BY SEAN HEALY
While many trade unionists are embracing the need for greater global solidarity and interconnection, there are still some who want a return to the old protectionism, albeit under a new guise.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the main, historically conservative, international union body, has long advocated what are called "social clauses" as a way to end the "race to the bottom".
Such clauses would be written into World Trade Organisation agreements and other trade rules, stating that countries can apply tariffs, quotas and other sanctions against those countries not complying with decent labour standards.
Sounds fair enough, you might think.
But many trade unions and social movements, in the developed First World certainly but overwhelmingly in the Third World, oppose "social clauses".
First, they are suspicious of what sounds very much like the old justifications for First World protectionism, which has choked industries in the Third World which provide employment to millions, like the garment industry.
It would be very easy for the US or the European Union to impose a new tariff on such goods and claim it was to "defend labour standards". The European Union already has a long and sordid history of covert protectionism against Third World agricultural exports under the guise of "protecting environmental standards".
Second, unionists in the underdeveloped countries point out that there already are such clauses in many agreements — and they have done no good at all.
The North American Free Trade Agreement, for example, has a "side-agreement" on labour rights and standards. Has it helped Mexican unions organise? No. Has it protected US workers from being undercut? No. Has it improved working conditions in either country? No.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, opponents of "social clauses" argue that imposing them simply strengthens the powers of labour's enemies.
Who will enforce the "labour standards" which get written into WTO rules, for example? The WTO itself, a creature of the multinational corporations. Such a body should not be given expanded powers; quite the opposite, its tentacles should be cut off.
From Green Left Weekly, November 14, 2001.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.