Kerala - Kochi   

Kochi meet to discuss globalisation’s wrongs

KOCHI: Representatives of major Indian trade unions will discuss ways to reduce the crippling impact of globalisation on the working class at a four-day meeting organised by the Southern Initiative on Globalisation and Trade Union Rights (SIGTUR) here that begins on Saturday.

Trade union activists from nearly 20 countries that are allied with SIGTUR will attend the meeting which is being hosted by the Centre for Indian Trade Union (CITU).

CITU general secretary M.K. Pandhe told a news conference that some 150 delegates from different trade unions —such as INTUC, BMS, HMS and AITUC — would attend the meeting. They would set aside their ideological differences to discuss the common threat of globalisation’s increasingly debilitating impacts. Mr. Pandhe said the delegates would form six groups and discuss issues such as the enormous growth of multinational corporations; the special problems of migrant workers and women employees; contact and casual labour; and social security. Rob Lambert, the regional coordinator of SIGTUR, pointed out that globalisation had increased the insecurity of the working class world over. Outsourcing, contractualisation and casualisation of labour had led to the weakening of the collective bargaining power of workers. Because of globalisation, the number of weekly working hours was on the increase. Migrant workers, who were denied of trade union rights, were being heavily exploited. Mr. Labmbert pointed out that SIGTUR aimed at strengthening the cooperation and unity of the working class and provide a forum for workers’ resistance to globalisation. The Kochi meeting was the eighth congress of SIGTUR. The South Korean delegates would travel to Chennai.

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