Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Sep 27 2005 (IPS) — There is a general consensus in Latin America and the Caribbean that the state must play a role in creating jobs, and that trade liberalisation alone does not guarantee an increase in employment.

Based on this premise, shared by many business owners, trade unionists and social activists, the region’s governments have signed numerous commitments since the 1990s to promote the generation of new jobs and protect those that already exist.

Nevertheless, there has been little progress made so far, and many are sceptical about the future.

“The problem is that governments have not lived up to the promises they have made, and have remained committed to neoliberal policies and trade opening,” Carlos Molina, spokesman for the Central American Confederation of Workers, told IPS.

Mario Rodarte, director of the Centre for Private Sector Economic Studies (CEESP) in Mexico, expressed a similar view. However, he believes that the way for governments to more effectively generate employment is by promoting greater opening of the region’s markets and more flexible labour standards.

With regard to the “famous regional and international agreements on employment,” Rodarte told IPS that “they get signed, but that’s all.”

According to the latest figures from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the unemployment rate in the region stood at 9.6 percent in the first half of this year, which is one percentage point higher than the rate for all of 1998. Moreover, the majority of those who are employed work in the informal sector of the economy, where workers’ rights are basically non-existent.

Yet another commitment from the region’s governments to contribute to creating decent employment, adopting measures to attenuate the potential negative effects of globalisation and trade opening, emerged from the Organisation of American States’ (OAS) 14th Inter-American Conference of Ministers of Labour, held Monday and Tuesday in Mexico City.

“Decent work is fundamental to human development. A globalisation process that takes the human dimension into account requires a policy involving governments, the private sector and society in a shared effort to create decent work,” states the final declaration of the meeting.

“We recognise that the effects of globalisation vary within and among countries. In light of the asymmetries between the developed and developing countries, different political responses will be needed to confront the challenges of globalisation and reap its benefits, in a context of solidarity and cooperation,” it adds.

Postulates like these, supported by such disparate observers as Molina and Rodarte, will form part of the central input for the fourth Summit of the Americas, to be held Nov. 4-5 in Argentina under the theme “Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance”.

OAS Secretary General Miguel Insulza warned the participants in the ministerial meeting in Mexico City that unemployment could threaten governability and political stability in the region.

“The correlation between job creation and poverty reduction is obvious,” he stressed, after noting that “the greatest drama facing our region” is the fact that there are 224 million people living in poverty and 96 million in extreme poverty.

While government representatives and spokespeople for international organisations like the ILO expressed confidence in the practical outcome of the ministerial meeting in Mexico City and the upcoming Summit, trade unionists and the business community did not share their enthusiasm.

“The region is reacting. There is greater social mobilisation, accompanied by a renewed political will (to generate employment),” Juan Somavia, the director general of the ILO, declared in Mexico City.

“An ever greater number of governments and employers’ and workers’ organisations define employment as one of the main political problems in our countries. They are seeking solutions by way of a growing commitment to social dialogue (_) and we are making progress,” he added.

But trade unionist Molina and private sector economist Rodarte have quite a different perspective.

“Governments leave these agreements in the realm of pure philosophising, while they blatantly continue to pursue trade opening, labour flexibilisation, neoliberal competition and globalisation, which are so detrimental to employment,” said the Central American Confederation of Workers spokesman.

In June, Molina’s organisation signed an agreement with the governments of Central America and the ILO aimed at situating “the goal of creating quality jobs at the centre of development policies.”

“We are going to take advantage of all the opportunities opened up by the recent Central American agreement, but we also know that governments quickly forget their commitments and throw themselves full speed ahead down the road of neoliberalism,” commented Molina.

His views are shared by the dozens of civil society groups that are organising the third Peoples’ Summit, to be held Nov. 1-6 in Argentina as a counterpoint to the summit of heads of state and government. As far as these organisations are concerned, neoliberal policies are to blame for the poverty and lack of employment in Latin America and the Caribbean.

According to Rodarte, “meetings like the one in Mexico and the summit in Argentina are a waste of time. They adopt these flashy agreements and get together to take lovely pictures, but when they get back to their own countries, everything stays the same, and the job boom never happens,” he maintained.

“The jobs don’t get created because the governments don’t promote labour flexibility, and the unions put up a fight to hold on to their privileges and go on using old concepts like the class struggle,” Rodarte added.

“They talk about generating more jobs, and quality jobs. Well, then, let’s follow the example of what they do in more flexible economies like the United States, China and India, but without abandoning the more vulnerable sectors of the population,” he concluded.

For his part, Molina said that the key to creating more and better jobs lies in the protection and support of productive sectors, and the fulfilment of the agreements which state that governments should protect their economies from the negative effects of free trade agreements and globalisation.