Here’s What the World Labor Movement Is Saying to President Obama and Asian Leaders

The global labor movement and the AFL-CIO are urging President Obama and other world leaders meeting in Singapore at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to take strong stands on issues of jobs, trade imbalances, currency policy, workers’ rights and climate change.

With 59 million people expected to be unemployed worldwide by the end of the year, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other trade union leaders called on the G-20 countries, which include China and Japan, to continue to press for a coordinated global economic strategy to stimulate new jobs to ensure a real recovery. China’s stimulus package has been significantly larger compared to the size of China’s economy than the U.S. stimulus and has been credited with driving China’s rapid recovery.

In a statement prepared for the APEC meeting Nov. 14-15, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Asia Pacific Labor Network (APLN) called for accelerating efforts at job creation by Asian and Pacific governments. The global labor movement expressed concern about low wages in Asia and called on Asian leaders to “get back on the track with the creation of decent work.”

Another key issue is the huge trade deficit between the United States and China, which is exacerbated by China’s currency manipulations. When world leaders met in Pittsburgh in September, they agreed to adopt President Obama’s call to address currency and trade imbalances. The AFL-CIO urged that this agenda be taken up by APEC in Singapore.

Trumka has said China’s manipulation of its currency undermines the U.S. economy and our national security.

The situation simply becomes worse as we trade jobs and dollars…and the nation continues to lose more and more of its critical manufacturing base.

The AFL-CIO joined the global union movement in calling for workers’ rights to be at the center of a strategy for global economic growth. In their joint statement, the ITUC and APLN said decent work and respect for human rights is essential to achieve a stable regional economic structure.

Working families and their unions also are calling for progress to be made on climate negotiations— progress toward climate change policies that pay attention to employment and workforce issues and promote green jobs. A recent report released by the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) says China’s ineffective enforcement of weak pollution-control standards gives its steel producers an unfair trade advantage that must be addressed in U.S. trade law.