G8 Labour Summit: Social rules on investment and trade, and effective regulation of private equity and hedge funds needed

At a Labour Summit taking place on 6 and 7 May, leaders from the G8 trade unions and Global Unions organisations are calling on the G8 Labour Ministers and German Chancellor (...)

Brussels, 7 May 2007: At a Labour Summit taking place on 6 and 7 May, leaders from the G8 trade unions and Global Unions organisations are calling on the G8 Labour Ministers and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to put the need for social rules around global trade and capital flows at the centre of their discussions. The Labour Summit is being held one month before the Heiligendamm Summit of G8 heads of government.

The union delegation, led by OECD-TUAC and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Michael Sommer, President of the German DGB, is taking part in the G8 Labour Ministers’ meeting in Dresden on 6-7 May and also meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. The unions will renew their call for the G8 to establish an international regulatory task force on private equity.

In a statement released ahead of the Summit, Global Unions are calling upon G8 Labour Ministers to act upon a series of policy issues to build a proper social dimension of globalization. On employment, it calls upon ministers to ensure active growth-orientated economic policy management, decent minimum wage floors and balanced labour market “activation policies”. On social protection, Ministers should affirm the right to affordable universal social security systems and work to build strong and well functioning labour inspectorates. Concerning corporate social responsibility, they should work for the integration of core labour standards across all international institutions. The unions will also maintain pressure on the G8 countries to do more to tackle the HIV-AIDS pandemic.

For more information on the G8 Labour Summit, see the TUAC Communication.

On 1 and 2 June, the ITUC, together with the DGB and its partners in the Decent Work Campaign, will be holding a "Youth Action for Decent Work" Conference in Berlin. The Conference will bring together young people from trade unions, ngo’s and political movements to discuss the challenges young people face in the world of work. The Conference will formulate policy and action proposals to achieve decent work for youth, which will be presented to the German Government as G8 host. A meeting of the ITUC Youth Committee immediately after the Conference will build on these proposals in the development of the ITUC’s own policies and action plans.

For more information on the Conference for young people, please contact Philippe Gousenbourger: [email protected]; Phone: +32 (0)2 224 02 45

Founded on 1 November 2006, the ITUC represents 168 million workers in 153 countries and territories and has 304 national affiliates.

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on +32 2 224 0204 or +32 476 621 018.