roundtable: Hard line from International Chamber (fwd)

roundtable: Hard line from International Chamber (fwd)

Hard line from International Chamber (fwd)

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Wed, 7 Jun 1995 17:01:54 -0400 (EDT) 

Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 17:01:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
Subject: Hard line from International Chamber (fwd)
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950607165809.4867C-100000@access4.digex.net>


Jeremy Rifkin, has suggested in his book "The End of Work" (1995) that 
the decline of the global work force implicitly arising from the 
Information Age is setting in with unprecedented effects, including 
the need to find work for millions of unemployed and underemployed 
individuals.  The below message from the International Chamber of 
Commerce indicates how the real-world battle is shapping up.  There 
are implications here for all networkers to create the voluntary 
associations needed to confront and overcome the looming crisis.  vs

Vigdor Schreibman
<fins@access.digex.net>


>>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>Date: Tue, 6 Jun 1995 16:22:58 -0700 (PDT)
>>From: D Shniad <shniad@sfu.ca>
>>Subject: Hard line from International Chamber
>>
>>The Vancouver Sun             Tuesday June 6, 1995
>>
>>G-7 MESSAGE
>>
>>LET WORLD'S UNEMPLOYED FEND FOR SELVES, CHAMBER
>>SAYS
>>
>>OTTAWA -- The world's business leaders want Prime
>>Minister Jean Chretien to deliver a tough-love
>>message to his G-7 counterparts in Halifax next
>>week.
>>   The major industrial countries should dismantle
>>their labor laws and cut social safety nets to
>>encourage the world's unemployed to look harder for
>>work and help businesses create jobs,
>>representatives of the International Chamber of
>>Commerce told Chretien during a 75-minute meeting
>>Monday.
>>   Laws that protect employees from being
>>dismissed, set unrealistic minimum wages and
>>provide overly generous social benefits "work
>>against job creation and must be tackled with
>>resolve" the chamber  said in its pre-summit brief.
>>   The G-7 leaders should take a "bold approach"
>>to tackling unemployment, it urged, noting 820
>>million people or about one-third of the world's
>>labor force is unemployed or underemployed.
>>   The other two key issues are the recent
>>volatility in world money markets and trade
>>protectionist threats.
>>   "Business is deeply disturbed that currency
>>turbulence is casting a menacing shadow over the
>>prospects for continuing buoyancy of world economic
>>growth and international trade," it said.
>>   The central banks of the industrial countries,
>>even when working together, don't have the muscle
>>to fend off the speculators in a market in which
>>the equivalent of $1 trillion US a day in
>>currencies is traded, the chamber said.
>>   "The real criticism of G-7 countries is that
>>each of them, individually, has not been doing
>>enough to put its own economic house in order."
>>   There is a "mounting fear among investors that
>>governments in many countries lack political will
>>or ability" to significantly cut their deficits.
>>   The business leaders also said they were
>>"disturbed at the current outbreak of bilateral
>>tensions between G-7 countries, with threats of
>>unilateral action and counteraction," which they
>>said undermine the new World Trade Organization.
>>   "The announced intention of a G-7 country to
>>impose trade sanctions under domestic law without
>>waiting for a ruling from the WTO risks undermining
>>that mechanism from the outset," the brief said in
>>a reference to the bitter U.S.-Japan auto trade
>>dispute.
>>   Chretien has been lobbying G-7 partners to have
>>the issue of money-market turmoil and reform of
>>international financial institutions placed at the
>>top of the summit agenda.
>>   French President Jacques Chirac -- who recently
>>won election on a promise to fight unemployment --
>>has been pushing to make that the theme of this
>>year's summit.
>>   Some summit partners fear the U.S. attempt to
>>pry open Japan's auto market with hefty tariffs on
>>Japanese luxury auto imports will overshadow over
>>economic issues at the summit.
>>
>>     -- Southam News

[CNI Home Page]