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Obama victory heralds progressive change
5 November 2008
The ITF has welcomed the positive step forward for labour rights in the US that the presidential election of Barack Obama signifies.
In a statement issued to affiliated unions today, ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said Obama’s election last night promised to bring in important policy changes on trade union rights. It also brought new hope for international relations and for a progressive response to the global economic crisis.
Focusing on the financial crisis, Cockroft announced that a meeting of labour leaders from the G20 countries had been convened in Washington DC on 14 November to press world leaders to adopt policies to protect working people, who would bear the brunt of the economic crisis. The meeting was due to take place the day before the summit of government leaders. Labour leaders are due to release a declaration on the issue shortly.
Further discussions were also scheduled at the general council of the International Trade Union Confederation in Belgium in December, Cockroft told affiliates.
He said: “The crisis will put the trade union movement globally and its members under severe pressure, but it also provides us with an opportunity to establish a system of global governance, which is much more in the interests of working people in every region than the status quo. The election of a new US President who shares many of the values of the global labour movement can only be a positive factor in this.”
Trade unions, a number of them ITF-affiliated unions, campaigned tirelessly to help secure Obama’s victory.
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