South Africa and Indonesia have been asked to work together to prepare the final drafting of the eventual documents for WSSD. The trade union proposals are aimed at strengthening these before the Summit begins. 

In a letter addressed to the South African Environment Minister, Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and John Evans, General Secretary of  the TUAC both drew attention to the fact that workers and trade unions are in a very good position to help implement the outcomes of WSSD, especially through workplace actions with employers. 

Both Ryder and Evans said the trade union movement wants to be a strong supporter of WSSD outcomes. However, they insisted that governments do whatever they could to strengthen the implementation measures for social integration and to place a higher priority on developing an employment agenda for sustainable development. 

Trade Unions emphasised that much can still can be done in the proposed text to promote day-to-day workplace-based implementation measures, aimed at fundamentally altering patterns of production in the workplaces that would also impact on the personal consumption habits of both workers and employers, throughout the world. 

“We believe that we can also be instrumental in building support for the public policy initiatives that will be so important in the decades to come.”, they said.

The letter emphasised the ability and willingness of workers and trade unions to fully participate in WSSD implementation plans but also notes that they needed to see clear positive signals coming from both the WSSD Implementation Text and the Political Declaration. 

“We require strong indications of support in both documents, to help convince our members that they have an important role to play in implementing WSSD outcomes”, they said.

The trade union letter contained a 5-page annex, including suggestions of wording for both the Implementation Document and the Political Declaration. 

A copy of this Annex is attached as a .PDF file