goods and at 
the same time increasing their production costs, thus eroding their 
competitive advantages.
  The ILO has a role to play here. Indeed, it was created in 1919 for 
the express purpose of providing an avenue for governments that wanted 
to do something to improve labor standards, but were reluctant to do so 
unilaterally because they feared it would put them at a competitive 
disadvantage in world commerce.
  For 79 years, the ILO has sought to address these matters. Certainly 
both President Roosevelt and his Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, 
understood well the connection between the ILO and our trade policies, 
having launched both the Reciprocal Trade Agreements program and the 
United States' membership in the ILO--two parallel but distinct 
measures--in the same year, 1934.
  The ILO is the one League of Nations organization that we were least 
likely ever to join, and the only one we did. Even so, the United 
States has never been an active ratifier of international labor 
conventions. Of the 181 ILO conventions agreed thus far, the United 
States has ratified only 12. Indeed, until 1988, the United States had 
only ratified 7 conventions--6 maritime and one technical--the seventh 
convention having been ratified in 1953. Then an interval of more than 
35 years with no action on the subject.
  In 1988, however, a new era commenced: the United States began to 
ratify substantive labor conventions. Altogether, the United States has 
approved five ILO conventions since 1988:
  Convention No. 144, the 1976, convention on Tripartite Consultation 
on International Labor Standards, which approved by the Senate on 
February 1, 1998; Convention No. 147, the Merchant Shipping Convention 
on Minimum Standards, adopted in 1976, and approved by the Senate 
February 1, 1988; Convention No. 160 on Labor Statistics, adopted by 
the ILO in 1985 and approved by the United States Senate on February 
20, 1990; Convention No. 105, the Abolition of Forced Labor Convention 
of 1957, which the Senate approved on May 14, 1991; and Convention No. 
150 on Labor Administration, adopted by the ILO in 1978, and approved 
by the Senate on October 6, 1994.

  I was the floor manager for four of these. In all five conventions, 
we lost the votes of only two Senators on the floor: both on Convention 
No. 144 regarding tripartite consultation. The other four conventions 
passed unanimously. Most notable was the Senate's ratification in 1991, 
by a vote of 97-0, of the first of the ``core'' human rights 
conventions--Convention No. 105 on the Abolition of Forced Labor 
(1957), an area where the ILO has made vital contributions.
  As the President announced May 18th, in his historic address to the 
World Trade Organization at the commemoration of the 50th anniversary 
of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, he has now transmitted 
to the Senate for ratification a second ``core'' convention--Convention 
No. 111, the Discrimination in Employment and Occupation Convention of 
1958, which calls for a national policy to eliminate discrimination in 
access to employment, training and working conditions.
  It may be that there is new life in the ILO, that we have entered a 
period in which we can look to the ILO for leadership as the United 
States and our trading partners reap the rewards--and adjust to the 
challenges--of globalization. In the area of worker rights, the ILO 
ought to be the place to do it. To remind the Senate, the World

[[Page S6909]]

Trade Organization, at the conclusion of its first ministerial meeting 
in Singapore in December 1996, reaffirmed that the ILO was the 
``competent body'' to set and deal with internationally recognized core 
labor standards. The Director-General of the WTO, Renato Ruggiero, with 
whom I discussed the ILO initiative at length in January, has lent his 
strong support. As Ambassador Ruggiero put it in a speech in Bonn on 
December 9, 1997, the WTO's members agreed at Singapore that ``the ILO 
was the relevant body where the issue of labor standards should be 
addressed.'' He noted:

       The fact that the ILO is now making important strides in 
     these areas demonstrates, not only that consensus on the most 
     difficult issues is possible, but that consensus is 
     absolutely critical to real and lasting progress. Supporting 
     the current efforts in the ILO toward reaching a declaration 
     on Fundamental Workers Rights is the best way of 
     demonstrating that the real objective is to promote labor 
     standards and not to seek protectionist measures.

  It is possible, Mr. President, that this new Declaration on 
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, together with its monitoring 
provisions, will give new energy to the ILO at a time when new energy 
and direction are sorely needed to guide us out of the muddle in which 
we find ourselves with respect to trade.
  I offer my great congratulations to Secretary Herman, to John J. 
Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, and to Abraham Katz, President of 
the U.S. Council for International Business for this singular 
achievement, and I ask that the full text of the declaration and its 
follow-up mechanism, as well as the text of Secretary Herman's 
statement, be printed in the Record.
  The material follows:

    International Labour Conference--86th Session Geneva, June 1998


      ilo declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work

       Whereas the ILO was founded in the conviction that social 
     justice is essential to universal and lasting peace;
       Whereas economic growth is essential but not sufficient to 
     ensure equity, social progress and the eradication of 
     poverty, confirming the need for the ILO to promote strong 
     policies, justice and democratic institutions;
       Whereas the ILO should, now more than ever, draw upon all 
     its standard-setting, technical cooperation and research 
     resources in all its areas of competence, in particular 
     employment, vocational training and working conditions, to 
     ensure that, in the context of a global strategy for economic 
     and social development, economic and social policies are 
     mutually reinforcing components in order to create broad-
     based sustainable development;
       Whereas the ILO should give special attention to the 
     problems of persons with special social needs, particularly 
     the unemployed and migrant workers, and mobilize and 
     encourage international, regional and national efforts aimed 
     at resolving their problems, and promote effective policies 
     aimed at job creation;
       Whereas, in seeking to maintain the link between social 
     progress and economic growth, the guarantee of fundamental 
     principles and rights at work is of particular significance 
     in that it enables the persons concerned to claim freely and 
     on the basis of equality of opportunity their fair share of 
     the wealth which they have helped to generate, and to achieve 
     fully their human potential;
       Whereas the ILO is the constitutionally mandated 
     international organization and the competent body to set and 
     deal with international labour standards, and enjoys 
     universal support and acknowledgement in promoting 
     fundamental rights at work as the expression of its 
     constitutional principles;
       Whereas it is urgent, in a situation of growing economic 
     interdependence, to reaffirm the immutable nature of the 
     fundamental principles and rights embodied in the 
     Constitution of the Organization and to promote their 
     universal application;
       The International Labour Conference,
       1. Recalls: (a) that in freely joining the ILO, all Members 
     have endorsed the principles and rights set out in its 
     Constitution and in the Declaration of Philadelphia, and have 
     undertaken to work towards attaining the overall objectives 
     of the Organization to the best of their resources and fully 
     in line with their specific circumstances; (b) that these 
     principles and rights have been expressed and developed in 
     the form of specific rights and obligations in Conventions 
     recognized as fundamental both inside and outside the 
     Organization.
       2. Declares that all Members, even if they have not 
     ratified the Conventions in questions, have an obligation 
     arising from the very fact of membership in the Organization, 
     to respect, to promote and to realize, in good faith and in 
     accordance with the Constitution, the principles concerning 
     the fundamental rights which are the subject of those 
     Conventions, namely: (a) freedom of association and the 
     effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; 
     (b) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory 
     labour; (c) the effective abolition of child labour; and (d) 
     the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment 
     and occupation.
       3. Recognizes the obligation on the Organization to assist 
     its Members in response to their established and expressed 
     needs, in order to attain these objectives by making full use 
     of its constitutional, operational and budgetary resources, 
     including by the mobilization of external resources and 
     support, as well as by encouraging other international 
     organizations with which the ILO has established relations, 
     pursuant to article 12 of its Constitution, to support these 
     efforts: (a) by offering technical cooperation and advisory 
     services to promote the ratification and implementation of 
     the fundamental Conventions; (b) by assisting those Members 
     not yet in a position to ratify some or all of these 
     Conventions in their efforts to respect, to promote and to 
     realize the principles concerning fundamental rights which 
     are the subject of those Conventions; and (c) by helping the 
     Members in their efforts to create a climate for economic and 
     social development.
       4. Decides that, to give full effect to this Declaration, a 
     promotional follow-up, which is meaningful and effective, 
     shall be implemented in accordance with the measures 
     specified in the annex hereto, which shall be considered as 
     an integral part of this Declaration.
       5. Stresses that labour standards should not be used for 
     protectionist trade purposes, and that nothing in this 
     Declaration and its follow-up shall be invoked or otherwise 
     used for such purposes; in addition, the comparative 
     advantage of any country should in no way be called into 
     question by this Declaration and its follow-up.

                                 Annex

                      Follou-up to the Declaration


                           i. overall purpose

       1. The aim of the follow-up described below is to encourage 
     the efforts made by the Members of the Organization to 
     promote the fundamental principles and rights enshrined in 
     the Constitution of the ILO and the Declaration of 
     Philadelphia and reaffirmed in this Declaration.
       2. In line with this objective, which is of a strictly 
     promotional nature, this follow-up will allow the 
     identification of areas in which the assistance of the 
     Organization through its technical cooperation activities may 
     prove useful to its Members to help them implement these 
     fundamental principles and rights. It is not a substitute for 
     the established supervisory mechanisms, nor shall it impede 
     their functioning; consequently, specific situations within 
     the purview of those mechanisms shall not be examined or re-
     examined within the framework of this follow-up.
       3. The two aspects of this follow-up, described below, are 
     based on existing procedures: the annual follow-up concerning 
     non-ratified fundamental Conventions will entail merely some 
     adaptation of the present modalities of application of 
     article 19, paragraph 5(e) of the Constitution; and the 
     global report will serve to obtain the best results from the 
     procedures carried out pursuant to the Constitution.


  ii. annual follow-up concerning non-ratified fundamental conventions

                          A. Purpose and scope

       1. The purpose is to provide an opportunity to review each 
     year, by means of simplified procedures to replace the four-
     year review introduced by the Governing Body in 1995, the 
     efforts made in accordance with the Declaration by Members 
     which have not yet ratified all the fundamental Conventions.
       2. The follow-up will cover each year the four areas of 
     fundamental principles and rights specified in the 
     Declaration.

                             B. Modalities

       1. The follow-up will be based on reports requested from 
     Members under article 19, paragraph 5(e) of the Constitution. 
     The report forms will be drawn up so as to obtain information 
     from governments which have not ratified one or more of the 
     fundamental Conventions, on any changes which may have taken 
     place in their law and practice, taking due account of 
     article 23 of the Constitution and established practice.
       2. These reports, as compiled by the Office, will be 
     reviewed by the Governing Body.
       3. With a view to presenting an introduction to the reports 
     thus compiled, drawing attention to any aspects which might 
     call for a more in-depth discussion, the Office may call upon 
     a group of experts appointed for this purpose by the 
     Governing Body.
       4. Adjustments to the Governing Body's existing procedures 
     should be examined to allow Members which are not represented 
     on the Governing Body to provide, in the most appropriate 
     way, clarifications which might prove necessary or useful 
     during Governing Body discussions to supplement the 
     information contained in their reports.


                           iii. global report

                          A. Purpose and scope

       1. The purpose of this report is to provide a dynamic 
     global picture relating to each category of fundamental 
     principles and rights noted during the preceding four-year 
     period, and to serve as a basis for assessing the 
     effectiveness of the assistance provided by the Organization, 
     and for determining priorities for the following period, in 
     the form of action plans for technical cooperation designed 
     in particular to mobilize the internal

[[Page S6910]]

     and external resources necessary to carry them out.
       2. The report will cover, each year, one of the four 
     categories of fundamental principles and rights in turn.

                             B. Modalities

       1. The report will be drawn up under the responsibility of 
     the Director-General on the basis of official information, or 
     information gathered and assessed in accordance with 
     established procedures. In the case of States which have not 
     ratified the fundamental Conventions, it will be based in 
     particular on the findings of the aforementioned annual 
     follow-up. In the case of Members which have ratified the 
     Conventions concerned, the report will be based in particular 
     on reports as dealt with pursuant to article 22 of the 
     Constitution.
       2. This report will be submitted to the Conference for 
     tripartite discussion as a report of the Director-General. 
     The Conference may deal with this report separately from 
     reports under article 12 of its Standing Orders, and may 
     discuss it during a sitting devoted entirely to this report, 
     or in any other appropriate way. It will then be for the 
     Governing Body, at an early session, to draw conclusions from 
     this discussion concerning the priorities and plans of action 
     for technical cooperation to be implemented for the following 
     four-year period.


                       iv. it is understood that:

       1. Proposals shall be made for amendments to the Standing 
     Orders of the Governing Body and the Conference which are 
     required to implement the preceding provisions.
       2. The Conference shall, in due course, review the 
     operation of this follow-up in the light of the experience 
     acquired to assess whether it has adequately fulfilled the 
     overall purpose articulated in Part I.
       The foregoing is the ILO Declaration on Fundamental 
     Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up duly adopted 
     by the General Conference of the International Labour 
     Organization during its Eighty-sixth Session which was held 
     at Geneva and declared closed the 18 June 1998.
       IN FAITH WHEREOF we have appended our signatures this 
     nineteenth day of June 1998.

                              The President of the Conference,

                                       The Director-General of the
     International Labour Office.
                                  ____

       ``This is a big step forward for the ILO and its members as 
     we enter the 21st Century. With the passage of this 
     Declaration, the ILO has underlined and clarified the 
     importance of the fundamental rights of workers in an era of 
     economic globalization. It firmly demonstrates that we can 
     and will move forward in an effort to see trade and labor 
     concerns as mutually supportive--not mutually exclusive.
       As we have said and as President Clinton stated in his 
     speech to the World Trade Organization on May 18, we must 
     continue to forge a working relationship between the ILO and 
     the WTO. We continue to see it as vitally important to a 
     strengthened trading system that we advance the effort to 
     protect basic workers rights. That remains our policy and our 
     commitment.
       This Declaration and its follow-up procedure furthers our 
     abilities to pursue these objectives. Nothing in this 
     Declaration restricts our ability to advance together the 
     liberalization of international trade and the protection of 
     basic worker rights. As the ILO has stated, the Declaration 
     does not impose any restrictions in this regard on members.
       It is also clear, with this recommitment to core values, 
     that the ILO members have accepted the need to be 
     accountable. And with this action, there will now be a 
     process within the ILO to demonstrate that accountability.
       I was honored to be a part of this historic ILO meeting and 
     to work with my colleagues to adopt this crucial Declaration 
     that outlines a vision for the next century for this 
     organization. Clearly we proved in these weeks in Geneva, 
     that a consensus can be reached among governments and between 
     employer and worker groups.
       There were long and difficult negotiations over this 
     Declaration, but I was always confident about the outcome 
     because, from the beginning, there was a consensus among us, 
     a shared objective and an historical obligation to do what we 
     have done.''

                          ____________________