2nd ITUC World Congress

Delegates to the 2nd ITUC World Congress will be coming from countries which are all experiencing, in different ways and to different degrees, the impact of the global crisis. For the people they represent that has often meant acute hardship and great insecurity. And for their trade unions it has made old problems more acute and added new ones to them.

Trade unions are not alone in trying to find a way out of the crisis and to make sure that what comes after it is very much better than what came before and insures against repetition of the injustices and suffering of the past. But with many of the causes of the crisis firmly rooted in the world of work, and with many of them being global in scale, the international trade union movement faces particular challenges which bring with them both responsibilities and some opportunities.

The ITUC’s conviction is that after decades of injustice it is now the turn of the people – all of them – to enjoy the benefits of globalisation and that the path forward from the crisis must lead directly to global social justice.