An appropriate Time to Reflect on the Global Financial Crisis Cause

ACTU President Sharan Burrow said working Australians were among the innocent victims of the Global Financial Crisis.

‚Äö?Ñ??May Day is an appropriate time for us to pause and reflect on the immense human cost that has been caused by the free market thinking of the past few decades,‚Äö?Ñ?? Ms Burrow said.

Workers are angry at growing job losses, rampant executive bonuses and attacks on their rights.

The future of the global economy must be based on the need for decent work and respect for the rights of all.

To achieve this we need strong financial regulation, a reduction in executive bonuses based on taking short-term risks, and more sustainable business practices including investment in green jobs.

She said that over the past decade, labour market deregulation had gone hand-in-hand with financial deregulation, undermining job and income security.

There cannot be a return to business as usual and a self-interested corporate agenda.

Working people, through their unions, will play a central role in driving these changes.‚Äö?Ñ??

Ms Burrow said the defeat of the Howard Government s WorkChoices industrial relations laws and their replacement with the new Fair Work Act, which takes effect in July, is a demonstration of the power of working people and their unions to achieve change.