*{GLOBALISING SOCIAL JUSTICE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Avril 2000

Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . 5
Spreading and Deepening Democracy in the Era of Globalisation .  . 7
Jobs and Justice in the Global Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Human Rights and the World of Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   15
Ending Discrimination at the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
Organising International Solidarity . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .  23
Trade Unions in the 21st Century:
the Impact of Globalisation on Trade Union Structures and Activities. 27


Foreword
The leaders of the world’s free trade union movement are gathering
in Durban South Africa in April 2000 for a week of discussion
about the future of organised labour. The ICFTU’s 17th
World Congress coincides with the start of the new millennium
and increasing awareness that a series of inter-linked social, political
and economic changes mark a turning point in the history of
the trade union movement. The aim of this report is to focus the
attention of Congress delegates and union activists all over the
world on the scale and significance of the challenges unions are
now facing as globalisation gathers pace. It also offers proposals
for action aimed at building a strong international support network
for unions and their members.

This report concludes that, while the basic goals of trade unions
for dignity and justice, decent work, and an end to discrimination
remain as important as ever, many of our policies and
organisational methods need to be examined. It takes a cold
hard look at what unions have to do to stay relevant to the
changing needs of members in a changing world.

The key points of the report are grouped together in the following
executive summary. The six chapters focus on: -
• The need for further progress in spreading and deepening the
culture of democracy;
• The need for a new, multilateral approach to integrating economic
growth with environmental and social protection to
counterbalance the negative impacts of liberalisation and technological
change on society;
• The continuing struggle for the world-wide respect for the
rights to freedom of association, organisation and collective
bargaining;
• Breaking down the barriers to equality between the sexes and
ending discrimination in all its forms;
• Organising in a world of work that is rapidly being transformed
by the global production networks of transnational
business and by the spread of the informal sector
• Reforming the international free trade union movement to
meet the needs of unions and their members in a more interdependent
world. }

*partie=titre Spreading and Deepening Democracy in the Era of Globalisation *partie=nil 
With accelerating pace in the closing decades of the twentieth
century, democracy has become the dominant system of government
in most countries of the world. However, the practice of
democracy remains fragile and flawed. Dictatorships survive, corruption
abounds and large-scale abuse of human rights continues.
In too many countries, women’s rights are still non-existent. They
are relegated to the lowest rung of society on the pretext of culture,
tradition or religion. The foundations of democracy are civil
and political rights of all citizens, which must be protected and
promoted by a strengthened international system.

Widening gaps between the poorest and the wealthy within and
between countries is a threat to the survival of democracy.
Unemployment and poverty create fertile ground for the enemies
of democracy. An increasing number of states appear on
the brink of collapse and are easy prey to take over by warlords
of various motivations. Democratic countries, working through
the UN and other international institutions, must be ready to
mobilise resources to tackle poverty and, if necessary, to
mobilise military forces to prevent aggression against both
neighbouring states and a country’s own citizens.

Rapid technological change, economic liberalisation and the end
of the Cold War have combined to create what has come to be
termed “globalisation”. Globalisation appears to many to be
beyond the control of democratic governments. It is not. While
globalisation holds the potential of creating resources needed to
eradicate poverty and unemployment, its impact is widening
already intolerable divisions in society. Democratic action to
address the problems generated by globalisation will require both
local level initiatives and strengthened international co-operation.

An important focal point for action to meet the fears and insecurity
people have in a rapidly changing world is the workplace.
Workplaces are being transformed by intensified competition with
employers squeezing wages and working conditions all over the
world. Insecurity at work spreads back to the home and the community
and is weakening the confidence of ordinary people that
participating in democracy, including voting in elections can help
to solve their problems. Union organisation is thus vital both to
addressing workplace problems and mobilising mass participation
in the political process.

Different countries must work out their own constitutional forms
for democracy. However, the international community can and
should ensure that international standards on human rights are
universally respected so as to ensure that democracy as a culture
can flourish. The arguments of “stability before rights” and “cultural
anti-imperialism” that are used to attack the universal observance
of human rights do not stand up to scrutiny and serve to
preserve the control of established elites.

Modern market economies require the checks and balances
inherent in democratic systems of government to prevent catastrophes
from famines to the collapse of mismanaged banks.
Furthermore, the democratic process of dialogue and debate is
essential to the definition of the goals and the means for development.
Participative development must begin at the workplace
with respect for basic workers’ rights. The best guarantee that
governments will focus on poverty eradication is to ensure that
the poor have a voice in society.

The world must learn the lessons of the international effort to
support the struggle inside South Africa against Apartheid. Two
of the most important are that international pressure must be
firmly based on the defence of human rights and that from the
outset the international community must be prepared to escalate
the use of economic sanctions. In South Africa, one of the most
effective ways of helping the majority of South Africans assert
their rights was by supporting their trade unions. Gradually,
international companies and their home governments became
aware that trading with Apartheid was bad for business. A
stronger multilateral system for the protection and promotion of
human rights must be based on the key importance of workplace
rights and the escalation of economic pressure on governments
that fail to co-operate in ending rights abuse.

Free trade unions grouped together under the umbrella of the
ICFTU remain one of the major forces of democratic progress in
the world. The union role in building democracy from the
workplace up to Summits of Heads of State is more relevant
than ever in the era of globalisation. Union action is a vital component
in meeting the threats to democracy rooted in poverty,
unemployment and social dislocation. Furthermore the process
of involvement in union activities helps ordinary people, including
the most disadvantaged, make democracy work to improve
their own lives and that of the communities in which they live.

*partie=titre Jobs and Justice in the Global Economy *partie=nil 
The goal of the ICFTU is to build social ground rules for the
global economy that ensure basic human needs are given top
priority in a coherent strategy for growth and development. A
major step toward this goal was achieved in Copenhagen at the
UN World Summit for Social Development in 1995, and reinforced
at the World Women’s Conference held in the same year
in Beijing. The special General Assembly sessions in 2000
reviewing the Summits are a major political opportunity for governments
to translate the idea of a “human face for globalisation”
into a practical programme of reform built on ensuring much
greater coherence between the work of the IMF, World Bank,
UNCTAD, the WTO, UNDP and the ILO.

Over the last five years, governments and others have come to
recognise much more clearly that good governance, which for
the ICFTU means the democratic principles of transparency,
accountability and participation, is essential to effective development
strategies. It must apply to the functioning of international
institutions as well as nation states. Tackling poverty requires
effective public authorities responsive to the needs of the poorest
and able to counteract the social divisions that intensified competition
is causing all over the world. In a global market economy,
spreading the potential benefits of increased trade and
investment and diminishing the social costs of rapid change,
requires an active role for governments acting within agreed
international ground rules. A focal point for developing these
ground rules is the workplace where the pressures of the market
interact with people’s aspirations for a better life. The launch at
the ILO’s 1999 Conference of its programme on Decent Work has
stimulated an important new opening for more integrated and
coherent international social and economic policies.

Improving the international system for protecting and promoting
human rights is a key to improved governance and
thus development. Inequality does not miraculously disappear
with prosperity. Women, in particular, and especially
working women must be guaranteed equality of opportunity
and treatment if continuing deep disparities between the
sexes are to be diminished. Similarly, discrimination against
other disadvantaged groups must be steadily eliminated by
active policies for social inclusion.

The market does not and will not provide access to education
and health care for all nor a social safety net. Despite numerous
studies showing the immense value to individuals, communities
and countries of universal basic education and healthcare, these
primarily public services remain grossly under resourced. The
state must also provide a safety net of social protection to ensure
that children, the elderly, the sick, people with disabilities and
the unemployed are not condemned to poverty. National governments,
working with employers, trade unions and others,
have a responsibility to develop comprehensive social protection
policies, and the international community must assist the least
developed countries to begin building such programmes.

Counterbalancing the divisive social impact of globalisation
requires a renewed effort to support the least developed countries.
The vast majority of the people of Africa and hundreds of millions
more in Asia, Latin America and the transition countries remain
on the margins of the global economy. In many regions, they survive
on the income from subsistence farming and precarious
unproductive jobs in the enormous shantytowns that surround
the cities of the developing world. The major focus of poverty
reduction strategies must be to help the poorest work themselves
out of poverty. The continued growth of the informal sector in the
developing world is deepening the poverty trap not curing it.
Above all people surviving in the informal sector want security;
security from crime, for their meagre savings, for their dwellings
and most of all for their children’s future. Putting together an integrated
strategy for poverty eradication requires a multi-faceted
approach based on community involvement; and most of all,
political will. Tackling the roots of poverty through programmes
to get children into school, create productive jobs for the parents
of child labourers, and enforce labour laws, particularly on the
minimum age for employment are central to this strategy.

After more than a decade of structural adjustment policies
focussed on financial stabilisation, deregulation and privatisation,
the IMF and World Bank are at last shifting priorities to
focus on poverty reduction. Economic mismanagement, notably
through the waste of resources on arms, corruption and prestige
projects benefiting only the wealthy, should not be supported by
international loans. But all too often budget cuts have not
focused on waste and have hit the weakest hardest. Translating
the promise of a drive against poverty into reality will require
major change in the way the international institutions formulate
and implement policy, as well as a big increase in aid. The rhetoric
about accountability will only become meaningful when
trade unions and other representative non-governmental organisations
have a full role in formulating and implementing integrated
programmes for poverty reduction.

With over 3 billion people surviving on less than $2 a day and
1.3 billion on less than $1 a day, and global unemployment and
underemployment totalling 900 million, the world economy is
clearly running well below capacity. The main constraint on
faster growth is instability in finance markets. Inadequate regulation
of emerging finance markets, which was the root cause of
the boom and bust of a number of Asian economies in the second
half of the nineties, coupled with the deflationary conditions
attached to the initial round of emergency IMF assistance,
provoked a sharp slowdown from which a number of countries
have yet to recover. The reflex reaction of central banks in the
major industrial countries to increase interest rates at the slightest
suspicion that low inflation rates might increase, is inhibiting
global poverty reduction.

Trade unions value price stability but have stressed that much
greater focus needs to be given to social and labour market policies
that encourage employment, productivity and wage growth.
Governments and international economic agencies are neglecting
tripartism and social dialogue as a means for developing policies
for higher and more stable growth. The post Asia crisis effort to
create a new architecture to reduce financial volatility is necessary
but, without a determined effort to develop international
social policy guidelines to address poverty and unemployment,
lacks the coherence needed to bring the billions of people currently
excluded from globalisation into the global economy.

A major international reconstruction effort is needed for the
least developed countries. The international financial institutions
responded with alacrity to the threat of bankruptcy of
major banks following the Asian and Russian crashes of 1997/8,
but have taken years to formulate extremely modest programmes
of debt relief for the poorest developing countries. The
ICFTU has argued forcefully for a number of years for deeper
and quicker action to link debt relief to forward looking programmes
for poverty reduction. The costs of paying off debts,
often incurred and wasted by former dictators, is still siphoning
off scarce foreign exchange needed to rebuild reserves and thus
allow large-scale investment in priorities such as education and
health care. Years of austerity in Africa have seriously damaged
fragile social capital and weak public institutions creating conditions
in which local warlords, often in league with drug and
precious minerals smugglers, are destabilising whole countries
causing massive casualties and huge refugee problems.

The collapse of the Seattle Ministerial Conference of the World
Trade Organisation showed that popular confidence in the multilateral
trading system is at an all-time low in both the industrialised
and the developing countries. This failure reflects the
growing imbalance in globalisation, yet the end of the talks could
also be the beginning of a new approach to globalisation. The
WTO must start to deal with the issue of how trade and investment
can serve social development, and can no longer ignore
working peoples’ rights. If the lack of consensus in Seattle leads
to a reassessment of the links between trade, development, social
issues and the environment, the Seattle Ministerial Conference
will not have been a failure but rather the beginning of a search
for a more responsive and responsible global market.

The WTO has an increasingly wide remit to promote not only
the reduction of border controls but also the reform of national
policies deemed to inhibit open competition. The major beneficiaries
so far are multinational companies whose recent
growth measured in terms of foreign direct investment has far
outstripped that of trade. The ICFTU has campaigned vigorously
to place the relationship between trade liberalisation and
the observance of core labour standards on the agendas of both
the WTO and the ILO. The advantages of a serious dialogue
about how to avoid an intensification of competitive pressures
released by trade liberalisation from undermining basic human
rights at work is being realised by governments of both industrial
and developing countries. The next step is to agree on a
forum to translate the connections between sound labour practices,
a much stronger development focus for trade policies and
the building of support for a multilateral rule based trading system
into effective action. At the same time, trade talks must
ensure that markets are opened up to developing country
exports and that the dividends of trade growth are fairly shared.

Trade policy can no longer be compartmentalised as the exclusive
concern of the WTO. With a quarter of world output
entering world trade, the impact of changing patterns of commerce
has huge positive and negative effects on large numbers
of people. Unions are amongst the many organisations anxious
to ensure that policies on, for example, public health, the environment
or the provision of education services are not driven
by a narrow legal interpretation of trade law. In particular, state
provided or subsidised broad based education and health care
programmes must not be jeopardised in the name of equal
treatment for multinational companies that focus on the market
of those with highest incomes in the main centres of population.
The WTO must open itself to a much broader debate
about the role of trade policy, its limits and the positive role of
social policies in an open world economy.

Despite the leading role multinational companies are playing in
the process of globalisation and the prolonged rapid growth of
foreign direct investment, there are no global ground rules to
regulate their behaviour. Companies thus play countries and
regions off against each other. They are only required to play by
the rules of each country in which they operate to the extent to
which those rules are enforced. This allows them to exploit the
gaps in jurisdiction this leaves wherever it serves their profits,
particularly when it comes to internal accounting practices, tax
liabilities and workers’ rights.

The major home countries of the multinationals have, usually at
the request of the companies, negotiated bilateral investment
treaties to protect their investments. Developing countries desperate
for investment have clearly been at a major disadvantage
in such negotiations and the treaties place few obligations on
multinationals to participate in national development programmes.
The abortive negotiations at the OECD in the nineties
were an attempt by some countries to generalise the terms of the
over one thousand bilateral treaties into a single Multilateral
Agreement on Investment (MAI). The negotiations, however,
simply highlighted the vast imbalance between the obligations
on governments to treat foreign investors favourably and the
weakness of constraints on companies. That fuelled a backlash,
where the ICFTU working with the TUAC did much to halt
what would have been an unbalanced agreement. The experience
has led trade unions to demand that any future attempts to
negotiate international ground rules for multinationals remedy
the evident weakness of bilateral treaties, and focus with equal
force on the responsibilities of multinationals as on the basic
legal conditions for their operations. A defining issue for unions
is that neither companies nor governments should undermine
core labour standards in an attempt to gain short-term competitive
advantage.

Integrated international social and economic policies for the
21st century must be environmentally sustainable. Preventing
environmental degradation cannot be an afterthought for government
or business or trade unions. Shifting to sustainable patterns
of development and discouraging damaging forms of
production will have profound implications for jobs and living
standards. Trade unions, like many others, hope that a “greener”
world economy will create more and better jobs than “a business
as usual” scenario. This will not come about by relying solely on
market incentives. Trade unions have stressed that sustainable
employment strategies must be worked out side by side with
environmental programmes to anticipate and avoid a damaging
division over jobs or the environment. They have also highlighted
the importance of engaging workers through their trade
unions in local level discussions about how to set and meet
environmental targets. Long experience in tackling hazards at
work has convinced unions that a strong worker voice on job
design is essential to ensuring that employers do not constantly
put off action to ensure safe work until it is too late. Linking
union safety and environment committees to the broad international
environmental movement is an important means of building
practical action on the environment and employment.

*partie=titre Human Rights and the World of Work *partie=nil 
Trade union rights are human rights to which all workers everywhere
are entitled. They are the foundations for democracy and
more essential than ever to ensuring that the global economy
works for people and not against them. They are also the building
blocks for workers in their struggles for decent work for all
and the elimination of abuses such as forced and child labour
and discrimination in employment. Yet, abuses of the basic right
to form and join a union of one’s choosing are on the increase.
The spread of democracy has opened up opportunities for
workers to exercise their basic rights but intensified global competition
is at the same time threatening their ability to organise
and bargain collectively.

The recent global economic crisis provoked worker protests in
many countries over job losses and wage cuts, but in too many
cases union efforts to engage employers and governments in
constructive dialogue over the social dimensions of reform and
adjustment were rebuffed, sometimes with violence. Badly
planned and hasty programmes of privatisation and deregulation
have further served to undermine the ability of unions to
represent workers at their time of greatest need.

Free trade union activity is still banned in a number of countries
where dictatorship by the army, a single party or a royal family
continues. Government sponsored unions continue as an instrument
of control and repression in a number of countries. In
many more, the beginnings of democracy have so far failed to
reach the workplace, with large sectors of the workforce excluded
from union organisation. Interference in union affairs by
public authorities, often in collusion with employers, hampers
the growth of independent democratic unions in many countries.
Local level organisers, vital cogs in the development of
effective unions, are frequently unprotected from acts of
employer discrimination, and in some countries are targets for
death squads who seem to have a license to intimidate and murder.

Export processing zones where union rights are suspended or
severely restricted are proliferating. Competition between the
zones to attract footloose investors is undermining respect for
core labour standards and endangering more socially responsible
development strategies of governments and companies.
Among the consequences of such “union-free havens” are hazardous
working conditions where workers’ (especially women’s)
lives, limbs and health are sacrificed for short-term profits.

Despite the alarming evidence of violations of basic workers’
rights, unions are fighting back, drawing on the inspiration of
past victories and developing new internationally co-ordinated
campaigns. Recent successes include Korea, Nigeria and
Indonesia where unions contributed significantly to breakthroughs
towards democracy and respect for human rights
including workplace rights.

Sound industrial relations systems based on observance of core
ILO labour standards are a vital component of sustainable development
aimed at poverty reduction. If their needs are to be
addressed, the poor and vulnerable must be able to make their
voice heard through independent, democratic and representative
organisations. Trade unions have a vital role to play in helping
the marginalised to get organised. Within the international
system, the main advocate of decent work for all is the ILO and
unions must make full use of its capacity to promote respect for
human rights at work.

Governments must provide a secure legal backing for union
rights but it is the unions themselves who have to organise
workers and represent them. As history has proved time and
again, the strength of unions derives from unity and democracy,
which in turn generate the confidence and mobilising capacity
to strive for improved living and working conditions. In the era
of globalisation, union building is vital to ensuring that workers
have a voice and influence over the powerful forces of change
affecting the world of work.

It is scandalous that at the beginning of the 21st century children
still form a substantial part of the working population in
many countries. Unions are taking the lead in generating a global
campaign to eliminate child labour through action to tackle
family poverty, to ensure that school places are available and
affordable and clamping down on employer exploitation.
Working with a range of non-governmental organisations as
well as international agencies, governments and employers,
unions aim to root out the causes of child labour and ensure that
child workers are able to regain their basic right to childhood
and education.

The main task of the ICFTU and the whole family of the international
free trade union movement is to add the strength of
effective international solidarity to well planned and targeted
union campaigns. Opening up space for union organising and
preventing violations of basic rights requires a combination of
national and international pressure. An important part of systematising
international solidarity is the rapid flow of accurate
information about rights violations to national organisations in
other countries for use in direct pressure on offending governments
and through the available international machinery of the
ILO and the UN. The ICFTU is developing a world-wide network
of union rights monitors, linked through information
technology. Among their responsibilities are to help protect and
support union organisers at the workplace. The ICFTU is also
extending its collaboration with like-minded international
human rights NGOs on a joint agenda to strengthen the international
system for preventing abuses. The workplace is a focal
point for communities and unions are increasingly aware of the
importance of building coalitions with other groups to advance
shared values and goals.

*partie=titre Ending Discrimination at the Workplace *partie=nil 
The most basic aspiration of hundreds of millions of workers
today is that the ideal of equality of treatment and of opportunity
at work becomes a reality. Discrimination based on gender,
race, colour, religion, national extraction, age, sexual orientation
and disability remain pervasive despite the fact that 138 countries
have ratified ILO Convention 111 on discrimination in
employment. As well as a major programme of action on gender
discrimination and the empowerment of women, in particular at
the workplace and in the trade unions, the ICFTU and its affiliates
have undertaken major efforts to address the problems of
young workers, migrants and ethnic minorities, workers with
disabilities, and older workers and are working on the problems
faced by gays and lesbians.

Some 45 per cent of women world-wide aged between 15 and
64 have jobs or are job seekers today. Yet it is the bottom rungs
of the jobs ladder that are filled by women, with little sign of
improvement. Indeed, the economic and financial crises in Asia,
Russia and many other countries have had a disastrous impact
on women and their families. Trade, investment and competition
policies, like macroeconomic fiscal and monetary polices,
often have tremendous implications for women's employment,
women's poverty and women's social burden. A gender assessment
of economic policies is long overdue and must also
become a central focus for labour market policies and programmes.
Unions too need to ensure that a gender perspective
is introduced into all their policy proposals for a stronger social
dimension to globalisation.

The UN Beijing World Women’s Conference marked a breakthrough
for unions in their efforts to highlight the problems
faced by working women. Considerable progress has also been
made on ILO standards which have over the last few years created
new benchmarks for rights of women at work on topics
such as homework, and part-time work, with maternity protection
scheduled for the year 2000. The trade union agenda
for the future, which will be developed also with the ILO,
includes more and better jobs for women; gender issues in collective
bargaining; equal wages for work of equal value; access
for women to promotion and high-level positions; gender
awareness raising for union members - men and women - as
well as for employers; combating violence against women at the
workplace; and life-long education for women, in particular
vocational training.

Women’s union membership is growing world-wide, but is still
lower than female share of the workforce. A major effort is therefore
required to break down the barriers to union membership
and to women’s active participation in the movement. Today
women represent around 39% of ICFTU membership, but too
often they are absent from leadership positions. Despite the
adoption of various resolutions, policies and positive action programmes,
the full integration of women into trade unions at all
levels is far from being achieved, as is the systematic inclusion
of gender perspectives in trade union policies and programmes.
The promotion of gender parity in all activities and decisionmaking
bodies, put forward in the ICFTU Constitution as one of
our aims, must be vigorously pursued. In the global economy of
today, unions need women as much as women need unions. The
challenge is to convince women that their place is in the unions.

At the beginning of the 21st century, young people will make up
two-thirds of the world’s population: 64% will be below 35
years and 20 % will be between 15 and 24 years. The trade
union movement must make young people visible and enable
their voices be heard at all levels of the union. The starting point
is to convince older members that unions need a comprehensive
rethink of their youth strategy if they are to win the next generation
of workers to the union cause. The main components of a
new strategy are information geared to young workers on what
unions are and why they should join the movement, the development
by young workers of organising programmes targeted
on youth, a focus on policies to address the youth jobs crisis and
a commitment to involve young union leaders, especially young
women, in all union activities. The ICFTU is supporting this
effort with a global youth programme and campaign launched
in 1999 “The Future Starts Now<>Join A Union”.

Unions are increasingly aware that fighting for equality means welcoming
diversity. With more than 42 million documented migrant
workers world-wide, and many millions more “illegals”, most of
whom are trapped in dirty, dangerous and degrading (3D) jobs,
reaching out to ethnic minorities and migrant workers is a high priority
for unions in many countries. Insecurity and racism are the
major problems and union representation is one of the most effective
means for them to assert their rights and win respect for the
vital role they play in the workforce and the community. Unions are
developing effective and innovative strategies for organising
migrants and ethnic minorities and integrating them into unions.

Persons with disabilities represent one-tenth of the world's population.
Unemployment amongst people of working age with disabilities
is often two to three times higher than national averages,
and when they do have jobs, they are usually unrewarding, badly
paid or insecure. More effort is needed to show employers that
workers with disabilities can be highly productive and a considerable
asset to the enterprise, while penalising more vigorously
those that try to avoid the laws aimed at promoting their employment.
Benefit systems also need to be reviewed to encourage integration
of people with disabilities into the job market and avoid
pushing them into long-term unemployment or special sheltered
workshops. People with disabilities are turning to unions for representation
and support on training, equality and workplace
design.

The population of the world is greying with a growing percentage
over 75 years of age, the majority of whom are women.
Unions are responding to this dramatic trend by focussing more
attention on discrimination against older workers and the problems
they face in retirement. High unemployment has forced
many older workers to prematurely curtail their working lives,
putting new strains on pension systems, health care provision
and children, especially on their daughters. Unions are leading
the struggle to establish social protection in the developing
countries, and to maintain systems established in the industrialised
countries. Working with older union members and retired
workers’ associations, unions are increasingly focusing on how
to plan the last stages of working life and prepare for retirement.
In many countries the age of retirement has become a hot issue
posing difficult questions of how to encourage those who wish
to stay in employment while not penalising those who are ready
to retire.

The trade union movement has been at the forefront in defending
and promoting human and trade union rights for all workers,
but this struggle has, up until recently, rarely included an
explicit commitment for equal rights, respect and dignity for gay
and lesbian workers. But equality for all must mean all and gay
and lesbians are often targets of discrimination at the workplace.
Unions are increasingly taking on the concerns of gay and lesbian
workers, aiming initially to identify organised homophobia
at the workplace and build networks to fight back against bigotry
and discrimination.

*partie=titre Organising International Solidarity *partie=nil 
Multinational enterprises are creating an integrated world production
system both by their direct investment and also through
complex chains of sub-contracting. Foreign direct investment is
growing faster than world trade which in turn continues to outstrip
the expansion of world output leading to increased interdependence
between countries and workers.

Given the significance of multinationals’ investments, one of the
biggest gaps in the emerging framework of international rules is a
global agreement on investment and the responsibilities of business.
The failure of the effort to negotiate the Multilateral
Agreement on Investment shows that a new more balanced
approach is needed which incorporates amongst other things
labour and environmental standards. Rising concern about labour
practices, especially in supplying contractors of major multinational
companies, has stimulated a wave of new corporate codes.
A swing back in the political pendulum towards greater awareness
of the social responsibilities of multinationals, coupled with criticisms
of the inadequate follow-up of corporate codes, is reviving
interest in the role of the multilateral codes of the OECD and ILO.

As well as trying to use all the various codes to open up opportunities
for unions to organise and represent workers in the sub-contracting
chain, unions are trying to engage companies in direct
dialogue at the international level. Common ground has been
found on the issue of tackling bribery and corruption and on
enlarging the concepts of corporate transparency and accountability
to include stakeholders, such as workers. Unions are also starting
to use their influence on the investment policies of pension
funds to encourage companies to commit themselves to sound
labour relations practices world-wide. Multinational companies are
also opening up to regular dialogue with unions at an international
level through the International Trade Secretariats. Most progress
is being made in Europe, where agreement with employers has led
to new laws providing for regular information and consultation
meetings between workers’ representatives and management.

Unions are developing comprehensive strategies to equip themselves
to represent workers in multinational companies and in
the companies that depend on the multinationals for their business.
They are building up their International Trade Secretariats
to provide information and advice to national and local unions,
expand international contacts between unions in different countries,
enlarge agreement over common strategies and actions, create
and service international union structures to act as focal
points for global or regional discussions with multinationals, and
equipping union representatives with the skills and knowledge
needed to participate in growing international union networks.

The breadth and depth of unions’ international reach and thus
their ability to identify and co-ordinate pressure on companies
in pursuit of common objectives, is already making an impact
on companies. However, it must be expanded still further so
that unions position themselves to initiate action rather than
having to react to company initiatives. Unions must pay equal
attention to enlarging the scope and content of their relations
with companies that take a positive attitude to their role as well
as counteracting anti-worker behaviour. Unions must continue
to exploit the potential of information technology to ensure
rapid dissemination and discussion of information.

Workers still need unions to even up the imbalance in their relations
with their employer. And to represent working women and
men effectively, unions need to organise as large a proportion of the
workforce as possible. Downsizing of large plants in sectors where
unions were traditionally strong has eroded the base of union
movements in many countries. New units of employment are
smaller and more scattered as a result of technological changes and
a shift by employers to sub contracted sources of supply and services.
The end of this global chain of subcontracting is to be found
in the informal sectors of most developing and transition countries.
Most informal sector work pays poverty wages and offers no
security of income. Such work constitutes a development trap.

Workers in the informal sectors of the developing world need
unions more than most because they have no recourse to law or
social insurance. But there are huge obstacles to organising
erected mainly by the inability of the public authorities to protect
activists and the transient nature of much informal work.
Nevertheless, all sorts of community and trade based organisations
are springing up and many deserve the support of established
unions, public authorities and the international
community. Poverty reduction policies will remain ineffective
until the voice of the poor can be heard through the organisations
of their own choosing. The poor need honest and effective
government. The vacuum created by the crisis of the state in
many developing and transition countries is not creating a
deregulated miracle economy in the form of the informal sector
but fertile ground for the growth of criminal gangs who impose
their own rules and method of enforcement.

Work is being “informalised” in many industrial countries too
with a rapid growth of “atypical” employment. Governments,
with the employers and trade unions, need to review labour
laws and update them to the reality of the sub contract system.
The ILO must lead the way in ensuring that new “flexible” forms
of work contract do not leave the worker without recourse to
legal remedies in the case of arbitrary and unfair treatment nor
create obstacles to union organising. Unions too must adopt
new organising techniques to meet the needs of “atypical” workers
and help them to win their rights.

Breaking out of a trend of steady decline in union membership
requires the investment of money and people in new organising
activity. Unions all over the world need to mobilise members, in
particular women and young members, to become active in
union affairs and take on office bearing responsibilities at local
level. Every unit of employment should have a union representative
who can act as a link to union structures and has received
training from the union in the skills needed to speak for members.
Laws will need strengthening to protect such local union
organisers from acts of discrimination by employers and to
ensure time off from work for training and union activities.

New “flexible” forms of work organisation demanded by
employers, while in some cases encouraging individuals to
develop their professional abilities, can also be extremely
destructive to family life and communities. A major challenge
facing unions, and employers too, is to find new ways to ensure
that family responsibilities and participation in the community
can be combined with productive and fulfilling employment.
Healthy democratic institutions are built on the engagement of
individuals in voluntary associations that enable them to enlarge
and achieve their aspirations in life. Workers, by forming
unions, help protect themselves from the fear and insecurity
which would otherwise block their individual development and
full participation in society. The workplace is one of the most
important focal points for social organisation and trade unions
are thus a vital component of civic society.

Globalisation is intensifying competition for markets worldwide
and this pressure is transferring to the workplace. The cost
cutting rush to keep up in the race for market share is damaging
efforts to create the genuine teamwork required for efficient
production. Engagement and initiative at work is only possible
where workers, men and women, are treated with respect.
Quality output is directly linked to the quality of working relations.
Constructive union/management dialogue, which seeks to
find solutions to conflicts and identify areas for improved performance,
is the key to improved conditions of employment, a
good rate of return on investment and increasing employment.

The foundation of an organising strategy is to establish and
spread the idea that joining and participating in the union is a
natural part of working life. This is easier in an environment
where union activity is not only tolerated but is welcomed by
employers, public authorities and the media. In only a handful
of countries is this the case. The most effective way of enlarging
membership is through personal contact in which members talk
to new colleagues explaining what the union does, how it
works, what it costs and how to get involved. Organising has to
be a reflex throughout the union, starting by helping volunteers
make the personal contact with new members that glues unions
together. In a changing world, unions also have to constantly
adapt what they do and how they do it. Pay and hours of work
remain central questions, but issues such as childcare, the quality
of employment, pensions, health and safety, discrimination at
the workplace, benefits and services are increasingly important
for working families.

*partie=titre Trade Unions in the 21st Century: the Impact of
Globalisation on Trade Union Structures and Activities *partie=nil 
In most countries organising is an uphill struggle to overcome
the fears of working people that somehow or other joining the
union could expose them to the hostility of their employer or
the public authorities, may not yield them much immediate tangible
benefit and is, therefore, not worth it. Enlarging union
membership is often focussed on articulating very basic
demands for social justice and building confidence amongst
working people that the union can change things for the better.
Identifying issues and working out a campaign strategy to
achieve widely supported goals is vital. This means selecting
targets and pressure points for action. In an ever more interdependent
world, dominated by multinational companies, such
pressure points may be in other countries and call for collaboration
with unions in those countries. Dialogue and negotiation
are vital to social progress and democracy. One of the main
effects of globalisation is to shift some of the dialogue and negotiation
to the international level. Union internationals, like the
ICFTU and the ITS, have a major task ahead in getting workers’
voices heard in board rooms and conference chambers of multinational
companies and international institutions.

The economic, social and political environment in which trade
unions organise and represent working people is changing dramatically
all over the world obliging unions to rethink their role
and strategies, including the structure and functions of international
union bodies like the ICFTU. The era of concentrated
mass production is ending and in the future unions will have to
organise and represent workers in large numbers of much smaller
units of employment. Collective bargaining is likely to
become more dispersed. Unions will therefore have to recruit,
train and support large numbers of local level representatives
and back them up with up-to-date and high quality information
and advice. Costs per member of organising and providing services
are likely to rise.

The structure of employment is changing with most new jobs in
the private service sector. The old “commanding heights” of
trade unionism in manufacturing, energy and transport are
declining in employment in many countries. The movement will
thus have to find ways of shifting financial and human resources
to new service sectors. Bargaining is also getting tougher in the
public sector as governments become ever more cost conscious
and old distinctions between private and public sector unions
are diminishing. The world-wide trend for union mergers is part
of the response to these changes in employment structure.

The rapidly falling costs of sharing information is helping
unions to meet the challenges of rapid change in the labour market
but requires a major overhaul of old methods. With an
increasingly dispersed membership, information technology
provides a potentially vital tool for strengthening union action
not only within countries but also internationally. Although the
take-up by unions of information technology is impressive,
more must be done to ensure that unions, especially in developing
countries are in a position to work out and adapt information
strategies as an integral part of their work.

Economic liberalisation, through the reduction of barriers to
international trade and investment and national deregulation
and privatisation, has sharply increased the intensity of global 
competition. This in turn is dramatically changing collective
bargaining, requiring new, more sophisticated union tactics
based on well-prepared and argued claims, a high degree
of membership awareness and involvement in bargaining, and
skilled union negotiating teams equipped with the knowledge
to probe and challenge management responses. Especially
when negotiating with multinationals, unions need to be able
to draw on international union analyses, information and solidarity
support.

Even though unions have had to become much more aware of the
pressures on employers of changes in world markets, they still
need to exert influence on the political process to ensure that laws
and institutions governing the world of work, and supporting and
protecting workers in a rapidly changing economy, fully reflect
workers’ concerns. In working out new political strategies, unions
have to adapt to the changes engendered by the end of the cold
war and its effect on democratic parties, in particular, of the left.
Old allies in both industrial and developing countries have yet to
work out a new model for social partnership in the global market
economy. In the transition countries, unions have had to practically
reinvent trade unionism after decades of Party control corrupted
even the language of democratic worker solidarity. In all
countries, however, unions are pressing the case for a much
stronger recognition of the vital role of a sound industrial relations
system, based on the core labour standards of the ILO, to stable
economic and social development in a global market economy.

In virtually all countries, unions are extremely concerned about
the growing divide between a small core of relatively well-paid,
well-trained workers in secure employment, and a much larger
group of lower paid less skilled, often women, workers shifting
between periods of unemployment and insecure jobs. These
divides are most pronounced in developing countries with large
informal sectors but are growing in industrial countries.
Insecurity and the pace of change are increasingly serious problems
for all workers and particularly for those facing discrimination
on the grounds of their sex, age, religion, ethnic
background, disability or sexual orientation. With the steady
decline of the extended family as a social safety net, unions have
to focus on how to help working people, especially women, to
reduce the stresses and strains of combining work with family
responsibilities. Adequate and comprehensive systems of social
security are needed more than ever before. A new focus on
organising young people is especially important to the regeneration
of union membership. Unions have a vital role to play as
a bridge between the workplace and community, helping workers
through changes at work and in employment.

Globalisation has shifted power from the national and local level to
the international level. This requires unions to focus on new targets
for action and is provoking a major review of international
union functions and structures. A particularly important component
of unions’ efforts to add a social dimension to the emerging
ground rules for the global economy is to establish a much higher
standing for the ILO within a more coherent system of international
co-operation for social and economic development.
Achieving these ambitious goals means that international union
organisations must do more to target campaigns and speed information
flows despite the pressure of reduced financial resources.

Within the family of the international trade union movement,
the ICFTU is the focal point of a series of inter-linked global networks
of labour solidarity. Its ability to influence events depends
mainly on the coherence, quality, timeliness and vigour of affiliates’
contributions to common policy positions and their implementation.
The ICFTU is a mechanism for organising
international solidarity. The first priority in strengthening the
ICFTU is thus ensuring that affiliates integrate the international
dimension of their work fully into their own strategic plans for
the future. Using new technologies to speed information flows
within the free trade union movement internationally is essential,
but must be linked to plans that integrate information management
into all aspects of affiliates’ work.

Following the decisions of the 1996 Congress, the ICFTU targeted
five broad priority themes: jobs and justice; human and trade
union rights; equality; multinationals; and organising. Already
there are some signs of success. The ICFTU is increasingly a
respected voice in the debate about the governance of the international
economic and social system. Governments now know
that they cannot kill and jail trade unionists, impose conditions
of forced labour, allow discrimination or the exploitation of child
labour without the ICFTU calling them to account before the
court of world public opinion as well as the ILO. On equality
issues and in particular the role of women, the ICFTU has
brought a new dimension to the international debate with its
focus on the world of work. The ICFTU in partnership with the
ITS have helped to put the issue of corporate social responsibility
onto the business agenda. And unions everywhere are pushing
back the barriers to union organising and bargaining, changing
attitudes and demonstrating the practical value to employers and
governments of working with unions.

In pursuing priorities, the ICFTU has four main targets: affiliates,
through providing services in the form of information,
advice, training and the mobilisation of solidarity support;
intergovernmental organisations, and the governments that control
them, at global and regional level; employers, especially
multinational companies; and public opinion in general and
more specifically, opinion formers on the international stage,
such as key NGOs, and political parties. 

Another way of looking at priorities is to focus on how unions,
and especially international union bodies, have to change to
achieve their goals. Unions have to reach out to new unorganised
groups of workers, build coalitions with non-governmental
organisations, and get their message understood and relayed by
the media. Unions have to get workers’ views heard in the international
organisations and inside the multinationals. And
unions have to rethink their own functions and structures to
enhance democratic participation, speed information flows, target
campaign activities and adapt and improve the services they
provide to members. For the ICFTU, this means working with
its own regional organisations and increasing and deepening its
partnership with the ITS, TUAC and ETUC to increase collaboration
and joint work, and examine whether closer constitutional
ties could further improve the effective use of scarce
resources of people, time and money.

Improving the structures of the international trade union movement
requires the consent of all the organisations concerned and
full respect for trade union democracy. This in turn requires a
clear vision of the value of change not just as a cost-saving
measure but also as a means of strengthening the work of trade
unions at the international level.

Congress will be requested to discuss the need for and the possibility
of effective structural reform within the international
trade union movement. This process will analyse the strengths
and weaknesses of the current structures, the major challenges
anticipated for the start of the new millennium and the potential
for strengthening relationships and means of co-operation
between national, regional and international trade union bodies.