25 May, 2009Retiring IMF General Secretary urges affiliates to mobilize workers in the face of the current financial crisis.
GLOBAL: The IMF Secretariat Report to delegates urged unions worldwide to mobilize workers to seize the opportunity the current economic crisis represents.
"More and more employers are using the financial crisis as an excuse to limit or erode fundamental worker rights," said outgoing IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi.
Mr. Malentacchi blamed the failure of global financial institutions to properly control the world's economy for the current crisis.
"The market forces that were supposed to improve welfare for all have instead created social unrest and generated more poverty in many countries.
"Knowing as we do the causes and impacts of the current crisis, we must now look to how we can transform it."
But, Malentacchi cautioned that unions' ability to organize the unorganized was crucial to their ability to respond to the crisis.
"Opportunity is there if we can seize it, but only if we are able to reach out to workers and mobilize them into action.
"It is up to unions to ensure that we are able to motivate individuals into solidarity and collective action.
"When we work together to exert that power on a local, regional, national and global level, unions can influence and force change on companies, governments and laws.
"From there we may create the kinds of change that will bring secure jobs for a secure future."