São Paulo, June 14, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - The inclusion of labor and social clauses in the trade agreements signed between countries and economic blocs is the demand that labor union organizations from various parts of the world presented today at the Civil Society Forum. The gathering is taking place parallel to the XI United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in São Paulo.

"They globalized the rights of capital, but the rights of workers remained confined to the national level," observed the secretary-general of the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (Orit), Victor Baéz, from Argentina. Along the same lines, the secretary of the Central Workers' Union (CUT), Antônio Carlos Spis, affirmed that "we don't countenance any labor relation in which spurious elements exist -- such as slave-like labor, for example."

The representative of the organization International Public Services, Mike Waghorne, pondered that it is necessary "to observe with care what these standard agreements are doing. All of them should be based on only three things: decent work, decent work, and decent work. Many countries do not reflect this way of thinking in their own legislation."

Besides the CUT and Orit, the meeting was attended by representatives of the International Confederation of Independent Unions, the Trade Union of the Congress of Malasia, and the International Network of Trade and Provisions.

Reporter: André Deak
Translator: David Silberstein