LATAM-LABOR: Unions Want More “Democratic” Globalisation

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Marquez

CARACAS, Aug 9 1996 (IPS) - Latin American trades unions want to “democratize” the globalization process argueing that nations in the region, racing to compete in economic and commercial development, have neglected social development.

Union delegates from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela met in Caracas this week to discuss three main issues affecting the Andean subregion – democracy, development, and the status of the labor movement.

“Our countries are immersed in a worldwind of globalization, with the growth of commercial development and market economies,” said Luis Anderson, Panamanian Secretary Gneral of the Regional Inter American Organization of Workers (ORIT). “What is absent is social development, centered on working people. That is why the democratic governments of Latin America exhibit can say that they have representative institutions, but they are weak.”

Democratic institutions “are threatened by the economic situation,” he said. “There are many more poor people now than in 1982, when we became aware of the debt crisis. The informal sector employs 57 percent of the labor force and there is increasing inequality, unemployment, disease and urban violence.”

Anderson said the “major focus of our countries has been to follow the global trend towards economic and commercial open markets, joining a savage race to reduce social costs.”

He that this was a regional phenomenon with similar social consequences to various countries in Latin America, as was shown last month at a labor union symposium in the Southern Cone, organized with the same objectives as the Andean conference in Caracas.

In light of these issues, ORIT has made the theme for its 14th congress – to be held in Santo Domingo in April 1997 – “The Alternative: Democratizing Globalization.”

The Caracas conference identified a series of common problems, such as unemployment, the loss of purchasing power of wages, and the growth of the informal sector. Women are especially vulnerable in this sector, which lacks any type of social security.

The ORIT Committee of Women Workers will bring to Santo Domingo their own concerns: to put a stop to the growth of the informal labor market and the deterioration of social security, and to strengthen the participation of women in the labor movement.

In Peru, the problem is the absence of dialogue between the government and the labor unions, while in Ecuador there is no tradition of such dialogue. In Venezuela, the labor movement’s priority has been attacking inflation, raising salaries, and the defending the traditional system of worker indemnization.

In Colombia, concerns range from the ruptures that the government and entrepreneurs have caused in the 1994-1996 pact on productivity, prices and salaries, to violence – which on Tuesday claimed the life of Elba Aguilera, a union leader shot dead by unknown gunmen.

Bolivia did not participate in this Andean meeting because its central labor committee (COB) is not a member of ORIT, which is social-democratic and populist. Instead, it belongs to the World Union Federation, an organization with past links to Communist parties.

Cesar Gil, of the Worker’s Confederation of Venezuela, stated that “in the Andean nations, like in the rest of the region, there is a process of deterioration of social security, as well as a constant cheapening of labor costs.”

“If the situation continues on that course, in a short period of time the region will witness violent social movements, because the quality of life cannot continue to decline permanently. There is a point where people cannot take it any longer,” he said.

In his opinion, “just like capital, which is retreating and taking away the social conquests achieved by workers over the past 50 or 60 years, the workers themselves will also go back to the violent street fights, like at the beginning of the century.”

In Venezuela, “there is a deterioration in the workers social protections,” said Gil.

Anderson said that “with Chile as the example, the neo- liberals have been exporting a model of pension funds that have accumulated capital, but which still hasn’t been proved in the context of a massive demand for pensions.”

“Theorists say that for the Chilean social security model to work, countries need to have an economic growth rate of at least seven points of the Gross National Product (GNP), sustained over a period of 25 years,” said Anderson.

Juan Andrango, president of the Ecuadoran Confederation of Free Union Organizations, argued that in his country “like in the rest of the region, macroeconomic figures are not accompanied by social indicators.”

In Ecuador, there is 14 percent unemployment, 80 percent of the population lives in poverty, the income of one third of workers covers only 35 percent of basic needs, and of the entire GNP, only 12 percent goes towards labor.”

Guillermo Prez of Peru’s Unitary Confederation of Workers said that in his country the labor struggle is geared toward “opening up democratic spaces that have been closed. There hasn’t been a dialogue in six years.”

In that period, “with the excuse of selling 80 percent of the public enterprises because they were inefficient, the government has shrunk, and 180,000 people have lost their jobs and went into the informal sector. And the government plans to lay off some 100,000 more.”

In Colombia, according to Apecides Alviz of the Confederation of Workers, “among other issues, there is the problem of violence, which in less than 10 years has claimed the lives of 1,600 union leaders.”

His colleague Carlos Torres called attention to the social pact implemented by Colombian President Ernesto Samper – whose government has held pay increases at 19 percent – while public and private services have surpassed that margin of inflation in the period from 1994 and 1996.

Overall, said Anderson, in Latin America “South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore are held up as models, but governments and entrepreneurs have not made the sustained social investment that were made in those countries. And if countries are not competitive socially, they cannot be competitive economically.”