Time for the World Bank/IMF to Listen to Workers

By Global Unions and World Confederation of Labour

In a joint statement released by the Global Unions group and the World Confederation of Labour, the trade union movement proposes a major rethinking of the roles that the IMF and World Bank play in the global economy

This is in light of the growing number of countries that are questioning the institutions' influence in domestic economies as well as their effectiveness in meeting major international challenges.

The trade union movement endorses the view that the World Bank and IMF must redistribute country representation on their executive boards so that low-income countries have greater say in the matters that affect them - an issue that the IMF is expected to address in Singapore. The trade union statement further asserts that any new IMF measures aimed at avoiding international economic crises must be developed in an open and transparent manner and not include job-destroying austerity and structural adjustment conditionality. It also insists that the World Bank must improve its transparency, particularly in its heightened efforts to combat corruption.

"Better cooperation with and support for the rights of trade unions, civil society organizations and free media should be at the heart of the Bank's anticorruption efforts," said ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder.

He pointed out that when the World Bank and IMF choose to work together with the international trade union movement and other civil society organizations, they could make important advances towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. "The World Bank and IMF's commitment at the 2005 Annual Meetings to deliver debt cancellation to the poorest countries stands as perfect example of the progress that can be made when these institutions cooperate and deal openly with trade unions and civil society," Ryder said.

The ICFTU and WCL expressed strong disagreement with the decision of Singaporean authorities to prevent some civil society groups from entering the country to attend the meetings as well as outlawing demonstrations. They noted that trade unions had encountered problems at earlier IMF and World Bank meetings, notably in Dubai in 2003, when the local government - which bans trade unions - had attempted to prevent Arab trade unionists from attending the meetings. "If the World Bank and IMF truly believe in better relations with trade unions and civil society, they should refrain from holding their meetings in countries that do not fully respect the rights of these organizations to attend the meetings and express themselves freely," said WCL Secretary General Willy Thys.

Trade Union Statement to the 2006 Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank (Singapore, 19-20 September 2006)