ROME: Labor ministers from the Group of Eight wealthy nations on Sunday launched a meeting to examine the human cost of the financial crisis, as an OECD report forecasts rising unemployment in its bloc. The three-day meeting comes after protests in several European capitals on Saturday ahead of a much-anticipated summit of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations Thursday in London on the financial crisis. The Rome meeting will aim to get a seat at the table at the G20 for labor concerns, said John Evans, the chief trade unions adviser to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). At the moment the discussion in the G20 is very much dominated by finance ministers, organizations like the Financial Stability Forum and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) where we don t have a voice, Evans told reporters. In order to be able to fix the crisis in the banks we have to fix the employment crisis, he said, warning of a very dangerous situation arising from massive job losses. The International Labor Organization (ILO) in January said the global financial meltdown could claim up to 50 million jobs over 2008 and 2009, while the World Bank warned that the crisis could push 46 million back into poverty. And on Sunday, an OECD background document predicted jobless rates in the 30-nation bloc to near double digits in all member states except Japan by the end of 2010. That would mean that the number of jobless in the OECD area would by 2010 have risen faster than the 10-year period to the early 1980s, which included the two oil shocks, the document said. Historical experience suggests that it can take a long time to overcome such large increases in unemployment. Indeed, some G8 countries never got back to the pre-crisis unemployment lows, it added. There is a great deal of anger (over) what is being seen as a crisis for which (people) have no responsibility, said Evans. Ultimately they are paying the cost in terms of lost homes, lost jobs, lost incomes, lost pensions. He added: When people see a trillion dollars being spent to try to bail out the banking system, and then when people are losing their jobs and the government says, well, they can t intervene -that s socialism for the rich and neo-liberalism for the poor - and we must not go down that road. The Rome meeting would warn the G20 that the appalling situation happening now in the jobs market has to be put at the centre of all governments attention in addressing the financial crisis, said Evans. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned last week that dramatic rises in unemployment around the world would set the stage for conflict. The world financial crisis could spark social unrest, some threats to democracy and maybe for some cases, it can also end in war, he warned during an ILO meeting in Geneva. We are here to face together the human dimension of the crisis, Italian Labor Minister Maurizio Sacconi told reporters. We need to rebuild the cycle of confidence, starting above all with social protections, that is... putting people first. Without social cohesion, inevitably there cannot be economic sustainability, he said. From Monday, the meeting, dubbed the Group of 14, will include labor ministers from emerging giants China, India and Brazil as well as Mexico, South Africa and Egypt. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in London, Rome, Berlin and other cities on Saturday to express their anger at the damage the financial crisis is doing to ordinary people s lives. France saw more than a million workers take to the streets in a nationwide strike on March 19 to demand higher wages and greater job security. A protest in Paris left nine police officers injured and led to some 300 arrests.
