Brussels, 30/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 27 April, a delegation from the transatlantic trade union movement, led by European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) General Secretary John Monks and American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President John Sweeney, presented European and American governments with a joint statement urging them to “pursue the interests of working people in their management of the global economy”.
In their statement, delivered on the eve of the summit of 30 April, Monks and Sweeney appealed to the EU and the US to work with other G8 governments to (1) achieve decent work for workers in all countries, (2) ensure that the benefits of globalisation are distributed equally, (3) foster greater social responsibility among global corporations, (4) back the setting up of an international regulatory task force on hedge funds and private equity investments, (5) meet Millennium Goal commitments, and (6) lead a global effort to counter climate change.
The two union leaders note, too, in their statement that, with China, India and the former Soviet Union joining the world economy, the globally integrated labour force has doubled over the past 20 years. “Unless governments manage this enormous expansion, it threatens to undermine the wages and working conditions of workers in more developed economies,” warn Monks and Sweeney. They believe that Europe and the US should lead international efforts “to build a social dimension to globalisation to assure that wages rise along with productivity in both the developed and developing and transition economies, to avoid excessive inequality”. The statement can be found, in English only, at http://www.etuc.org (gb)