ANROAV Annual Conference 2008

The Annual conference of ANROAV took place in Manila at Hotel Pearl Garden, Malate on 27-28^th September 2008. The conference had around 100 participants from all over Asia, Canada, Australia, USA and France.

ANROAV annual meeting is the highest decision making body for the network where future plans and direction of the network are discussed and the past activities are reviewed. In this years meeting the main focus will be on the critical issues in occupational health and safety in Asia and devising strategies towards them and also strategies to strengthen the ANROAV as a network and how to enhance fruitful partnership with similar networks across the globe.

The key objectives of the 2008 annual meeting are as follows:

To provide updates on various ANROAV struggles and campaigns – Asbestos, Silicosis (gem and jewellery), Mining , Cadmium Poisoning and Electronics
To devise strategies and plans on strengthening the victims’ movement and also spreading it across other regions.
Share experiences with OSH groups outside Asia and draw up joint strategies for future
Review the past activities of the ANROAV.
Propose the next year strategic plan
Formation of steering committee or taskforce for the execution of joint activities.

The meeting started off with an introductory speech from Earl Brown from the Solidarity Centre, Noel Colina from IOHSAD and Sanjiv Pandita from AMRC. This was followed by a presentation from the background of ANROAV and ANROAV’s activites for the past year by Jagdish Patel who was the current coordinator of the ANROAV network.

Then the next step was an update on existing campaigns of the ANROAV network:

Cadmium poisoning among battery workers- Cases from Gold Peak battery workers in China. – Presented by GP victims, China
Banning Asbestos in Asia – Campaigns and Strategies – Presented by Sugio Furuya, BANJAN
Mercury poisoning among the Workers and Community in Kodai, India by Unilever and global Campaign against Unilever- Presented by Lakshmi Premkumar, Corporate Accountability Desk
Bhopal Victims Struggle – Presented by Rachna Dhingra, International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
SHARPS : Supporters for the Health and Right of People in Semiconductor industry – Presented by Jeong-Ok Kong, SHARPS / KILSH, Korea
Social Visibility of Industrial Related Disease, A crossed perspective from Europe and Japan – Presented by Paul Jobin, University of Paris

This year’s ANROAV meeting had simultaneous thematic skill share workshops to make discussions more focussed and strategic. The 3 workshops were:

Dust Related Lung Diseases Skill Share organised by LAC, PTRC, BANJAN
Skill share on Electronics organised by Labour Occupational Health Program (LOHP) of University of California at Berkley
Victims Organising Skill Share – Organised by TAVOI and ARIAV

The workshops ran for a day and at the end of it, the 3 groups came out with an action plan and a proposal of activities which was presented to the larger plenary and also seeking collaborations from other groups present to carry out the action plan.

Dust related diseases workshop report

• Major problem in Asia, No information on extent of problem

• Few organization working on the issue with workers in Asia

• Seminar on October 23-24, 2008 in Beijing focus on reform of legal procedures, compensation standards, standards on criminal cases, develop follow up plans and international advocacy strategies

• HKCTU – set up court in trade fair where there will be 3 cases came up before the court and resolved.

• Earl suggested to circulate the PTRC petition submitted to Indian NHRC. He also suggested that authorities responsible for TB and silicosis should be brought before Supreme Court in India together.

• Suggestion for regional campaign on silicosis identification and target global investment in the region.

• Earl suggested to focus on the plight of migrant workers problems.

• It was suggested that next 1 or two yrs may be given to assess the problems.

• Decided to meet again for meeting to promote Silicosis campaign in Asia to grow. Jagdish will prepare format for collecting data and circulate to the members. Members from India, China, Philippines and Thailand attended the meeting representing IOHSAD,WEPT, LAC and PTRC. Meeting may be organized in next June in HK which LAC may facilitate. Objective of the meeting would be to consolidate and spread the campaign among other Asian members of ANROAV.1 or 2 members of the member organization interested in Silicosis campaign.

• Suggestion from Chinese delegates to organize training for activist for carrying out simple epidemiological studies.

Victims organizing workshop report

• Organizers – ARIAV and TAVOI

• Main points on organizing experience in other countries: by when, where, how and why are there are organizing initiatives

• Problems in organizing

– Resources limitation

– Legality problem- victim organizations and appropriateness of the organization

– Harassment of activists

– Organize victims and empower them

– Unions do not care about OSH and lack of knowledge about OSH in TU

• Identified why victims need to be organized

– Empower them to speak out

– Raise awareness to defend their rights

– Help each other in the network

Strategy to cooperate in the future

Psychological support

Visiting organisations

Strike

Cooperation among NGOs

Network interact with victims and survivors

Sustainable education

Documentaries of action, struggle and campaigns

Legal assistance to the victims

Electronics Workshop

• Ted smith started the workshop about life cycle assessment about the whole process from mining to use etc. then the hazard mapping exercise was done – to big corporations to small companies were mapped. Then the chemicals hazard were discussed by the toxic t-shirt activity. Controlling hazards – reduce or eliminate the hazard. And finally the action plan.

• Recommendation for training– about building the workshop around the political context of OSH.

There were 4 groups in the workshop who drew up action plans for the ANROAV network seeking collaborations and partnerships with other members to carry out the proposed activities.

Group 1- goals and steps to achieve them- access to information in order to encourage worker empowerment in electronics industry

– Anroav become the information hub for chemical hazards- email list serve, simple fact sheet, website has info and translate the info into other asian languages

– Amrc working with anroav and other allies – update the manual by doing grass root trainings and gather information from the ground and use that information to update the manual

– Demystify the information on electronics and chemical hazards- translation and pictorial depictions

– Develop videos of children talking about electronic hazards- by affected children or families of affected children- talk about their feelings on reproductive hazards

Group 2

– Action plan 6 months – 1 year

– Raise awareness to samsung workers about hazards of their workplace

– Small public exhibitions on victims and struggle

– Accumulate various exhibitions and improve standard

– Make a blog on their experience and trials using materials of this workshop

– Content maybe simple cartoon or explanation

– Achieve their goal on raising awareness of workers

Group 3

– Co-ordination between union and safety committee on how chemical can cause hazards to the body

– How regulation allow the use of chemicals in different countries

– Mapping on EPZ and if the law has any effect on the worker and benefits them

– Discuss with the company on osh and fulfil their commitment to the workers

Group 4

- The centre in Qingdao has more than 80 volunteers and give them information on labour issues

- Performances in public areas – the importance of using PPE

- Pictures of injured workers , chemical hazards, accidents etc.

Based on the workshop reports, the ANROAV network has put forth the following action plan for the next year:

• Association for exposed workers and community members on asbestos exposure

• Silicosis should be eliminated in Asia- ANROAV members should work towards it

• Electronics – electronic manufacturing has come to Asia and there is a need to learn more about this industry, learn about campaigns from other countries and learn from other experiences

• Mining campaign – apart from accidents and equally dangerous is the diseases like coal miners pneumoconiosis, silicosis etc.

• Victims organising is the key to any successful campaign – from Korea, Taiwan and HK and sharing of experiences on the success of campaigns and these strategies can be reflected and used as an inspiring tool for future campaigns

• Role of OSH accidents – need to be focused on more in the future

• We can include disease caused by metals – not just by chemicals, and if there is any law about metal and metal particles?

• Campaigns that ANROAV is working on :

- GP workers (China)

- Unilever Campaign (Kodai,India)

                               - Bhopal Campaign- 25th anniversary

                              Dust related diseases
                                - silicosis
                               -asbestosis
                               - Coal miners pneumoconiosis

                              Electronics
                               -         Capacity building trainings of workers in Asia
                               -         Samsung
                               -         RCA
                              Mining – accidents in coal mines
                              Victims Organizing
                              Campaign for Burmese migrant workers

At the end of the ANROAV conference, there was a ANROAV internal meeting for members of the ANROAV network. The key decisions taken at the meeting were:

1. Jagdish Patel of PTRC is stepping down from the secretariat – as he has been in the role for 3 years. In the past it was with AMRC, FOW, ARIAV and PTRC.

2. Central secretariat of ANROAV from 2008 September will be with – Noel Colina, IOHSAD.

3. South Asia coordinator– OSHE

4. South East Asia coordinator – WEPT

5. Mekong coordinator – C.CAWDU

6. East Asia coordinator - TAVOI

7. China- XC

Co-ordination between regions forming a co-ordination committee and they responsible for carrying out ANROAV activities

Central secretariat- has to bring out oshe rights (newsletter) and members have to give information to the secretariat for the newsletter.

Advisors of ANROAV will be – Voravidh, Apo Leong, earl brown, Prof. Sun and Melody Kemp

Associate members will be added from this year onwards– CAW Canada, Garrett Brown, Rory O’Neill, Maquila dora Network, Ted Smith, etc will be members of this group.

The next ANROAV meeting 2009 will be

1. Taiwan hosted by TAVOI

if that fails due to passport and visa issues, the second choice will be-

2. Cambodia (Siam Reap) hosted by C.CAWDU