AFL-CIO : Burma Sanctions

[cd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dear Robert and Labr Prty Conference readers,
> 
The following may interest your group. The giant French oil and gas
company TOTAL is operating partner of the billion dollar gas pipeline.
Unocal is making new contracts in Burma, Texaco, Arco and others are in.

If any of you have info on any of these companies, 
> >Thank  you
> >Dawn Star
> >Euro-Burmanet -Paris
> >http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/


AFL-CIO: NEWS RELEASE-CALL FOR SANCTIONS
February 19, 1997
Posted to the Web by Free Burma: No Petro-dollars for SLORC
In the US contact: Pamela Wellner <pwellner@xxxxxxx>

OCAW    AFL-CIO
Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Int'l Union, AFL-CIO  News Release

For Immediate Release                                   contact Joe
Drexler
or Rod Roger
February 19, 1997
303- 987-2229


AFL-CIO LEADERSHIP CALL FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF SANCTIONS AGAINST BURMA'S
MILITARY REGIME

President of Energy Workers' Union Introduces Resolution

The Executive Council of the 13.9 million member AFL-CIO today passed a
resolution introduced by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers
International
Union (OCAW) condemning the current military government in Burma and
urging
"the Clinton Administration to implement economic sanctions without
further
delay in accordance with the law."

"We hope that we have stuck another nail in the military's regime's
coffin
with this resolution which expresses the leadership sentiment
representing
millions of U.S. workers," said Robert Wages, OCAW President, who
sponsored
the resolution. "Maybe now the Clinton Administration will do what
Congress
intended it to do and quite making excuses for refusing to impose these
sanctions," he added.

Wages commented further that continued and increasing repression in
Burma
provides clear evidence that the conditions granted by Congress to the
President to impose sanctions have been met.

The resolution also call on U.S. corporations to withdraw their
investment
in Burma and encourages unions to mobilize members to pressure the
Clinton
administration and Congress to take whatever steps necessary to restore
democracy and civilian rule in Burma.

In addition, the resolution encourages unions to support selective
purchasing legislation barring the expenditure of public funds with
companies which do business in Burma. Selective purchasing laws have
been
passed in nine cities, one country and one state.

Unocal, Arco and Texaco are singled out in the resolution for special
scorn
by the labor body for "providing it the (military regime) with large
amounts
of desperately needed hard currency" at the same time oil companies are
engaged "in severe downsizing and cost-cutting which has compromised
worker
and community safety and is resulting in significant loss of high-skill,
high-wage jobs in the United States."

Also receiving special attention is the production and sale of heroin,
which
is attributed to being the military regime's largest source of capital
beyond that provided by the oil companies, and widespread use of forced
labor.

We're soon going to find out whose side the Clinton Administration is
really on--the oil companies and drug dealers or the workers." said
Wages.

According to Wages, OCAW is planning a "Three Days for Burma" campaign
to
take place sometime in the Spring in which the 90,000 member union will
be
fully mobilized throughout the country to enlist union members to exert
pressure on the Clinton Administration and Congress to take whatever
steps
are necessary to restore democracy and civilian rule in Burma.

----------------------------

AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE COUNCIL STATEMENT
Burma

        When the omnibus appropriations bill was signed into law last
September by President Clinton , a clear line was drawn defining a new
course for U.S. policy toward Burma. Sanctions will be invoked if
conditions
in Burma deteriorate and the military regime which goes by the acronym
SLORC
(State Law and Order Restoration Council) has "physically harmed,
rearessted
for political acts, or exiled Aung San Suu Kyi or has committed
large-scale
repression of violence against the democratic opposition."

        Since the bill was signed into law, the situation has gone from
bad
to worse. Hundreds of opposition leader and activists have been arrested
and
Aung San Suu Kyi remains virtually imprisoned in her own home and
subjected
to increasingly severe forms of harassment. Freedom of association is
absolutely denied. There are no independent unions in Burma, and all
attempts to organize them are brutally suppressed. Only within the past
three weeks, SLORC has mounted a new military offensive against the
Karen,
one of Burma's ethnic minorities, resulting in thousands of new
refugees.
Refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border  have been attacked and
burned.

        Furthermore, if anything, the widespread and systematic use of
forced labor by the SLORC to rebuild the country's decrepit
infrastructure
has increased during the past year as SLORC has promoted tourism in a
desperate attempt to attract hard currency. The International
Confederation
of Free Trade Unions has estimated that 800,000 men, women and children
have
been utilized as forced laborers, many in connection with the
construction
of an overland gas pipeline by SLORC which is in joint venture with
Unocal
and its French partner Total.

        So great have been the abuses that SLORC has been singled out by
the
International Labor Organization, the UN Commission on Human Rights, the
European Union, and the US Congress as one of the world's most notorious
human rights violators. The growing international consensus to isolate
Burma
has led to the withdrawal of European companies such as Heineken and
Carlsberg. Earlier, under pressure from campus and consumer activists,
such
U.S. companies as Levi Strauss, Eddie Bauer and Liz Claiborne pulled out
all
production out of Burma. Recently, PepsiCo announced that is is severing
all
commercial ties to Burma.

        Recognizing that foreign investment contributes directly to the
strengthening of the military regime and the continued repression of
civilians, Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly called on international
business
to suspend investment until the country is democratic. U.S. corporations
that continue to do business in Burma cannot deny their complicity in
keeping the regime in power. This is especially true for U.S. based oil
companies which stubbornly continue to prop up the military regime by
providing it with large amounts of desperately needed hard currency. In
addition to Unocal, ARCO and Texaco are engaged in exploration that may
provide SLORC with significant additional capital. This is occurring at
the
same time that oil companies are engaged in severe downsizing and
cost-cutting which has compromised worker and community safety and is
resulting in a significant loss of high-skill, high-wage jobs in the
United
States.

        Beyond revenues provided by major oil companies, the production
and
sale of heroin is SLORC's largest source of capital. Under SLORC, Burma
has
become the largest source supplier of heroin in the world and 60 percent
of
the heroin seized in the United States comes from Burma. There is a
growing
body of evidence that the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, Unocal's
partner
in Burma is serving as a front for drug money laundering.

        The AFL-CIO urges the Clinton Administration to implement
economic
sanctions without further delay in accordance with the law. We call on
all
U.S. corporations still doing business in Burma, to withdraw all
investment,
licenses, franchises, contracts, goods and services. We encourage our
unions
to actively support selective purchasing legislation at the local, state
and
federal levels which bans contracts or the expenditure of public funds
with
companies that do business in Burma. And finally, we encourage our
unions to
mobilize members to exert the necessary political pressure on the
Clinton
Administration and Congress to take whatever steps necessary to restore
democracy and civilian rule in Burma.