Social rules on investment and trade

G8 Labour Summit: Social rules on investment and trade, and effective regulation of private equity and hedge funds needed

Brussels, 7 May 2007 (ITUC Online): At a Labour Summit taking place on 6 and 7 May, leaders from the G8 trade unions and Global Unions organisations are 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 Labour Summit is being held one month before the Heiligendamm Summit of G8 heads of government.

The union delegation, led by OECD-TUAC and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Michael Sommer, President of the German DGB, is taking part in the G8 Labour Ministers' meeting in Dresden on 6-7 May and also meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. The unions will renew 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 are calling upon G8 Labour Ministers to act upon a series of policy issues to build a proper social dimension of globalization. On employment, it calls 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.

ENDS

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