TUAC - TRADE UNION ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE OECD

03/05/2007

At a G8 “Labour Summit” one month before the G8 Heiligendamm Summit, a delegation of G8 and Global Unions leaders will call on the G8 Labour Ministers and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to put the need for social rules for global trade and capital flows at the centre of G8 discussions. The union delegation led by John Sweeney, President of the American Labour Centre the AFL-CIO and TUAC and Michael Sommer, President of the German Trade Union Confederation the DGB, will take part in the G8 Labour Ministers’ meeting in Dresden on 6-7 May and afterwards meet Chancellor Merkel in Berlin on 7 May. They will renew their call for the G8 to establish an international regulatory task force on private equity. In a statement released ahead of the Summit, Global Unions representing some 180 million members are calling upon G8 Labour Ministers to act upon a series of policy issues to build a social dimension of globalisation.

On employment, the Global Unions Statement calls upon Ministers to ensure active growth-orientated economic policy management, decent minimum wage floors, and balanced labour market “activation policies”. It further calls for programmes for green jobs to meet the social and economic impact of climate change.

On social protection, Ministers should among others, affirm the right to affordable universal social security systems and work to build strong and well functioning labour inspectorates. They should link social protection to the ILO decent work agenda, and acknowledge that investing in social policies is crucial for innovation and productivity.

With regard to corporate social responsibility, Ministers should work toward the integration of core labour standards across all international institutions, including through sustained ILO-WTO cooperation. They should take the lead in improving the implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

In a separate statement to the G8 Heiligendamm Summit the Global Unions also bring to light the alarming consequences of private equity and hedge funds who have in a short period become owners of significant swathes of the economy and of employment across G8 economies. Ministers should consider policy responses so that the expanding activity of private equity buy-out investment does not jeopardise long term responsible business conduct and workers’ rights to collective bargaining, information, consultation and representation within the firm.

The integrated global labour force has doubled over the past 20 years. The benefits of globalisation in the industrialised countries have accrued disproportionately to the wealthiest families, while the majority of working families are excluded from sharing in increasing productivity and economic growth. Income inequality has risen in 17 of 20 countries surveyed by the OECD. Unless governments manage this enormous expansion of the global labour force, it threatens to undermine the wages and working conditions of workers, unions fear it threatens to undermine social cohesion and to fuel political alienation.