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Trade Unions to G-20: Half Measures Will Not Fix Global Economy |
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As the G-20 governments get set to meet next week in London, where they will discuss strategies for pulling the global economy out of this recession, trade unions are demanding leaders of the world’s top economies take strong actions—including spending more of their nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) on addressing the global financial crisis.
Meeting in Rome and London in advance of the G-20, members of the global union movement are proposing a five-point plan that includes detailed policy proposals and sets out actions needed to tackle the crisis and build a fairer and more sustainable world economy for the future. Among those, is the need for G-20 governments to spend at least 2 percent of their nation’s GDP on solving the crisis. Currently, European nations are spending no more than 1 percent.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who is leading the global union delegation, says the international economy cannot go back to business as usual.
The need for change goes much deeper and there is a real risk that when the economy begins to improve, there will be an attempt to return to the failed policies of the past. There can be no “business as usual.” Together we must build a new framework for a stronger, more sustainable and more just global economy going forward….The global task is just beginning.
The global unions’ plan, developed by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) at the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, also calls for:
- A coordinated international recovery and sustainable growth plan to create jobs and ensure public investment.
- Nationalization of insolvent banks and new financial regulations.
- Action to combat the risk of wage deflation and reverse decades of increasing inequality.
- Far-reaching action on global warming.
- A new international legal framework to regulate the global economy along with reform of the global financial and economic institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, OECD and the World Trade Organization.
National trade union movements presented the “Global Unions G-20 London Declaration” to their governments this week, and it will be formally submitted to the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in London April 2. Trade unions from around the world will join their colleagues from the British Trades Union Congress in a huge rally planned for London on March 28 to press home the need for coordinated global action by governments. Click here to read the declaration.
Says ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder:
If the G-20 governments in London are only able to agree on half-measures, they will have failed to meet their responsibilities. As the world’s largest economies, they have the responsibility and the possibility to replace the failed neoliberalism of the past with a whole new direction for globalization.
Recovery and sustainable growth can be achieved, according to the declaration, but only if the focus is on job creation and public investment, active labor market policies, stronger social safety nets and special measures for developing and emerging economies.
AFL-CIO Chief Economist Ron Blackwell says:
The current economic crisis—the bursting housing bubble, frozen credit markets and rising unemployment—are global problems that require dramatic actions such as President Obama is trying to do. But we need coordinated actions by the other G-20 nations for our programs to be effective.
The trade unions also plan to put forward an eight-point specific action plan for global financial regulation. Says John Evans, general secretary of the TUAC:
Weak or non-existent regulation of banking and financial activity turned the world economy into an anything-goes casino, plunging the world into deep recession and causing the loss of tens of millions of jobs. This needs to be fixed urgently. Another main pillar of recovery and reform, creating decent, sustainable jobs and boosting purchasing power, must also be given priority attention at the G-20.
The London Declaration also points to the risk of wage deflation and highlights how growing income inequality across the world has been a major contributor to the current recession. Ensuring that all workers have the right to collective bargaining, and strengthening wage-setting institutions will allow workers to earn a decent wage and feed economic stimulus through more household buying power.
Ryder adds:
Financial regulation is essential, but it is not enough. The new global governance must be based on a strong pillar of social rights, including crucially the ILO’s [International labor Organization's] core labor standards. The real economy, decent work and poverty reduction can no longer be left at the fringe of global policy. The G-20 should not limit its horizons by simply making marginal changes to a discredited system. It needs to lead a complete overhaul in the way the world economy is run. Those who think that we can return to business as usual are seriously mistaken.
The call to include the ILO in the G-20’s discussions echoes a proposal by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who met with Sweeney earlier this month. During the meeting, Lula emphasized the need for the ITUC and the international union movement to make sure their call for a real economic recovery and the creation of decent jobs is heard at the upcoming G-20 summit in London. He also said he supports and will reinforce that message at the summit, including a push for the ILO to be involved in talks about the recovery.
The G-20 is made up of the finance ministers and central bank governors of 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and also the European Union.
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