The First Workshop on the Follow-up to the ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy was celebrated on April 24, in the presence of Gerardo Martinez, Foreign Affairs Secretary of the Republic of Argentina CGT and Eduardo Rodriguez Calderón, Specialist on Workers' Activities in the ILO Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV).

This important Declaration was agreed 32 years ago within the framework of the increasing importance and expansion of transnational enterprises around the world. Its objective is that direct foreign investments are established in the countries in accordance with the sustainable development of recipient countries and fully exercise labour rights practices, especially freedom of association and the right to unionize.  However, the follow-up tool for this Declaration has proved to be ineffective and that is the reason why the Government of Argentina, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) entered an Agreement at ILO’s Governing Body during 2008, and committed themselves to the urgent task of carrying out a program for reformulating the follow-up tool to the Tripartite Declaration.

Gerardo Martinez, Foreign Affairs Secretary of CGT, defined the importance of Argentina participation as pilot country for testing a new tool that allows effective follow-up of the behavior of multinational enterprises in our country. In his opening speech, he declared: “Our international task has the definite purpose of adopting international regulations in our daily life. In a globalized world, those instruments will play an ever-greater role in shaping trade union actions now and in the future.”

Martinez, Before an audience of multinational enterprises’ union delegates from the Union of Metallurgical Workers (UOM),the Argentine Building Workers Union (UOCRA), Food, Painting, Commerce, Ceramists, The Light and Power workers’ Union (Luz y Fuerza), pointed out: “This workshop is aimed at providing training, especially at adopting the international tools in defence of the workers’ rights for the union action in our country, and that is why we hope to multiply these activities, deepening our incidence and labour within the world unionism and the International Labour Organization”.