PRESS BRIEFING BY CONFEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY CONFEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

ON PARTICIPATION IN ‘GLOBAL COMPACT’

The General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Bill Jordan, told a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon that global labour was behind the Secretary-General's initiative –- the Global Compact -– which asks the private sector to support core labour standards, human rights and environmental practices and aims to give a human face to globalization. Mr. Jordan, whose organization has more than 150 million members worldwide, the majority from developing countries, was speaking after meeting the Secretary-General, along with other leaders of the trade union movement, to discuss the Global Compact initiative.

Mr. Jordan said the delegation of trade union leaders was collectively the "voice of international labour". As a result of its discussions with Secretary- General Kofi Annan today, international labour was throwing its full weight behind the Global Compact, because it was an initiative that had to work. The deficiencies of globalization were there for all to see, he said. The process had much potential, but its shortcomings had to be addressed and the Global Compact could play an important part in doing that.

He explained that he had told the Secretary-General that labour around the world could and would work alongside big business to promote the social compact. Bringing those two players together to see if they could redress the shortcomings of globalization was at the heart of the Secretary-General's initiative. Tripartite arrangements, where government, business and labour elaborated the standards needed in the world's workplace, existed courtesy of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Those standards, however, had not yet been accepted and applied in all countries. Trade unions would stand shoulder to shoulder with the Secretary-General and big business to see they were accepted and applied.

Asked what lessons he drew from events surrounding the recent World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Mr. Jordan said he thought that the Seattle problems showed that the downside of globalization had not been addressed. To ignore the social side of globalization was dangerous, and eventually there would be a reaction, he added. Unless the social issues were addressed, globalization would come to a halt. People whose support was needed would reject it. In Seattle, the symptoms of ignoring social costs were on display. The nations of North America and Europe tried to inject a social dimension into the negotiations in Seattle, he added, but consensus could not be reached, and the process had ground to a temporary halt.

The trade union movement was not opposed to globalization, he added. Rather, it supported globalization, but on the understanding that governments and multinationals would address its shortcomings. The current round of mega- mergers in industry did not just mean more power to multinational industries,

ICFTU Press Briefing - 2 - 20 January 2000

but also an acceleration of change. To millions of working people, that change could spell instability and insecurity, which could be addressed by the Global Compact.

Georg Kell, a Senior Officer from the Executive Office of the Secretary- General, said that the Secretary-General would not attend the World Economic Forum this year, but other senior United Nations officials would attend. In addition, the United Nations Global Compact Web site would be launched at that Forum on 31 January. From that date, it would be found at .

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