ETUC AND AFL- CIO urge EU and US to work together for a just and sustainable global economy

Brussels, 27/04/2007

Drawing attention to the entry of China, India and the former Soviet Union into the global economy, ETUC General Secretary John Monks and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney note that this has doubled the size of the globally integrated workforce over the last 20 years.

“Unless governments manage this enormous expansion, it threatens to undermine the wages and working conditions of workers in the more developed economies,” they warn. Europe and the US have a special responsibility for the governance of the global economy due to their long traditions of human rights and democracy. They should lead international efforts “to build a social dimension to globalisation to assure that wages rise along with productivity in both the developed and developing and transition economies, to avoid excessive inequality”.

The transatlantic trade union movement urges the EU and US to work with other G8 governments to:

- achieve decent work for workers in all countries;
- ensure that the benefits of globalisation are equally distributed;
- foster greater social responsibility among global corporations;
- back the setting up of an international regulatory task force on hedge funds and private equity investments;
- support workers' rights to organise;
- meet the Millennium Goal commitments;
- lead a global effort to counter climate change.

Trade Union Statement