Congress has joined with the global trade union movement by writing to our Finance Minister, Paschal Donoghue, in advance of the spring meetings of the international financial institutions (IFIs).
Unions are urging international financial institutions to implement urgent measures to equitably respond to the economic and public health crises facing the world by producing a plan to coordinate economic stimulus, and public health action. COVID-19 is creating a crisis of unprecedented proportion. As the shocks caused by the public health crisis ripple through global supply chains and depress demand, layoffs and loss of income are devastating working families.
The pandemic lit a match next to an existing powder keg of debt burdens, inadequate financial and labour market regulation, increasing inequality, and years of austerity that undermined public health, social protection and the ability of states to fulfil their human rights obligations.
The IMF and the World Bank should join governments in executing coordinated and sustained stimulus as the launchpad of a reformed multilateralism that puts working people, shared prosperity and the real economy first.
Full Global Union statement here
Read General Secretary Patricia King's letter here
