A world of difference

A contribution to the Millennium Development Goals

Bargaining for International Development

a Prospect project funded by DFID Development Awareness Fund

November 2011
Published by Prospect
ISBN 978-0-9564399-4-9
Photos: John Birdsall, British Geological Survey, Stefano Cagnoni,
Jonathan Eeles, Oxfam, War on Want
Design: editionperiodicals.co.uk
Printed by College Hill Press on recycled paper

2 Bargaining for International Development

A world of difference
Bargaining for
International Development
a Prospect project

Bargaining for International Development 3

CONTENTS

FOREWORD Paul Noon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CASE STUDIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Lee Parris, EDF Energy Powerlink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

TRADE UNIONS AND DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . 7

EFRA branch: Corporate finance for international development 17

How Prospect got involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

THE BARGAINING FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

PROJECT 2008-11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
HEADLINE RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
DIMENSIONS OF CHANGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
WHAT HAS CHANGED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

THE SHARED AGENDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Poverty and occupational health and safety statistics . . . . . 11
Poverty and lack of occupational health . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Poverty occupational health and child labour . . . . . . . . 12
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND EQUALITIES . . . . . . . 12
Poverty and discrimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Poverty and disability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Poverty and indigenous peoples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Clive Davey, Scottish Agricultural College . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

EFRA branch: Opening doors for the international agenda . . . 18
Clare Mumford and Martin Banham, Natural England . . . . . 19
Martin Budd, Mark Chamber, Alan Barnham and
Leopold Ngoma,
Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency . . . . . . 19
Rebecca Korda, Beshlie Pool and Katie Hall,
Marine Management Organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Satnam Ner, Babcock International, Marine Division . . . . . . 22
Stephanie Lambeth, Big Lottery Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Clare Hawkes and Gaynor Guthrie,
Health and Safety Executive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Forensic Science Service branch activity . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Prison Service branch activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Roger Key, British Geological Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Gary Biggin, Wales Audit Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Gerald J. La Touche, Advantage West Midlands Regional
Development Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Poverty and women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

GRASSROOTS PROJECTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Poverty and climate change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Say it with flowers:

War on Want and Cactus Colombian flower workers . . . . . 28

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT . . . 13

Putting the social back into sustainable development . . . . 13

Oxfam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Climate change and employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Freedom from slavery:

Anti Slavery International field trip to brick kilns in rural India . 29

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND DECENT WORK . . . . . 14

Climate adaptation and skills capacity building with

Kenya Electrical Trades and Allied Workers Union . . . . . . 30

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND UNION LEARNING . . . . 14

Migrant labour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Prospect guidance for reps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4 Bargaining for International Development

FOREWORD
union for professionals

Whether
you work in the
private or public sector,
theres a lot you can do to
help to make your employer
and colleagues more ethically
and socially responsible. See
www.prospect.org.uk/
international

international development: make it start in your workplace

to get involved email beverley.hall@prospect.org.uk

Posters and leaflets were produced to support the

campaign and encourage members to get involved
CSR_A4_poster.indd 1

9/5/08 11:56:26

by Paul Noon, Prospect General Secretary

Prospect exists first and foremost as a trade union
to protect the individual and collective interests
of members at work and in retirement. This is the
main focus of our work, to recruit and organise
professionals, managers and specialists across
all sectors of the economy and to engage with
employers to represent their interests.
But we know that we do not exist in isolation
from the wider world. We have long been active
participants in the relevant global union federations
and we have strong bilateral relations with unions
representing the same sort of members as Prospect
in Europe and morewidely.
In recent years, however, we have added to this a
strong commitment to international development
work and this has been helped by funding from
UKAid.
The results are set out in this booklet, which
describes an impressive and effective record of work
with members, representatives and branches. We
have effectively tapped into their expertise to fight
poverty and discrimination, improve or introduce
occupational health and safety standards, and to
protect trade union and human rights.
My thanks go to everyone involved, both in
Prospect and also our partners in the UK and abroad,
for your enthusiasm, dedication and commitment. It
really has made a world of difference!

Bargaining for International Development 5

The UNs
Millennium
Development
Goals
66 Eradicate
extreme poverty
and hunger
66 Achieve
universal primary
education
66 Promote
gender equality
and empower
women
66 Reduce child
mortality
66 Improve
maternal health
66 Combat HIV/
AIDS, malaria and
other diseases
66 Ensure
environmental
sustainability

INTRODUCTION
Prospects international work has evolved over
many years through relationships with the Trades
Union Congress, non-governmental organisations
and global union federations. These have provided
a solid foundation for developing the international
agenda as a core body of work within the union.
The professional knowledge of the unions diverse
membership, coupled with their commitment
to contributing to local and global society, has
underpinned the growth and themes of this agenda.
International development means different
things to different people. Prospects Bargaining for
International Development project, funded by the
Department for International Developments UK
Aid Development Awareness Fund, has provided
the means to harness member aspirations to make
the world a better place by engaging with business
practices and charitable work.
General secretary Paul Noon has said: This
work is core to our union because it springs from
the values of fairness and equality that underpin
everything we do. I am proud that Prospect
members choose to contribute to civic society in this
way.

Without compromising the unions belief in

the role of employment as a key strategy to fight
poverty, Prospects approach has been a mix of
humanitarian and disaster relief, community
development, human rights solidarity, climate
change adaptation initiatives and trade union
capacity building.
Central has been the drive by reps and members
to encourage their organisations to link the eight
millennium development goals to business practices.
The goals were agreed at the United Nations
Summit in New York in 2000. The Millennium
Declaration promised to free all men, women,
and children from the abject and dehumanising
conditions of extreme poverty. It was adopted by 189
nations and signed by 147 heads of state, and sets out
the commitments, goals, values and principles needed
to achieve freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance,
respect for nature and shared responsibility.
Countries and development institutions have
signed up to achieve the goals by a target deadline of
2015. They are not based on any ideology, political
persuasion, religion or culture but reflect the
problems in the world that need to be addressed.

66 Develop
a global
partnership for
development

Prospect development advocates

with full-time staff at the unions
international development
seminar, Advocating positive
change, in March 2009
6 Bargaining for International Development

TRADE UNIONS AND DEVELOPMENT

co-ordinated the Make Poverty History campaign.
Then it opened up various streams of funding,
some of which Prospect received from 2006. This
supported Prospects successful bid for Department
for International Development funding, enabling the
union to embark on the three-year Bargaining for
International Developmentproject.
Prospect has been privileged to support trade
unionists from developing countries studying at
Ruskin College. It has hosted activists from Ghana,
Thailand, Kenya, Guatemala, Colombia, South
Africa, Zambia, Swaziland, Mauritius, Bangladesh
and the Caribbean.

Funding received by Prospect

BID project

FUNDING

The trade union movement is built on the vision

and principles of social justice and eradicating gross
inequalities, and international development work
is a key part of this. Union members are employees,
investors, consumers and stakeholders in their
communities and social networks.
With technology and ease of modern
communication, the global village is shrinking,
with greater evidence of global interconnectedness,
from our supermarket shelves to the reach of
organisations in both operations and supply chains.
The world of work is the global common
denominator for international development for
Prospect. Unions have an
important part to play,
together with governments
100,0000
and NGOs, in helping to
achieve fairness and justice for
80,000
those who want to work their
60,000
way out of poverty.
Trade unions both in the
40,000
UK and the developing world
20,000
have organised networks and
core education programmes
0
2006
and are uniquely placed
TUC
to reach large numbers of
workers in all sectors of the
world to raise awareness of
global issues such as climate change, gender equality,
all forms of discrimination, and health issues such as
occupational diseases, HIV/Aids and malaria.

How Prospect got involved

Prospects formal involvement in the international

development agenda began when the TUC scaled up
its own work in this area, including offering financial
support to affiliated unions for their own project
work. The TUC had been conducting policy work and

KETAWU project

2007
TUC

2008
DFID

2009
DFID

2010
DFID

2011
DFID & TUC

YEAR

A separate TUC-DFID partnership fund enabled

Prospect to run a Kenya climate change and
adaptation project with a sister energy union, Kenya
Electrical and Allied Workers Union (KETAWU). The
project set out to build KETAWUs capacity to adapt
and grow to meet the impact of climate change in
the energy sector in East Africa (see page 29).
External funding has enabled Prospect to host
international visitors, conduct research, develop
pilot training and produce resources such as a

Day-to-day
international
work, allied
to the BID
project, has
evolved into
five key areas,
now grounded
in Prospect
conference
policy.
Theyare:
66 policy
development and
co-ordination
66 networking (advocacy
and lobbying)
66 training
and mentoring
66 branch
and workplace
engagement
66 campaign
initiatives
and project
development

Bargaining for International Development 7

Negotiators Guide to Corporate Social Responsibility

and Members Guide to the Millennium Development
Goals. Equally, funding has allowed Prospect to break
new ground as the only UK union to pilot specialist
workplace activists development advocates
who are empowered and enabled to engage with
employers on CSR, environmental and ethical
sustainability and procurement.
As this work evolved, support from the TUC has
ranged from formal training, enabling unions to
share learning, and one-to-one mentoring. The scope
of trade union international work is vast and often
demanding. It has been a challenge to keep pace with
the radical changes taking place globally over the
last few years. The TUC has helped guide Prospect
through the labyrinth of issues that this agenda
encompasses.
Alongside the BID project, Prospect has also:
66supported TUC Aid on disaster appeals
66sought solidarity for oppressed trade unionists
66been the labour voice at many events and
conferences
66met and hosted trade unionists from around
the globe
66met developing country politicians visiting
theUK
66developed the relationship with Oxfam.

Prospects Negotiators
Guide to Corporate Social
Responsibility calls for
workplaces to link the
millennium development
goals to business practices
8 Bargaining for International Development

THE BARGAINING FOR INTERNATIONAL

DEVELOPMENT PROJECT 20082011
The BID project was funded by DFIDs UK Aid
Development Awareness Fund. Its purpose was to
influence employers policies relating to corporate
social responsibility and procurement to include
development in operations in the developing world.
It aimed to integrate this with bargaining agendas,
so that Prospect branches and members could
identify and achieve their own practical outcomes.
It was in line with the DFID fund objectives to:
66build knowledge and understanding of
the major challenges and prospects for
development, in particular reducing poverty
66build understanding of global interdependence,
and awareness that failure to reduce poverty
levels has serious consequences for all of us
66generate understanding of and support
for international efforts to reduce poverty
and promote development, including the
millennium development goals
66build understanding of the role that individuals
can play; enabling them to make informed
choices with the knowledge of how their actions
impact on the world around them.

HEADLINE RESULTS

(31 March, 2011)

6645 development advocates trained and 201
members signed up to Prospects international
network
6633 active development advocates in 23
workplaces
66speakers at 60 branch annual conferences and
other external events to address members
about the millennium development goals and

Prospectsinternational work
6612 branches involved at various stages
in initiatives such as supporting NGOs,
investigating projects in the developing world,
second-hand spectacle collection, ethical
sourcing of workwear etc
66seven branches engaged with CSR, procurement
and supply chain discussions with employers
66Kenya electricity workers project on climate
adaptation
66union comments submitted to three
consultations on the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development
guidelines for multinationals; human rights at
work; and the all-party parliamentary group
enquiry on agriculture and food development
66six resolutions at Prospects 2010 biennial
delegate conference
66seven resolutions at 2011 sector conferences
66motions to the TUC womens conferences in
2009 and 2010.

91% of
development
advocates felt
that the project
gave them a
voice in their
employers
CSR reporting
processes

DIMENSIONS OF CHANGE

Throughout the three-year project Prospect kept

track of the targets and expected outcomes by selfmonitoring and evaluation, with external input, and
official reports, via the democratic process, to the
unions national executive committee. It became
evident early on that the impact of the work was
wider than envisaged.
Retrospectively, three dimensions were identified
as the drivers behind the change the project sought
to bring about.
Those involved with the project confirmed in
Bargaining for International Development 9

Dimensions of change
66 Enabling a framework for formal engagement
through the democratic trade union process to enable
members to access opportunities to contribute to the
development agenda and the MDGs

Prospect
international
development
officer
Beverley Hall,
who led the
BID project
for the union

66 Perceptions Bring about positive change in perceptions to both Prospect staff and members
66 Behavioural change to both corporate and individual behaviour concerning contribution to global
povertyreduction.

a survey at the end that the international agenda

has brought about change in varying degrees, on a
collective and individual level.

WHAT HAS CHANGED?

There were 67 responses to the survey, 46 from

members and 21 from staff. The ratio of public
to private sector was three to one, with a similar
breakdown for development advocates.
The BID project successfully encouraged
respondents into a range of activities. The most
popular in ascending order were:
66signed a petition 83%
66informally discussed development issues (i.e.
child labour etc) with family, friends and work
colleagues (76%)
66formally discussed the millennium
development goals, international briefings etc
with respondents branch (69%)
66contributed to emergency relief appeals
(65.5%)
66discussed BID issues with their employer (52%)
or initiated an activity in the workplace (52%).
Respondents who are not currently development
10 Bargaining for International Development

advocates reported activity, indicating the potential

for the development advocate network to grow.
The project has increased awareness of the
importance of global interdependence and active
engagement among 45% of Prospect members,
42% of respondents social networks, 39% of
Prospect branch committees and 37.5% of family
and friends. But even where there was no active
engagement, understanding has increased for
55% of respondents work colleagues. Only a few
respondents found that there had been no evident
change among all these groups, with just two
development advocates identifying no change with
Prospect members or their branch committee.
Respondents views of the Bargaining for
International Development projects achievements
were positive:
6668% felt the project had raised awareness
6677% felt training and briefing materials enabled
respondents to engage with employers and
colleagues
6667% felt that there was branch engagement
6670% felt empowered to support initiatives
6686% felt the project demonstrated that trade
unions have a role to play in contributing to
international development.

THE SHARED AGENDA

Recognising a shared agenda is the key outcome
and area of learning for long-term sustainability
of the BID project throughout the three years it
showed how the international agenda cuts across all
aspects of trade union activity and traditional roles.
It became clear that traditional roles have an
international dimension and that established roles
within employer negotiating structures can contribute
to reducing global poverty. Winning arguments with
employers and union-led targeted interventions
particularly in organisations corporate social
responsibility and procurement practices can impact
on the lives of people in the developingworld.
Health and safety reps, environment reps,
equality and diversity reps and union learning reps
can support the international agenda by engaging
with employers to establish whether the standards
we expect in our workplaces here in the UK are
applied to suppliers, contractors and operations
along the supply chains both locally and in the
developingworld.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Health and safety is rarely mentioned in the same

breath as international development, but OHS is
increasingly recognised as a basic requirement to all
forms of work and underpins decent wealth creation
and human development.
Occupational injury or the death of a key waged
household member is likely to plunge a family into
deep poverty.
Poor health and safety is bad for workers,
employers and governments. Global poverty and
inadequate OHS are interrelated and unions are
clear that global poverty and inadequate OHS are
interrelated and unions are well placed to make a
contribution to poverty reduction.

Poverty and health and safety statistics

Each day an average of 6,000 people die as a result
of work-related accidents or diseases, totalling
more than 2.2 million work-related deaths a year.
Of these, about 350,000 deaths are from workplace
accidents and more than 1.7 million are from
work-related diseases. In addition, commuting
accidents increase the burden with another 158,000
fatalaccidents.
Each year workers fall victim to some 160
million incidences of work-related disease.
Hazardous substances kill about 438,000 workers
annually, and 10% of all skin cancers are estimated
to be attributable to workplace exposure to
hazardoussubstances.
Younger workers are more at risk from serious
non-fatal accidents than their older colleagues,
due to general lack of work experience and
understanding of workplace hazards, as well as a
lack of safety and health training and general lack of
physical and emotional maturity.

There are more

than 2.2 million
work-related
deaths a year.
Of these,
about 350,000
deaths are
from workplace
accidents and
more than 1.7
million from
workplace
diseases

Poverty and lack of occupational health

According to the International Labour Organisation,
twice as many people die because of their work as die
in a war and conflict.
Four per cent of global gross domestic product is
lost as a result of work-related accidents and disease
equivalent to 20 times the value of all public
assistance provided to the developing world. The
link between poverty and inadequate OHS is clear.
Employment and social benefits such as sick pay,
pensions and basic health care in many developing
countries are nonexistent.
In others they are inadequate, difficult to
access or barely affordable, adding to family and
community poverty.
Bargaining for International Development 11

66 A child who is forced to work misses out on

primaryeducation.

the worlds poorest people are somehow united

by their shared poverty and sense of exploitation,
or that it is less consequential compared to their
otherproblems.

66 A child who is educated is more able to escape

frompoverty.

Poverty and discrimination

Poverty occupational health and child labour

66 A child who dies or is maimed or ill does not become

economically productive.
The International Labour Organisation estimates
that there are 215 million child labourers in the
world today. Of these, 115 million are engaged in
hazardous work.
About 53 per cent of children (68 million)
engaged in hazardous work are in agriculture, most
of them in developing countries.
Pesticides are among the most severe hazards
children and adults are exposed to in agriculture. It
is easy to see why mitigating risks, promoting safer
and healthier workplaces, safer technology and
progressively reducing pesticide use will improve
decent work for adults and the wellbeing of children.
Studies from both industrialised and
developing countries indicate that every minute
of every day, a child labourer somewhere in the
world suffers a work-related accident, illness or
psychologicaltrauma.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
AND EQUALITIES

Discrimination is a barrier to decent work for all, and

there is a crucial link between poverty eradication,
employment and equality.
Trade unions have been instrumental in the
gains made in developing countries to eradicate
discrimination on the grounds of gender,
race, disability, religion, marital status and
sexualorientation.
It may be tempting to think that discrimination
is not a problem in developing countries that
12 Bargaining for International Development

The International Labour Organisation says:

Discrimination in employment and occupation
means treating people differently and less
favourably because of characteristics that are not
related to their merit or the requirements of the
job. These characteristics include race, colour, sex,
religion, political opinion, national extraction and
socialorigin.
Other kinds of discrimination that the ILO
and its constituents are concerned with include
age, disability, HIV/AIDS, religion and sexual
orientation. Anti-union discrimination is also
persistent and widespread. The elimination of
discrimination is a key aim, contained in the ILO
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights
at Work.

Poverty and disability

Disability is both a cause of and a consequence of
poverty. Seventy-five per cent of the worlds disabled
people live in developing countries and they are the
poorest of the poor, with extremely limited access to
education and employment.
Fifty per cent of disability in developing countries
is either preventable or treatable, and it is estimated
that only 2% of disabled people in developing
countries have access to basic services.

Poverty and indigenous peoples

There are 370 million indigenous peoples in the
world, made up of 5,000 distinct peoples in over
70 countries. They represent 5% of the worlds
population but 15% of the worlds poor.
Indigenous peoples experience extreme
discrimination in terms of accessing employment

FUNDED BY

union for professionals

and access to or use of ancestral lands and

naturalresources.

rising sea levels, yet they are the

least equipped to deal with them.

Poverty and women

Poverty and climate change

For many development practitioners, eliminating

discrimination against women and empowering
them is considered a pillar to development. A cluster
of millennium development goals relates to the
wellbeing of women and children.
These include removing gender discrimination,
improving maternal health, ensuring universal
access to primary education, and reducing child
mortality.

Climate change is already affecting

the worlds poorest countries
from increased frequency and
severity of flooding in Bangladesh
to changing rainfall patterns
across Africa, bringing drought
Bargaining for
and crop failures to countries like
Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and
Sudan.
As well as being hit first, the
poorest are also hit hardest because they are less
equipped to cope with the effects of climate change.
People living in developing countries often
depend heavily on their natural environment,
and will be disproportionately hit by the effects of
climate change.
A two-degree increase in temperature
wouldmean:
66increased weather variability, more frequent
and intense extreme events, and greater
exposure to coastal storm surges, leading
to a much higher risk of catastrophic and
irreversible devastation
66between 100-400 million more people could be
at risk of hunger
661-2 billion more people would face water
shortages
66a permanent 4-5% of gross domestic product
would be lost in Africa and South Asia
66rising temperatures will lengthen the
transmission seasons of vector-borne diseases
such as malaria.

66Women make up 70% of the worlds poor.

66Violence against women accounts for more
death and disability than cancer, malaria,
traffic injuries and war put together.
66Women spend shorter hours in paid work than
men, but more hours in overall work than men.
Womens paid employment is concentrated
in the highly unregulated anything goes
informal economy and they will typically earn
17% less than men for like work.
66Women face considerable discrimination in
terms of accessing land, jobs, credit and capital.
66Maternal mortality is the least-improved
MDG. In Sierra Leone, for instance, a woman
has a one in eight chance of dying during
pregnancy or childbirth, compared to a risk of
one in 8,000 in the industrialised world.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Environmental problems, including climate change,

and issues associated with global poverty are
described as a perfect storm. Developing countries
will bear three-quarters of the negative impact of
changing weather patterns, water shortages and

international
development
in your workplace

A leaflet
outlining the
aims of the
project for use
by reps within
Prospect

Putting the social back into sustainable development

Efforts to address environmental issues can only
succeed if the human agenda is made part of the
Bargaining for International Development 13

Prospect
members at
the Big Lottery
Fund listen to
a guest speaker
from Ghana
during a union
learning event

human displacement on a massive level, causing

major disruption to communities and employment.
Rising temperatures and variable precipitation
damages crops, leading to vulnerable food supplies,
hunger and high unemployment in the harvesting
and crop-processing sectors.
Workers and enterprises alike will find it difficult
to cope with migration, mortality, acute staff
turnover and the loss of qualified workers.
Work patterns, practices and types of
employment will begin to change as we adapt to
climate change through new technologies.
picture. All too often, the word sustainability is used
to focus only on environmental issues.
The original concept of sustainable development
embraced environmental concerns as well as social,
economic and political ones.
The UKs Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs states: Sustainable development is
about making sure that people throughout the world
can satisfy their basic needs now, while making sure
that future generations can also look forward to
the same quality of life. Sustainable development
recognises that the three pillars the economy,
society and the environment are interconnected.
There is little doubt that environmental concerns
now dominate many organisations understanding
and reporting of sustainability.
Some Prospect branches have piloted joint
working in their workplaces, with development
advocates, environmental reps and management
working together, not only to meet carbon reduction
targets but also to investigate ways of aligning
their work and procurement to the millennium
development goals. See case studies for the Marine
Management Organisation (page 20) and Animal
Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (page 19).

Climate change and employment

Over 50% of the worlds population lives within 60km
of the sea. Rising sea levels will therefore necessitate
14 Bargaining for International Development

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND

UNION LEARNING

Union learning reps are well placed to disseminate

information in workplaces and signpost specialist
members to donate their skills and knowledge to
non-governmental organisations and charities.
They can also arrange learning events that have
international themes. See the Big Lottery Fund case
study on page 22.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND

DECENT WORK

Around 1.4 billion people, including over 50% of the

population of sub-Saharan Africa, live on less than
$1.25 a day the World Banks measure of poverty.
The financial crisis has heightened awareness of
the working poor, with the International Labour
Organisation stating that in 2009, as many as 215
million workers were at risk of falling into poverty.
In 2008, 633 million workers and their families were
living on less than US $1.25 per day.
Being paid a fair wage with secure employment
is fundamental to human dignity. The creation of
decent jobs, with social protection and safe and
healthy working conditions, can be at the centre of
all the strategies for reducing poverty.
The concept of decent work was introduced and
promoted by the ILO in 1999 and encapsulates the

Quinton
Dlameni, a
Swaziland
trade unionist
and malaria
specialist,
at Prospect
headquarters
during a visit
to the UK
in 2008

principles of productive work for men and women in

conditions of freedom, equity, security and human
dignity. The agenda is based on four pillars
66Employment
66Rights
66Social protection
66Dialogue.

Migrant labour
It is also important to recognise the domestic agenda
on migrant labour. Money earned here in the UK is
often sent back home via international remittances,

which make up significant foreign currency flows

into the home country.
Depriving migrant labourers of a decent wage
and a safe environment in which to work has a
direct impact on families and communities in the
developing world.

Prospect guidance for reps

Prospect has produced a range of briefings for reps
which go into more practical detail about how they
can include their particular role in international
work. Please see the international area of the unions
website at www.prospect.org.uk/international
Bargaining for International Development 15

CASE STUDIES

Lee Parris EDF Energy Powerlink

KEY THEMES: Corporate accountability and
auditing, technical expertise to the KETAWU project
Lee Parris is a health and environment engineer
with Powerlink, which is responsible for managing,
operating and maintaining the electrical power
network for London Underground. Until 2010
it was part of EDF Energy, and Lee was a union
representative on the EDF Energy European
WorksCouncil.

Lee Parris
met doctors
caring for
displaced
people in
Laos

Lees passion for local social action grew to

incorporate a global dimension, with a particular
interest in CSR accountability and verification.
The training provided by the BID project allowed
Lee to help develop Prospects strategy on how
CSR policies and forums could be harnessed to
encourage organisations to view their operational and
philanthropic work and align it to the millennium
development goals.
Working with Prospect negotiator Azim Hajee,
the EDF European Works Council contributed to

16 Bargaining for International Development

Lee Parris
(right) in a
workshop at
a Prospect
seminar on CSR

a second and more robust level of accountability

through a new global agreement. As a result, Lee
was selected, in his trade union capacity, to conduct
a CSR verification audit on the Nam Theun2
hydropower dam in Laos, South East Asia, where
EDF is a principal contractor. While there he built a
relationship with a group of doctors responsible for
the health care of displaced indigenous people.
Lee has participated in discussions with the
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and
EGAT LU, the Thai energy trade union. He also
contributed to the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Developments consultation on
revised guidance for multinational corporations. He
has addressed a TUC fringe meeting on corporate
accountability and the millennium development
goals, and assisted with the Prospect project in
Kenya by sharing health and safety expertise with
visiting project partners.
EDF Energys former networks business and
the Powerlink business are now owned by UK
Power Networks, following the 2010 acquisition
by CKG, a global infrastructure company within
transportation, energy and water infrastructurerelated businesses.
Lee now hopes to participate in the sustainability
programme of the new company and its owners,
transferring his knowledge to encourage the new
owners down the CSR route.

Clive Davey Scottish Agricultural College

KEY THEMES: Corporate social responsibility,
contribution to the millennium development
goals and grassroots project
Clive Davey, branch secretary of SAC, became aware
of human rights abuses, and specifically trade union
persecution, when watching a DVD about the murder
of trade unionists in Guatemala. He was inspired to
raise this aspect of the other world at work at his
annual branch conference in January 2008.
Clive took part in the BID projects pilot training
programme, and has applied what he learnt to
several actions in his workplace.
The range of successes within SAC includes:
66implementing an ethical procurement policy for
the IT department
66all refreshment dispensing machines on SACs
three campuses are now Fairtrade
66contributing to the consultation on the colleges
new CSR policy, with an agreement stating that
Prospect is an official stakeholder in the CSR
process
66leading arguments against cutting funding for
crop research
66holding training for management and branch

members on CSR and procurement in relation

to the MDGs
66hosting a joint management and Prospect
event to celebrate SACs contribution to the
development agenda.
Clive and others also became involved in
supporting a grassroots project, signing a formal
memorandum of understanding with Bunda
College of Agriculture in Malawi. Clive initiated an
application to the Department for International
Development and the Economic and Social Research
Council growth programme for a project to enable
and support behavioural change towards sustainable
resource use.
The proposal has been developed to engage with
the millennium development goals. It seeks to
develop a partnership to strengthen education and
knowledge exchange related to key MDG themes,
particularly, though not exclusively, goal 1 (poverty
and hunger); goal 3 (promote gender equality
and empower women), goal 7 (environmental
sustainability) and goal 8 (global partnership).
Clive has now been joined by two further
development advocates at SAC Rachel Darling,
who has a keen interest in ethical tourism, and Alan
Young, a procurement practitioner.

Clive Davey

EFRA Corporate finance for international development

A consistent concern about the efficacy of corporate
finance particularly in relation to the government
procurement card service provider emerged across
all the agencies of the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs. Prospect EFRA branch
development advocates Martin Banham and Martin
Budd led research and campaigning on this issue.

An open letter, dated 11 February 2011, was sent

to Andrew Croston, integrated commercial strategy
programme director and head of procurement and
commercial services.
Members employed in core DEFRA and some
of its agencies signed the letter, including: Russell
Brown (DEFRA); Mark Chambers, Alan Barnham,
Bargaining for International Development 17

Martin Budd (Veterinary Laboratories Agency);

Amos Adalade (Rural Payments Agency); Rebecca
Korda, Beshlie Pool (Marine Management
Organisation); David James (Centre for
Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science);
Ged Kerrins, Helen Owens (Food and Environment
Research Agency); Catherine Donaldson, Leopold
Ngoma (Animal Health); Martin Banham, Rebecca
Kind (NaturalEngland).
As a result, meetings were held with procurement
and finance staff in the Food and Environment
Research Agency and core DEFRA, where
development advocates shared information on the
millennium development goals and how ethically
sourced finance arrangements can contribute to
poverty reduction and good human rights practices.
Following a successful resolution to Prospects
2011 civil service sector conference, advocacy will
continue on this and will be addressed in forums
within the Office of Government Commerce and the
Cabinet Office Efficiency and ReformGroup.
The letter stated: We believe that DEFRA should
be setting an example within government in working
towards the MDGs and that all of our business
processes should take this aim into account We
wish to formally request that all future procurement,
with specific reference to the current GPC service
contract in the first instance, reflects DEFRAs
ethical commitments to a just and sustainable world
with contribution to the MDGs through responsible,

Voting at the 2011 civil service sector conference

thus truly sustainable, procurement practices.
Showing the link to the MDGs it pointed out:
the amount of funds held offshore by individuals is
about $11.5 trillion with a resulting annual loss
of tax revenue on the income from these assets of
about $250bn. This is five times what the World
Bank estimated in 2002 was needed to address the
UN millennium development goal of halving world
poverty by 2015 We understand that some of
DEFRA agencies most significant contracts are their
Government Procurement Card contracts it is well
documented that some of our existing GPC suppliers
are world leaders in tax avoidance technically legal,
but contrary to the intention of UK tax laws and
depriving the least developed countries and the UK
of tax receipts.

EFRA Opening doors to the international agenda

Prospect
organiser
Sharon
Brown

Sharon Brown, Prospect organiser for the

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs branch, has
encouraged members to become involved in the
international agenda.
She arranged presentations on the millennium
development goals at committee meetings, all-staff
seminars and recruitment events, and organised

18 Bargaining for International Development

exhibitions and activities aimed at attracting young

members, many of whom are motivated by global
and environmental concerns. Traditional organising
practices, aligned with additional support from the
BID project, have attracted younger people to join
Prospect. Through mentoring and training they have
become active in their workplaces and committees.

Clare Mumford and Martin Banham Natural England

KEY THEMES: Contribution to the millennium
development goals via procurement and
support of a grassroots project

ethical and pro-poor purchasing practices

as well as practical ethical and pro-poor
purchasing choices that staff can make
66collaboratively designing a staff survey to
Prospect members Clare Mumford and Martin
test current knowledge of sustainability and
Banham of Natural England (pictured) became
poverty reduction. It gathered views on how
involved with the Bargaining for International
the organisational policies impact on individual
Development project from two different directions.
choices by staff using the government
Clare, a delivery leader at Natural England, is
procurement card. The survey was completed
an anthropologist who has worked in North and
by 861 Natural England staff and a report
Central America. Clare persuaded her branch (EFRA)
published on the work intranet. The key
to support a product-labelling campaign that would
findings indicated:
benefit Palestinian farmers and shine the spotlight
those who currently try to inject social/
on the companies involved in constructing the wall
humanitarian concerns into their purchasing
in the West Bank.
want to be able to do so more consistently
Martin, a land management adviser and
andintelligently
landscape specialist, previously campaigned
those who currently dont would like to
with student group Speak, which helped lobby
know where to start.
and achieve greater corporate responsibility
66Martin, in conjunction with
within the Companies Act 2006. Clare and
management, arranged training for
Martin have engaged with their union
40 Natural England and Environment
colleagues in Defra and with their procurement
Agency procurement staff on how to
managers.
harness their purchasing power to
Prospect
Achievements include:
make a global difference to their supply
development
66designing and distributing a poster about
chains.
advocate
responsible purchasing practices which
Martin
66arranging member meetings to share
highlighted the sustainable work Natural
Banham
best practice.
England is committed to. It emphasises

Martin Budd, Mark Chambers, Alan Barnham, Leopold Ngoma AHVLA

KEY THEME: Contribution to the millennium
development goals through corporate
responsibility and knowledge exchange
The Veterinary Laboratories Agencys mission
statement is To safeguard public and animalhealth,

protect the economy and enhance food security

through world-class veterinary research and
surveillance. Members believed that this provided
scope for corporate social responsibility at
international levels and for initiatives linking with

Martin
Budd,
AHVLA

Bargaining for International Development 19

the millennium development goals.

Several of VLAs existing activities apply social
responsibility principles, such as scientific tutorials
for schools; international research projects; and
more recently VLA Global, which covers various
activities with an international dimension.
Prospect reps have encouraged CSR for several
years, by promoting sustainable development and
social concern during Whitley Council meetings.
This has led to increased consideration of welfare
and environmental issues in decision-making, and
extended VLAs vision internationally of gearing
its work to global concerns and contribution to
theMDGs.
The BID project equipped the development
advocates to make informed recommendations to
the directorate on CSR. Awareness-raising on these
issues has been received positively. A working group
was formed with VLA management to take things
forward.
The achievements of the CSR working group, and
work in progress, include:
66a CSR web page that highlights local charity

endeavours, sustainable development and

informatively demonstrates the importance of
CSR and the MDGs
66comparing the policies and practices of
Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories
Agency with ISO26000 CSR guidance to help
focusefforts
66reviewing options for tracking procurement
and supply chains
66presenting a set of VLA projects as case studies
that contribute to the MDGs, in particular:
control of bovine TB in Ethiopia and control of
contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) in
north-east Namibia, where large numbers of
cattle had been dying of the disease. By helping
to sustain food and income, these projects
contribute to the UNs goal on poverty.
In April 2011 the VLA merged with Animal Heath
to form a new agency, Animal Health and Veterinary
Laboratories Agency (AHVLA). CSR remains
high on the agenda of the Prospect development
advocates and is being actively pursued with the new
directorship of AHVLA.

Rebecca Korda, Beshlie Pool and Katie Hall MMO

KEY JOINT THEME: Sustainable development policy
and procurement. Individual theme: NGO support
Beshlie Pool was one of a youth and student
delegation visiting Southern Africa in September
2010, on a trip organised by campaign group Action
for Southern Africa.
The group gained an understanding of the
successes and on-going challenges facing the new
South Africa and an insight into the struggle for
democracy and rights in Swaziland. They shared
ideas with their counterparts in trade unions,
students unions and youth organisations, gained
20 Bargaining for International Development

an understanding of South Africas history and the

legacy of apartheid and looked at development in
the region.
Also in 2010, Rebecca Korda climbed Mount
Kilimanjaro with a US-based tour operator. She
undertook this sponsored climb not only as an
individual but also as a trade union representative,
raising 1,000 for the charity Mdecins
SansFrontires.
Rebecca had researched the tour company to
ensure that it was ethically and environmentally
sound but was shocked by an experience during

Prospect reps
Katie Hall,
Rebecca Korda,
Beshlie Pool
and Jane Lister
are working
together at
MMO
the trip. She was surprised at the level of wages
paid to the porters, and observed that they lacked
appropriate equipment. One porter in the group
died on the mountain and the tour operator
appeared to have made no provision for medical
assistance and/or rescue forstaff.
Liaising with The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance
Project, Rachel lodged a complaint with the tour
operator. With the KPA she discussed labour
conditions, wages, equipment and access to medical
assistance. The KPA acted as an intermediary
between the deceased porters family and the tour
operator to ensure they were paid any compensation
due to them and the porters wages from the trip.
The KPA agreed to press the US-based company,
Adventures within Reach, to comply with labour
standards on pay and conditions, with protection by
way of contracts and education for those working for
their partners, Eco Tours in Tanzania.
Katie Hall raised funds to visit Brazil and
support and spend time with a non-governmental
organisation, Open Hands. This NGO constructs

homes and re-houses families living in Brazils worst

slums or favelas. It has now completed 12 houses
for the project in Campo Largo, Southern Brazil. So
far 48 people are now out of the slums and living in
well-built homes.
Brazils slums or favelas are places of shocking
poverty and decay. Many homes are built of little more
than trash. Crime and disease are rife it can be a
frightening, hopeless existence.
Together the young professionals at the MMO
are taking forward the sustainability agenda within
the organisation. Under the auspices of the BID
project and supported by the section chair, Jeremy
Sooben, they aim to engage with management by
co-ordinating a sustainable development work group
that addresses all three pillars of sustainability
social, environmental and economic factors.
Their first notable success has been to secure
agreement on the purchase of womens workwear
and protective personal equipment, so that all items
have been researched and checked for their ethical
sourcing and environmental impact.

Beshlie Pool
in S Africa

Bargaining for International Development 21

Satnam Ner Babcock International, Marine Division

Above,
graduates
were given
the task of
researching
CSR at
Babcock
Marine
(Rosyth);
and, right,
branch
chair and
development
advocate
Satnam Ner

KEY THEME: Contribution to the millennium

development goals via corporate responsibility policy
Babcock International is a successful company with
a strong background in engineering and facilities
management. Satnam Ner, a nuclear health and
safety physicist by profession, is chair of the
Prospect branch at Rosyth Royal Dockyard. He was
aware that work had begun in Babcock International
to develop its corporate social responsibility policy
at the time Prospects Negotiators Guide to Corporate
Social Responsibility was published.
Being a global company with numerous
philanthropic initiatives, Babcock gave a group of

graduates the task of researching and recommending

a CSR policy for the company. Satnam introduced
these graduates to the millennium development
goals and the Prospect approach to corporate
responsibility.
Two hundred Rosyth Royal Dockyard Prospect
members heard a presentation about the Bargaining
for International Development project at their annual
general meeting in December 2008. Representatives
then met the senior management team at Rosyth.
Two Prospect members from the dockyard then
attended the BID pilot training in 2009.
Babcock sponsored two graduates to attend a
Prospect seminar workshop in 2009 on corporate
responsibility and the MDGs. They included lessons
they had learned at the seminar and from Prospects
approach to CSR in the final presentation when they
recommended policy to Babcockmanagement.
An additional workshop took place in Edinburgh
in 2009 for supply chain business development
managers, graduates and Prospect members.
It investigated the links made to the MDGs via
procurement practices.

Stephanie Lambeth, union learning rep Big Lottery Fund

KEY THEME: Learning at work
day events and Fairtrade
Prospect union learning rep Stephanie Lambeth has
used the international development agenda to host
some informal learning sessions at her workplace.
These were well attended by staff at the Big
Lottery Funds London office.
A session was held during adult learners week
which focused on women workers in the developing
world and was tied in with a presentation and quiz
22 Bargaining for International Development

Prospects Beverley Hall with speaker Kwame Ocloo

and Big Lottery Fund union learning rep Stephanie
Lambeth at the Black History Month event

by BananaLink. Another event linked Black History

Month with the London-based Youth Learning
Network, which has strong ties with Ghana.
Stephanie has also supported the Fairtrade
Fortnight. She organised a locally-based event
in London, giving away free samples of Fairtrade
goods, putting up free posters from the campaign in
the office and keeping magazines and postcards on
display in shared office areas (eg. reception), even
after the event was over.
Stephanie says: Union learning reps promote

learning in its broadest sense at work and so what

better than to raise awareness of important issues
through some informal events that bring all staff
together, regardless of union membership?
She points out that many have been enthused by
the sessions, which have helped to raise morale and
given Prospect a few new members.
The session on learning at work day even
had staff bringing in their old spectacles when
they learnt about Prospects Sight for Sore Eyes
campaign, adds Stephanie (see page 26).

Clare Hawkes and Gaynor Guthrie Health and Safety Executive

KEY THEMES: Abused and oppressed women,
professional expertise for sweatshop workers
in Honduras and killer jeans campaign
Clare Hawkes, a health and safety inspector from
Prospects Health and Safety Executive branch,
joined a delegation to Honduras to participate in
a conference organised by War on Want partner,
CODEMUH (the Honduran womens and feminist
campaigning collective). Part of the trip was spent
meeting women employed in vast sweatshops who
suffer from crippling musculoskeletal disorders as a
result of the abysmal working conditions.
On her return Clare wanted to improve her grasp
of global issues and has been studying for a parttime MSc in Development Studies at the School of
Oriental and African Studies.
Clare is motivated by a strong belief in
collective action to achieve social justice.
She has worked as a Voluntary Services
Overseas volunteer in Nepal with
women infected and affected by HIV and
AIDS and survivors of trafficking. This
experience spurred her to get involved with
Prospectsproject.
Clare has raised awareness of conditions

for women in the sweatshops of Latin America,

addressing colleagues, Prospects
national executive committee,
an International Womens Day
event and a fringe meeting
at the unions 2010 Biennual
DelegateConference. She has
highlighted the contribution
of a safe and healthy working
environment to alleviating
poverty contributing to economic
growth and development.
Gaynor Guthrie, an HSE
medical inspector, has joined
Clare in raising awareness of working conditions
in the developing world that lead to ill health and
premature death. Gaynor became interested in the
international agenda when she realised
that workers, including children, from
developing countries are exploited to
produce cheap, throwaway clothes for the
UKmarket.
Production processes banned in the UK
are still used in the developing world to
produce designerjeans.
For example sandblasting, where

Clare
Hawkes,
second
left, with
women from
CODEMUH
during her
visit to their
conference in
Honduras

Bargaining for International Development 23

workers fire sand under high pressure at jeans

to produce a faded effect, places them at risk of
developing silicosis (www.killerjeans.org). Gaynor
has circulated campaign information relating to

sandblasting, which has been banned in the UK for

many years because it causes rapid fibrosis of the
lungs, with long-term health effects for survivors
and early death for the majority.

Forensic Science Service branch activity

KEY THEME: Child labour and access
to education and health care
In October 2008 Prospect hosted a meeting with
War on Want and a partner organisation, Asociacion
Conrado de La Cruz from Guatemala, which works
towards eliminating the worst forms of child labour.
In Guatemala child labour is often invisible,
even though it is estimated that there are nearly 1.2
million child workers, with an estimated 400,000
children not receiving any form of basic education
either because they are street children or child
workers. Many work in the informal sectors of
agriculture (coffee, sugar and bananas), domestic
work, fruit packing and shoeshining.
Helen Kenny, Forensic Science Service branch
secretary, felt that the branch could best support
the work in Guatemala by raising money to support
Conrado de La Cruz and raise awareness of child
labour. Staff responded with enthusiasm across all
seven FSS labs and the branch raised 1,340. The
union offered to donate 10 of each new members

Helen Kenny (second right) with general secretary

Paul Noon (second left) handing over a cheque to
support the Guatemala campaign
first subscription to War on Wants Conrado de
la Cruz education project for Mayan schoolgirls
inGuatemala.
We are really pleased with the response, said
Helen. The charity link was a big factor and so
was the transformation programme hanging over
members at FSS.

Prison Service branch activity

KEY THEME: Colombian human
rights and political prisoners
In August 2008 Liliany Patricia Obando (right),
an academic and womens rights campaigner, was
detained by the Colombian authorities and accused
of rebellion. She is a single mother with two small
24 Bargaining for International Development

children. Prospect has long

been associated with Justice for
Colombia, a campaigning nongovernmental organisation.
When Linda Wall, a Prospect
organiser, played a JFC video
clip on trade union abuses in

Colombia to members of the Prison Service branch,

they felt it would be good to support the political
prisoner campaign in a practical way. As part of a
recruitment campaign the branch raised awareness of
the campaign to free Liliany and of the human rights
abuses in Colombia. They raised 470 to support
her legal battle, donating 10 to JFC for every new
member recruited. A second appeal in support of
trade unionist Alirio Garcia raised 340. Alirio has

Prospect took
part in a vigil
outside the
Colombian
embassy calling
for the release of
Liliany Obando
subsequently been released from detention (as was his
wife Rosalba earlier in the year, in June 2011).

Roger Key British Geological Survey

KEY THEME: Corporate social responsibility
and natural disaster assistance
Most of Roger Keys career has been spent working
in Sub-Sahara Africa, where he has been involved in
geological/geochemical mapping projects that have
included working with young African geoscientists.
Working in Africa made Roger aware of the
importance of corporate social responsibility
and how his own employing organisation was
contributing to the millennium development goals.
But he felt that more could be achieved by ensuring
that corporate social responsibility and procurement
policies are socially responsible.
They needed to become the means to reduce the
differences in living standards between people trying
to make a living in developing countries and those
in the UK. He has seen that the wages of people
living in most rural communities in Africa have
not significantly increased over the last 40 years.
These conditions motivated Roger to get involved in
Prospects international development project.
Even though currently managing a World Bankfunded project in Nigeria that involves over 100
geoscientists from the UK, Finland and Nigeria,
Roger managed to attend the Bargaining for
International Development training courses. His
achievements include:

66communicating with Research Councils UKs

shared services on their procurement policy
to ensure that there is a proper audit trail for
all the equipment bought on behalf of the UK
research councils. They provided a copy of their

Roger Key
(right) in
Nigeria

Bargaining for International Development 25

procurement policy document that includes a

section on Sustainable Procurement Policy.
This section highlights the mapping of the
supply chain to better understand social and
ethical issues

bought through shared services

66encouraging the Natural Environment Research
Council branch of Prospect, which as this
book went to press was selecting a charity to
support in a project to mitigate the effects of
natural disasters or improve the conditions of
people in developing countries. Many NERC
employees are involved in work related directly
or indirectly to such projects.

66participating in discussions with various

departments in the British Geological Survey
on its procurement policies for items not

Gary Biggin Wales Audit Office

KEY THEME: Sight for poor eyes; Together,
bringing the world into focus

sigHt

For Poor EYEs

Vision Aid Overseas

Sight_poster_2006.indd

Photo: Freddie Brown

26 Bargaining for International Development

(in England) No. 1081695

to g e t h e r ,

is a registered charity

so why not dig out your

old pairs
of disused spectacles and
donate
them, through your local
branch
of Vision express, to Vision
Aid
overseas. Your donation
will help
to give sight back to poor
people
in developing countries
For further information
please contact Beverley
Hall
via email at beverley.hall@prosp
ect.org.uk
or call 020 7902 6633

b r i n g i n g

t h e

wo r l d

i n to

f o c u s
3/11/06 12:04:39 pm

www.prospect.org.uk

Gary Biggin of Prospects Wales Audit Office Branch

has helped collect many hundreds of pairs of used
and old spectacles to be refurbished and sent to poor
parts of the world.
They were collected by a co-ordinated campaign
in Wales Audit Office buildings, and through a
campaign run from Llandaff Cathedral, in the
diocese which covers south eastWales.
Gary wrote articles based on the material on the
Prospect website for Refresh,
the internal Wales Audit Office
staff publication, for Croeso, the
Llandaff diocesan newspaper,
and the word spread from there.
Posters were displayed
as widely as possible. Most
recently, a small chain of
two hundred
million people in
local opticians joined in and
the deVeloping
world need
deliveries of used spectacles of
spec tAcles to liVe
all sorts and fashions continue
An ordinArY life
to arrive.
On some occasions, the
Prospect office in Cardiff
has been filled with carrier
bags and holdalls full of used

Development
advocate Gary
Biggin coordinated the
collection of
used spectacles
and wrote
articles about
the campaign
spectacles. Rosemary Johns and
Michaela Underdown, the Cardiff
office executive assistants, have
spent many lunch hours delivering
them.
Gary says: My message is simple.
Many people have old spectacles
cluttering up their houses. Many are
reluctant to just throw them away
and are glad of an opportunity to put
them to good use. Start collecting
now and give someone the gift
ofsight.

Gerald J. La Touche Advantage

West Midlands RDA
KEY THEME: Personal development
and career progression
Gerald J. La Touche, Advantage West Midlands
regional economic strategy manager and Prospect
branch chair, has been studying for a Masters
in international relations (globalisation and
governance, international law and organisations,
international political economy) and is due to
graduate in December 2011. Born in the Caribbean,
Gerald has a personal and
professional interest in
international development.
He signed up for Bargaining
for International Develop
ment project training because
he saw it as a practical action
to complement the theoretical
aspect of his MA.
He also found it valuable to
Gerald J.
understand the links between
LaTouche
practitioners and advocates, their
theory and
area of expertise/place of work,
practice
and their projects.
The BID project training
and working on his MA have now set Gerald on
a career-changing path, which he hopes will be
in the international arena. Gerald intends to
continue his Prospect membership and his role as a
developmentadvocate.
Geralds writing on issues related to human rights
and justice is accessible by searching the internet.

Farmers have
received help to
grow produce on
newly irrigated
land in the
Gutu area,
south eastern
Zimbabwe,
thanks to the
Oxfam irrigation
project supported
by Prospect
see over page

Bargaining for International Development 27

GRASSROOTS PROJECTS
Oxfam

KEY THEME: Humanitarian aid

Prospects relationship with Oxfam began with
a conference resolution passed in 1986 which
established a charitable trust fund for the relief of
poverty and ill health in third world countries. A
second motion guaranteed an income for the fund
of not less than 50,000 for five years. Prospects
national executive committee decided to concentrate
help in the initial two years on the region of Eritrea.
The support for this fund has continued over
the years with annual donations being given to the
overall project pool. In 2007 Prospects national
executive became actively involved in helping choose
projects to which the money is dedicated. Since then
Prospect has supported the following projects:
CAMBODIA 2007 (28,000): Project to minimise
the impact of flooding on the lives and livelihoods of
people and communities that live along the Mekong
and Tonle Sap river systems.
KENYA 2008 (17,400): Nomad education project

Work on
the Oxfam
Cambodia
project
that established and equipped
ten new mobile schools for the children of nomadic
(pastoralist)families.
ZIMBABWE 2009 (16,660) and 2010 (17,040):
Food security and irrigation project next to the
Ruti dam. This has helped local people construct an
irrigation system and grow their own food (photo,
page 27). The project is training and building
the skills of smallholder farmers. An irrigation
management committee comprising local people has
been set up. The project has also included awareness
activities for local communities on HIV and AIDS,
gender equality, health and hygiene.

Say it with flowers: War on Want and Cactus Colombian flower workers
KEY THEME: Improving the health and safety
conditions of women flower workers in Colombia
Between 2005 and 2007, Prospect linked up
with War on Want to financially support Cactus,
a Colombian self-help group for flower workers
and their children to improve health and safety
conditions in the Savannah de Bogota area. Flower
cultivation has grown to be one of Colombias
major export industries and employs around
90,000 workers, of whom 70% are women. Most
women are hired on short-term contracts of three
28 Bargaining for International Development

to six months, which are not renewed for those

who become pregnant or ill, often with jobrelatedillnesses.
Health risks are high because the workers are
exposed to a toxic cocktail of chemicals used to
destroy pests and fungus, and to keep flowers fresh
for the export market. According to the Colombian
National Institute of Health, women on flower
farms experience higher-than-average rates of
miscarriages, premature births and congenital
malformations.
Workers exposed to pesticides also suffer skin

Flower worker and Sintrasplendor president Beatriz

Fuentes on a visit to Britain organised by War on
Want. While in the UK she visited Prospect HQ
lesions, allergies, respiratory problems, fainting
spells, headaches, eye problems and chronic asthma.
Women are also subjected to a high rate of sexual
harassment because of their isolated work areas, and
there is often no safe drinking water on the job.
Achievements by the project, which Prospect
supported, were:

66the creation of a new trade union called

Sintrasplendor the first legally-established
independent union at a Dole flower plantation in
Colombia
66an annual flower workers day initiated by the
project, which has now spread, with parallel
events in a number of countries including
Ecuador, Costa Rica and Bolivia
66the setting up of health and safety committees
to directly address workers concerns,
benefiting 30,000 flower workers
66a postcard campaign to apply international
pressure on the Colombian Association of
Flower Exporters
66production of a report, Growing Pains,
the human cost of cut flowers in the British
supermarkets, presenting the results of
research and consultation with workers in
Colombia and Kenya who grow the cut flowers
sold by the major supermarkets in the UK. This
research reveals the true human cost of the
flowers sold to consumers in the UK.

Prospects
Andy Bye
(right)
organised a
fund-raising
bike ride for
the flower
workers to
Prospects
national
conference

Freedom from slavery: Anti-Slavery International field trip to brick kilns in rural India
KEY THEME: Bonded labour
Extract from a report to Prospects national
executive committee by international development
co-ordinator Beverley Hall, September 2009.
On Friday 7 August 2009 I had the privilege of
addressing well over 1,000 people at a deeply moving
session whereby men and women who had been
released from bonded labour came together to form
the National Rural Employment Guarantee Workers
Union. Notwithstanding scrutiny by armed police,
intense heat and humidity, freed men and women
crammed into a large auditorium in Jalandhar to
share their stories and experiences of bonded labour

in the brick kilns in the Punjab. Two young boys sang

of their parents plight as bonded labourers the
song declaring that prison was better than being
enslaved because at least in prison you get food,
medicine, and soap.
The visit to a rural kiln was like stepping back
in time the cold kiln a stark backdrop to the
conditions workers face when it is fired up and
functional. Everything is done manually, with no
consideration to any form of human safety this
ranging from no basic ablution/water facilities, to
toxic debris as fuel, to barefoot men and children
walking on surfaces above the fires. The workers, as
in any other unorganised sector, are not registered.
Bargaining for International Development 29

Jai Singh, director

of Volunteers for
Social Justice, with
rescued bonded
labourers in India;
right, children sing
about how their
parents were freed

There are no records of their employment.

Our host is an Anti Slavery International
partner group of fiercely committed workers called
Volunteers for Social Justice, led by Jai Singh.

Jai, himself from the Dalit caste, has no formal

education but has spent his life committed to seeing
people freed from slavery and bonded labour. VSJ
works to educate labourers on the law and then
enables them to access the legal system.
The dilemma for freed workers is that abject
poverty, illiteracy and no skills often force them to
return to the farm or kiln they have been released
from and the cycle of bondage starts again in most
instances entire families are enslaved.
This was an experience of development in action
witnessing people who have nothing taking
ownership of their situation and coming together
collectively to explore ways to improve the horrific
conditions in which they work and live and thereby
ultimately improving their and their childrens lives.

Climate adaptation and skills capacity building with Kenya

Electrical Trades and Allied Workers Union (KETAWU)
KEY THEME: Capacity building
to adapt to climate change

Craig
Marshall

The Kenya Electrical Trades and Allied Workers

Union has about 11,000 members, most of whom
are employed in energy generation or electricity
supply and distribution via KenGen or the Kenya
Power and Lighting Company.
Members of Prospects energy sector provided
technical support to help KETAWUs national and
regional leaders develop an organising plan in
support of KETAWUs strategic objectives.
A mixture of training and facilitation was used.
Anne Douglas, Prospect national secretary for
Scotland, and Craig Marshall, Prospect deputy vicepresident and an employee of EDF Energy, led the
project. KETAWU has now designed an organising
plan for the coming two to three years, which will
see them recruit, retain and organise up to 6,000
additional electricity, energy and allied workers.

30 Bargaining for International Development

The core strategies are to upgrade temporary

staff to permanent contracts, and organise in new
companies. Key organising themes will be climate
change, gender and youth.
Prospects expertise in the energy sector helped
to develop a successful model of engagement, with
KETAWU working with the two companies in the
energy sector, KenGen and KPLC, on issues like
HIV/AIDs, substance abuse and health and safety.
The project aimed to demonstrate how a trade
union in the developing world can address climate
change, empower woman, tackle corruption and
achieve decent work for young workers. Project
champions representing all nine regions of Kenya,
along with KETAWUs leadership team, attended
residential training, where they gained practical
skills ranging from public speaking to analysing
union themes of climate change, women, corruption
and young workers.
A needs analysis looked at energy policy in

Prospect national secretary Anne Douglas plants a

tree at Ikuu special school
government, energy sector and union positioning
and energy in rural communities. KETAWU
developed policy positions and drew up an action
plan. Achievements so far include:
CLIMATE CHANGE: discussions and work with the
Kenya Climate Change Working Group, which has
acknowledged the lack of workers voices in its work
and lobbying activities (www.kccwg.org).
CORRUPTION: discussion took place with the Kenya
Anti Corruption Commission on a list of firms
involved in corrupt deals that affect service delivery
of electricity.
WOMEN: KETAWU increased representation of
women in leadership, introduced policy changes,
brought up the issue of workplace sexual harassment
in discussions with management and celebrated
international womens day with a focus on women in
science and technology.

KETAWU
general
secretary
Ernest
Nakena
Nadome
addressed
Prospects
2010
national
conference

securing
your future

by preparing for growth

for all
enhancing quality public service
in the energy sector by moving forward
to adapt to change and growth
your union committed to respect,
equality, fairness, justice, health &
safety, decent pay and dignity at work

Branch:
Local contact:
Mobile number:

join us now

go for growth in your

workplace

In partnership with Prospect

(union for professionals
in the UK Energy
Sector) and affiliated to
Public Services International
(PSI)

ernational/ketawu/

Bargaining for International Development 31

Kenya Electrical Trades

&
Allied Workers Union
Aqua Plaza, Muranga Road,
2nd Floor, Rm 12, P.O. Box
47460-00100, Nairobi
254 20375 2087
admin@ketawu.or.ke

Act (2007)

www.prospect.org.uk/int

Registered under Labour Relationas

KETAWU rep James Sacho (centre) visits Torness

power station with Prospect during a visit to the
UK in 2011

JOB SECURITY: 1,218 one-day casual workers out of

the total 3,935 are being engaged on three-month
contract terms. The remaining will be promoted
through the annual staff reviews, with an aim of
benefiting 600 workers annually.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: In 2010 the union
supported Ikuu Special School in the Chuka district.
KETAWU members raised funds to buy chairs, food
and clothing for the school, which accommodates
around 106 mentally disabled children.
According to KETAWUs regional leaders, the
impacts of the partnership with Prospect are already
being felt.
Monica Achieng is a KETAWU branch secretary
from the Central Rift region and one of only two
women (out of 56) working in KPLCs operations
and maintenance department. She says: When we
met with Prospect for the training in September,
we initially did not know how to reach out to
ourmembers.
But we used the books and the materials
provided and found that reaching new members and
selling KETAWU is so simple. Members have a knowhow now and know what KETAWU can do for them.
It has made our work for them much easier.
Also part of the programme in Kenya was a needs
analysis workshop, which focused on longer-term
advocacy opportunities for KETAWU to explore in
the areas of climate change.
This is already affecting Kenya in a major way
because of its dependence on hydro-electricity
generation. It also focused on the expansion of the
electricity generation and distribution system to
meet the needs of the 80 per cent of Kenyans who
do not currently have access to electricity, and who
instead rely on charcoal and other unsustainable
forms of power.
Prospects energy supply industry sector
conference in 2011 passed a resolution pledging the
executive to investigate a further long-term project to
continue the work.

Latest revision of this document: //library.prospect.org.uk/id/2011/04092

This revision: //library.prospect.org.uk/id/2011/04092/2011-11-09

To: National Executive Committee

All Branch, Section and Sub Section Secretaries
Development Advocates
International Development Network

9 November 2011
ID 2011/04092

Dear Colleagues
Attached for you is the final printed report booklet on Prospects international work and
the Bargaining for International Development project.
Additional copies for wider membership circulation and workplace events/display may be
requested from Prospect Central Services.
The shared agenda guidance (outlined in the booklet) on health & safety, union learning,
equalities and environment and some of the case studies will be available on the current
Prospect international webpages.
Yours sincerely

Beverley Hall
International Development Co-ordinator

New Prospect House, 8 Leake Street, London SE1 7NN

T

020 7902 6600

020 7902 6667

enquiries@prospect.org.uk

www.prospect.org.uk