INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION
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Nobel Peace Prize winner helps launch global Decent Work Campaign
Nairobi, 21 January 2007 A worldwide campaign for Decent Work was
launched today in Nairobi, Kenya at the World Social Forum by the Decent
Work Alliance and with the help of Wangari Maathai, Kenya's 2004 Nobel
Peace Prize winner.*
It aims to place Decent Work , a concept covering equal access to
employment, living wages, social protection, freedom from exploitation
and union rights at the core of development, economic, trade, financial
and social policies at the national, European and International level
through public campaigning and lobbying. The campaign will take its
message from Nairobi to the World Economic Forum in Davos, and then on
to the G8 meeting in Germany.
"As a guiding principle, the achievement of decent work for all should
be the object and the outset of increased policy coherence between the
main actors of global economic and social governance. The global
institutions such as the IMF. WTO and World Bank must recognise that
their policies are leading to more insecurity, irregularity and
informality for most of the world's workers. For the sake of human well
being we cannot let this continue," Bart Verstraeten, from Social Alert
International commented.
"Although decent work is starting to figure in international statements,
it is still not being promoted by the main actors of global governance"
said Guy Ryder, ITUC General Secretary. "We need to make those actors
change their minds and realize that international trade and economic
growth alone are neither creating enough good jobs nor eradicating
poverty. Decent work is a central part of the solution to
globalisation's unpopularity" he added.
"For the majority of the world's people who are missing out on the
benefits of global economic growth, decent work at this point is merely
a dream. This campaign will strive to make it not only a reality, but
through it to reconnect people with the political process and give them
hope that they can in fact change what from afar seems the
unchangeable," Conny Reuter, Solidar's Secretary-General said today.
Maathai joined Guy Ryder, ITUC General Secretary, Conny Reuter, Solidar
Secretary-General, Harlem Desir, the Vice-President of the Global
Progressive Forum, Bart Verstraeten, from Social Alert International and
Joel Decaillon from the ETUC in launching the campaign.
Over 50 activities will take place in Nairobi under the banner of Decent
Work, Decent Life including the launch of a new campaign on Decent Work
for the 2010 World Cup focusing on the construction industry (23
January).
*Decent Work, Decent Life is a joint campaign led by the International
Trade Union Confederation, the Global Progressive Forum, Social Alert
International and Solidar.
Venue: Kasanari stadium - Nairobi: Decent Work Pavillon - 8:30 - 11: 00
For interviews and more information contact Mathieu Debroux ITUC Press
Officer, mobile: +32 (0) 476 62 10 18.
In Kenya: + 254 (0) 725 618 773
mathieu.debroux@ituc-csi.org
Elizabeth Tapper, Solidar Communications Officer, Tel.: + 32 (0)2 500 10
34, elizabeth@solidar.org
See also: http://www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?rubrique69
http://www.solidar.org/doclist.asp?SectionID=6
Organisations launching the campaign:
International Trade Unions Confederation
http://www.ituc-csi.org/
Solidar
http://www.solidar.org
Global Progressive Forum
http://www.globalprogressiveforum.org/index.cfm
Social Alert International
http://www.socialalert.org/j/
European Trade Union Confederation
http://www.etuc.org/
Founded on 1 November 2006, the ITUC represents 168 million workers in
153 countries and territories and has 304 national affiliates.
http://www.ituc-csi.org
For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on +32 2
224 0204 or +32 475 670 833.