G20: union leaders complain Tony Abbott downgraded their status

Source: The Guardian

Patrick Wintour

Trade union leaders have complained they have been subject to an effective lockout from the heart of G20 discussions by Tony Abbott, the summit’s host.

Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the British Trades Union Congress, said the Australian prime minister had downgraded the status of labour leaders attending the summit in an unprecedented manner, forcing them to seek individual meetings with world leaders because they did not hold equal status alongside the business group.

With the G20 communique focused on growth, the unions are trying to build support for green growth, fair wages and secure employment, rather than the trickle-down economics she says the conservative Abbott champions.

O’Grady described Abbott’s action as a “pretty good guide to the future” with his “attacks on unions collective bargaining” – but added that the labour movement had its best hearing at the summit from Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, arguably the leader most attuned to including unions in social dialogue.


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Frances O’Grady, right, with the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Ged Kearney. Photograph: Paul Matthews/G20 Australia/Getty Images




Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/16/g20-union-leaders-complain-tony-abbott-downgraded-their-status