International Financial Institutions.

PSI has many concerns about the international financial institutions: the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund. The publication Stop the World? No. Shape it explains the mandate of each institution, detailing its main agenda, especially as this relates to public sector workers, and describing the work that trade unions have done in relation to each body.

In the case of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the paper shows how it uses its main resources - money and power - to force onto governments in crisis programmes based on the Washington Consensus. It explains the nature of the Structural Adjustment Programmes that the IMF can require governments to follow, including cuts in public wage bills, the number of public service jobs and the working conditions of public sector workers. It describes the rejection of democracy, popular participation and criticism that have marked the IMF’s behaviour until recently.

The World Bank is seen in a slightly more positive light. Although its Country Assistance Strategy programmes can force the same conditionalities onto governments as can the IMF, it has recently appeared to be more openly receptive to public criticism and has been prepared to work with its critics, including trade unions, in examining whether it should alter its approaches. The paper describes work involving PSI in discussions on drafts of its annual World Development Reports. The paper suggests that some recent changes at both the Bank and the IMF may signal a real difference in approach but that such changes are not yet cemented in, especially at the IMF.

PSI’s work with a joint unit of the Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is described, focusing on public enterprise reform and the role of labour.

The difficult and not yet totally successful attempts by the ICFTU and Global Union Federations (GUFs) such as PSI to force the Bank to respect and promote the core labour standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are described. In 2002, the World Bank published “Unions and Collective Bargaining: Economic Effects in a Global Environment”, a report that admitted a country’s economy may fare better if a large number of its workers belong to unions.

The paper offers some examples of PSI’s education, research and campaign work for members on both understanding and monitoring the Bank.

There is more material on our page on Globalisation and public sector trade unions, along with material on the World Trade Organization