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Workers are looking for a lifeline as they feel the effects of the economic crisis, UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings told the International Labour Conference on Thursday, and he called for a new inclusive process of globalisation that would respect workers and union rights.



“Our members are victims of the economic storm,” Jennings said in his speech. “They have seen lifeboats for bankers and ask, ‘Where the lifebelts are for the workers?’ They did not cause this crisis but they are paying the heaviest price in lost jobs, falling wages and pensions.”



He congratulated the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Director General for shifting the global debate from saving the financial sector to looking for the way to give hope to working people.



“There must be no more marginalization from the big financial and trade guns – the IMF and WTO. The ILO must use this great opportunity to take its seat at the global policy making table,” Jennings said. “The ILO has put jobs at centre stage at this Conference. Let’s take the conclusions to the next G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in September - let’s make it the jobs’ summit.”



Jennings also called for the respect for union rights, in the United States and around the world.



“The anti-union virus is ever present. That’s why we say to President Obama and the US Senate and Congress that they should set an example to the world and pass the Employee Free Choice Act,” he said. “Let’s free the world of the tyranny of union busting and intimidation by governments and employers against working people to deter them from joining unions.”



UNI wants all 20 million of its members to be free from fear. Members are being repressed from Burma to Zimbabwe. Fifteen months after his assassination, Leonidas Gomez’s killers in Colombia have still not been brought to justice.



“How can governments make deals on trade with Colombia without an improvement in human rights?” Jennings asked. He also called on the conference host nation, Switzerland, to improve the law to prevent the unfair dismissal of union leaders.



Jennings said that UNI Global Union is determined to build unions everywhere in services.



“We are geared to recruiting workers in areas never organized before and to gaining recognition rights everywhere,” he said. “Organise and recognise - essential pillars of inclusive globalization to bring justice, to make a huge dent in inequality and to create socially responsible companies.”







You can read Jennings’s full speech by clicking on “Related Files.”