News

While the G20 leaders meet in Seoul, UNI Global Union will host some 2000 trade union leaders in Nagasaki, Japan, at its World Congress. UNI will be discussing its new Breaking Through strategy to work with unions to organise more workers and ensure that they can bargain collectively and have rights on the job.



At the G20, the Global Unions will call for the retention of stimulus measures that focus on job creation so as to reduce deficits through sustained economic growth, a focus on employment and investment in people and the establishment of a G20 Employment Working Group.



They also want to ensure that climate change policies encompass ‘Just Transition’, that ‘Decent Work’ is at the heart of development strategies and that G20 governments meet aid commitments to attain the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.



The Global Unions will also push the G20 countries to commit to delivering fair taxation, curb financial speculation, clamp down on tax havens and accelerate financial reforms.



You can find the Global Unions statement at http://www.ituc-csi.org/global-unions-statement-to-the-g20.html



The global union movement is also putting the spotlight on host-country Korea’s own labour practices, which do not meet international standards 14 years after the government made a commitment to reforms.



Korea is one of the worst countries in the world for the repression of its workers, trade unions and people. The government and employers routinely jail trade unionists for exercising their rights, stop subcontracted workers from joining a union or bargaining collectively and prevent many public sector workers from joining a union or bargaining collectively.

You can find online the G20 briefing note, a poster and a leaflet on Korea (in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish in high and low resolution versions) at http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?n=718&l=2