Sharan Burrow Becomes First Woman to Lead ITUC
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Delegates to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Congress in Vancouver late last week made history by electing Sharan Burrow as general secretary. She becomes the first woman to lead the world’s largest trade union federation.
Burrow succeeds Guy Ryder, who has accepted the post of deputy general secretary of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Since 2000, Burrow has served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), a post she will now give up. She was elected president of ITUC in 2004, becoming the first woman to hold that post. Michael Sommer of Germany will succeed her as ITUC president.
Report: Unions Can Win Battle Against Forced Labor
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The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) last week released a new report showcasing the most successful union strategies in campaigns to eliminate forced labor, child labor and human trafficking. “How to Combat Forced Labor and Trafficking” highlights lobbying, advocacy, raising awareness, offering services and assistance and organizing domestic workers into trade unions.
On any given day, as many as 12 million men, women and children around the world are working as forced laborers, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). Between 40 percent to 50 percent of the victims are children. Last year, the ILO estimated that one out of every five forced laborers in the world is the victim of organized human trafficking. The cost of forced labor to the workers in lost wages is nearly $21 billion each year, the ILO says. For more information, check out ITUC’s website on forced labor: www.ituc-csi.org/forcedlabour.
Survey: 101 Union Members Killed in 2009
Some 101 trade unionists were murdered last year, a dramatic 30 percent increase over the previous year, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC‘s) Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights. The survey, released today, also reveals increased attacks on basic workers’ rights around the world as the impact of the global economic crisis worsens.
Colombia—where nearly half (48) of the murders took place—continues to be the most dangerous place to belong to a union. Another 16 unionists were killed in Guatemala, 12 in Honduras, six in Mexico, six in Bangladesh, four in Brazil, three in the Dominican Republic, three in the Philippines and one each in India, Iraq and Nigeria. Click here to read the full survey.
G-20 Labor Leaders Meet at AFL-CIO for Labor Summit
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When the world’s banks were going under, governments jumped to their aid. Now with record numbers of people out of work, it’s past time for governments to put working people first, or the fledgling economic recovery could fall apart. Leaders from the G-20 nations issued this warning while in Washington, D.C., this week for the first-ever meeting of G-20 labor ministers and employment ministers with labor and business leaders April 20-21.
The global union movement has been working to create a G-20 working group on employment and social protection since the global economic crisis erupted in 2008. Beginning at the summit in Pittsburgh last September, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has taken a leading role in the effort to make good jobs the central element in any global economic recovery. The federation hosted a meeting of G-20 labor economists in March to draft policy proposals for the labor ministers’ meeting. Trumka was a lead speaker from the global unions at the ministers’ meeting as well.
The G-20, which is now the main body for global economic policy, includes the leaders of the world’s major economies, together constituting 85 percent of world output and 60 percent of global employment.
Respect Workers’ Rights When Rebuilding Haiti
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This week, trade unionists from around the world will meet in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to draft a road map for rebuilding Haiti. Unions have already made it clear the reconstruction and future development of Haiti must include social protections, creation of decent work and respect for workers’ rights.
In a statement to the U.N. Donor’s Conference last week, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) called for a major international aid mobilization to rebuild the country’s devastated infrastructure and economy. At the Donor’s Conference, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the United States has pledged $1.15 billion for Haiti’s reconstruction.
ITUC is organizing the Santo Domingo meeting along with its regional organization for the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) and Global Union Federations PSI and EI.
ITUC Launches Global Youth Campaign
To reach a new generation of young people, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), in recent days, launched a new global campaign to help global unions combine their day-to-day work and help young people join unions.
The Youth Campaign involves a range of tools, including video, social networking, posters and websites, as well as a special campaign guide. The campaign aims to show that by joining unions, young workers can influence issues and events they are concerned about at a global level, as well as improve their own working conditions. Check out ITUC’s youth blog here.
Trade unions can choose from a menu of materials that fit into their campaigns or activities already under way in their countries.
World Day of Social Justice, Feb. 20
The global union movement will mark Feb. 20 as the World Day of Social Justice by calling for a new economic model that emphasizes jobs, not profits.
The current system of globalization has created the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Social justice has been denied to millions of men and women hit by unemployment or marginalized into the ranks of the working poor, says Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
If anything, the global crisis has served to show up the serious fault lines in the current model of huge capital accumulation through risky, unregulated financial transactions, and its failure to spread the wealth in a fair and sustainable way, through the creation of decent jobs and livelihoods for all.
Global Unions: Reform Banks Worldwide
The global union movement is calling on other governments to follow President Obama’s commitment to restructure banks as a key part of comprehensive financial regulatory reform. Obama has proposed a series of urgently needed reforms, including an end to the practice of banks using depositors’ money to engage in the kind of high-risk speculative operations, such as hedge funds and private equity, which helped plunge the world into recession.
As AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said last week:
Financial companies must not be allowed to go back to business as usual—or worse. We urge the President and Congress to make financial re-regulation a top priority.
Today Is World Day for Decent Work
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Today is World Day for Decent Work, and union members in more than 100 countries are mobilizing to address the global economic and employment crisis and demand fundamental reform of the world economy.
The deepest global recession since the 1930s has led to a jobs crisis with millions of people out of work. The International Labor Organization (ILO) predicts that as many as 50 million more workers could be kicked out of jobs worldwide in the next year and could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of working poor.
Live online coverage of the activities around the world, including videos, photographs and messages from events in every continent, will be broadcast on a special website, www.wddw.org, which will be updated via a 24-hour live feed.
Global Unions: G-20 Made Progress, But Not Enough
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The G-20 Summit, which ended recently in Pittsburgh, made progress in some areas, but failed to completely address the overwhelming need to create new jobs now, according to leaders of the global union movement.
Trade unionists around the world will continue to pressure their governments to stimulate the global economy to put people back to work. Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), said that while he is glad the G-20 agreed to put jobs at the heart of their economic recovery agenda, big questions remain in some key areas.
With the global jobs crisis still worsening, a meeting of G-20 labor ministers to take place in early 2010 will be a key focus for the global trade union movement in the coming months.
The G-20 labor ministers’ meeting must push the maintenance and creation of decent jobs even higher up the agenda, with implementation of the ILO [International labor Organization] Jobs Pact as a central objective. The international trade union movement must be given a seat at the table in this meeting, and we will be carrying forward our intensive efforts with governments, the ILO and other global institutions to make sure it and the June G-20 Summit in Canada deliver the results that working people demand.
