News

Philip Jennings, general secretary of UNI Global Union, told RadioLabour that unions are in a perfect position to speak up for workers at the international level.



“What we want is a rule-based system for international companies for which they are held to account,” Jennings said.



He said unions “have done the heavy lifting” by putting in place a unified trade union structure and now they must fight to make sure multinational companies adhere to global labour standards.



“At the end of the day we have to mainstream labour standards,” he said. “There has to be a way in which we put in the checks and balances so that the entire system is respecting basic trade union rights.”



Other labour movement leaders featured in the report echoed Jennings sentiments, pointing out how far unions have come in the past few years.



“What we have seen is a paradigm shift and global labour is now taken seriously,” said David Cockroft, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation.



With world governing bodies such as the G20 listening to labour organisations such as the ILO, labour is far better able to shape global politics.



The union leaders who spoke to RadioLabour all agreed that labour will play an important role in shaping the global economy as it emerges from the financial crisis and, if a future crisis is to be avoided, must continue to have a voice in the institutions making decisions with world-wide effects.



RadioLabour is the international labour movement's global radio station.



You can find their reports at www.radiolabour.net.