International Union Delegation
An international delegation of trade union leaders will meet French
President Nicolas Sarkozy on 13 December to press for global action
on jobs, financial reform, development and action on climate
change. As host of the G20 2011 Summit in France, President
Sarkozy and his Ministers will have a key role in setting the G20
agenda for the next year.
“The earlier G20 meetings in London and Pittsburgh took crucial
decisions to stave off an even deeper global recession; however,
progress stalled at the Toronto Summit in June, and while the Seoul
Summit in November did include commitments on jobs, the underlying
causes of the crisis have not been properly tackled. Unless
real action is taken on financial regulation, and governments stop
seeking to ensure recovery by simply cutting public expenditure and
holding down or even reducing wages, the risk of further crises or
a double-dip recession will increase,” said ITUC General Secretary
Sharan Burrow.
“With public anger mounting over government decisions to reduce
social spending, cut public services and in some cases even reduce
minimum wages, the international trade union movement is calling on
governments to focus on the underlying fault lines in the world
economy and to implement policies which will generate decent jobs,”
said John Evans, general secretary of the OECD Trade Union Advisory
Committee.
“A financial transactions tax, to reduce speculation and generate
revenues for employment growth, climate action and tackling
poverty, is central to our proposals. Governments need
to stand up to the financial markets and not allow unelected
bankers to dictate policy. Cutting back on vital public
investment, including for infrastructure, education and skills
development, weakens the capacity for economies to move onto a
sustainable growth path. Governments should listen to Gordon
Brown’s call for investment in jobs and lifting people out of
poverty,” said Burrow.
Former UK Prime Brown has issued an urgent plea for governments to
create jobs and tackle global poverty, in support of a petition for
jobs and justice by online campaigning group Avaaz: see
http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_economy_gb_video_2/?cl=843684922&v=7647
The ITUC represents 176 million workers in 151 countries and
territories and has 301 national affiliates.
http://www.ituc-csi.org/ and
http://www.youtube.com/ITUCCSI