Weakening trade unions

"The environment in which trade unions must operate today is more complicated than twenty or thirty years ago. In many cases, globalisation has encouraged employers, and some governments, to adopt a more hostile reaction to the claims unions make on behalf of their members, and even activley to oppose the traditional functions of trade unions. Governments have moved to decentralise collective bargaining systems and weaken minimum wage regulation. These have been overtaken by more extreme measures which aim to inhibit collective bargaining at all levels while expanding managerial prerogative to unilaterally determine employment conditions including, in some countries, the promotion of individual employment contracts. These trends have been encouraged by international organisations like the IMF". (Robert Kyloh, member of the ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities).

Dismissal of workers

"There have been repeated statements and references by the Korean government and employers that they need to demonstrate to the IMF and international banks that they are serious in their effort for structural adjustment. It shows how the agenda of reform of the Korean economy raised at the outset of the crisis has been distorted to mean nothing more than the resoluteness to sack workers". (Statement by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, 22 July 1998).

"There is an increasing disparity between rich and poor within individual nations. And in most cases, the poorest of the poor are women. Almost everywhere in the world, income has increased for the top 10 or 20 per cent of the population, and decreased for the bottom 20 or even 40 per cent". (ICEM, 1996).

Job insecurity