Union Leaders Say Bush, EU Ignore Workers’ Concerns

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/06/10/union-leaders-say-bush-eu-ignore-workers-concerns/

by James Parks, Jun 10, 2008

Workers on two continents today called on the governments of the United States and the European Union to make workers’ concerns a key part of their economic decisions.

In a joint statement, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and John Monks, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), noted that the summit between President Bush and the heads of the European Union countries, held today in Slovenia, will be the last one held under the Bush administration. For the past seven years, the Bush White House and the EU leaders have ignored calls by the AFL-CIO and ETUC to consider the needs of workers. According to Sweeney and Monks:

Our organizations have presented to successive summits over that period our views on how to enhance the trans-Atlantic relationship by widening it from one essentially focused on business interests to one that takes into account the concerns of working families. The political authorities have not risen to that challenge.

Sweeney and Monks also deplored the exclusion of unions from the group of advisers to the Transatlantic Economic Council, which directs economic co-operation between the United States and the EU.

The EU and the U.S. carry special responsibilities in the governance of the global economy given our combined economic predominance and the long traditions of human rights and democracy we share. We look forward to extending social dialogue across the Atlantic and to help add a much needed social dimension to the process of globalization.