By Ellis Mnyandu
DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - The world labor union movement said on Monday it would muster all its strength to fight the social and economic fallout of globalization, which was widening the gap between rich and poor nations.
Labor leaders addressing the start of 17th World Congress of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) said globalization needed to pay attention to social rights for it to be a sustainable economic system.
"Globalization is not working for the common people. It's starkest failings are here on this continent," Bill Jordan, the ICFTU's general-secretary told the congress in the Indian Ocean port city of Durban.
"Governments and business accept what we never will, extravagance and misery growing side by side, the growth of trade breeding the growth of injustice," he added.
Jordan said the fight for social justice from globalization would take place through intense union solidarity.
"People ask what is the trade union movement's action program for the new century? I say look around. The human cost of globalization is everywhere. Their need is our agenda."
Safrica's Zuma Echoes Calls To Protect Poor
South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma echoed the calls for a global framework to guard against an economic system that engendered poverty for much of the world while profiting a few.
"This is a state of events that is potentially disastrous not only for the poorer nations, but also for the rich nations," Zuma said in his address to the congress.
"The side-by-side existence of extreme poverty and immense wealth, in the long term, in the 'global village' means that instability will increase in society as the poor majority fight for better conditions rather than succumb to continuous poverty," he said.
The advent of globalization is seen by labor and human right activists around the world as swiftly leading to job losses and the erosion of worker rights through borderless economies and business focus on competition.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the effects of globalization made it crucial to give the global market a human face through fair and equitable trade and investment.
"We need fair trade and investment so that poor countries have the chance to compete in the rich countries' markets and poor people have the chance to work their way out of poverty," he said in a taped video address.
"We need fair trade and global investment so that the prosperity now enjoyed by one part of the world can spread to the rest of the world," he added.
The Brussels-based ICFTU groups 215 national trade union federations from 145 countries, representing 125 million workers worldwide. Among its members is the 13 million-strong U.S. Federation of Labour-Congress of Industrial Organizations.:
