COVID-19 is creating a crisis of unprecedented proportion. As the shocks caused by the public health crisis ripple through global supply chains and depress demand, layoffs and loss of income are devastating working families. The pandemic lit a match next to an existing powder keg of debt burdens, inadequate financial and labour market regulation, increasing inequality, and years of austerity that undermined public health, social protection and the ability of states to fulfil their human rights obligations. The IMF and the World Bank should join governments in executing coordinated and sustained stimulus as the launchpad of a reformed multilateralism that puts working people, shared prosperity and the real economy first.
In this statement, Global Unions outline urgent measures to overcome the crisis and lay the groundwork for an inclusive recovery that achieves the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Read the statement in full here: Statement by Global Unions, April 2020