Ahead of ILO’s meeting, activists renew push to sever ties with tobacco companies

Tobacco control proponents renewed their push for the United Nations organization to sever all connections with tobacco companies before the International Labor Organization (ILO) technical meeting in Kampala, Uganda.

The ILO meeting will take place from 3 to 5 July to exchange opinions on the creation and execution of an integrated plan to tackle reasonable tobacco job deficits.

It is anticipated that the meeting will propose approaches to encourage an enabling policy situation for decent work in tobacco-growing nations ; reinforce social dialog ; and help tobacco-growing communities to tackle problems such as child labor and transition to alternative livelihoods.

“The importance of this Kampala meeting cannot be stressed enough as its recommendations will seriously impact the ultimate decision of the ILO to permanently cut ties with the tobacco industry,” Deowan Mohee, Executive Secretary of the African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The latter, known for consistently defending its own interests and not decent work and health conditions of tobacco farmers, will no doubt attempt by all means to influence in its favour the decisions of the Kampala meeting.”

The ILO is the only known UN agency that has long been receiving funds from the tobacco industry for some of its projects, the latest being a public-private partnership with Japan Tobacco International and the tobacco-funded non-profit Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing (ECLT) Foundation. These funds aimed at ending child labour and promoting workers’ rights in tobacco-growing communities in Brazil, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

While the financing from ECLT, a tobacco industry front group, finished in June 2018 ; six months later, the collaboration with Japan Tobacco International ended.

But proponents and organizations on tobacco control had constantly looked at the proximity of the ILO to the tobacco industry. Nearly 200 organizations of public health and labor rights organizations put pressure on the ILO in 2017 to expel tobacco companies from membership.

Calls for full links to the tobacco industry increased ahead of the ILO Governing Body’s 332nd meeting in Geneva.

The body mistakenly released a declaration at the ILO Governing Board’s 331st meeting in 2017 that it would stop taking money from the tobacco industry and end its public-private partnerships.

A few hours later, the agency “corrected” its statement saying the “ILO has not at this stage made a decision to end cooperation with the tobacco industry.”

Francis Thompson, Executive Director of the Framework Convention Alliance, said that tobacco companies are strong multinational corporations that use partnerships with reputable organizations such as the ILO to promote themselves as part of the solution to a issue they knowingly created.

“Corporate social responsibility partnerships are vehicles through which the tobacco industry gains credibility and co-opts governments as lobbyists for its interests,” Mr Thompson told ATCA ahead of the ILO’s technical meeting.

“To counter the negative press it receives, the industry invests relatively small amounts in corporate social responsibility activities. The returns in terms of public relations and goodwill are extensive.

“The end result is that shareholders and the public remain none the wiser about the true human cost of the activities of tobacco companies, while the tobacco industry continues to influence international law-making and boost its public image.”

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco use kills more than eight million people every year. Over seven million of these fatalities lead from direct tobacco use, while about 1.2 million are due to exposure to second-hand smoke by non-smokers.

Although it is a technical meeting, it is anticipated that the ILO conference in Kampala will have a critical effect on the choice of the Governing Board on the connection between the organization and the tobacco industry.

Mr Thompson said the tobacco industry itself is the cause of the issues.

“To address this root cause, the ILO needs to develop a comprehensive strategy, free from the constraints of corporate social responsibility partnerships.

“The problems in the tobacco sector include poor working and bargaining conditions that force farmers into financial hardships that ultimately turns them to child labour.”

Although global estimates are not available, ILO research across countries show that child labour is widespread in the tobacco sector. Children of both sexes are involved in stringing, reaping, weeding, ridging, grading, watering nurseries, transplanting, applying fertilisers, and harvesting. Weeding accounts for more than half of the labour required and is done predominantly by women and children.

Children are also engaged in such hazardous work as the application of pesticides, carrying heavy loads, and night work.

Tobacco control advocates say the ILO’s technical meeting presents it an opportunity to seek strategies international organisations and governments can collaborate to end poverty without engaging with the tobacco industry.

“It is our wish that the meeting comes up with appropriate strategies the ILO can undertake to operate without tobacco industry funding,” said Mr Mohee.

“In that way, participants of the meeting would have created the legacy of being part of the process that led to the ILO cutting ties permanently with the tobacco industry.”

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