-----Original Message-----
From: Ellen Gould [mailto:murrayg._dobbin at bc.sympatico.ca]
Sent: Friday, October 29, 1999 11:15 PM
To: Lisa & Ian Murray
Subject: Why Is the WTO So Anti-Labor?
Why Is the WTO So Anti-Labor?
“It [the Internet] will destroy one of the great tyrannies of the past,
the tyranny of location. Your accountant may now live anywhere,
and already the WTO is saving you a lot of money by
outsourcing translation -- thanks to electronic transmission we can use translators
working at home in countries all over the world.” Mike Moore,
Director-General, World Trade Organization, September 1999 (from a speech by Moore, available on the Internet at http://www.wto.org/wto/speeches/mm6.htm)
So here we have the WTO Director General’s bold vision
of the future - employers scouring the globe to get work
done on the cheap by home-based workers.
Increasing corporate power to shift services work
anywhere in the world is the focus of the new round of
negotiations on the WTO’s General Agreement on
Services. In preparation for the millennium round, the
WTO Secretariat has carried out a global investigation to
identify any measures governments take that might
restrain the ability to shift service work and reduce
workers wages.
But do the WTO staff really identify trade barriers as
problems because employers cannot pay the lowest
possible wages? After all, their own salaries are paid by
the taxes of workers in WTO member countries. Here are
some samples of what the WTO Secretariat actually says,
and the places where you can find the original WTO
documents so you can check for yourself:
Driving Down Wages in the Retail Sector
In the retail field, the WTO Secretariat says national
requirements that keep corporations from “minimizing
labour costs” are an “Explicit Barrier to Trade”:
“33. Given the high labour intensity of distribution
(especially in retailing), the sector is affected by
limitations on the movement of natural persons [i.e.
people]. Nationality requirements for staff prevent
firms from minimizing labour costs through
international recruitment.” Source: “Distribution
Services”, Background Note by the WTO Secretariat, 1998,
on the Internet at:http://www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm
Driving Down Wages in Environmental Services
The WTO staff see a need for employers to be able to
recruit foreign workers in the area of environmental
services, such as garbage collection, as well.
“30. Given the relatively high labour intensity of some
environmental services, such as refuse disposal, the
sector is affected by limitations on the movement of
natural persons. Nationality requirements for staff
prevent firms from minimizing labour costs through
international recruitment.” “Environmental Services”,
Background Note by the WTO Secretariat, 1998 on the
Internet at: http://www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm
Of course, there is another way that nationality
requirements could be viewed, such as “Nationality
requirements for staff prevent firms from threatening
to relocate if their workers do not accept low wages”or
“Nationality requirements ensure that corporations do
not engage in a race to the bottom in terms of working
conditions.” It all depends on your point of view.
Driving Down Wages in the Health Sector
In the health field, the WTO staff say the biggest
benefit to be gained is through opening up health
services jobs to foreign workers:
“60. (T)he most significant benefits from trade are
unlikely to arise from the construction and operation
of hospitals, etc., but their staffing with more skilled,
more efficient and/or less costly personnel than
might be available on the domestic labour market.”
“Health and Social Services” Background Note by the
WTO Secretariat, 1998, available on the Internet at:
www.wto.org/wto/services/w65.htm
Driving Down Wages by Lowering Standards
In order to free up the ability of firms to “minimize
labour costs through international recruitment”, WTO
negotiatiors will discuss rules to make it easier for
foreign workers to get temporary work visas. Work is
already going on in the WTO to make service
employees as interchangeable as possible by
eliminating differences in qualification requirements,
and reducing these to no more than is necessary in the
view of WTO-approved authorities.
The experience with NAFTA shows that giving the
maximum flexibility to corporations to hire cheap
labour does not help workers anywhere, either in
industrialized or “developing” nations. (See Pulling
Apart: The Deterioration of Employment and
Income in North America Under Free Trade,
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)
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