The global supply chain model, which dominates the world economy, is undermining decent work everywhere, driving exploitation and inequality. This model, with governments failing to regulate the behaviour of multinational companies outside, and often inside, their borders, means:
· millions of people trapped slavery and informal work producing goods and delivering services, including for some of the best-known global brands
· poverty wages and insecure, precarious jobs
· a huge toll of death and injury at work
· suppression of fundamental rights for workers to organise and bargain collectively
· environmental destruction
· undermining of democracy and basic human rights
· the absence of social protection for the vast majority of the world’s people.
With 94% of workers in global supply chains making up the world’s hidden workforce where companies consign their workforce to subcontract and sourcing arrangements while taking no responsibility and failing to exercise due diligence, the supply chain model of today is failing people and communities everywhere. When companies like Samsung can be dominant global players by treating their workforce as production units rather than human beings, the supply chain model must be fundamentally changed. When companies like Apple refuse to pay their fair share of tax, governments cannot provide the basic services which their people rely on.
Since 2008 the ITUC has been organising the World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) on 7 October. This is a day for mobilisation all over the world: one day when all the trade unions in the world stand up for decent work. Decent work must be at the centre of government actions to bring back economic growth and build a new global economy that puts people first.
No action is too big or too small for the World Day for Decent Work: whether be it a round table discussion, a huge demonstration, a protest letter, a flash mob action or something completely different.
This year the global theme is End Corporate Greed. We encourage you to link your actions under this theme, and help build the momentum for the economic transformation that the world so desperately needs.
Tell us your plans for the World Day for Decent Work. Here is what to do:
Register your event:
For the ITUC it is critically important that you register your event by sending an e-mail to wddw at ituc-csi.org. Please include your event’s name, date, location (country/city), and description. We will post information from around the globe on our website.
Use the logo:
On 7 October, we encourage you to use the ‘End Corporate Greed’ logo in your events. Please download it here: English, German, Spanish, French.
Use our hashtags:
When promoting your events via social media, please use the hashtags #WDDW and #EndCorporateGreed.
Report back:
It is just as important that you report your activities to the ITUC as soon as possible after they have taken place (the very same day if possible), giving details of what happened with photos, links to videos and any other campaigning material that you have used. This can be sent to: wddw at ituc-csi.org.
Yours sincerely,
General Secretary
Sharan Burrow
