 Saher Sa'ed, the Secretary General of PGFTU. |
 Israel’s “security wall” closes off West Bank. Israel has over 600 checkpoints that monitor the movement of people within and outside the occupied area. |
 Access to the cubicle office of PGFTU in Jerusalem runs through a shop. Area manager Manawel Abdelall (in blue shirt) is a friend to the shopkeeper. |
Hilkka Jukarainen
Translated by Linus Atarah
Israel’s brutal occupation, poverty, unemployment and extremist movements damage the activity of Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions PGFTU.
The over sixty year-year long conflict in the Middle East has been damaging to the Palestinian trade union movement.
Since Israel occupied the west side of the River Jordan, i.e., the so-called West Bank, Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) has operated in extreme difficult conditions.
When in the 1990s the West Bank and the small coastal strip of Gaza – the area is only about 400 square kilometres – was made into Palestinian homeland, Israel has been able to exercise unlimited control of the area’s life.
The area of Gaza has been isolated from the rest of the world. Nearly two million people live in the area in the midst of a humanitarian and economic crises.
Israel’s so-called “security wall” is suffocating the West Bank. With its help the occupier is able to control the movement of people in and out of the area. According to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) 2008 report there are about 600 check points at the border and within the West Bank.
In addition to physical and geographical obstacle, a troubling problem for the PGFTU is the extreme poverty of the occupied Palestinian area and the consequent humanitarian problems. According to international organisations, about half of the four million inhabitants of the Israeli occupied areas of Palestine are surviving with the help of external food aid. The situation in Gaza is the most difficult of all: there, 80 per cent of the inhabitants need food aid. Unemployment is at least 60 per cent of the work force.
The decades of continuous conflict in the Middle East has had its adverse reflection on the PGFTU interest protection capacity. It has no resources – neither the required political power – to struggle against extreme poverty, Israeli occupation and fundamentalist groups.
But also its organisational operations suffer from a splinter of the movement: congresses have been forced to take place over the internet because people could not attend meetings from the Gaza area.
Union and training activities have been run sporadically as the situation allows.
The Secretary-General of PGFTU, Saher Sae’d wishes that in daily news reports of political events on the Middle East conflict, consideration would also be taken into account of its impact on civilians.
“When the Israeli government announced in March that it was constructing 1600 homes in East Jerusalem it meant at the same time the forced evacuation of Palestinian families to somewhere else. With that policy Israel is worsening the cycle of poverty and conflict.
In an email interview Sae’d says that a new problem is the emergence of employment agencies in the area’s labour market.
“These firms import workers from abroad, mainly Asia and pay very bad wages. Palestinians considered not trustful are several times replaced with foreign workers. They are paid lower than the agreed wages which further undermines the position of the trade union movement.
Labour movement since the 1920s
The history of PGFTU is part of the collective heaven of Israel and the Palestinian homeland. The West Bank belonged to Jordan before Israel’s war with its neighbours in the Six Days War in 1967. The trade union movement was a natural part of the Jordanian trade union organisation at that time.
When Israel occupied the West Bank workers began to call their organisation West Bank Workers.
According to Manawel Abdelall, member of the board of governors of PGFTU in charge of the Jerusalem district there has been a labour movement in Palestine since the 1920s.
“I would say that our trade union, compared to the central organisations of the Arab countries is the second or third oldest. The Egyptian trade union movement is the oldest”.
Individual membership in the Palestinian organisation is now about 250 000 which according to the estimates of Abdelall, constitutes about 33 per cent of the workforce. Member organisations are 14, the most influential being the construction workers union and the public sector workers union.
Membership of PGFTU is in decline because paying membership dues creates a lot of difficulties for people living in extreme poverty.
“Annual payment of ten US dollars, about 7,5 euros is very expensive if the monthly pay is 75 euros. In spite of our efforts we have not been able to get through a minimum wage agreement and salaries are paid arbitrarily”, says Abdelall.
Trade unions cautious of Jerusalem
He dare not estimate the average wage of Palestinians because PGFTU cannot comprehensively compile statistics of all salaries. The illegal market also distorts the calculations.
“In my guess monthly average salary is about 400 dollars, i.e. 300 euros, Abdelall estimates.
Even though wages in Jerusalem are a little better they hardly have any purchasing power either.
“In Jerusalem it is very expensive compared to for instance, prices in the West Bank. For instance if falafel, i.e., fried vegetable rolls cost two dollars here, in Ramallah in the West Bank they cost only one dollar and in the north part of West Bank in Jenin half a dollar”, he compares.
In Jerusalem and its surroundings membership of PGFTU is estimated at 25 000-30 000.
Abdelall is sad that no foreign assistance has been obtained for the area.
“It has gone elsewhere: The LO of Norway for instance, supports our headquarters in Nablus and the Danish LO supports our operations in Jenin. The status of Jerusalem is so controversial. Many fear that they will be taking a political position if they support us”.
Abdelall however praises the Norwegian LO for its great support. It has among other things, promised to fund the next congress of PGFTU if it succeeds in holding its meeting such that representatives of Gaza can also attend. The congress is planned to be held this year.
Co-operation with Israel
The Israeli legendary trade union organisation Histadrut was established in 1920. Its wide-ranging social service areas included nearly all inhabitants already before the formation of the Jewish state in 1948. Currently Histadrut has a membership of about 700 000 which is about a quarter of the labour force.
Histadrut and PGFTU both belong to the world trade union organisation ITUC.
In spite of the difficulties they have been able to engage in some kind of co-operation. The major cause is probably PGFTU’s political background. The union is in the hands of Fatah which is more moderate than Hamas, and other groupings which belong to the former Palestinian liberation Organisation (PLO).
Hamas which controls Gaza has caused extra problems for PGFTU among others by seizing its office space for Hamas’ use.
Histadrut and PGFTU have been able to establish constructive co-operation within the framework of ITUC.
About 63 000 Palestinians which is about 10 per cent of Palestinian labour force work regularly in the Israeli side of the border.
Traditionally Israel has paid back their trade union dues to PGFTU. At the height of the conflict in the 1990s and 2000 Histadrut refused to pay back membership dues to the Palestinian organisation for fear that the money might fall into the hands of Hamas.
ITUC’s Secretary-General Guy Ryder succeeded in brokering an agreement in 2008 between the organisations according to which Histadrut returns at least half of the accumulated trade union dues including arrears from 1995.
The President of Histadrut Ofer Eini and Secretary-General of PGFTU Saher Sa’ed meet regularly in the framework of ITUC. Personal acquaintance has also been fruitful to other organisation co-operation, among others in the area of training.
