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Jennings' call for a pay rise for workers has resonated at Davos. During a session on how to close the growing wealth inequality gap, Stiglitz and other panellists agreed with Jennings that the gap in wages was not only obscene but holding back the economic recovery. Top business academic Roger Martin said that working people and the unions had been the “collateral damage” of the power shift experienced since the 1970s.



Jennings said, “There is a consensus we must lift the earnings of people – the 99% need a wage rise.”



“Financial excess has brought with it inequality and economic instability,” said Stiglitz.



Martin said, “Traditional labour parties have cut the bridge with the concerns for working people. There has been a power shift and we have seen the collateral damage. Parties from the right have associated themselves with the elite or the talent which has got very high rewards.”



Stiglitz said that society is paying a high price for the way inequality has grown.” He said these levels of inequality were evident in the United States where the myth that the US is a land of economic opportunity no longer rang true. The Nobel economist said that those who are winning at the top are the “rent-seekers” – people who have access to natural resources and financial institutions - because they make massive profits without contributing.



Stiglitz agreed adding, “We should not accept these levels of inequality it doesn’t have to be like this.

This can be fixed.”



Jennings set out a vision for how the broken economic system can be fixed but first he said unions need to be allowed to get on with their work.



Jennings concluded, “I cannot do my job as a union leader to improve the lives of workers if they are not allowed to organise themselves, as is the case at Walmart in the US. It's time business and government woke up to the fact that unions are part of the solution to solving the crisis. The trickle down effect of wealth from the elite to the 99% clearly hasn’t worked, clogged up by self-interest. We need an alternative system built on strong pillars, including a living wage, gender parity, a social safety net and an efficient supply chain which respects rather than abuses workers. We need education and training which equips young people with the skills to do a quality job. Nor should we forget the potential of green jobs. We must put these pillars firmly in place and then we will be a position to bridge the inequality gap but only if business changes its behaviour and governments start spending substantially more than the current 1 percent of GDP going on the active labour market.”



In a later session, chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Jennings pushed for jobs to go to the top of the UN agenda.