What should the trade unions be doing?
Meeting in Cairo for the sub-regional seminar organised recently by the ICFTU in the framework of its plans to strengthen the Arab trade unions, several Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian trade unions discussed the effects of globalisation in the Arab countries and on the labour world. Brussels, 13 August 1997 (ICFTU OnLine): The globalisation of the economy has become a daily reality for trade unions in the Arab world. The challenge is all the greater given that labour legislation, trade union rights and the social gains of the Arab trade union movement are under threat from the market economy, which now sets the rules for the economic policies adopted by the region’s countries. The State is gradually withdrawing from its regulatory role to give free rein to the rules of the market. The economic reforms now being applied by Egypt and Jordan as part of the Structural Adjustment Programmes advocated by the international financial institutions promote an ever larger role for the private
