Union Delegation to Meet French President Sarkozy

INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION (ITUC)

ITUC Online
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G20: International Union Delegation to Meet French President Sarkozy

Brussels, 10 December 2010 (ITUC OnLine): An international delegation of trade union leaders will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy on 13 December to press for global action on jobs, financial reform, development and action on climate change. As host of the G20 2011 Summit in France, President Sarkozy and his Ministers will have a key role in setting the G20 agenda for the next year.

“The earlier G20 meetings in London and Pittsburgh took crucial decisions to stave off an even deeper global recession; however, progress stalled at the Toronto Summit in June, and while the Seoul Summit in November did include commitments on jobs, the underlying causes of the crisis have not been properly tackled. Unless real action is taken on financial regulation, and governments stop seeking to ensure recovery by simply cutting public expenditure and holding down or even reducing wages, the risk of further crises or a double-dip recession will increase,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

“With public anger mounting over government decisions to reduce social spending, cut public services and in some cases even reduce minimum wages, the international trade union movement is calling on governments to focus on the underlying fault lines in the world economy and to implement policies which will generate decent jobs,” said John Evans, general secretary of the OECD Trade Union Advisory Committee.

“A financial transactions tax, to reduce speculation and generate revenues for employment growth, climate action and tackling poverty, is central to our proposals. Governments need to stand up to the financial markets and not allow unelected bankers to dictate policy. Cutting back on vital public investment, including for infrastructure, education and skills development, weakens the capacity for economies to move onto a sustainable growth path. Governments should listen to Gordon Brown’s call for investment in jobs and lifting people out of poverty,” said Burrow.

Former UK Prime Brown has issued an urgent plea for governments to create jobs and tackle global poverty, in support of a petition for jobs and justice by online campaigning group Avaaz: see http://www.avaaz.org/en/global_economy_gb_video_2/?cl=843684922&v=7647

The ITUC represents 176 million workers in 151 countries and territories and has 301 national affiliates. http://www.ituc-csi.org and http://wwwyoutube.com/ITUCCSI

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