G20 Trade Union Leaders Meet with IFIs, Heads of State and Call for Vigorous Action to Counter the Global Economic Crisis

Washington, 15 November (ITUC Online): Trade union leaders from the G20 countries met with the heads of the IMF and World Bank and several heads of government and other government officials on Friday, including the president of Brazil, Lula da Silva and the prime ministers of Japan, Taro Aso, and Australia, Kevin Rudd in advance of the G20 financial crisis summit taking place in Washington today in Washington. Earlier meetings with trade unions on the G20 crisis summit were held in leaders’ home countries with the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Spain and the president of France. Discussions took place on the international trade union movement’s Washington Statement , which calls for a coordinated recovery plan for the real economy, the re-regulation of global financial markets, a new international system of economic governance and a strategy to combat growing inequality around the world. The leaders expressed agreement with or interest in many of the trade unions’ proposals, and their broad support for the unions’ demand that labour had to be involved in discussions for designing a new global financial architecture. At the meeting with the managing director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, union leaders emphasized the need for the ILO and trade unions to have a seat at the table in the design of the new multilateral system, so as to ensure that workers do not continue to pay the price for the colossal failures an under-regulated global financial system. These have led to massive job losses first in the financial industry and subsequently throughout the economy, both in developing and industrialized countries. Labour leaders also expressed concern about the economic policy conditionality associated with IMF loans in the past, resulting in reduced social programmes and deregulated labour markets, and called on the IMF to ensure that its lending programmes not lead to a deterioration of wages and living conditions for workers. Strauss-Kahn spoke of a number of measures the IMF was taking in its programmes to respond to social concerns, including through changes to loan conditionality. He also proposed intensified dialogue with trade unions in the important debates about the resolving the global crisis and committed the Fund to in-depth meetings with the international trade union movement in January.

Meeting World Bank President Robert Zoellick, the union delegation emphasized the vital role of decent work in combating poverty, the contribution that trade unions could make to maintaining wages and spending in order to stave off economic recession, and the need for the World Bank not to apply unacceptable conditionality in its loans to developing countries. Zoellick agreed on the importance of dialogue and drew attention to the way that core labour standards were now supported by the World Bank, particularly its International Finance Corporation (IFC). He highlighted the role the Bank could play in assisting developing countries hit by the crisis to maintain their access to credit, and the need for an interconnected approach to the various aspects of the crisis including energy, food and climate change as well as the financial and economic crisis. The ITUC, TUAC and the Global Union Federations are working with their national affiliates to follow up on commitments made by some leaders in recent days. Other meetings with national governments will take place in the days and weeks to come, where trade unions will urge them to adopt the proposals of the trade union movement’s Washington Declaration .

Further reading Economic Crisis: World’s Trade Unions Put Recovery and Reform Plan to G20 > Unions contribute to G20 debate >. Mon Nov 2008 10:11 (1 month, 3 weeks ago)