International unions representing 160 million workers are pushing for enforceable labour standards to be part of any new world trade agreement at WTO talks in Mexico.
A delegation of 150 union leaders sought new guarantees on workers rights to be included in agreements at talks in Cancun today with World Trade Organisation Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi and trade negotiators from the USA, European Union, South Africa and Mexico.
Attending the talks, ACTU President Sharan Burrow said that the WTO leaders agreed to consider union proposals for:
- formalising the recognition by WTO member countries of the International
Labour Organisation’s (ILO) core labour standards;
- establishing a special WTO review of the impact of global trade in the
textile industry; and
- reviewing the recommendations due in November of the ILO Commission on the
social impact of globalisation.
“Cut-throat competition is reducing labour standards around the world. Just as the WTO has rules on trade implementation, it should have rules on labour standards to proctect vulnerable workers and share the benefits of prosperity,” Ms Burrow said.
“We have reports of women being drugged to work 70 hours straight in Export Processing Zones set up in developing nations to attract international investment.
“Textile workers told the meeting of clothing jobs being lost in every continent, not just in Australia, the US and Europe but also in Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia, Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The threat of ‘compete with China or die’ is being used as a justification for serious abuses of labour rights. Bangladesh alone is set to lose one million textile jobs even though the minimum wage there has halved in the last decade.”
Ms Burrow said that the global unions also supported for calls by the G20 group of developing nations for big cuts in European and US agricultural subsidies.