There was progress in getting key messages on education through to the G20, as a result of Global Union consultations with the Canadian Prime Minister on 18 June, with the participation of EI and its Canadian affiliates.
The Canadian Teacher’s Federation (CFT-FCE) had written to the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, stating that the summit’s theme: ‘Recovery and New Beginnings,’ had significant meaning for the importance of publicly funded education to the economic well-being of a nation. At a press conference in Parliament House preceding the consultation, CTF President Mary-Lou Donnelly stated: “No country can afford to lose a generation of children and youth through sudden, substantial cuts for education…as a result of ‘exit-strategies’ from recent stimulus packages.”
Another EI affiliate, the Federation of University Professors of Quebec (FPUQ), wrote to the Prime Minister on the same day, stressing that ‘education is not a cost but an investment’, and like the CTF urged the G20 to take action on the financing gap for Education for All.
These messages were carried into the consultation through a robust Global Unions’ statement addressed to the leaders attending the G8 and G20 ‘twin summits’, and interventions from several trade union leaders. Brendan Barber, head of the British Trade Union Congress, warned that threats to public service would cut off “engines of growth, and that the price of high youth unemployment would be paid for decades.”
“It is our view,” he continued, “that investment in education and skills is essential.”
Flanked by two Ministers, for Labour and for Human Resources and Skills, Stephen Harper concurred, at least on the skills part, stating that: “Investment in skills training more than pays off.”
The Global Unions’ statement pointed out that the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers’ meeting in Washington in March had presented recommendations to the G20 leaders for a training strategy based on quality general education and life-long learning.
However, TUAC General Secretary, John Evans, pointed out there was a major contradiction between the proposals of the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Busan, Korea, in April and the recommendations from the Labour and Employment Ministers in Washington. “The G20 leaders had to choose between jobs and training to sustain the recovery, or a narrow focus on ‘fiscal consolidation’ which placed recovery at risk,” he said.
The essential issue of a new approach to growth versus “back to business as usual, or worse,” had been set out at the beginning of the consultation in challenging questions to the Prime Minister by ITUC General Secretary, Guy Ryder. Stephen Harper replied that governments had to carry out a balancing act between continuing stimulus in order to consolidate recovery, and the need to deal with deficits which carried risks in the longer term. This was a theme to which he returned in several exchanges with the delegation, stating that the differences between himself and US President Obama on these matters were not as great as the press tended to portray.
EI’s Bob Harris, attending the consultation on behalf of the Global Union Federations, said progress had been made on getting education and training onto the G20 agenda. “At the last G8 summit in Italy, leaders made significant statements on education, and on funding for Education for All, but we did not see that reflected at the Pittsburgh G20 summit 3 months later,” he said. “The Ottawa meeting made it clear that investments in education and training have to be addressed together, in the broader framework of the G20, and that governments must also be held accountable for their commitments to fund the MDGs, including Education for All.”
However, there is still a long way to go, notably in achieving recognition at that level that the quality of education depends on having qualified teachers. Programmes must be put in place to address the shortage of qualified teachers and to provide opportunities for professional development, he added.
“It was particularly important to challenge the rush by governments to exit strategies, and to defend public services, issues on which EI is working closely with Public Services International, and which have the support of all Global Unions.”
“Beyond Toronto, we must continue to press for the statement of support for investment in education and training to be translated into concrete initiatives. This will be an ongoing strategy, through the next G20 summit in Korea this November, and the G20 summit due to be held in France in mid-2011,” he concluded.
Speaking upon his arrival in Vancouver for the ITUC World Congress this week, EI General Secretary, Fred van Leeuwen, said: “We must continue to be assertive in getting our messages across to governments and challenging the gaps we see all the time between rhetoric and reality. We must keep working hard at linking our global advocacy with national and local mobilization.”
EI and PSI affiliates attending the ITUC Congress in their national delegations will meet together to be briefed on these issues.