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Responding to the agreement coming out of the G20 Labour Ministers meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico, this week, UNI Global Union General Secretary, Philip Jennings said, “The labour ministers are backing quality jobs, green jobs and jobs for youth. This message must be driven home to the G20 leaders meeting in Los Labos next month. The latest OECD report paints a grim picture of where we are heading unless a coordinated global growth strategy is implemented. 20-50% of young people in G20 countries are unemployed and the number is rising. We are in the thick of a crisis reaching a tipping point. The current paralysis on a meaningful jobs policy is killing the global economy.”





Jennings was speaking after taking part in the OECD Forum in Paris.



“At the OECD this week there is consensus that inequality leads to instability and blocks sustainable growth. Social protection, collective bargaining and a minimum wage will give workers the security to go out and spend and reboot the economy. These are weapons the G20 must adopt to push back the wave of unemployment which is consigning a whole generation of youth to insecurity and despondency,” he added.



Jennings who was a panelist on the OECD Forum session “FINANCIAL REGULATION: HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BALANCE” warned, “We need sustainable, commonsense banking that feeds the real economy. Banks must pull their weight to help investment and not target socially useless high frequency trading which ends in disaster as we are seeing with Jamie Dimon and J.P. Morgan going from Wall Street soap opera to black farce. Banks should be supporting entrepreneurs who want to get real businesses off the ground that provide sustainable decent jobs.”



“The weak economy in both Europe and the United States is flat-lining yet banks want a return on equity of 15%. This cannot be done through sensible banking practices. We can change behaviour by changing banking rules and capping the rewards which feed risk taking. The casino banking mentality has to stop as does the too big to fail culture where banks thrive on lending subsidies which make them even grosser. A situation where half the bank assets in the USA are held by just six banks is perilous,” he concluded.



Regional Secretary for UNI Americas, Adriana Rosenzvaig who attended the G20 Labour Ministers meeting said, “From the OECD in Paris to the G20 Labour Ministers here in Guadalajara there is a clear willingness to tackle an agenda for job creation but these will be empty words unless the finance ministers and leaders at the G20 in Los Lobos finally act to deliver on jobs and rein in the bankers.”



Read the agreement adopted at the conclusion of the G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting here

Click the tab ‘related files’ above to read the L20 Trade Union Statement to the G20 Employment and Labour Ministers’ Meeting