TUC and Trade Union involvement in MPH 2005

TUC and Trade Union involvement in MPH 2005

For the Trades Union Congress and wider trade union involvement in the Make Poverty History coalition (MPH) is a natural development of our work in the international development field. The TUC has always played an active international role with much of our work being directed at providing financial, political and organisational support for our sister organisations in the South.

The trade union movement is international, through our bilateral links and affiliation to bodies like the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (which represents national centres in 149 countries), the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD and individual unions affiliations to their sectorially based Global Union Federations we are in daily contact with colleagues in both the developed and developing world.

Make Poverty History encapsulates the core values of trade unionism - the struggle for social and economic justice. The key message, that the structural conditions of the global economic system are rigged against the developing world in relation to trade, debt and aid, is a straightforward one for trade unionists used to negotiating in their own workplaces. We also know from our own struggles that there is nothing natural or inevitable about millions living in want.

The moral argument for international trade union solidarity has always existed. However in an age of ever increasing globalisation, the direct economic consequences to British workers of unfair patterns of development and underdevelopment are increasingly clear. Never has the International Labour Organisation’s maxim, ‘poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere’ been more true. When countries desperate to attract foreign investment set up Economic Processing Zones in which national laws and standards are waived (including Core Labour Standards [1] ) workers in these countries lose out as do other workers including those in developing countries who try to maintain decent standards.

The international trade union movement has long advocated the view that job creation and decent work is an essential part of any sustainable poverty reduction strategy. The Secretary of State for International Development noted in the preface to the DFID ‘Labour Standards and Poverty Reduction’ paper that ‘an essential part of poverty elimination is those human rights known as core labour standards’ [2] . We have seen that increases in global trade have not led to an equal reduction in global poverty and know that workers self organisation is vital in the long term to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth.

So how will unions take forward the MPH message in 2005? A key aim of the MPH coalition is to vastly increase the level of awareness of development issues and the structural problems that underlay world poverty with the public. We plan to get this message to as many of the 6.7 million union members in the UK as possible. Through articles in union journals, mailings to branches and developing country speakers. Members will also be encouraged to actively participate by wearing the white band, sending action cards and taking part in theG8 mobilisation.

Together with affiliates a series of union events will be organised throughout the year. Plans range from a high-level tripartite debate featuring business, government and union leaders to a model conference for 15-18 year olds to discuss the issues of why in a world with so many resources poverty is still so prevalent. On the political level we will be adding the trade union movements weight to MPH lobbying. G8 host country government traditionally meet with leaders from the G8 unions and we will be using this year’s meetings to push hard on the MPH agenda. The issues of trade justice, debt and aid are also already being raised at the regular meetings between unions and relevant government departments.

We aim to finish 2005 having raised awareness and prompted action at all levels of the UK trade union movement around issues raised by Make Poverty History, having made the UK government fully aware of the trade unions commitment to these issues and having built the strength of the alliance between organised labour both north and south and development NGO’s. Finally we are committed to work with the ICFTU and Global Union Federations to ensure that the Global Call to Action Against Poverty is a genuinely international and successful campaign.

Further information

TUC website = www.tuc.org.uk/makepovertyhistory

ICFTU website = www.icftu.org

To register for TUC’s International Development Matters monthly e-mail update go to http://www.tuc.org.uk/newsroom/register.cfm

[1] In 1997 the ILO designated 8 conventions as fundamental workers rights/core labour standards these were to be regarded as basic human rights and were applicable to all ILO member countries regardless of levels of development. They can be summed up as freedom from child labour, freedom from forced labour, the right to non-discrimination in the work place and the right to join and a union and bargain collectively

[2] Labour Standards and Poverty Reduction, DFID, 2005