The world is now witnessing a financial crisis which will affect the livelihoods of many workers and their families. The international community should therefore respond to this crisis by encouraging employment and development in order to avoid the looming risk of world economic collapse. To this effect, economies should be founded on a course of sustainable growth. Financial markets need to be regulated in order not to repeat the disaster at hand. This would have to be part of a larger plan to reform the management of the worldwide market. Workers need to have more authority over their lives and their prospects.

The only way forward is through decent work where workers’ rights and concepts of equity are respected. More pressure now lies in the global arena, so that a successful strategy may be adopted to reverse climate change. This state of emergency facing the world today should be seen as an occasion to revolutionize what seem to be major problems caused by globalization.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is now urging all governments to base their policy-making and economic oversight on the concepts of social justice, decent work and sustainability.

For more information on the ITUC and its initiatives, please follow the link: www.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article2417 on the ITUC Web site.