Unions lobby world leaders

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber joined an international trade union delegation last month to lobby the Washington Summit of G20 leaders who were meeting to discuss the economic crisis.

The delegation, organised by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Council of Global Unions, met heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank as well as government heads and officials. It argued that the “Washington consensus” of deregulation and privatisation must end. The talks were based on the delegation’s “Washington Statement”, which calls for:

• a co-ordinated recovery plan for the real economy;

• the re-regulation of global financial markets;

• a new international system of economic governance; and

• a strategy to combat global inequality.

According to the ITUC, the IMF has agreed to hold in-depth meetings with the union in January.

Barber was positive after the trip. “There is change in the air,” he said. “The collapse of the right-wing economic consensus that said markets would look after themselves, wealth would trickle down and that government should keep out of the way has already delivered a new US president.”