At G-20 Summit, Union Leaders to Demand ‘Robin Hood’ Tax on Speculators
As world leaders head to France for the the G-20 economic summit in Cannes, labor leaders from around the globe will gather nearby to represent the needs of the world’s workers. Among their demands is a Robin Hood tax on banks and financial institutions that would exact a nano-percentage of each financial transaction to the tune of 0.5 percent. (See video.) That’s one half of 1 percent on every bond or derivative traded, stocks sold and a host of other “financial instruments” bought and sold by the very institutions bailed out by the world’s taxpayers.
Also known as a financial speculations tax, or a financial transactions tax, the idea is catching on in the United States through the activism of unions, especially the National Nurses United (NNU), which has been joining with Occupy protesters to support the Robin Hood tax. The idea has already gained significant momentum across the pond, where British activists are using creative means, such as this video, to sell the public on the Robin Hood tax.
Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), explains it this way:
Global Unions Demand G-20 Focus on Jobs
The global union movement is calling on the labor ministers of the world’s top economies, known as the G-20, to create millions of new jobs around the world. In a statement prepared for the labor ministers meeting next week in Paris, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) and Global Unions say 110 million jobs are needed by 2015 just to return G-20 countries to pre-crisis levels. That’s 22 million new jobs every year. Read the global unions’ statement here.
“Stretching from China to Chile, we’re seeing the longest unemployment line the world has ever seen,” says ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.
Workers, not bankers, will drive the world out of the economic crisis. Big Business is using the economic crisis as a smokescreen to push down wages. Collective bargaining rights are the most effective antidote to greed and will foster growth. Workers know first-hand why it’s important to have a decent wage, and a strong and vibrant business.
Financial Speculation Tax Could Help Heal America
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When the Statue of Liberty got “sick” over what’s happening to her country, the nation’s nurses rushed to New York City to try and help her get well.
One by one, members of National Nurses United (NNU) and their friends diagnosed what was making Lady Liberty ill. Some of the people were victims of the foreclosure crisis spawned by Wall Street’s greed. Others were victims of a broken health care system. Even more were jobless.
Finally, Lady Liberty perked up when one person pointed to the Stock Exchange across the street and said the nation needs a financial speculation tax to make Wall Street pay its fair share to heal America.
This street theater was the centerpiece of a huge protest as thousands of working men and women converged on Wall Street today to demand that the same financial market speculators who plunged our economy into the recession pay to rebuild the nation. Chanting “Hey Wall Street! Heads Up! The People Won’t Give Up,” the crowd of union members, faith and community activists rallied today as part of a global day of action for a financial speculation tax.
Global Unions Condemn Child Labor
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The global union movement is calling for governments, employers and workers to take action to halt the exploitation of child labor around the world, and especially in Uzbekistan.
During the month of June, global unions and governments are focusing on the issue of child labor. June 12 was World Day Against Child Labor, but events are ongoing around the world all month.
At a recent conference of the International Labor Organization (ILO), workers and employers reported that millions of children were forced to leave school to do hazardous work in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields.
Unions estimate that in the 2010 harvest alone in Uzbekistan, up to 2 million children between 10 and 16 years old were forced to work in hazardous conditions, with heavy lifting, exposure to pesticides and incidences of rashes and respiratory diseases and cases of meningitis and hepatitis.
ITUC Survey: Colombia Still the Most Dangerous Place for Union Members
Colombia is still the deadliest country in the world for trade union members, according to the latest global Annual Survey of violation of trade union rights released yesterday by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
The survey, conducted across 143 countries, paints a picture of people fighting for greater economic rights and freedom to join a union, with many governments and corporations responding with repression, firings, violence, death threats and murder.
Last year, 90 trade union members were murdered, 49 in Colombia alone, according to the survey. Another 75 trade unionists received death threats. At least 2,500 were arrested and at least 5,000 were fired because of union activities.
The AFL-CIO vigorously opposes the proposed free trade agreement with Colombia so long as the “horrifying levels of labor and human rights violations in the country” continue.
Global Unions Call for Protection of World Cup Construction Workers
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A new multimedia report uncovers the human cost of the huge migrant workforce in the Gulf states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The workers will build 12 stadiums over the next 10 years for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“Hidden Faces of the Gulf Miracle,” released today by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), says the mainly Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese workers are subject to unsafe and unregulated working conditions on construction sites, with no independent unions or effective safety inspection. These workers make up the majority of the population of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, but only as imported labor.
German Workers Rally For T-Mobile USA Employees’ Rights
More than 500 workers from ver.di, the German telecommunications workers union, today descended on Deutsche Telekom’s global annual shareholders’ meeting in Cologne to demand the company ensure its American employees at T-Mobile USA the same rights enjoyed by its German workforce.
The workers formed a human chain around the meeting venue and released black balloons as a sign of mourning for their U.S. co-workers’ rights.
In Germany, Deutsche Telecom recognizes the union and has a collective bargaining agreement with workers. But at its American subsidiary, T-Mobile USA, management harasses workers who try to join the union, and has implemented a company-wide strategy of refusing to recognize the workers’ choice of a union and collective bargaining rights.
European Unions Shine Spotlight on Georgia’s Attacks on Workers
Representatives of trade union organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from across Europe are meeting in Brussels today to discuss serious violations of human and workers’ rights by the government of Georgia.
Among the countries of the former Soviet Union, only in Georgia has the once government-dominated union federation reformed and become a truly free trade union federation. However, since 2008, the Georgian government has waged a wholesale and vicious attack against the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) and many of its affiliates.
The country’s labor laws were gutted in 2006. Meant to attract investment, the new code leaves workers and trade unionists with few rights on the job in law or in practice. For example, in the public sector, the government has blocked dues deductions from union members to the unions, starving the organizations of funds. The government has installed police watchdogs in schools and intimidated union representatives and teachers, all while promoting a fake, government-controlled union and encouraging or threatening members of the legitimate union to disaffiliate.
Global Anti-Regulation Agenda Threatens Health and Safety at Work
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On Workers Memorial Day, the global union movement is warning that more lives will be lost at work if business groups and companies around the world succeed in reducing legal protections against hazardous jobs. In the United States, Big Business and congressional Republicans have launched campaigns to turn back health and safety regulations, claiming they hinder competitiveness.
Workers Memorial Day is observed by trade unions around the globe and today there are observances in more than 50 countries. To find out what’s going on around the world for Workers Memorial Day, click here.
The World Watches and Supports Wis. Workers
The world is watching Wisconsin. Because it’s clear if Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in the state legislature succeed in their attacks against the middle class there, it can happen across the United States.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is outraged over the assault by Walker and other Republican Party state governors on the good, middle-class living standards. Nothing less than democracy, fundamental rights and freedom are at stake.
Says ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow:
Violating these fundamental democratic rights in other countries such as China, Egypt, Guinea or Mexico is rightly condemned by the U.S., so what are people to make of such abuse of power in the U.S. itself? The rights to organize and bargain collectively for fair wages and conditions are cornerstones of any democracy, and removing these rights means democracy itself is under attack.
Moreover, the economic and employment crisis will not be fixed by taking away workers’ incomes. These moves will destroy, not create jobs, as household incomes fall and economic demand falls even further.
