Social dialogue cannot happen without working people being heard

As I look ahead to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, I do so with optimism and resolve.

I’m honoured to attend as the leader of the American labour movement, and as part of a larger delegation of labour leaders from many different sectors and industries. Our federation, the AFL-CIO, represents 15 million workers across 64 affiliate unions in North America. We also represent the voice of every worker who doesn’t yet have a union to call their own.

These are tumultuous times. Authoritarians are on the rise. Inequality is at record levels. Decades-old models of collaboration and global partnership are under attack. And this undermining of multilateralism is happening at a moment when humanity is in the midst of unleashing vast, unpredictable forces, like artificial intelligence and climate change, that are putting enormous pressure on government, society, communities and our economies. How we work, what work is valued and how work is organized are in the midst of massive shifts.

These challenges will not be solved by those at this Forum alone – some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful. They will be solved through social dialogue, bringing the voices of working people and labour to the table. How do we know this? Because every time society has confronted a massive shift or challenge – from grappling with Industrial Revolutions, to the creation of the ILO to confront rising fascism in 1919, to the recovery from the Great Depression, to the establishment of Bretton Woods and a strong union model post-World War II to the present – it has been and will continue to be social dialogue that drives us forward with fairness, justice and dignity for all.

The AFL-CIO was created by America’s trade union leaders to give workers the chance to make our voices heard at the highest levels – to make sure we are actively participating in this global system, where policies and partnerships are shaped that affect all of our lives. We are the counterweight to unchecked greed and capitalism, which history shows brings ruin.

We now prepare for Davos at a moment when some of the most powerful voices in the conversation are seeking to destroy that rules-based order and spaces committed to dialogue. They seek to substitute bullying and violence for the rule of law and diplomacy; fracture international institutions like the ILO, UN, the OECD and multilateral fora like the G7 and the G20 that have been painstakingly built up over decades as bulwarks against crisis and conflict; and get rid of common-sense regulations that protect workers from the greed of those at the very top. If they succeed, it means depriving workers of fair compensation for our labour; robbing families of our economic security, and threatening our ability to address the very real crises in front of us.

Despite these extraordinary challenges, the global labour movement is rooted in core optimism. If we move fast and decisively and with an understanding that climate action must create good jobs for it to retain public support, we can transition the world to a low carbon economy, and unleash a new era of energy surplus and good jobs. And we believe that AI should unleash a productivity revolution – and rising productivity should mean rising wages and living standards, and more time for people to be with their families. Except that over the last 40 years we have learned in the United States that it isn’t necessarily so. If unions and regulators are weak, the likelihood of shared prosperity crumbles, and the legitimacy of democratic capitalism collapses.

So, this is the challenge in front of us as we journey to this year’s annual meeting – and it is particularly the challenge in front of the business leaders who have benefited from deregulatory policies resulting in the vast accumulation of capital. How will we respond to the nihilists and bullies in our midst? Will we humour them or challenge them? And if we challenge them what does that challenge look like?

From a workers’ perspective, we think the most relevant conversation to be had this month is one about the consequences of deregulation and an international order driven by leaders eager to eliminate safeguards that protect workers and the environment. This course is inexorably pushing global society toward a major disaster with multiple drivers – financial crisis, climate crisis, and the risks of destabilizing social and political responses to AI and generally growing economic insecurity.

And this brings me back to where I started. We have choices to make as global leaders. Will we choose policies that regulate democratic capitalism, including creating and implementing safeguards on AI, or will we let Big Tech dictate the rules to maximize profits and hurt us all in the long run? Will we maintain a strong G20 where the world’s major economies are at the table and treat each other and the business at hand with respect and seriousness, or will we allow authoritarians and anti-worker corporate interests to win out, removing any chance workers have of building a better life?

This is the minimum working people ask of our elected political leaders and of the business community.

We are as committed as ever to social dialogue and the values that make our lives meaningful: solidarity, democracy, human progress and economic justice. When our voices are heard – and when we work in partnership with government and industry to address the extraordinary challenges of this moment – we’ll have a coalition capable of moving us forward, and delivering dignity for all people.