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UNI Global Union General Secretary, Philip Jennings addressing United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Global Compact in New York , urged that the post- millennium development goals 2015 agenda be built on foundations of equality and sustainability. Jennings said that unions were an important building block of this new architecture, referring to the UN Global Compact’s new vision of “Building the Post-2015 Business Engagement Architecture”.

See Jenning's interview with The Guardian during the UN Global Compact here



Here is Jennings’ speech in full.



“The architects for a better world also need bricklayers, plumbers and electricians.



They live in neighbourhoods with working people from all walks of life.



They are the everyday architects and we should be building a better world with them.



My first message then is for the post 2015 agenda to give more prominence to jobs and the workforce, to root the agenda in the reality of the daily struggles facing working people and their families then we can give them hope and confidence that their concerns are being taken seriously.



Progress is stalled, things are not working well for working people.



Things are going wrong. It is not sustainable:



- We need to create 600 million jobs in the next decade just to keep unemployment at a standstill.

- Almost half of the world’s workforce is in vulnerable employment and we have massive youth unemployment everywhere. A lost generation!

- A growing gap between CEO pay and average earnings of their staff.

- Declining share of wages in the wealth produced.

- Poverty reduction yes but growing inequality everywhere.

- Wages de-linked from productivity.



All of this is avoidable.



I stress, a continuation of this inequality is not socially sustainable.



My second message - workers of the world need a pay rise.



We need more equity in the distribution of income.



Work is meant to lift you out of poverty not keep you in it.



We need a new UN Global Compact principle for a Living Wage.



We can add a living wage point to the four existing labour principles.



We know how to fix the problem from the deepening of collective bargaining to building a social protection floor.



Third message, there must be a seat at the table for the workforce from local to global.



UNI and IndustriALL, two sister Global Unions have signed over 100 global agreements with business from Ford to G4S, Petrobas, Renault, Anglo Gold, France Telecom and Volkswagen.



These agreements provide us with an opportunity to put the Ruggie principles into practice.



Unions are part of the solution to sustainability, to climate change, to equality.



That is why they should have a seat at the table.



The 8'000 signatories to the Global Compact should have no problem with this principle.



We want all staff to be free from fear. To be able to join a union free from fear.



Unhappily, we often run into a wall in union organising, to freedom of association and collective bargaining.



My fourth message: we have to end the fatal race to the bottom in supply chains.



On April 24 the Rana Plaza Garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh, over 1'000 lives were lost.



Workers forced to work under threat of dismissal or loss of wages.



We made a call to action.



UNI and IndustriALL with more than 90 global garment brands have a new Accord on factory safety in Bangladesh, covering 2 million workers.



A legal contract for a better garment world.



This speaks for stronger integrity measures at the UN Global Compact to end the race to the bottom.



In closing what I am talking about is a policy of Including You.



To build inclusive growth, growth with social equity where jobs, the workforce, distribution justice with a voice for people are central to the post 2015 agenda.



We can do this.



We are your partners.



Including You.



Including You: business, governments, civil society, unions.



There is a Korean saying that: "In a place where there is a will, there is a road."



We look to post 2015 agenda to take the high road of "Including You"."