MoL persists in denying MWDWs their rights

Once again, An Nahar daily lacks objectivity by choosing to side with the Labor Minister Sajaan Azzi (and with them, the unfortunate position of the General Trade Union) in its objection to establishing a union for migrant women domestic workers (MWDW). The newspaper published an article last Saturday, in fact the second in a short interval, in which the ministry accused civil society organizations defending the rights of migrant domestic workers of opportunism and using this issue to justify their funding from international organizations (refer to the previous link entitled: Is a trade union for migrant domestic workers really a threat? CGTL sides with the government!). An Nahar went on to wonder: “Why do migrant domestic workers keep renewing their contracts if work conditions were not that convenient?” Instead of acknowledging the rights of workers in assembling and organizing similarly to the recruiting agencies which exploits them, the Labor Ministry throws the responsibility on sending countries and their recruiting agencies. And while the Ministry persists in refusing to legalize such a trade union based on the fact that migrant workers in other countries do not boast that right, the president of the National Federation of Trade Unions, Castro Abdallah, confirmed that the proposed union would be the first of its kind in the Arab world but not the first in the world. He then cited the very active International Union of Workers in Domestic Service, which recently held its international conference in Uruguay. In a disturbing move, the Lebanese General Trade Union sent a rather disparaging message to Sajaan Azzi through Ali Mohyddeen, member of its executive council, in which he expressed his “surprise” towards the decision by the International Labor Organization to provide 400 thousand dollars to fund actions in favor of foreign workers. Mohyddeen called upon Azzi to query the ILO on the reasons for and modalities of disbursing such a huge amount to facilitate the organization of protests and activities in favor of “domestic maids”. It is worth mentioning here, the close institutional and strategic relationship which ties the ILO and the General Trade Union. In fact the latter organization was never on the record for refusing donations from the ILO.