PSI blog on the Financial Crisis

Not on the backs of workers

This past weekend, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, I had the opportunity to speak about the importance of investing in public services and providing social protection in this time of economic crisis. The governor of the Central Bank of Israel, the CEO of the Liberty Mutual Group, and Harvard University professor Larry Summers were among the other speakers on the "Growth versus Austerity" panel, which was moderated by BBC World News editor Jon Williams.

Click here for a news report of the session.

Davos: Corporate Greed Has to Stop

PSI general secretary Peter Waldorff is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos this week in his role as the newly elected vice-chair of the Council of Global Unions.

Urgent Action Needed on Financial Reform and Jobs

Trade union leaders attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos this week will use the occasion to maintain pressure on governments to act urgently to tackle the deepening global employment crisis, and to move ahead with reform and restructuring of banking and finance. The unions will also challenge the business world to work with governments and unions to create decent jobs and to support financial reform rather than oppose much needed changes, as many in the financial sector in particular have been doing.

“Business has traditionally used the Davos platform to push for yet more deregulation and convince governments to leave everything to the market. This approach has had catastrophic results, with some 60 million people expected to lose their jobs due to this crisis and taxpayers having to bail out financial institutions which failed because of a toxic combination of greed and the withdrawal of governments from their responsibilities to govern effectively,” said ITUC President Sharan Burrow.

In its statement to the Davos meeting, the ITUC, with its Global Unions partners and national affiliates, will push a series of key policy demands which are central to the trade union inputs to the G20, the international financial institutions and the WTO.

The full article can be found on the ITUC website here.

Click here to access the Statement of Labour Leaders to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, 27-31 January 2010.

World Economic Forum hears warning on growth

The World Economic Forum’s summer meeting held in Dalian, China, wound up on Saturday with a warning that no durable recovery in the global economy would be achieved until deep and painful reforms had been undertaken to reverse structural imbalances, and promote more equitable and environmentally sustainable growth.

“The world has to refocus the way we do business,” said Sharan Burrow, the president of the International Trade Union Confederation, addressing a final session of the event which drew 1,300 top executives, economists and government officials from 86 countries.

“Jobs, skills and ageing populations have to be taken into account that don’t just depend on export-driven growth, so we have a much more equitable globalisation.”

The initial ebullience at the outset of this three-day gathering, based on recent signs of economic growth, quickly surrendered to a more sober assessment. The consensus was that the global financial crisis had shattered the financial system that had been driving global growth for 50 years.

“The world is in an L-shaped recovery,” said Zhu Min, the group executive vice president at the Bank of China in Beijing. The crisis had shaken trust in institutions, governments and in capitalism itself, Mr Zhu said. “This financial crisis has changed the whole world.”

More here: http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090912/BUSINESS/709129888/1005