AUT: CLC PLANS SANCTIONS AGAINST INDONESIA - The Globe and Mail (fwd)

["Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 20:54:00 -0400
From: Torvald Patterson <torvald@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <LABOR-L@xxxxxxxx>
To: LABOR-L@xxxxxxxx
Subject: CLC PLANS SANCTIONS AGAINST INDONESIA - The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail                      Wednesday, September 15, 1999

CLC PLANS SANCTIONS AGAINST INDONESIA

        Union says it's acting since Ottawa won't

        By Jeff Sallot, Parliamentary Bureau

Ottawa -- Union leaders said yesterday that their members will
unilaterally try to halt cargo to and from Indonesia to protest
against the repression of East Timor because Ottawa lacks the
courage to lead a sanctions effort.
        Individual consumers should also try to apply economic
pressure on Jakarta by boycotting scores of Indonesian-made
products, which include coconut cream and tennis balls, Canadian
Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti said yesterday.
        The CLC, whose 2.3 million members include dock, rail, postal
and air-transport workers, has declared goods from Indonesia "hot
cargo."
        That means members are urged to do whatever they can to
make sure Indonesian goods don't move. The ban will remain until
the Indonesian military brings anti-independence militias under
control and allows refugees who were forcibly deported to return to
East Timor, Mr. Georgetti said.
        Likewise, union members should avoid handling cargo they
know is destined for Indonesia, he said.
        Canadian companies exported goods worth $540-million to
Indonesia last year, most of it grain and wood pulp, Statistics
Canada says. Imports were valued at $921-million, including tens of
millions of dollars worth of clothes, shoes and electrical parts.
        Meanwhile, Defence Minister Art Eggleton said he's not yet
sure what Canada's commitment to an international peacekeeping
force for East Timor will be -- maybe an infantry company of 250
soldiers, or a supply ship, or a couple of transport planes.
        The infantry could get there in two to three weeks, the ship
would need 23 sailing days and the transport planes would take
seven to 10 days to be deployed with its maintenance and ground
crews, he said.
        But whatever it is, he's warning cabinet that the cash-strapped
military will need a promise of more money before it can send
anyone to East Timor.
        Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy rejected a call for
broad economic sanctions Monday, but reinstituted a ban on
military equipment sales. He said sanctions would only hurt
Indonesia's poor and economic pressure might destabilize the
country's fledgling democracy.
        The Canadian Union of Postal Workers kicked off the CLC
boycott, announcing that its members will cut off mail destined for
the Indonesian embassy in Ottawa.
        Mr. Georgetti said the CLC has to act unilaterally because the
federal government has refused to show leadership and impose
sanctions.
        "The Canadian government has been very slow off the mark on
this issue. They knew what was happening [in East Timor]. And I
am disappointed anyone would try to couch the tolerance of murder
with the words of diplomacy," Mr. Georgetti said.
        The Australian Congress of Trade Unions announced a hot-
cargo ban last Thursday. Mr. Georgetti predicted that organized
labour in other countries will follow suit in coming days.
        Consumers should check labels and refuse to buy goods made
in Indonesia, he said.
        The boycott is expected to affect shoes made by Nike and Bata,
among other products, he added.
        The CLC listed 60 Indonesian-made consumer products on its
Web site yesterday and will update it as new items are identified.
        The last time Canadian organized labour declared a hot-cargo
boycott was in the 1980s to keep the pressure on the racist
apartheid regime then governing South Africa.
        Kim Nossal, a political scientist at McMaster University in
Hamilton, Ont., said in an interview that the globalization of
manufacturing will make it difficult for consumers to identify goods
that have substantial Indonesian components.
        The boycott will not force Jakarta's military strongmen to start
behaving better, Prof. Nossal said.
        But Linda Freeman, a political scientist at Carleton University in
Ottawa, said the CLC hot-cargo ban should so embarrass Ottawa
that it will try to organize an international effort to keep the
pressure on the Indonesian authorities.



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