Regional meeting on sustainable industrial policy

At the meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay affiliates from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay discussed how IndustriALL affiliates can work together to influence governments and industry at national and regional level.

The meeting was joined by two representatives from the Uruguayan Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mines. Lucia Pitaluga, responsible for industry policy, emphasized the importance of union participation in the sector boards which discuss industry-specific plans. Alicia Torres, responsible for environmental issues, outlined the responsibilities of the different actors, workers, companies and governments and the need for involvement of ministries of environment and labour, not just industry ministries.

Participants discussed the need for greater regional integration of state policies, particularly on tax and social and environmental planning, and for further development of productive complementarity to add value locally and increase employment. There was agreement of the need to strengthen the role of IndustriALL in the region to influence governments and corporations and for IndustriALL to be a visible presence in delegations to governments to explain this work. Political will from governments is crucial and affiliates agreed to work together towards Mercosur and Unasur to secure this.

An IndustriALL strategic plan should be developed for the region, incorporating concrete actions plans for lobbying on sustainable industrial policy. Priority sectors were identified as mining, energy, pulp and paper, metal, steel, textiles, chemicals, and electronics. As a first step, the Chilean unions will hold a mining and metalworkers open forum in December to which government and business will be invited.  The plan will be to host similar events in each country.