|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Miscellaneous |
|
UNION LEADERS REJECT G8 CALL FOR "FLEXIBILITY" |
Current rating: 0 |
by The Regina Leader Post
(No verified email address) |
28 Apr 2002
|
Union leaders shocked by G8 demands.
If you lacked a reason to protest the actions of the G8 ...
Shocking? Yes. Surprising? No, not considering that the US Labor Secretary is joined at the hip with the Republican Party. This should be a warning that people like Jimmy Hoffa Jr. cozying up to "free trade" policies will do workers no good. ML |
MONTREAL - Dismayed international union leaders emerged from a meeting with G8 labour ministers Friday, deploring its secrecy and warning that industrialized countries are being advised to plot "flexibility" policies that will hurt workers.
"They're now talking about labour market flexibility, which means flexible wages, fewer worker protections, weaker unions, and lower minimum wages." said John Evans, head of the trade union advisory committee to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Evans was one of several union leaders who met for several hours Thursday and briefly Friday with labour ministers from Canada, the US, Japan, Britain, Italy, Germany, and Russia.
In a briefing paper supported by the US, the OECD advised that ministers embrace the flexibility as a way to manage workers better, Evans said.
"The Neo-Liberal agenda is always lurking in the background. I just hope the ministers can resist it."
The meetings are a lead-up to the larger G8 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta in June.
For security reasons, and to prevent anti-G8 protests, the meetings were held in private. This prompted angry reaction from labour leaders, who called it symbolic of the G8's pro-business, hidden agenda.
"It's a debate that needs to be broadcast, quite frankly", said Ken Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress.
Riot police armed with pepper spray moved in Friday evening on a group of protestors who gathered in a square in Ste. Catherine's Street.
---------------
This was buried on page D6 (The end of the 4th section) of our local newspaper, and frankly, I couldn't believe what I was reading. Are we in Bizarro World?
Should this not be front-page material? Everyone works, after all. This will touch every life in G8 countries. (and outside!)
I urge everyone to contact their Labour Ministers, who are sworn to uphold labour laws, and make life better for the WORKER!!!! (My own experience with them says otherwise ... I'm just saying, that's what we pay them for!)
Let them know this will not stand.
For $hame ... |
See also:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=176802&group=webcast
|
