”Dear Friends,
Thank you. With your support we have secured a massive 92 nominations for me to continue for another term as your general Secretary. I am humbled by the faith you have put in me.
This will not be an easy period ahead of us. In too many countries Freedom of association and collective bargaining are not respected and employers, particularly multinational corporations, are using tactics of pressure and intimidation to prevent workers from organising. Anti-union discrimination is increasing and there has been a general weakening of social dialogue. Obstacles to the right to strike are serious and violence against trade unionists has increased. This represents a threat to democratic rights and freedom everywhere.
The suppression of wages is deliberate. Workers and their families are not able to live with dignity. With our global wages campaign, we give people hope and we must organise to win minimum living wages and collective bargaining.
High unemployment and the fear of losing a job, or the desperation of too many young people to just get any job at all, adds to the insecurity workers face.
The fights against corruption including tax evasion in the grey economy, and the desperation of workers trapped in the informal economy are part of the struggle for decent work. With universal social protection, health, education and other vital public services we can ensure that we leave no one behind. Our fight for inclusion, for decent work, means including everyone -, women, young people, migrants, refugees, workers in informal work and now workers increasingly exploited by digital platform contracts. – everyone!
And we must remember that too many of our brothers and sisters are living in conflict, under occupation or trapped in refugee camps. We will fight oppression everywhere.
This requires us to support national initiatives within the solidarity of common regional and global campaign strategies
I am proud of the work we have done during the last four years. We have had many victories, and this has given us a strong foundation for the next four. The Congress in Copenhagen will lay down a mandate to deliver across all four pillars;
– Peace, democracy and rights
– Regulating economic power
– Global shifts & Just Transitions, and
– Equality
I thank you for all your courage and solidarity. With your leadership, working together we can secure a just future for working people.
The task ahead of us is to convince our colleagues who are undecided that they will be well served by voting for a team that shares the determination to organise against injustice and to win, a team that will always work to ensure the stretch of unity in action.
I look forward to seeing you at the ITUC Congress if not before.
Thank you in solidarity,
Sharan Burrow”