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7 September, 1999The international trade union movement calls on governments to start talks on new global links in Seattle.
GENEVA: In a reply (Financial Times 3.9.1999) to international business leaders, international trade union leaders says that the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) ministerial meeting in Seattle this autumn must be designed to promote employment and living standards in developed and developing countries. The negotiations must also incorporate effective rules to govern the trading system's impact on labour rights and the environment.
They therefore call on governments to start talks at the Seattle meeting on links between the International Labour Organisation's fundamental workers' rights and liberalisation of international trade through the WTO. The real challenge facing governments is to restore the confidence of working people that the global trade and investment system does work in their interests.
(The above-mentioned reply was written by the following four general secretaries: Bill Jordan, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; Willy Thys, World Confederation of Labour; John Evans, Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD; Emilio Gabaglio, European Trade Union Confederation.)
They therefore call on governments to start talks at the Seattle meeting on links between the International Labour Organisation's fundamental workers' rights and liberalisation of international trade through the WTO. The real challenge facing governments is to restore the confidence of working people that the global trade and investment system does work in their interests.
(The above-mentioned reply was written by the following four general secretaries: Bill Jordan, International Confederation of Free Trade Unions; Willy Thys, World Confederation of Labour; John Evans, Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD; Emilio Gabaglio, European Trade Union Confederation.)