Decent Work: Forging a New International Consensus on Globalization
October 23, 2007, 1:00pm – 2:30pm
A light lunch will be served.
Keynote Address:
Juan Somavia, Director-General, International Labor Organization
Featured Panelists:
Representative Sander Levin (D-MI), Trade Subcommittee Chairman, Ways and Means Committee
Barbara Shailor, Director, International Department, AFL-CIO
Gene Sperling, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Director, Center for Universal Education, Council on Foreign Relations
Moderated by:
Richard Samans, Managing Director, World Economic Forum; Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Opening Remarks by:
John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for American Progress
Globalization is fueling considerable anxiety in America as workers face competition from countries in which living standards, wages, and social protection levels are lower. U.S. workers therefore have a stake in improving living standards and promoting decent work in developing countries, thereby building middle classes and boosting demand for our own goods and services. Efforts to spur job creation, safeguard core labor standards, and strengthen social safety nets and economic institutions abroad are part of the Decent Work Agenda of the International Labor Organization. What role could the ILO play in forging a new international consensus on globalization through the Decent Work Agenda? What role could the United States and other developed countries play in advancing this agenda? Keynote speaker ILO Director-General Juan Somavia will explore these themes from an international perspective. A distinguished panel will then discuss how to develop a broader domestic consensus on globalization and decent work that builds on the recent bipartisan agreement on labor standards in trade agreements.
Resources
Location
Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Map & Directions
Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center
Biographies
Juan Somavia, a national of Chile, has been Director-General of the International Labour Organization since March 1999. From 1990 to 1999, he was Chilean Permanent Representative to the UN, during which he was actively engaged with civil society organizations. He proposed the 1995 World Summit for Social Development and chaired its Preparatory Committee. He was twice President of ECOSOC (1998-99, 1993-94), and of the Security Council (1996 and 1997), and chaired the board of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (1996-99). He was Founder, Executive-Director and President of the Latin American Institute for Transnational Studies (1976-1990), and Founder and Secretary-General of the South American Peace Commission (1985-1990), and was actively involved in the restoration of democracy in Chile.
Mr. Somavia is the first representative of the southern hemisphere to head the ILO. In 1999, he launched the Decent Work Agenda and under his leadership, the Organization established "Decent Work" as its primary goal. It is a restatement of the ILO's historic mission to promote social justice through the world of work. At his initiative, the ILO created in 2003 the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization. Composed of heads of state, employers and workers representatives, policy-makers and academics and other social actors from all walks of life, it was the first official body to look systematically at the social impact of globalization and its operative recommendations include a call for decent work as a means of achieving a fair globalization that creates opportunities for all.
Mr. Somavia's multifaceted career has been driven by a strong concern for social justice, peace, human rights and democracy. His pursuit of these ideals has earned him several citations and awards, among them the Leonides Proaño Peace Prize from the Latin American Human Rights Association, the International Golden Dove of Peace awarded in July 2005 by the Italian NGO Archivio Disarmo, and most recently the Silver Rose Award from SOLIDAR for his vision of decent work and for defending the rights and freedoms of workers.
Representative Sander Levin (D-MI) currently serves on the House Ways and Means Committee. He is the Chairman of the Trade subcommittee and serves on the Social Security Subcommittee. He represents Michigan's 12th Congressional district which includes suburban communities in Oakland and Macomb counties, north of Detroit.
He is known as a leader on trade issues - seeking ways to use trade policy to shape globalization. U.S. businesses and workers can compete in the global economy if the playing field is level. He is fighting to include worker rights and environmental standards in trade agreements. He has persistently challenged unfair trade practices, including currency manipulation, that threaten U.S. manufacturers and U.S. jobs and to knock down unfair barriers to our products in foreign markets.
Levin has also made tax equity a top priority. He has introduced legislation to close a loophole in current law that allows private equity fund managers to avoid paying the ordinary income tax rate for services they provide managing other people's money. He also has tax proposals in the areas of alternative energy, mortgage insurance, food donation, and higher education. He is working to expand children's health care, add preventative services to Medicare, educate women on gynecologic cancers, and improve advance directives and living wills.
Born in Detroit, Levin graduated from Central High School. He earned his B.A. at the University of Chicago, his M.A. in international relations from Columbia University and a law degree from Harvard University. He was elected to the State Senate in 1964, serving on the Education and Labor Committee. He was Senate Minority Leader (1969/70). In 1970 and 1974, Levin was the Democratic candidate for Governor. After a four year assignment as Assistant Administrator in the Agency for International Development, he was elected to Congress in 1982.
Sander Levin and his wife, Vicki, have four children and seven grandchildren. His brother, Carl, serves in the United States Senate.
Barbara Shailor, the Director of the International Department of the AFL-CIO, is internationally recognized for her lifelong work to secure economic, social, and political rights for workers in the U.S. and throughout the world.
In 1996, Ms. Shailor was appointed by President John Sweeney to reorganize and direct the international work of the AFL-CIO. She oversees the work of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity working through 26 field offices to support unions in 55 countries around the world. She serves as a senior advisor to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on foreign and international policy issues.
She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Council's Presidential Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, the German Marshall Fund, the International Rescue Committee, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Global Reporting Initiative, and Solidar.
Gene Sperling is a Senior Fellow of Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress and the Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he served as National Economic Advisor to President Clinton from 1997-2001 and Deputy National Economic Advisor from 1993-1996. Sperling is the author of the book The Pro-Growth Progressive: An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity (Simon & Schuster) and his recent article, "Rising Tide Economics," appears in the September issue of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. Mr. Sperling is also a Contributing Editor and Columnist for Bloomberg News, a Governor of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and for four years was a consultant and contributing writer for the television show, "The West Wing."
In 2000, Mr. Sperling led the United States delegation to the UN World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, where he delivered one of the keynote addresses; he currently serves as the U.S. chair of the Global Campaign for Education. He co-authored a Council on Foreign Relations report, What Works in Girls' Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World and has written several essays calling for a strong global compact on education in such publications as Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times and the IMF Quarterly: Finance and Development.
Rick Samans is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, responsible for the Forum's public-private partnership initiatives and its relations with governments, international organizations, NGOs, unions and other non-business constituencies. A member of the Forum's managing board, Rick has developed the organization's portfolio of multistakeholder projects, which currently engage over 250 Forum member companies in action- or policy-oriented work in collaboration with experts from official, civil society, academic and other institutions, while helping to structure the global issues program content of the Forum's meetings. Before joining the Forum in 2001, Rick served as Special Assistant to the President for International Economic Policy in the U.S. White House. As Senior Director of the National Security Council's International Economic Affairs directorate and a senior staff member of the National Economic Council, he assisted President Clinton on a broad range of international trade and financial policy matters. From 1996 - 1998, Rick served as Economic Policy Advisor to U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD). He assisted Senator Daschle and the Senate Democratic Caucus on international trade and monetary, tax, and broad economic policy issues. He served previously in a variety of roles in government, the private sector, and research institutions.
John Podesta is the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress and visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Podesta served as chief of staff to President William J. Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001, where he was responsible for directing, managing, and overseeing all policy development, daily operations, Congressional relations, and staff activities of the White House. He coordinated the work of cabinet agencies with a particular emphasis on the development of federal budget and tax policy. He also served in the president's Cabinet and as a principal on the National Security Council. From 1997 to 1998 he served as both an Assistant to the President and deputy chief of staff. From January 1993 to 1995, he was Assistant to the President, Staff Secretary, and a senior policy advisor on government information, privacy, telecommunications security, and regulatory policy. Podesta previously held a number of positions on Capitol Hill including: counselor to Democratic Leader Sen. Thomas A. Daschle; chief counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee; chief minority counsel for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory Reform; and counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Podesta is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and Knox College.