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UNI Global Union General Secretary, Philip Jennings, addressing the 101^st International Labour Conference at the ILO in Geneva, demanded that the G20 which meets in Los Cabos Mexico later this month finally delivers on a coordinated global jobs plan that will answer the call of the disenfranchised youth. The G20 must also crackdown on continuing bad practice in the finance sector.





Jennings said, “Austerity has not worked, jobless numbers are soaring, wages are stagnant, yet CEO pay rockets. Corporate return on equity is exaggerated. We need to change the rules of the game. Today’s JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon should listen to the words of its founder. JP Morgan said the boss should not earn more than twenty times the wage of those at the bottom. CEO earnings are driven by a reckless, unsustainable financial sector. UNI Finance Global Union is leading the charge for a responsible finance sector. The G20 must do more to clean up the finance sector."





On the Eurozone crisis Jennings said, “European austerity has come with a kick in the teeth to ILO standards, people, welfare and rights. It is time for a freedom of association complaint against the Troika. The Troika has become “walmartised”; its bailout conditionalities end collective agreements and cuts rights. Social Europe: a eurozone, a dead zone. At this 101^st Conference, we should confine these practices to Orwell’s Room 101. We need more, not less, collective bargaining to deal with collapsing consumption.”





Jennings thanked Juan Somavia for his successful tenure as ILO Director General and congratulated Guy Ryder on becoming the Director General-elect, referring to him as the “600 Million Job Man” – the number of new jobs needed in the next decade.



Jennings had a word of warning for the employers present at the International Labour Conference, “Workers must be free from fear. I am appalled at the manoeuvring by the employers’ group here on standards. Markets work better in democracies where rights are respected. Employers: rethink your posturing on standards. No free pass to rights’ abusers. We have had the Arab Spring. Do not bring a rights’ winter. Remember, strong unions are the path to inclusive growth. Inequality is not sustainable. If the 1% thrive and 99% nose dive, economic vitality is hampered for all. Build our economies with the goal of ‘Including You.’ Including all people in wealth produced. The ILO should make a breakthrough, to build a global economy with the aim of ‘Including You’. Instead we have precarity. No certainty of wages, jobs, conditions, pensions. That’s why we need social protection."





Philip Jennings will be at the G20 in Los Cabos Mexico later this month as a member of the L20, Labour Leaders group.