On 9 November, the Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) opens. In reaction, Global Unions* launch a Day of Action themed Making Globalisation Work for people. Through world-wide action citizens will call for a globalisation where expanding trade and investment means expanding justice and opportunity.

The Day of Action demands that the WTO:

• respect core labour standards;
• adopt a legally binding Statement that WTO rules are secondary to the protection of human rights, the environment and health and safety.
• guarantee the public services and socially beneficial service sector activities are exempted from the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS);
• support the objectives of free quality public education for all;
• take effective measures to provide substantially improved market access for developing countries;
• redress the serious imbalances against developing countries that currently exist the WTO system;
• follow fully transparent processes.

Education International (EI) supports a multi-lateral trading system where the rules are fair for all. However, the rules that have been established to date have not helped to make the world a fairer place.

El also believes that some things should not be treated as tradable commodities: education and healthcare in particular are services provided for the public good. Therefore El considers that the current text of the GATS is unacceptable as it leaves open the door for the commercialization of education services. El wants the text amended to exclude the possibility of education being treated as a commodity.

Due to the WTO rule restricting trade union and NGO representation at the meeting, El invites its 309 member organizations to organize pr join national actions stating that education is for the public good and not for sale. Articles in newspapers, teach-in sessions for the public, marches, petitions or lobbying actions with parliamentarians would all serve to make the concerns of the teaching community known.

BACKGROUND

The Global Unions is an alliance of international trade union organizations including Education International, the Public Services International and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. http://www.global-unions.org

Education Internationals is a world-wide trade union organization of education personnel, whose 24.5 million members represents all sectors of education, from pre-school to university, through 309 national member organizations in 157 countries and territories.

For further information, please contact:
Lisa Dumouchel, Media Officer, Tel. +322-224-0000 or lisa.domouchel@cii0.org