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8 July, 2000A handful of countries forced the U.N. follow-up conference, Copenhagen +5, to take a step backwards, says Marcello Malentacchi.
GENEVA: Representatives of some authoritarian regimes, such as China, Egypt and Pakistan, but also democratic governments such as India, blocked the proposal to give the ILO a central role for the defense of trade union rights and for the promotion of social dialogue, writes the IMF general secretary, Marcello Malentacchi, in his opinion column on this website.
Free, democratic and independent trade unions scare the dictators. Social dialogue is not necessary when a government controls everything through violence and repression of basic human rights. Therefore, it is not surprising that China, Pakistan and Egypt acted the way they did.
But it is disappointing that the government of India did the same, their official reason being that rich countries want to protect themselves by introducing social clauses in trade agreements.
"I wonder," says Malentacchi, "what the Indian government is going to say when TNCs - not only American, European and Japanese, but also Indian - leave the country to go to China or Vietnam and elsewhere, where labour costs are much lower than in India."
Click on the associated link and read the entire column.
Free, democratic and independent trade unions scare the dictators. Social dialogue is not necessary when a government controls everything through violence and repression of basic human rights. Therefore, it is not surprising that China, Pakistan and Egypt acted the way they did.
But it is disappointing that the government of India did the same, their official reason being that rich countries want to protect themselves by introducing social clauses in trade agreements.
"I wonder," says Malentacchi, "what the Indian government is going to say when TNCs - not only American, European and Japanese, but also Indian - leave the country to go to China or Vietnam and elsewhere, where labour costs are much lower than in India."
Click on the associated link and read the entire column.