Globalisation: the plight of billions stressed

By Reneé Grawitzky, Business Day, 30 March 2000

Report discusses challenges facing unions in 21st century

MULTINATIONAL corporations remained the main beneficiaries of globalisation as more than 1,3-billion people around the world lived on less than $1 a day, an International Confederation of Free Trade Unions report said.

The report, titled Globalising Social Justice—Trade Unionism in the 21st Century, proposed that widening inequalities had to be addressed as part of a broader strategy by unions in dealing with the effects of globalisation.

The report, which sets out the key challenges facing unions as globalisation gathers momentum, will dominate discussions during the federation's 17th world congress in Durban next week.

President Thabo Mbeki and International Labour Organisation director-general Juan Somavia are both expected to address delegates from 160 countries during the five-day conference.

The challenges facing unions as identified in the report relate to developing effective strategies to deal with the changing nature of the labour market and the casualisation of work and continued efforts to remove all forms of discrimination with particular reference to discrimination on the basis of sex. Other factors include the need to deepen the culture of democracy and to integrate economic growth with environmental and social protection to counterbalance the negative effects of liberalisation and technological change.

The report said that “while the basic goals of trade unions for dignity and justice, decent work and an end to discrimination remain as important as ever, many of our policies and organisational methods need to be examined.”

The federation said yesterday that the shape of things to come included unions with younger members, a more diversified membership with more women, and unions that “stand firmly in the progressive, democratic camp”.

The federation said trade unions had to keep up with the changes in the labour market and make inroads into the informal sector. Workplaces were being transformed by “intensified competition with employers squeezing wages and working conditions all over the world”.

The report said that with more than 3-billion people surviving on less than 2 a day and 1,3-billion on less than 1 a day, and an estimated 900-million either unemployed or underemployed, the world economy was running well below capacity. Instability in financial markets were the main constraint to achieve faster growth, the federation said.

To combat widening inequalities, it proposed active social inclusion policies. “The market does not and will not provide access to education and health care for all, or a social safety net”, the report said.

National governments, working with employers, trade unions and others, had a responsibility to “develop comprehensive social protection policies, and the international community must assist the less developed countries to begin building such programmes”, the federation said.

The report noted and welcomed the policy shift of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank towards poverty reduction but said there should be greater coherence between the work of the various international institutions.