Openness, democracy and participation of all

GLOBAL: "My style of leadership is based on openness, democracy, consultation and involvement of the whole IMF family," said Jyrki Raina in his first official speech as General Secretary to the more than 800 delegates attending the IMF World Congress.

Raina stated that the IMF will have one policy, "the IMF Action Programme 2009-2013, that you, the Congress delegates will debate and adopt in the course of today and tomorrow." He added that the IMF must fortify its action, build strong unions, organise the unorganised, defend workers' rights with innovative campaigns and promote greater equality and decent work.

The new General Secretary spoke about the economic crisis and the need to move to a sustainable future with unions participating in the change. "Now we have a historic opportunity to change this model to another one with a real development agenda for social justice, eradication of poverty, fair rules for trade and investment, and for fighting precarious employment," he said.

Raina identified the issue of precarious work as a key priority for the IMF. Raina noted that in developing countries typically 50 to 80 per cent of employment is informal and elsewhere atypical work is exploding. Raina warned of the risk that during economic recovery good jobs that have been lost will be replaced by precarious jobs. "We need an effective, comprehensive global campaign against precarious employment making it possible to involve people in joint action using the full capacity of the IMF and Global Union family," he said.

To organise the unorganised was another key point raised by Jyrki Raina. "Our strength now and in the future depends on our ability to organise workers, to negotiate collective agreements and to unite our forces in times of trouble."

Raina emphasised his commitment to maintain regional balance and actively inform and involve affiliates around the world in the work of the IMF.

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