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UNI Global Union said today that there is no time for complacency from world leaders about the state of the global economy as unemployment sits at record highs and real financial reform has yet to get underway.



Union leaders from around the world are in Pittsburgh to meet with the leaders of the world’s biggest economies who are gathering for the G20 Summit. The trade union leaders will push for major reform in global economic policy and job creation policies.



The unions warn that while some corporate executives and international financiers are already heralding a recovery, the world’s workers are being left behind. The talk of ‘exit strategies’ from the crisis are premature.



“Leaders who are talking about exit strategies are looking for an exit from reality,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings, who is in Pittsburgh. “Last week the OECD warned that unemployment is at post-war highs and could get even worse if governments don’t take decisive active to train workers and create jobs.”



UNI is calling on government leaders to ensure workers are not left behind.



The global union movement is pushing for a stronger response to workers’ concerns.



A global poll shows support for increased government spending and regulation. Of more than 22,000 people surveyed by GlobeScan/PIPA, 60 percent support “significantly increasing government spending to stimulate the economy.” An even larger group (67 percent) want to see an increase in “government regulation and oversight of the national economy.”



UNI is calling on world leaders to not just increase investment in job creation schemes but also to reform the financial system to ensure it is open and transparent and so that it promotes basic, not speculative, banking and socially responsible investment.



“Financial lifeboats have enabled bankers to reach dry land,” Jennings said. “Working people are still in dangerous waters. To avoid stimulus packages now is like an ambulance driving by the scene of an accident.”



The representatives of unions from the G20 countries will present their demands to their leaders as they meet them in Pittsburgh.



On Wednesday, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the Party of European Socialists spoke to the union leaders. He warned that politicians seem ready to turn the page on the global economic crisis even though the world’s workers are still suffering.



Rasmussen said governments must focus on jobs, social security and education at this week’s G20 Summit.



The Trade Union G20 Pittsburgh Summit on the Global and Economic and Financial Crisis will continue tomorrow. At the meeting, trade union leaders are discussing their global response to the crisis and meeting with their heads of state as well as other political, trade and banking groups to push for real reforms that benefit workers.