It makes a world of difference. Today 51 of the world's top 100 economies are companies, not countries. Multinationals think globally, and have the economic muscle to make governments listen.
The only international industry police force with real, enforceable sanctions, the World Trade Organisation, uses its muscle to protect trade at the expense of workplace safety and environmental standards.
Poisonous exports can have global protection, while workers can't.
Workers everywhere are told to expect worse conditions, less security and lower wages because "that's the reality of global trade".
Global trade rules have been used to protect trade in poisonous fuel additives and asbestos.
Action against forced labour in Burma and exploitation of banana workers throughout Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific was blocked by World Trade Organisation action.
For over a decade, Workers' Health International Newsletter (WHIN) has worked without any core funding or statutory assistance. Its goal has been to highlight the problems facing working people as a result of globalisation of trade and globalisation of capital. WHIN aims to provide trades unions and safety activists with the information and resources to expose and challenge threats to workplace health and safety.
WHIN's unpaid staff answer hundreds of queries each year and help co-ordinate global information exchange and union campaigns on issues including asbestos, stress, environmental hazards and new management techniques. WHIN provides information on the best union action on health and safety across the globe. It provides the international contacts to help workers effectively address hazards in their workplace, their neighbourhood, their country and across the globe.
The value of this work was recognised in November 1998 when WHIN was honoured with the prestigious American Public Health Association (APHA) International Award for "an outstanding achievement in the field of occupational health and safety."
But WHIN's work is under threat as a result of an on-going funding crisis. The costs of providing the information service and producing and distributing WHIN to labour organisations in 85 countries increases year on year. WHIN will not survive without financial support.
If your organisation has the resources, please consider providing a donation to WHIN. If you don't subscribe at the moment, take out a subscription. If you have labour contacts abroad, consider paying for their subscription.
Every subscription helps WHIN subsidise copies sent to poorly resourced trade unions and labour organisations in the industrialising world. If you need more information about WHIN's work, please contact us at the address below.
Rory O'Neill and Simon Pickvance
Editors, Workers' Health International Newsletter (WHIN).
Send donations or subscriptions (cheques payable to WHIN) to: WHIN, PO Box 199, Sheffield, S1 4YL, England.
Tel: +44 114 276 5695.
Fax: +44 114 276 7257.
Email: sub@hazards.org