Half measures won't fix world economy: ITUC

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PARIS, March 23 (AFP): Trade unions across the world are to present to their governments today a five-point plan for action at the G20 London summit on the global financial crisis next month, their confederation said.
The union plan calls for "a coordinated international recovery and sustainable growth plan to create jobs and ensure public investment," as well as nationalisation of insolvent banks and a new international framework for managing the global economy.
"If the G20 governments in London are only able to agree on half-measures, they will have failed to meet their responsibilities," International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Guy Ryder said in a statement.
"As the world's largest economies, they have the responsibility and the possibility to replace the failed neo- liberalism of the past with a whole new direction for globalisation," he added.
The plan, which will be formally submitted to the G20 Leaders' Summit in London on April 2, also calls for action to combat the risk of wage deflation and reverse decades of increasing inequality, as well as far-reaching action on climate change.
The trade unions also put forward specific proposals for global financial regulation, with immediate action to nationalise insolvent banks.
"Weak or non-existent regulation of banking and financial activity turned the world economy into an anything-goes casino, plunging the world into deep recession and causing the loss of tens of millions of jobs. This needs to be fixed urgently," said John Evans, General Secretary of the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
"Another main pillar of recovery and reform, creating decent, sustainable jobs and boosting purchasing power, must also be given priority attention at the G20," he added.
The ITUC represents 170 million workers in 312 affiliated national organisations from 157 countries.