LABOUR: Anti-WTO Sentiment Unites Workers’ Confederations

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

BUCHAREST, Oct 24 2001 (IPS) - Protests against the upcoming ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) may smooth over most of the differences that have divided the principal international labour unions, say leaders of the workers’ movement.

On Nov 9, coinciding with the opening of the WTO ministerial meet in Doha, Qatar, the labour movement will hold trade union rallies around the world as a demonstration of its determination to halt “destructive globalisation”.

The day of protest is being organised by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and is to consist of union meetings, demonstrations and even work stoppages.

The second of the two main international unions, the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), is to decide the extent of its participation by this weekend in Bucharest, where it is holding its international congress, an event that takes place every four years.

Delegates to the WCL congress consulted by IPS reckoned that the group would give its full support to the protests because the two international union confederations tend to agree in their criticisms of the WTO’s role in the globalisation process.

The ICFTU, led by social-democrat unionists, has not hidden its resentment about the omission of any reference to workers’ rights in the draft declaration to be debated by the trade ministers from the WTO’s 142 members states during the Qatar conference next month.

Bill Jordan, ICFTU secretary-general, expressed disappointment “that the WTO has been so short-sighted when they have witnessed such a tremendous backlash across the world” in response to the way the organisation is guiding economic globalisation.

The WTO and governments must realise that the labour movement is dissatisfied and that workers’ rights are “a part of recognising that they have social responsibilities” in promoting global trade.

The issue of workers’ rights was introduced into the WTO agenda at the 1997 ministerial conference in Singapore with the intention of making trade relations conditional upon compliance with the basic labour standards established under existing international conventions.

The initiative, supported by most trade unions and by some industrialised countries, ran into opposition from developing nations, which feared that the linkage of trade to labour standards was an attempt to hide protectionist objectives.

The union confederations also reproach the WTO for the role it plays in the globalisation process alongside other international institutions, namely the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

WCL secretary-general Willy Thys stated in an address before the congress in Bucharest that “the management of current globalisation is non- democratic and favours the strongest, who are in the minority.”

Thys underscored the WCL’s participation in recent years in the social movement protests, which he said have “provoked a crisis about the legitimacy of actors who govern globalisation,” particularly the WTO, World Bank and IMF.

The WCL and ICFTU leaders considered closer ties between the two labour organisations with sights on joint actions. Thys observed that their relationship has passed through periods of close co-operation alternating with moment of sharp tensions.

The WCL has ruled out the idea of a merger proposed by the ICFTU, saying that the greater development of the latter would mean its social democrats would predominate within a combined organisation.

As an alternative, the WCL leadership proposes “reconstructing a social movement of workers, which can be the reference point for all the trade union organisations in the world.”

A worldwide protest on Nov 9 could lead to a spontaneous unification of the two labour confederations’ action plans anyway, predicted one union activist at the Bucharest congress.

The ICFTU’s Jordan addressed the WCL congress Wednesday in what was widely considered his farewell speech, as he is to step down from his post as secretary-general in November.

His replacement will likely be Guy Ryder, current cabinet chief of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations specialised agency headed by Juan Somavia.