G8 Labour Summit: Social rules on investment and trade, and effective regulation of hedge funds needed
At a Labour Summit taking place on 6 and 7 May, leaders from the G8 trade unions and Global Unions organisations have been calling on the G8 Labour Ministers and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to put the need for social rules around global trade and capital flows at the centre of their discussions. The union delegation, led by OECD-TUAC (Trade Union Advisory Council) and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Michael Sommer, President of the German DGB, was taking part in the G8 Labour Ministers' meeting in Dresden on 6-7 May and also meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. The unions renewed 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 called upon G8 Labour Ministers to act upon a series of policy issues to build a proper social dimension of globalisation. On employment, it called upon ministers to ensure active growth-orientated economic policy management, decent minimum wage floors and balanced labour market "activation policies". On social protection, Ministers should affirm the right to affordable universal social security systems and work to build strong and well functioning labour inspectorates. Concerning corporate social responsibility, they should work for the integration of core labour standards across all international institutions. The unions will also maintain pressure on the G8 countries to do more to tackle the HIV-AIDS pandemic.
The Global Unions also brought 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.
On 1 and 2 June, the ITUC, together with the DGB and its partners in the Decent Work Campaign, will be holding a "Youth Action for Decent Work" Conference in Berlin. The Conference will bring together young people from trade unions, NGOs and political movements to discuss the challenges young people face in the world of work. The Conference will formulate policy and action proposals to achieve decent work for youth, which will be presented to the German Government as G8 host. A meeting of the ITUC Youth Committee immediately after the Conference will build on these proposals in the development of the ITUC's own policies and action plans.
