Congress statement on
Making Vision into Reality:
Priorities for the ICFTU in the 21st Century
- The Trade unions have a vision of what the world should be like in the 21st century:
- We want to build a world free from poverty, free from discrimination and injustice, and free from the threat of war and oppression.
- We want to see end to unemployment and the realisation of full employment.
- It is a world where extremes of opulence and misery are eliminated, where women and men are equally able to work to fulfil their potential and share it with the community. We want decent work for all.
- It is a democratic world in which governments are accountable to citizens from the local level up to the organisations for international co-operation. Respect for basic workers' rights strengthens democracy, which in turn provides a free and enabling environment for workers to exercise their rights fully and effectively.
- We want democratic processes, based on respect for and enforcement if universal human rights, to regulate concentrations of private power and big international business.
- We want to achieve the full equality trade unions have worked long to attain, with a society free from discrimination based on race, colour, creed, political opinion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, health or age.
- We want to create ways of living and working which are safe and promote quality living and are designed to sustain the environment for future generations.
- And we want our children to have lives of continuous learning and progress with real prospects of achieving better living standards than our own.
- Can this vision become a reality. Our answer is yes and we believe that the international free trade union movement is a force that can make it happen.
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Mobilising for Equality at Work
- Workers everywhere want fair treatment at work and in society. The fight to overcome discrimination in all its many forms is bringing millions of workers into or movement, notably women. Women are changing the face of our movement, bringing new energy and ideas to attack injustices old and new. But the pace of change within the trade unions must accelerate, Unions cannot credibly lead the campaign for equality in the world of work if they themselves do not practice what they preach.
- The ICFTU will work to ensure that every affiliate has a plan of action for gender equality within the union movement, that all policies and programmes include a gender dimension and that union structures from top to bottom are opened up to women's participation.
- Women are joining the world's work force at an accelerating pace but mostly at the bottom in low paid, low status, precarious jobs. The economic and social costs of discrimination, particularly against women but also on the grounds of ace, colour, creed, political opinion, sexual orientation, disability and age, is incalculable. Unions are fighting discrimination because it is wrong but we are also convinced that promoting equality benefits the whole of society by releasing the productive potential of people who are unfairly denied decent work.
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