Pandhe's call to trade unions to unitedly fight globalisation

Kochi, Apr 19 (UNI) CITU President M K Pandhe today said the trade unions of 'north and south' countries should come together to fight the ill-effects of globalisation.

Addressing a gathering at the eighth International Trade Union Congress on 'Southern Initiative on Globalisation and Trade Union Rights' (SIGTUR), which began here, he said ''in the globalised era, the monopolies were coming together through mergers and acquisitions and this trend is not going to help the cause of the working class.'' Mr Pandhe said the trade unions of the developed and developing nations, despite the ideological differences, should come together through dialogue and deliberations to fight the menace of globalisation.

''Globalisation ushered in cut-throat competition and this prompted the MNCs to go in for more and more acquisitions, which adversely affected the domestic industries of various countries,'' he noted.

The unity among multi-nationals and the disunity among the trade unions provided the impetus for the globalisation to create 'a globe within a globe', Mr Pandhe said.

Terming the present situation as ''unfortunate'', he said ''instead of industrial and financial globalisation, we need social globalisation where inequality among the people were wiped off.'' With a global trend for downsizing, the number of members in trade unions had decreased drastically in various countries, including the US and the UK, he lamented.

Mr Pandhe said the trade union rights were under severe threat in India as the Centre was planning to introduce a Bill on 'hire and fire' policy for employees.

''Even the Supreme Court is affected by globalisation, which in a recent ruling had stated that even if the demands are legitimate, the Unions did not have the right to strike,'' he rued.

More than 200 delegates were participating in the five-day Congress, which would witness presentation of papers on growth in power of MNCs in the area of capitalist globalisation, building a strong public sector for self-reliant ecocnomy, organising informal sector, problems of migrants workers and task of trade union movement and working women under imperialist globalisation.

Over 75 delegates from Australia, South Korea, Mexico, Venezuela, Vietnam, France, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Cyprus, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Cambodia would take part in the deliberations.

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