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Kan, who took office in June, won a vote within his party to stay on as Prime Minister.



UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings met with Kan earlier this month during the ITUC’s Asian and Pacific Labour Network (APLN) meeting in Tokyo. UNI has been working with the global trade union movement to push for job creation and the protection of workers’ rights as major priorities in crisis-recovery plans. That message has gone to the G20 and the trade union movement is now taking it to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group.



At the meeting in Tokyo, Kan told the group that he would push for a Labour Forum in the APEC group. APEC currently has a business advisory council but no such organisation exists for those representing workers. He also said that Japan would continue to focus on employment creation and higher demand and would increase spending to maintain economic and employment growth.

The trade union delegation presented to Kan an ITUC/APLN statement with "trade union recommendations in a range of areas on APEC`s agenda including trade, investment, environment, human resource development and workers` rights and the Prime Minister said he would seek to ensure these issues were reflected in APEC Leaders` discussions,” the ITUC said.

You can read the statement here.



The next APEC meeting will take place in Yokohama on November 13-14, immediately after the UNI World Congress in Nagasaki. There will also be a G20 leaders summit in Seoul on November 11-12.



While in Asia, Jennings led a UNI delegation that met with Dr. Sakong Il, Chairman of the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit in Seoul. Dr. Sakong has agreed to arrange an exchange between the President of Korea and a delegation from the global trade union movement.



“Our principal concern is the deteriorating jobs situation in so many parts of the world,” Jennings told Sakong. “Global unemployment has broken all records and in many G20 nations the situation is deteriorating. The austerity packages launched in so many nations will aggravate this further. The people are looking for a commitment from the G20 that governments are responding to their day-to-day concerns to achieve decent work.”



With so many world leaders meeting so close to its Congress, UNI will put a spotlight on the necessity of unions and trade union and workers’ rights. UNI’s new strategic plan “Breaking Through” will focus on organising and securing bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of workers.







UNI delegation with Sakong Il in Seoul.