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Trade Union Evaluations of the G20 London Summit & G8/14 Rome Social Summit

07/04/2009

The TUAC has prepared evaluations of the G8/G14 Rome Social Summit 29-31 March jointly with the ITUC, of the G20 London Summit, 2 April. These assess the outcomes of the meetings against the Global Unions’ statements to the two summits: A Global Action Plan for Jobs and Global Unions London Declaration respectively.

 

The main outcomes of the G20 London Summit include:

  • Jobs and social issues moved up the agenda and ILO will take part in follow-up to the summit; G20 also supported further discussion on a “charter” as proposed by Chancellor Merkel based on ILO, OECD, WTO, IMF, WB norms and agreements;
  • Over a trillion dollars of largely new funding was agreed for major lending facilities, including Special Drawing Rights - the bulk of which will go to the IMF;
  • However, no new money was agreed for further global stimulus packages, and the design of the banks’ bailouts and other risk-sharing aspects for tax payers were barely addressed;
  • Forward agreement was reached on various financial regulatory issues; however this is to be in the hands of an expanded Financial Stability Forum – renamed as a “Board” but itself made up of central bankers;
  • An agreement was reached to take action against “non-cooperative” tax havens as identified by the OECD if necessary through sanctions.

The G8/14 labour and employment summit’s conclusions were positive, notably:

  • Ministers emphasised that “the current downturn should not be taken as a pretext to weaken workers’ rights to which countries have committed. Rather it is an opportunity to reassess and extend - where feasible - social protection schemes to ensure they are efficient, effective and indeed helping all those affected by the crisis”;
  • They invited international organizations, and in particular the IMF, the OECD and the ILO, “to take into account the labour market and social impact in their advice and cooperation with Governments and to share lessons and draw up more detailed recommendations”;
  • They also referred to the ILO proposal for a “Jobs Pact”.

An exceptional meeting of the TUAC Working Group on Economic Policy will be held on 25-26 May 2009 in Paris. This will discuss next steps in trade union action on the crisis and prepare statements to the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting (24-25 June) and the G8/G14 La Maddalena Summit (8-10 July).

The Council of Global Unions (CGU) has launched a special publication “Getting the World to WORK: Global Union Strategies for Recovery”, that sets out alternative strategies focused on getting people back in work and a recovery plan based on humanitarian values.

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