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The Global Unions send strong message to the Asian Development Bank
 The 42nd ADB Board of Governors Annual Meeting was held in Bali from 2 to 5 May 2009. Nearly eighty leaders of PSI and its affiliated unions in Asia and Pacific with other global unions, Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) and Union Network
International (UNI), attended the meeting and various series of seminars/forums.
The global unions representatives and civil society organisations met on the commencing day of 42nd ADB Annual Governor Meeting on 2nd May 2009. Engaged in an“one hour” dialogue with President of the ADB, Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda, they asked him to answer on the issues of environment, resettlements, gender equality, 2020 strategy of ADB, economic crisis and its
impacts on job losses, ADB procurement policies, Public-Public Partnerships (PUPs), and they again brought up the issue of the establishment of a labour desk. During the meeting, members of global unions protested the 2020 Strategy of ADB and considered it is fundamentally flawed. The protest was manifested by wearing goggle with 2020 question mark during the presentation. Further,
global unions opined that ADB should rethink the 2020 strategy. The global unions called for the ADB to ensure that public investment is an essential part of all economic recovery strategies. Public investments should create and improve jobs and rebuild public services and infrastructure to make QPS available, accessible and affordable to all. On the issue of financial crisis, the global unions
urged ADB that attaining the goal of poverty reduction in Asia, ensuring decent work has to be at the centre of ADB agenda. Decent work can only be achieved with full participation of workers. ADB should undertake an urgent review of the labour safeguard in the operational guidelines through the compliance of all core labour standards of ILO.
The global unions are strongly in favour of the setting up of the a labour desk at the ADB, to monitor strict compliance to core labor standards and advise the ADB on the implementation aspects of ADB-financed projects. PSI APREC member, Mr. Noboru Inokuchi offered that global unions, particularly the PSI, are willing to cover the costs of the “labour
desk”, to show that global unions “share the responsibility in making sure that labor standards are implemented and workers’ rights are observed.” While core labour standards may be promoted by ADB through its safeguard policy, problems in implementation have been slammed by unions, especially because compliance is voluntary and contractors of ADB projects usually resort to
job outsourcing, which contributes to the worsening labor flexibility and job insecurity in the region.
Public Services International Asia and Pacific Regional Organisation hosted a Forum on Electricity Reforms in Indonesia and Asia Pacific: Role of ADB/IFI's at Arjuna Hall, Novotel Hotel, Nusa Dua Bali, Indonesia on 2nd May 2009. Participants representing the electricity unions and NGOs from Asia and Pacific joined the forum. Speakers from Philippines, Bangladesh, India and
Indonesia shared their experiences on the impact of the reforms in the electricity sector vis-a-vis the role of the ADB. After the forum, PSI distributed a press release urging an end to unbundling of the electricity sector in Indonesia. “The government of Indonesia is corporatizing the PLN as a short cut to unbundling the electricity industry; we challenged the electricity law in
the constitutional court and stopped unbundling earlier but the government is bent upon disintegrating the sector on the advice of ADB” said Mr. Daryako the President of PLN union of Indonesia. The PLN Union staged a protest on Saturday 2nd May against the plan to sell the company's state to private investors. Workers who were initially gathered at Bali Distribution office
for a seminar on privatisation protested after the seminar were called off as workers were not allowed to use the office.
The global unions met with ADB representatives in a forum on 3rd May discussing how to address the impact on workers of the global financial and economic crisis. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that the global economic slowdown will put more than 140 million people into poverty and that 20 million will lose their jobs in Asia. Among the first to
be impacted and lose jobs will be women, young, informal and migrant workers. The global financial and economic crisis has exposed the glaring ineffectiveness of the current system of global economic governance, and the policies that may have contributed to it. We call upon the international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the ADB to institute major reforms needed to contribute to mitigating
the damage caused by the crisis, bring about a global economic recovery on a sustainable basis, and prevent such a devastating crisis from recurring. Any proposed solution or economic stimulus package should ensure decent work, living wages, and safe working and healthy living conditions for workers, our families, and our communities.“The ADB is determined to support governments and the
private sector not only to recover and rebuild demand and shore up investments but – more importantly – to increase spending in social safety nets to help the vulnerable,” explained Mr. Xianbin Yao, Director-General of the ADB’s Regional and Sustainable Development Department. He emphasized that part of the ADB action plan to help Asian economies in the face of the global
economic slowdown is “to strengthen real sector growth – which basically means job creation.” Among these initiatives are investments in basic services and financing for infrastructure that must be labor intensive to create jobs. These must be done without sacrificing workers rights, such as the rights to organise and to bargain collectively. Read more the news at: http://psiaponadbforum.org/ or contact PSI AP Regional Secretary: katsuhiko.sato@world-psi.org
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