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Asian union leaders want greater voice in global bodies |
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November 8, 2000
SINGAPORE (UNB/AP) - Union leaders from 29 Asia-Pacific countries are meeting in Singapore this week to push for a greater voice in the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund and other global organizations. Delegates will also discuss the touchy issue of linking trade with labor standards, as well as ways to regulate global capital flows, organizers said Tuesday. Many developing countries accuse industrialized nations of using core labor standards, such as restrictions on child labor, as a form of protectionism. In Asia, resistance to core labor standards comes mostly from governments rather than workers, said Bill Jordan, general secretary of the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, or ICFTU. "Governments put out the idea that the linking of trade and labor standards is some sort of organized plot by developed countries," Jordan said. "But the unions of Asia don't buy that line. "We have an absolutely solid chain of support among the unions of Asia," Jordan said. Labor leaders at the conference will propose that the WTO and International Labor Organization form a joint body to monitor world labor standards and deal with "persistent offenders," he said. "This body, consisting of both developing and developed countries, could say what positive measures or sanctions could be used to stop reprehensible practices," Jordan said. He cited Myanmar, also known as Burma, as an example of a "persistent offender," accusing its military regime of using forced labor to build roads and other projects. The ILO's core labor standards are the right to form unions and bargain collectively, and freedom from workplace discrimination, forced labor and child labor, Jordan said. Conference participants will also discuss ways of controlling vast capital flows, which have been largely blamed for Asia's disastrous economic crisis of 1997 and 1998. Delegates plan to press global bodies such as the World Bank and IMF to adopt "minimum financial regulations" to manage capital flows. "As the Asian crisis eased, so did world leaders' enthusiasm for such actions," Jordan said. "They are not placing it at the top of their agendas any more." About 180 union leaders are expected at the Wednesday-Friday conference. Delegates come from an area stretching from Japan to Australia in the east, and to India, Turkey and Israel in the west. They represent some 27 million workers, organizers said. The meeting, organized by the ICFTU's Asia-Pacific arm, is held every four years.
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