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<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390">

	A strike by ICEM Indonesian affiliate KSP2KI at one of the world&rsquo;s largest paper mills last week produced sizeable salary increases for over 13,000 workers. With strike support from nearly all workers at Asia Pulp and Paper&rsquo;s (APP) PT Pindo Deli&rsquo;s twin mills in Karawang, West Java, the union achieved substantially more than the minimum government-mandated increase that APP was at first willing to distribute.

	As well, KSP2KI won substantial increases for the lowest paid paperworkers and an APP pledge that it would engage in continuous social dialogue with the union.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 212px;height: 159px" width="390">

	FSP2KI Strike Leaders

	The two-year accord became retroactive to 1 April and grants workers, in some cases, a doubling of the provincial government minimum. KSP2KI, or&nbsp; Federasi Serikat Pekerja Pulp Dan Kertas, the Pulp and Paper Union of Indonesia, announced a three-day strike on 7 May but because of the large strike turnout, management resumed talks and agreed to the across-the-board increases on the day the strike started.

	In March, managers of the 900,000-metric-tonnes-per-year paperboard, writing papers and tissue mills had unilaterally decided on the minimum increase while still in bargaining. The strike and immediate return to the table saw wages lifted from 9.14% to 18% for most workers at low-end classifications, with increases to 14.14% and 11.14% in medium- and top-level classifications.

	That translates to an average IDR (Indonesia Rupiah) monthly increase of 139,363 (US$15.12). The minimum monthly pay at PT Pindo Deli in Karawang had been IDR 1,450,000 (US$157), so the pay grid for most workers will climb to above US$180-per-month.

	&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 225px;height: 169px" width="390">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

	The ICEM commends the KSP2KI &ndash; a union with 7,650 members at the twin Karawang mills &ndash; for the well-organised strike action and subsequent result, and encourages all workers at Karawang, including workers of outsource companies operating inside the mills, to take up union membership.

	APP is part of Indonesian Sinar Mas Group and operates some ten paper machines and 14 paper-coating machines in the Karawang No. 1 and No. 2 mills in West Java. It also operates wholly-owned or majority-controlled pulp and paper mills &ndash; some nine in total &ndash; in other parts of Indonesia.&nbsp;

Indonesian Paperworkers Win Big Pay Gains in Short Strike

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The two unions representing 43,000 Austrian chemical workers &ndash; ICEM affiliate PRO-GE and GPA-djp &ndash; reached 2012-13 wage terms with Fachverband der Chemischen Industrie (FCIO), the Chemical Industry Association on 11 May. The deal came following four difficult rounds of bargaining, and also came after public protests and authorisation for warning strikes late last week by PRO-GE&rsquo;s General Board.

	The result was an increase in minimum salaries of 4.5%, effective 1 May, and actual increases for all workers of 4.35%, or at least a monthly minimum increase of &euro;90 that, in essence, will lift the pay for lower salaried workers to over 5%.

	The agreement is for 12 months and covers some 270 chemical companies represented by FCIO.

	The unions won a 4.5% pay increase for apprentices, 4.5% added to shift and night shift premiums, and a 3.2% hike to work allowance benefits.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 180px;height: 120px" width="390" />

	3 May Manifestation in Schwechat

	But perhaps most notable in the new collective agreement is improved maternal leave language whereby women can spend up to two years at home, with 16 months of that credited in calculation of wage increases and retirement benefits. The unions also won for chemical workers added bereavement leave in cases of death of children, either those living at home or away from home.

	Deputy PRO-GE Chairman Alfred Artm&auml;uer and GPA-djp Secretary Roman Krenn, who jointly led the unions&rsquo; bargaining efforts, credited shop stewards across the Alpine nation for conducting meetings and mobilising chemical workers for the favourable agreement after the third round of talks failed on 27 April.

	Indicative of the mobilisations was a 3 May one in Schwechat near Vienna where 800 workers manifested at a Borealis polyolefin plant.

After Testy Talks, Austrian Chemical Workers Agree to 4.35% Wage Hikes

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />The current propensity by multinationals to lock-out Canadian workers when they refuse cutbacks to their work standards continues. On 5 May, Evraz North America, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Evraz Group, locked out 105 union members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 551 in Camrose, Alberta.The lockout comes three months after expiration of a prior labour agreement and more tellingly, comes during a boom cycle of steel pipe manufacturing, with the Camrose mill residing squarely and profitably inside the booming bitumen oil production fields of western Canada.Evraz is seeking elimination of the defined benefit pension scheme for new employees, cuts in retiree benefits for future pensioners, and has offered pay rates in a new three-year contract that are less than what it agreed to at union-represented tubular pipe factories in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, Alberta, late last year. The company also seeks to slash vacation benefits in Camrose.Meanwhile, due to an acute shortage of skilled workers in the Canadian tar sands, the Camrose factories have been unable to hire enough metalworkers to operate around-the-clock operations and even before the lockout, the company has been stretched thin in meeting existing orders from oil- and gas-producing firms.&ldquo;It is completely unfathomable that workers in the oil and gas industry working in the hottest economy in North America are being attacked and threated to give back long fought gains,&rdquo; said CAW National Representative Todd Romanow.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 157px" width="390" />&nbsp;&nbsp;Todd RomanowLast year, the United Steelworkers (USW) set up a global <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4346-Steelworkers-Form-a-98Unity-Councila-for-Evraz-Metal-Mine-Workers">Unity Council</a> for workers and their unions of the Evraz Group. In a message to USW Local 6673 in Calgary and USW Local 5890 in Regina, Romanow wrote:&ldquo;At the heart of this attack is the removal of our defined benefits plan and retiree benefits for future employees but make no mistake, the fight is bigger than that as it is an attack from a multinational conglomerate on working people and the middle class.&rdquo; He added it is &ldquo;all in the name of corporate greed and insatiable profits.&rdquo;The Evraz Group is controlled by holding companies connected to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of UK&rsquo;s Chelsea football club of the English Premier League. It is Russia&rsquo;s largest steelmaker, operates iron ore and coal mines throughout the world, and is North America&rsquo;s largest producer of tubular pipe and second largest maker of steel plate.In Camrose, a facility Evraz got in 2007 with the US$2.3 billion acquisition of US-based Oregon Steel Mills, the company operates two pipe mills, one making 16-inch piping and casing for drilling and transport of oil and natural gas, the other producing large-diameter pipe used in transmission lines.

Evraz Pipe Shamefully Locks Out Members of Canadian Auto Workers

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 59px" width="390" />

	The current propensity by multinationals to lock-out Canadian workers when they refuse cutbacks to their work standards continues. On 5 May, Evraz North America, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Evraz Group, locked out 105 union members of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 551 in Camrose, Alberta.

	The lockout comes three months after expiration of a prior labour agreement and more tellingly, comes during a boom cycle of steel pipe manufacturing, with the Camrose mill residing squarely and profitably inside the booming bitumen oil production fields of western Canada.

	Evraz is seeking elimination of the defined benefit pension scheme for new employees, cuts in retiree benefits for future pensioners, and has offered pay rates in a new three-year contract that are less than what it agreed to at union-represented tubular pipe factories in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, Alberta, late last year. The company also seeks to slash vacation benefits in Camrose.

	Meanwhile, due to an acute shortage of skilled workers in the Canadian tar sands, the Camrose factories have been unable to hire enough metalworkers to operate around-the-clock operations and even before the lockout, the company has been stretched thin in meeting existing orders from oil- and gas-producing firms.

	&ldquo;It is completely unfathomable that workers in the oil and gas industry working in the hottest economy in North America are being attacked and threated to give back long fought gains,&rdquo; said CAW National Representative Todd Romanow.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 120px;height: 157px" width="390" />

	Todd Romanow

	Last year, the United Steelworkers (USW) set up a global <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4346-Steelworkers-Form-a-98Unity-Councila-for-Evraz-Metal-Mine-Workers">Unity Council</a> for workers and their unions of the Evraz Group. In a message to USW Local 6673 in Calgary and USW Local 5890 in Regina, Romanow wrote:

	&ldquo;At the heart of this attack is the removal of our defined benefits plan and retiree benefits for future employees but make no mistake, the fight is bigger than that as it is an attack from a multinational conglomerate on working people and the middle class.&rdquo; He added it is &ldquo;all in the name of corporate greed and insatiable profits.&rdquo;

	The Evraz Group is controlled by holding companies connected to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of UK&rsquo;s Chelsea football club of the English Premier League. It is Russia&rsquo;s largest steelmaker, operates iron ore and coal mines throughout the world, and is North America&rsquo;s largest producer of tubular pipe and second largest maker of steel plate.

	In Camrose, a facility Evraz got in 2007 with the US$2.3 billion acquisition of US-based Oregon Steel Mills, the company operates two pipe mills, one making 16-inch piping and casing for drilling and transport of oil and natural gas, the other producing large-diameter pipe used in transmission lines.

Evraz Pipe Unjustifiably Locks Out Canadian Auto Workers Unionists

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	On the morning of April 16, 2012 thousands of Palestinian workers demonstrated in front of the Palestinian cabinet offices to demand passage of the law of the minimum wage as well as lower prices of consumer goods and increased basic support. At the head of the demonstration was the PGFTU Secretary General, Shaher Saad, together with leaders of other PGFTU unions including Mohammed Abu Adwan, Secretary General of the ICEM affiliated Petrochemical Workers Union. The demonstration followed a union-researched comprehensive and in-depth study on the situation of workers and the scale of the suffering which they suffer in the light of the rapidly deteriorating economic and social conditions compounded by prohibitively high prices throughout Palestine.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 285px;height: 160px" width="390" />

Thousands of Palestinian workers meet the call of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The Steering Committee of ICEM&rsquo;s Bridgestone Global Union Network met in Osaka, Japan, on 14-15 April, following a year-long break in activities due to the severe effects of last year&rsquo;s devastating natural disasters in the company&rsquo;s home country.

	The 11th meeting of the committee was hosted by the ICEM Japanese affiliate, the Japanese Confederation of Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union Affiliates (GOMU-RENGO, in coordination with the coordinating organisation of the network, the Bridgestone Union (BSU).

	Chaired by GOMU-RENGO&rsquo;s new President, Susumu Seo, the meeting was attended by representatives from different countries, Akihiro Nagasawa, President, Daisuke Shintani, Board member, and Kazutaka Nishihira, Vice-President, BSU; Terezinho DaMartins, President, Daniel Demetrio, Regional Vice-President, and Joao Batista Goncalves, Assistant to the President, Sao Paulo Rubber Workers&rsquo; Federation of &nbsp;Brazil; Pedro Wasiejko, President, Argentina Rubber Workers&rsquo; Union (SUTNA); Jesus Delgado, Secretary of the European Works Council of Bridgestone, and Jos&eacute; Ignacio Fernandez, Burgos, Spain, shop steward, of the Spanish FIA-UGT; Yoshio Sato, General Secretary, and Norihiro Tokunaga, Assistant General Secretary, ICEM&rsquo;s Japanese Affiliates Federation (ICEM-JAF); and Kemal &Ouml;zkan, ICEM Director of Industry and Corporate Affairs, who also heads up the Chemicals and Rubber sectors.

	<img alt="" src="" style="width: 274px;height: 159px" width="390">

	The meeting also welcomed Masahiko Ichinowatari, Shinya Iwai, Masaki Andoh, and Masayuki Aso from Japanese Council of Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF-JC) as observers.

	&ldquo;Continuity and the firm commitment of participants have been the major features of our Bridgestone Network,&rdquo; said Susumu Seo in opening of the meeting. &ldquo;Attendance of our colleagues from IMF-JC gives us great hope and opportunity as our new global union, IndustriALL, takes shape in combining efforts in the automotive and related supply chains that includes the tyre industry.&rdquo;

	The participants received a report from &Ouml;zkan on the general trends and challenges in global tyre and rubber sectors, and the effects these have had on employees. He noted that the economic recession of 2008 and 2009 has seen some recovery through mid-year 2011, with a gaggle of the world&rsquo;s largest tyre-makers reporting 25% revenue growth collectively through the middle of last year.

	Sales of the ten largest tyre manufacturers&nbsp; have collectively topped US$100 billion for the first time, and &Ouml;zkan&rsquo;s report noted Chinese made tyres account for about one-quarter of the world&#039;s total. China is now the largest manufacturer, exporter, and consumer of tyres in the world.

	This ICEM report was followed by individual country reports from participants.

	As a regular exercise to the Bridgestone Network, the meeting contained a lengthy discussion on occupational health and safety conditions inside the company&rsquo;s plants, including accidents and diseases registered over the last year. The Japanese and Brazilian delegates presented individual accident cases with the remedies taken and involvement of trade unions.

	The cases presented brought the meeting to a discussion on the role of unions in preventing and handling similar industrial accidents.

	The next meeting of the Steering Committee is scheduled to take place in June 2013 in Brazil.

ICEM Bridgestone Global Workers’ Network Meets in Japan

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The four-month dispute by consumer products company Unilever to scrap a final salary pension scheme for 5,200 UK workers ended in march when unions members of two of the three unions involved voted to accept a compromise.

	Members of Unite the Union and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) accepted a revised deal that does close off the scheme, but grants important protections regarding indexing of a new career averaging plan, built-in consultations with the unions, and a moratorium on any further changes until the year 2018.

	A ballot by the third union involved, the GMB, is currently underway. Union members of Unite, the largest labour organisation representing Unilever workers at the 12 food and consumer products factories, voted by a two-to-one margin to accept the compromise. In March, USDAW members &ndash; in a vote with a low turn-out &ndash; rejected the proposal, but the union conducted a second ballot early this month that passed.

	&nbsp;<img alt="" height="159" src="" width="221" />&nbsp;

	Unite&#039;s Battle Bus

	According to Unite National officer Jennie Formby, the company retreated in some of its harshest proposals contained in the new pension scheme, including unilateral ability to implement annual indexing below UK&rsquo;s Retail Price Index (RPI) and eliminating any consultations with the social partners.

	In the compromise, negotiated with the help of UK&rsquo;s Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Services (ACAS), indexing of the new scheme to take effect 1 July will be at RPI plus one percent and Unilever is obligated to discuss aspects of the new scheme twice annually with the three unions.

	The Anglo-Dutch company&rsquo;s hard stance in eliminating a final salary pension plan in the UK produced the first strikes ever at Unilever plants there, with workers taking industrial action in December and again in 11 days of rolling strikes in late January.

Unilever Pension Dispute Ends in UK in Brokered Compromise

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF), the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF), and ICEM have written Peruvian President Ollanta Humala protesting a newly-imposed decree allowing non-traditional industrial producers to hire workers under short-term contracts to fill specific export orders.

	Under Decree 22342 governing non-traditional exports, manufacturers such as garment companies now are allowed to hire precarious workers on short-term contracts to fill specific&nbsp; orders, meaning a worker employed this month to fill a production order for a multinational garment brand has no guarantee of working next month to fill a similar order for the same buyer.

	The <a href="/wp-content/migration/icem/Carta%20FITTVC%20FITIM%20ICEM%20a%20Ollanta%20Humala.pdf">letter</a> by the ICEM, ITGLWF and IMF calls the legislation &ldquo;unconstitutional, in breach of international labour standards &hellip; totally out of date in today&rsquo;s global markets and is just downright wrong.&rdquo;

	Said ITGLWF General Secretary Klaus Priegnitz, &ldquo;This level of flexibility in a thriving industry is frankly obscene. In reality, the term &lsquo;non-traditional&rsquo; is a complete misnomer.

	&ldquo;Thirty years ago, when orders were irregular and exporting companies were just finding their feet, &lsquo;non-traditional&rsquo; might have been an apt description of the emerging garment export sector.&nbsp; But today, the situation could not be more different.&nbsp; The sector has grown exponentially as a result of the free trade agreement with the US, making textiles and clothing one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy.&rdquo;

	Priegnitz added: &ldquo;The average wages of workers in the largest and most profitable textile companies in the sector are among the lowest in Peru. Wages are so low that workers and their families are often forced to live with relatives, and when they can&rsquo;t work double shifts many have to supplement their income by working as street vendors.&rdquo;

	The companies in question are fully integrated operations that do everything from weaving to sewing to finishing. For the most part, the largest companies are the worst offenders, in some cases, employing 100% of the workforce on short-term contracts even though those workers perform permanent functions in the factory. Some workers have worked for the same employer for nearly 20 years on a succession of one- to six-month contracts.

	Priegnitz said, &ldquo;The decree and the way it is being applied represent a gross violation of the labour chapter of the Peru-US Free Trade Agreement and of codes of conduct of the major brands and retailers that drive the success of the country&rsquo;s garment export industry.&nbsp; Peru is in danger of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.&rdquo;

	In the letter, the ICEM, the ITGWLF and the IMF call on Peru&rsquo;s government to vigorously support a proposal to repeal Articles 32, 33 and 34 of Decree 22342, which is currently under consideration in the Congressional Labour Commission. For as long as the decree remains in force, the three organisation have also asked the government to monitor its application more closely, intervening in cases where it is being used inappropriately to convert fixed-term employment contracts to open-ended ones.

ITGLWF, ICEM, ICEM Protest Peru Law Exploiting Short-term Contract Workers

<img alt="" src="" style="width: 100px;height: 39px" width="390" />

	Daniel Aguirre Piedrahita, the General Secretary of SINALCORTEROS, Colombia&rsquo;s Nation Union of Sugar Cane Cutters, was assassinated last Friday night, 27 April, as he accompanied his wife, Helena, to make a telephone call in their Casilda neighbourhood of Florida municipality, Valle del Cauca department in west-central Colombia.

	He was shot twice in the head by a cowardly assassin only 70 metres from his home. In a statement, SINALCORTEROS said the cold-blooded murder occurs in a continued context of violence and intolerance of trade union work in Colombia. It urged members and activists not to let this &ldquo;reprehensibly violent action torpedo our union&rdquo; and derail activities, but rather to &ldquo;reaffirm our actions and our mission.&rdquo;

	The government of Colombia did put out a statement yesterday condemning the killing. Deputy Minister of Labour David Luna Sanchez said the ministry supports the Interior Ministry&rsquo;s Protection Unit director&rsquo;s call for an investigation to determine if the killing was related to union activity.

	Aguirre, 35, was a stalwart leader of sugar cane cutters and their fight to bust the chains of servitude inflicted by sugar mill employers who considered them self-employed independent contractors.

	He was instrumental in 2005 in forming SINALCORTEROS, now an affiliate of the International Food and Agricultural Workers&rsquo; Association (IUF), through strikes. He also led strikes of 18,000 sugar cane cutters in 2008 in both Valle del Cauca and Cauca departments that two years later resulted in collective agreements, labour pacts he instituted that in part made recruitment less cumbersome.

	More recently, he had been advocating revisions to Colombia&rsquo;s labour statutes to bring them up to ILO standards and he was a fierce opponent of the Free Trade Agreement with the US, something he felt would lead to exploitation of workers and the product that they harvested.

	Daniel Aguirre becomes the seventh Colombian trade unionist killed this year, and the 61stsince Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos took office in August 2010. He is survived by his wife and three daughters, ages 14, 10 and 4.

	A <a href="http://www.rel-uita.org/internacional/ddhh/Rel-sinalcorteros_asesinato_daniel_aguirre.htm">letter of condolence</a> (in Spanish) from the IUF to SINALCORTEROS President Alfonso Viafara can be viewed here.

Coward Guns Down Colombian Sugar Cane Cutters’ General Secretary on 27 April

Global Unions Message - May Day 2012 
<div class="section">
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				It is more than five years since the financial crisis hit, followed rapidly by a larger economic crisis. This economic earthquake exposed the dangers of financialisation; of having the real economy subservient to finance; and of two decades of growing inequality. The resulting shock added millions to the already teeming ranks of the jobless and threw millions more into precarious work. Many workers have lost good jobs and far too many have also lost the fundamental rights that went with them. 
			
				Global financial markets, opened up by deregulation at national level, have not only produced the current economic crisis, but also the instability that has characterised economic development for the last 30 years, with periodic &ldquo;bubbles&rdquo; and crises. This has made it much more lucrative to make money from money than from the production of goods and services. 
			
				In response to the crisis, governments, together and separately, engaged in an unprecedented flurry of activity, but deeds did not reflect the words of their statements. There was enough action that was rapid and real to keep the Great Recession from becoming a Depression, but the dramatic shift to austerity policies in many countries is pushing the global economy back to the brink of new recession. Moreover they have not recovered the authority that they ceded to markets and their actors; markets that have no political legitimacy. And, because the root causes of the crisis have not been addressed, nothing has been put in place to prevent future financial market disasters. 
			
				The pressure from financial markets and financial actors has also fuelled short-term thinking and behaviour. It has undermined all three pillars of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. It has deepened and worsened the plight of working people, whose rights are under attack by many governments and employers, both national and multinational. For millions upon millions of working women and men, work means exploitation and deprivation of their fundamental rights, with poverty wages and appalling conditions. The pattern of exploitation that has been thrust on the world leaves more and more people in insecure or informal work, and means growing inequality. 
			
				Public coffers have been drained for a series of bail-outs of banks leading to cuts in public programmes, increasing inequality and weakening prospects for decent jobs and sustainable recovery. &lsquo;Recovery&rsquo; has come for the handful who caused the crisis, while their victims are subject to further &lsquo;punishment&rsquo;. Too many people, outraged at injustice but unable to touch powerful elites, are turning against their neighbours, including migrants on whom many healthy economies depend. Many lose hope in political solutions and retreat into apathy and isolation.
		</div>
	</div>
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<div class="column">
	
		Global unions affirm our solidarity in working together with our communities to reverse economic injustice, and to advance progressive social visions that protect and build the common good. 
	
		On this May Day, Global Unions call on governments to assume their responsibilities and join together to end the crisis. They need to create decent, sustainable jobs and stand up for the rights of people at work. 
	
		We call for: 
	<ul style="list-style-type: none">
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				 &nbsp;Global regulation of financial markets to reduce their dominant role in the global economy and restore them as a support for productive investment to meet social needs; 
		</li>
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				 &nbsp;A broad range of urgent actions for jobs and recovery, including a focus on youth unemployment, in order to create good, secure employment; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Employment measures, including enhanced education and training, which will ensure the long- term generation of good, sustainable jobs; a central element of the fight against inequality and poverty; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Responses to the challenges of climate change in a way that has a real, demonstrable impact on carbon emissions, creates green jobs, and strengthens social sustainability; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Fair taxes that raise greater revenue from upper income groups and corporations, fight tax fraud and evasion, close loopholes and crack down on tax havens; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;A Financial Transaction Tax to inhibit rapid financial transactions; making financial markets more stable and less dangerous, while generating essential revenue; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Full respect for trade union rights and the promotion of strong systems of collective bargaining and social dialogue to help build fairness and democracy;&nbsp;
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;More comprehensive social protection, including through the creation of a global social protection floor supported by adequate funding; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Guarantees of rights to such basic needs as food, water, housing, health, and education; 
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Opposition to austerity measures and the maintenance of government capacity, so that they can govern effectively, deliver effective services, and be relevant and credible - including with&nbsp;respect to measures to influence and affect the direction of the economy; and
		</li>
		<li>
			
				 &nbsp;Sustained investment in quality public services, and especially in quality education services, as an important means to overcome the crisis, and also as a way to build democratic societies in&nbsp;which people have the opportunity to live healthy, rewarding and satisfying lives.&nbsp;
		</li>
	</ul>
</div>

Global Unions May Day Message: Governments Must Act for a Sustainable and Equitable Recovery

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