THE IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION AND ITS IMPACT ON WORKERS

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THE IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION AND ITS IMPACT ON
WORKERS

• Main Challenges for the Labour Movement

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QUOTENo.1

• Globalization reduces poverty because integrated
  economies tend to grow faster and this growth is
  usually widely diffused
• By World Bank
• WB Report in 2001

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QUOTENo.2

• To allow the market mechanism to be sole
  director of the fate of human beings and their
  natural environmentwould result in the
  demolition of society
• By Karl Polanyi
• in 1944

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AGENDA FOR DISCUSSION

• How do you change globalization to better serve
  for workers and ordinary people in the world?

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Activity 1

• Take a piece of paper, and write a list of FIVE
  THINGS (reforms) you will implement as President
  or Prime Minister of your country to improve
  globalization

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Activity 2

• For each of the five things you identified in
  Activity 1, list THREE THINGS you should do to
  achieve the best success

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GLOBALISATION HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

• Continuous and radical changes in
• Means of Transportation
• Information Technology
• Political (Regulatory) Framework.

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GLOBALISATION OF

• Trade
• Production
• Finance (investment, capital)
• Company (MNEs)
• Cultures
• Politics

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GLOBALISATION IS

• Process of economic, social, political and
  cultural integration of nation-states into a
  global market/community/standard, with much
  increased inter-dependence

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CHANGE OF WHEELS and ENGINES for GLOBALIZATION
1980
TRADE
FDI
Exchange of goods and services between nation
state
Creation of productive assets and purchase of
assets by foreigners
GOLD STD/FIXED RATE
US/FLOATING RATE
MANAGED MARKET ECONOMY
FREE MARKET ECONOMY
LARGE GOVERNMENTfor WELFARE STATE
SMALL GOVERNMENTfor PRIVATE INITIATIVE
COLD WARPOWER POLITICS
NEW-LIBERALECONOMIC POLITICS
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NEO-LIBERALISM

• If you free up the flow of private capital,
  goods and services across national borders then
  this will lead to raised levels of productivity,
  GDP growth, employment and real income.

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GLOBALISATION OFTRADE

• Increase in trade volume (1950-2001)
• International trade grew twice as fast as GDP, or
  world production
• However, the growth rate was much higher during
  1950s and 1960s than in 1990s
• Until 1980s, production was still based in few
  industrialised countries
• Fordism (mass production system)
• Standardisation of products.

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GLOBAL ASSEMBLY LINE

• Garments designed in the USA -
• Manufactured under contract in China
• By a company owned in Hong Kong
• With raw materials from all around the world
• Transported to the UK in container ships carrying
  a flag of convenience and crewed by Filipino
  seafarers
• Payroll and other data tasks carried out in Asia
• And, the profits accounted in a tax haven (to
  avoid tax)

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GLOBALISATION OF FINANCE

• Political decisions to liberalise capitals
  circulation
• Creation of a global financial network
• Daily transactions more than 2 trillion US
  (1/4 of total world trade value).

Source WTO (Annual DG Report 2001)
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GLOBALISATION OFCOMPANY

• Trans-national Corporations developed
• Regional markets
• World market
• More than 60,000 trans-national corporations
  (TNCs) with over 800,000 affiliates abroad.

Source UNCTAD
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GLOBALISATION OF CULTURES

• Development of the media via satellites
• Global media concentration
• Advertising
• English has become a de facto global language for
  business although there exist 6,000 languages in
  the world (95 of world population speak around
  100 languages) One person in five speaks English.

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GLOBALISATION OF POLITICS

• End of cold war proliferation of the democratic
  values and market rules of the winner (U.S.)
• Development of democracy (but with a huge gap
  between the idea and reality)
• Threat to, and huge limit on, sovereignty of
  nation-states (e.g. social and economic
  policies)
• Increasing impact of international institutions
  on social and economic policies of countries.

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GLOBALISATION or POLARISATION? TRADE

• Percentage in World Trade
• Share of Africa 1
• While world trade has increased ten times since
  1970 and more food is produced per person than
  ever before, the number of people going hungry in
  Africa has doubled

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GLOBALISATION orPOLARLIZATION? FDI

• The worlds top 30 host countries account for 95
  of total world FDI inflows and 90 of stocks
• The worlds top 30 home countries account for
  around 99 of outward FDI flows and stocks
• 49 LDC receive 0.7 of FDI
• Below 1 African share in FDI inflows.

Source UNCTAD
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GLOBALISATION orPOLARLIZATION? TNCs

• Fifty-one of the world's top 100 economies are
  corporations (in 2000)
• TNCs control 2/3 of all world trade and 80 of
  foreign investment
• TNCs employ only 3 of the total world labour
  force (2.5 billion) and less than half of them
  are in the South
• The 200 largest TNCs employ 1 of the total
  labour force and have a turnover equal to 28.3
  of the world GNP
• About 90 of the worlds largest 100 non-financial
  TNCs are headquartered in the Triad (US, EU and
  Japan).

Source Institute for Policy Studies
Source W. Anfreff, Le multinazionali globali,
Trieste 2000
Source Oneworld.net
Source Globalpolicy.org
Source UNCTAD
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GLOBALISATION or POLARISATION? INCOME

• 20 of the worlds population consumes 86 of
  goods produced
• The richest 20 of the worlds population had at
  their disposal 86 of the world GDP while the
  poorest 20 had access to a mere 1.
• Income gap between the top 10 and the bottom 10
  771 in 1980 and 1221 in 1999
• Maximum daily consumption of the worlds poorest
  400 million 0.75 in 1998

Various sources
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GLOBALISATION or POLARISATION? SOCIAL

• More than 250 million children at work
• 120 million working children have no access to
  school
• Number of official unemployment is 160 million
  and 500 million new jobs needed over the next
  decade
• 500 million workers are unable to keep their
  families above the 1 poverty line (of the 1.3
  billion people living in poverty worldwide, more
  than 70 of them are women and girls) .

Source ILO World Employment Report 2001
(www.ilo.org) - ICFTUConference of women trade
union leaders, Rio di Janeiro, 18-21 May 1999
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CONCEPTUAL BACKBONE OF GLOBALISATION

• Neo-liberal Economic Policy
• Thatcherism since 79 / Reaganomics since 81
• Role of IMF/WB WTO (Washington Consensus)
• Competition, competition and competition!
• Liberalization of markets
• Privatisation of public enterprises and services
• New Zealands Experiment in Asia and the Pacific
• Integrationist Strategy for development

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OTHER FACTORS OF GLOBALISATION

• Fiscal crises in nation states
• Reduction of tariffs trade barriers (GATT and
  WTO)? Integration of national markets into a
  global market and the emergence of global
  competition
• Concentration of capital (mergers
  acquisitions)
• Development of new products (New Economy)
  services and information.

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IMPACT of GLOBALIZATION on TRADE UNIONS (1)

• Decrease of trade union density
• From national agreements/negotiations to
  enterprise/individual agreements (NZ shock)
• Abolition of, or pressure on, check-off systems
• Increase of the informal employment (most of the
  workers employed are women and children) where no
  social protection is ensured and organizing is
  extremely difficult.

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IMPACT or GLOBALISATION on TRADE UNIONS (2)

• Increase of atypical forms of labour (contract
  labour). These form are more common among women
  than among men (90 of home workers in EU are
  women)
• Increase of EPZs (from 850 in 1999)
• Global attack against workers rights
• Weaker tripartite machinery.

Source ICFTU Annual Survey
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IMPACT of GLOBALISATION on WORKERS RIGHTS (1)

• Over 300 strikes repressed by employers or the
  police, in nearly 90 countries
• About 8,500 arrested or detained
• 209 trade unionists killed or disappeared
• Over 100,000 harassed
• 20,000 dismissed because of their trade union
  activities.

Source ICFTU Survey of Violations of Trade Union
Rights 2001 (http//www.icftu.org/survey).
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IMPACT of GLOBALISATION on WORKERS RIGHTS (2)

• 20 million bounded labourers worldwide
• 700.000 women and children victims of
  cross-border human trafficking each year
• Worldwide women are paid anything between 10-50
  less than men for doing similar job or different
  job of equal value.

SourcePSI Women - N.14- January 2002
(www.world-psi.org) ICFTUwww.icftu.org/survey
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THE CHALLENGEGOVERN OR FIGHT? (1)

• Organising / Global unions
• Framework Agreements
• Alliance on MNEs
• Extension of the European Works Councils into
  Global Works Council.

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THE CHALLENGEGOVERN OR FIGHT? (2)

• Trade union networking and global solidarity
• Globalisation of workers rights ILO Declaration
  on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
• Social Clause.

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THE CHALLENGEGOVERN OR FIGHT? (3)

• Co-ordination of economic, trade, and social
  policies
• Social dimension of globalisation and the role of
  the ILO in the world agenda (G8 and relationships
  with IMF/WB/WTO.

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FUNDAMENTAL GOALS of TRADE UNIONS are

• To give globalization human face that benefits
  us all, eradicate poverty, eliminates social
  exclusion and reduce inequality
• To take workers rights out of competition by
  establishing fundamental common standards.

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HOW TO ACHIEVE THE GOALS?

• Promote pluralism in international
  decision-makings
• Reform IMF/WB/WTO
• Establish international rules negotiated with the
  social partners
• Control capital flow (short term, speculative) to
  redirect investment into real economies
• Internationalize trade union programmes,
  activities, campaigns and solidarity.

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What is Role of ILO?
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THE ILO AGENDATO ACHIEVE DECENT WORK FOR ALL

• Decent Work composed of
• Workers rights
• Productive employment
• Social protection
• Social dialogue

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WORKERSRIGHTS

• Ratification and implementation of core labour
  standards (eight core conventions)
• Ratification and implementation of international
  labour standards
• Participation to the ILS supervisory system and
  to the follow-up of the Declaration.

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PRODUCTIVE EMPLOYMENT

• Productive employment with dignity
• Employment policies should be core part of
  national economic/social policy, with equal
  opportunities and treatments guaranteed
• Development of small and medium-size enterprises.

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SOCIAL PROTECTION

• Development of social security systems that cover
  the entire population
• Pension schemes to guarantee a decent life after
  retirement
• Other welfare benefits
• Special attention to vulnerable groups (women,
  youth, migrants, the informal sector, minorities,
  etc.)
• O.S.H. and the Environment.

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SOCIAL DIALOGUE

• Promotion and institutionalization of tripartism
• Strengthening workers and employers
  organisations
• Strengthening negotiations between social
  partners at all levels (enterprise, industry,
  national, regional and international).

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Decent WorkFor Better Tomorrow