INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION
ITUC OnLine
G20 Employment Task Force Kicks Off With ‘64 Million Jobs’ Challenge To Prevent Double Dip Recession
Brussels, 15 December 2011 (ITUC OnLine): The international union movement has warned the first meeting of the G20 Task Force on Employment in Mexico City that a failure to provide decent work for the millions of young people entering the global labour force each year over the next decade risks detonating a social time bomb.
Sharan Burrow, General Secretary International Trade Union Confederation, said tackling youth unemployment means providing jobs across the whole of the economy, not a patchwork response, as the growing jobs deficit reaches 64 million people according to the latest UN report.
“Youth unemployment is epidemic in both developed and emerging economies, and poses one of the greatest threats to economic recovery. The crisis cannot be tackled solely through microeconomic measures as the growing jobs deficit has reached epidemic proportions,” said Sharan Burrow.
“Governments must develop job-intensive investment policies to raise growth globally,” said TUAC General Secretary John Evans. “Trade unions have now released their priority demands for the 2012 G20, and getting action by governments to kick-start growth and job creation is top of our list.”
Trade unions are calling on the Employment Task Force to develop a G20 Youth Jobs Pact in 2012.
“In the last year we have seen the gradual erosion of the political contract between politicians and people. In 2012 governments need to rebuild their relationship with their constituents and listen to their calls for jobs.
“The first step in rebuilding this relationship should be a G20 Youth Jobs Pact, with training and job guarantees for young unemployed and school-leavers, an expansion in apprenticeships and strengthened rights and social protection for young workers as a key tool for tackling the crisis, provided it is part of economy-wide measures for all workers,” said Sharan Burrow.
The Employment Task Force is the first major activity under Mexico’s Presidency of the G20, which culminates in the G20 Leaders Summit in June 2012.
Read the Trade Union Discussion Paper to the First meeting of the G20 Task Force on Employment.
http://www.ituc-csi.org/trade-union-discussion-paper-for.html?lang=en
Read the ITUC-TUAC Statement on Trade Union Priorities for the Mexico Presidency of the G20 in 2012. http://www.ituc-csi.org/ituc-tuac-trade-union-priorities.html?lang=en
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