News

The global labour movement has reacted with anger following the release by WikiLeaks of classified documents on the secretive Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), but what do the documents really mean for workers?

The ITF says they prove that TISA – a proposed free trade deal between the United States and 23 countries plus the EU – is a genuine threat to jobs, workers’ rights and public services. The papers suggest that public services and local employment could be at even greater risk from international competition should the deal go through. The further deregulation of global financial markets was another worrying trend.

We asked the heads of UNI Finance, UNI Post and Logistics and UNI ICTS to identify what the deal could mean for their own sectors.

UNI Finance said TISA is an attempt to reduce the power of national and international regulators as well as the effectiveness of the International Regulatory Framework within the finance industry. Put simply, the deal would allow financial institutions to ignore new regulatory standards and to continue with the sort of lack of regulation which caused the global financial crisis.

“This is a clear step back from the current stages of discussion and a move that will increase future systemic risk to the system. In short, this could drive the entire system back into crisis,” said Head of UNI Finance Marcio Monzane.

UNI Post and Logistics warned that the deal poses a real and practical threat to postal services in developing economies. By limiting states to defining universal services obligations as “limited and proportional to the actual needs of the users that are not met by the market forces”, the documents effectively cut-off the natural evolution of postal systems as a public infrastructure.

“This is throwing a bone to the big boys in global delivery,” said UNI Post and Logistics head Stephen DeMatteo. “It would hold back any further development of postal services in parcels, express and logistics and eliminate states’ abilities to restrict licensing in the sector, giving multinationals free access to the markets.”

UNI ICTS said the Telecommunications Annex shows a further push towards deregulation in the telecoms industry, the weakening of national regulatory bodies and stripping governments of the power to develop policies in the public interest in what is, ultimately, a public service.

“One again governments are involved in secret, backroom trade deals without any public consultation. Trade in Services (TISA) is another in a series of secretive trade deals aimed at shifting power to corporations and away from citizens,” said Head of UNI ICTS Alan Tate.

UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings said perhaps most worryingly is the fact that negotiations affecting hundreds of millions of citizens have been taking place in secret.

“These deals are clearly being negotiated in secret because they seek to skew the balance in favour of big business and away from working people,” Jennings said.

"We have seen this with the ISDS provisions in trade deals, that they become a backdoor to cut labour conditions.

“If decent work is to be protected under any of these trade deals, it’s time unions had a voice at the table.”

To view the Wikileaks document on TISA click here