AFTER presiding over a regressive campaign that successfully
persuaded the Rudd government to wind back 25 years of workplace reform,
ACTU president Sharan Burrow is now seeking to be an activist on the
world stage. Ms Burrow will stand for election as general secretary of
the International Trade Union Confederation in Brussels, headquarters of
the European Union and its coddled, subsidised army of bureaucrats.
Judging by its agenda, the ITUC sees its role as defending the
world’s workers from the perceived ills of globalisation. As well as
such worthwhile goals as ending child labour, it advocates
“international frameworks” for “collective bargaining, and systems of
corporate governance that hold management accountable for the social
impact of business activities.”
The ideological wish-list reads like a blueprint for undermining the
jobs of the 168 million workers it claims to represent. If implemented,
it would do far less to lift millions of people out of poverty than
global capitalism and trade have done for 50 years.
At least Ms Burrow’s departure offers Australian unions a chance to
carve out a more constructive role. This is their best hope of stemming
their fall in membership, especially among the young.
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