Trade Unions to G-20: Half Measures Will Not Fix Global Economy
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.
