Unions Speak
Wanted: Role in Globalisation

By Kalinga Seneviratne

The global economy needs enforceable rules and procedures, because left to its own devices the market is not going to produce optimal results for its people, says Guy Ryder, general-secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

Ryder’s message to the WSF is that the international labour movement is not necessarily against globalisation, but wants to influence the process to ensure that it responds to the needs and interests of working people around the world

Trade unionists have flocked to Porto Alegre in record numbers, Ryder told the Trade Union Forum. “And they are here with one mission: to keep working to make our globalised world a fairer place.”

The labour movement sees the recent collapse of high-profile companies like Enron, and turmoil in world stock markets as examples of the market failing the people. Many governments are also acknowledging such shortcomings, but they are finding it difficult to engage in a process towards better governance of the international economy, Ryder said in a conversation with TerraViva.

The ICFTU, representing 158 million workers through 231 organisations in 150 countries, is determined to push governments, international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to start a consultation process with the labour movement to help regulate the global economy.

“We would like to see globalisation proceed along a different path,” says Ryder.

With that in mind, last year he attended the WSF and the World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, to make sure there was a trade union presence in both arenas.

“Our job here is to make our presence felt and interact with civil society, to consolidate alliances, and make new contacts,” explained the ICFTU chief. “In Davos we have the opportunity to influence, to meet with CEOs of major companies and with policy-makers from the national and international level. This has proved very valuable for us.”

Francis Atwoli, secretary-general of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Kenya), agrees with Ryder that the labour movement needs to build alliances to influence and shape political and economic developments at the domestic and global level.

Workers have been instrumental in getting a president elected in Brazil from among their own ranks, and in Kenya, unions played an important role in getting a new president elected as well, Atwoli said in a conversation with TerraViva.

The ICFTU is lobbying the WTO to incorporate international labour standards into all of its trade agreements.

“The key issue we are addressing here is the worker's human rights, which are clearly defined, such as the right to organise and bargain, and freedom and protection from forced labour, child labour and discrimination,” he explains.

“The problem we have had with the WTO in recent years,” says Ryder, “is that they are saying ‘these issues have nothing to do with us’, that workers’ rights are not trade issues.”