Brussels, 08/10/2008
Joint statement from TUAC, ITUC and ETUC
The mounting financial chaos is taking its toll on the real economy with sharply falling employment in the United States now spreading into a global recession, threatening jobs around the world with especially severe impacts on the poorest countries. The G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors must put in place a coordinated recovery plan targeted at stimulating the real economy in the G7 and beyond. There should be further coordinated interest rate cuts as necessary. Governments should bring forward infrastructure investment programmes as well as measures to create “green jobs” through alternative energy development and energy saving and conservation. Direct tax and expenditure measures should be introduced to support purchasing power of median and low income earners. As large parts of the financial system are being supported by the public taxpayers the unions insist that governments should take equity stakes and act as activist investors to protect the public interest and ensure that taxpayers are eventually reimbursed. Beyond the immediate action, the G7 governments must work to ensure that a crisis of this scale does not happen again. Work on a new regulatory architecture must begin, covering not just banks but also the parallel financial system as well.
The call for action on the crisis follows the mobilisation of more than a million workers by trade unions in 123 countries around the world on 7 October, the World Day for Decent Work. The central demand of the World Day focused on a fundamental transformation of the global economy against the background of the current crisis.
Further information:
Read the open letter to the G7 Finance Minsiters from the international trade union organisations.
Contacts:
• [email protected] – Tel.: +33 (0)1 55 37 37 37
TUAC has a consultative status with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and represents 66 million workers in 58 affiliated organisations in the 30 OECD countries.
• [email protected] - Tel.: +32 2 224 02 11
ITUC represents 168 million workers in 155 countries and territories and has 311 national affiliates.
• [email protected] – Tel.: +32 2 224 04 11
ETUC represents 82 trade union organisations in 36 European countries.