The Council of Global Unions met on 12 June in Geneva and discussed a broad range of general issues, inter alia the conclusions of the last G7, the climate change impact and the very poor labour conditions on major construction sites in Qatar.
The Deputy General Secretary Anthony Bellanger represented the IFJ at the meeting which was held at the International Labor Organisation (ILO) headquarters in Geneva. It provided an opportunity to reaffirm the IFJ’s determination to play its proper role within the Council.
“The IFJ welcomes the Council’s decision to focus on future working conditions but I would like to emphasise we should plan for the future now,” said Anthony Bellanger. “Some 25% of journalists are freelance and a large number of them live under precarious conditions. This focus should be extended to atypical workers such as self-employed who do not enjoy collective bargaining processes to protect them. I ask ILO and ITUC to take a clear commitment along this line. IFJ will do its own share of the work.”
“In addition, I am well aware that the concept of public service is a priority”, insisted Bellanger. “Greece has been celebrating the reopening of the public broadcaster ERT but I must confess that we are very worried about the future of other public broadcasting services in Europe.” The IFJ renewed its call for practical actions to defend good quality public services in whatever sector.
Many Council’s members supported these remarks and committed themselves to a more global and inter-union approach.