Labor & Employment Law

World Congress and G-20 Meetings Focus on New Global Economy

By James Parks

The global union movement’s demand that the world’s economy be restructured and reformed with a focus on workers’ rights will be front and center this week at two meetings in Canada.

First, some 1,000 global union leaders, representing 176 million workers from 155 countries and territories, will take part in the Second World Congress of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) from June 21-25. The delegates will discuss the warning by union leaders in the G-20 countries last week to their governments that cutting budgets and imposing fiscal austerity now could plunge the international economy into another, deeper recession. The theme of the congress is “Now the People?From the Crisis to Global Justice.”

In addition, leaders at the World Congress will discuss the unique problems faced by migrant workers across the globe and develop additional strategies for dealing with climate change and HIV/AIDS.

Immediately after the World Congress, many of the union leaders will participate at meetings June 25-27 with G-8 and G-20 political leaders in Ontario.

In their statement last week, the G-20 union leaders also stressed the need for governments to focus on progressive revenue-raising measures and agreeing to immediate action on implementing a financial transaction tax as one means of meeting public funding requirements.

Over the weekend prior to the World Congress, young trade unionists from around the world met in a Global Youth Summit to discuss the problems they face in the workplace. The youth conference was directed by the ITUC Youth Committee, which is made up of workers under age 35 from each ITUC region: Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Americas and Europe.

Jefferson Coriteac, president of the Youth Committee and a member of the Força Sindical in Brazil, said:

Young people have the same needs as older people, they also need a decent job in order to live a decent life. Young people also need to eat, pay their rent, support their family. Yet they are among the first to be hit in times of crisis and to have the most precarious working conditions.

The key issues on the minds of the young workers were very similar to those expressed at the AFL-CIO’s Young Workers Summit earlier this month, including the extent of unemployment among young workers, the need to increase the numbers of young people in trade unions and the best ways to reach out to young workers.

“Youth unemployment figures around the globe are massive and frightening,” said ITUC President Sharan Burrow.

And it’s a global problem that we need to address. You can have up to 80 percent youth unemployment in some communities.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 21, 2010 (boomark / email).