PES President Stefan Löfven spoke at the opening of the mid-term conference of the global trade union IdustriALL, on Tuesday in Cape Town, South Africa, where 200 delegates from 60 countries met. Löfven, who was an international secretary of the Swedish Union of Metal Workers, stressed the importance of building strong unions in the global South:
“Whenever there is a political discussion, workers’ voices should be heard and respected. Free and independent trade unions are a cornerstone of a true democracy.”
He stressed the need to expand trade union’s influence beyond the workplace into communities, regions, nationally, and in the global arena:
“Delocalisation will end the moment we have strong workers’ rights everywhere. I have tried to strengthen workers’ rights in the international arena. That’s why I engaged in founding the European Pillar of Social Rights. I would like to urge you to push for the Pillar”, Löfven told delegates.
The PES President called for far more investment from the global North into the global South, a mutually beneficial arrangement: “We don’t want a future where a handful of people own as much as half of the world’s population”, he concluded.
The PES Executive Secretary General Giacomo Filibeck also attended the trade union conference.
IndustriALL is a global trade union consisting of members from 131 countries, representing workers from the industrial sector.
