An organization of Arab trade unions on Sunday, September 16, called the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) trade liberalization policies a "danger" to workers, ahead of the global body's meeting in Qatar.
"Globalization and multinational companies are a danger for the working class," said the secretary general of the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, Hacene Djemam, quoted by Syria's official SANA news agency. Djemam, an Algerian, was addressing a special meeting to discuss the WTO meeting in Doha scheduled for November 9-13.
SANA reported that Arab union representatives at the meeting said the WTO and its accords to liberalize world trade were "eliciting growing popular condemnation because of their negative effects on workers."
The federation based in Damascus groups unions from several Arab countries, although not Qatar which bans union activities and where most workers are expatriates, mainly Asians. ― (AFP, Damascus)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
