Using competitiveness as an excuse, workers are paid low wages and unions do precious nothing about it.

How come international organisations, like the United Nations and the European Union, are doing nothing to eradicate competitiveness? Perhaps because the fear of monopolies competitiveness reigns supreme?

A federation of international Unions should have the power to license industries and services, and to issue a minimum standard for each product. How often must we buy a product and use it only once because of its poor standard. Each product should have a stamp saying that it is approved by the Federation of Trade Unions and reached the minimum standard and that the workers have been paid an average salary.

What about the unemployed? The unemployed used to become soldiers and die in their thousands. The unemployed should also be members of unions. The unions should see that the income of the unemployed is tied to machinery.

The Federation of International Unions should see that all firms producing a particular product would have their machinery tied to some of the unemployed providing them with at least the international minimum wage.

This should go on until practically all the workers would have their salary tied to machinery to live a good life.

For these things to happen, a country cannot legislate alone but should exert pressure on the United Nations and the European Union to legislate the necessary laws.

Josephine Gatt-Ciancio

KALKARA