Re: [Fwd: Trade union statement to IMF/World Bank Spring meetings (ICFTU

At 08:15 AM 3/28/00 -0500, Gernot Kohler wrote:
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeffrey L. Beatty <Beatty.4@osu.edu>
>To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>Date: March 27, 2000 11:36 AM
>Subject: Re: [Fwd: Trade union statement to IMF/World Bank Spring meetings
>(ICFTU Website)]
>
>
>>
>>My thanks to Professor Chase-Dunn for posting the most informative
>>declaration by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
>>(ICFTU), International Trade Secretariats (ITS), and the Trade Union
>>Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC).
>>
>
>.....>snip
>
>>
>>In any event, my questions is, considering that evidently 100 percent of
>>TUAC's members and some 55 percent of ICFTU members come from  advanced
>>countries, to what extent can these organizations be considered to
>>represent the workers of developing countries, as opposed to the  trade
>>unionists of Western countries?  Are we looking at the views of labor
>>aristocracies, North and South?
>>
>>Provocatively yours,
>>
>>Jeff
>>
>
>
>COMMENT:
>These are interesting questions. However, when examining the statement by
>ICFTU I did not get the sense that its demands were biased toward  First
>World Labour. For example, there is no provision in the statement  which
>would call for First World protectionism. The statement may not articulate
>specific local demands of workers in 200 different countries but, as a
>world-level statement, it seems very well crafted as a critique of,  and
>demands directed toward, IMF/World Bank from the viewpoint of  organized
>labour.
>
>Gert Kohler
>Oakville, Canada
>
>
>
>


> The statement wouldn't have to refer to developed country protectionism to reflect the interests of Northern workers.  Note that the statement advocates "a comprehensive system of social safety nets including retirement pensions, unemployment benefits, child support, sickness, and injury benefits."  It also advocates "programmes. . .to make health care available to all" as well as "active labour market policies."  It also advocates respect for "core labour standards as defined in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (June 1998)."
> If I read this Declaration correctly, the core labour standards referred to are (a) freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; (b) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour; (c) the effective abolition of child labour; and (d) the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation (cf. the text of the Declaration itself, available online at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc86/com-dtxt.htm
>
> As desirable as all these measures might be, from the point of view of those of us of a progressive cast of mind, I have to ask myself how realistic it is to expect governments and enterprises in the developing countries to be able to essentially establish a welfare state comparable to those existing in Europe.  I fear developing countries would either simply not comply with such proposals (in which case not much changes) or attempt to comply and be unable to finance the proposed schemes.  Even worse, enterprises in developing countries that attempted to comply with these standards could easily become uncompetitive and be driven out of business--all of which would imply that developing countries would continue to lose their economic autonomy.
>
> Is there a way to trade off the competing goals of economic autonomy for developing countries and humane labor standards against one another?  Is there some way to harmonize the competing goals?
>
> BTW, the scenario I suggest is not at all inconsistent with some interpretations of economic history.  Studies of what is called the Progressive Era--the period of reform in the United States early in the twentieth century--have come to the conclusion that the affect of child labor laws, new regulations, etc., was to raise the costs of many firms, and thus drive what had been low-cost producers out of business.  The result favored big business.

--
Jeffrey L. Beatty
Doctoral Student
Department of Political Science
The Ohio State University
2140 Derby Hall
154 North Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210

(o) 614/292-2880
(h) 614/688-0567

Email:  Beatty.4@osu.edu
______________________________________________________   
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--this is the motto of Enlightenment--Immanuel Kant,
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