World Labor Leaders Condemn WTO There
were no surprise announcements in store for the worlds top labor leaders when WTO
head Michael Moore delivered an address to a Seattle conference of the International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions Nov. 29.
With labor leaders from over a hundred countries in attendance, it was
Moores chance to say something to the world labor movement, but his message was the
same one hes been pushing since he took office Sept. 1: Workers have nothing to fear
from WTO-led globalization because more trade means more jobs.
"Trade is the ally of working people, not their enemy," Moore declared.
"Countries that have embraced openness and freedom have increased the real incomes of
their workers, which in turn has raised labor standards and reduced poverty."
Thats not the dynamic the worlds workers are observing, though, said
ICFTU general secretary Bill Jordan. "The problem for the trade union movement is
that in so many countries, too many of the workers we represent are experiencing every day
the negative effects of globalization."
"Weve entered a period of what you could call casino
development, with too many losers and too few winners."
Without some enforceable international labor standards, labor leaders argue,
greater freedom to import and export goods has meant freedom for transnational
corporations to shift basic production to the countries with the lowest wages.
Moore listened, head in hands, as labor delegates reacted to his comments. One
delegate who had just returned from a factfinding trip to Cambodia reported on an export
sector in which 160,000 mostly female textile workers toil 10 hours a day for $2, where
workers are beaten for making mistakes and fired for complaining.
As the WTO Ministerial kicks off, international labor is betting on a proposal to
create a "working group" that would study the impact of trade globalization on
labor standards and issue a report in two years. The United States and the European Union
have made such a proposal, but there is opposition in the developing world.
Jordan and AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said they werent satisfied with
that proposal, but defended it as a useful first step. Jordan said if the WTOs own
working group concludes that trade has had negative impacts on labor standards, there will
be great pressure to look at incentives or sanctions.
For the worlds labor movement, and for the WTO, its vital that the
assembled trade ministers reach some agreement this week about bringing labor standards
into the WTO, Jordan said. "If the ministers fail to act, they could be setting in
train the beginning of the end of the WTO."
Don McIntosh
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