Regional Labor Unions Prepare Agenda for Ibero-American Summit

 
With the support of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT) will hold its summit in Panama City, Panama on October 6-7. The meeting is timed to precede the Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State scheduled for November. The decision marks a new strategy for the union movement, which in the past has met simultaneously with the Ibero-American Summit. The organizers hope that by discussing strategy and producing a declaration beforehand, they will have more influence on the results of the presidential meetings.

The ORIT Summit will have as its theme "Fighting Poverty with Decent Jobs and Respect for Fundamental Worker Rights," a topic meant to reflect on the current state of democracy in the Americas. Along with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the ORIT has been critical of the quality of democratic life in such countries as Paraguay, Colombia and Peru. Venezuela has also been the target of strong criticism and complaints to the ILO. It is likely that the strategies and declarations produced at the union summit will be aimed at those governments, as well as the bête noires of globalization and economic restructuring. It will also be interesting to see the unions' treatment of the "democracy clause," an issue that has gained prominence after this summer's Summit of South American Presidents in Brasília. The Ibero-American Summit itself includes Portugal and Spain, as well as the countries of Latin America. The Iberian countries have been pro-active on democracy issues in recent years, and their trade union movements could provide added weight in pressuring for a stronger declaration both for a democracy clause "with teeth" and improved worker rights commitments by the heads of state.

As part of the meetings in Panama, the ILO is also sponsoring a joint meeting between trade union leaders and representatives of the OIE, the employer organization that coordinates its employer groups. This should provide an interesting venue to discuss questions of fundamental worker rights, especially child labor. This latter theme seems to be the entryway to promote greater realism and concrete actions on a worldwide level to curb the worst labor abuses. On this point, it is interesting to note a new ILO study on social labeling and child labor released in Brazil this month. It concludes that current efforts at social labeling are not effective, since they concentrate on specific company practices without taking into account subcontractors and other inputs from the full supply chain. The report is sure to increase pressure for greater efforts in the one area that has seen some significant progress in recent years - curtailing child labor in the global marketplace.