Sharan Burrow

“As economists bandy about terms like 'recapitalization,' 'credit lines,' and 'liquidity,' families are facing brutal cuts to their social services and welfare payments, losing their homes, wondering how their kids will make their way in the world.”

“When governments are cowed or simply don't care to enforce fundamental human and labour rights or to ensure corporate tax is paid so that they can invest in social protection and in the health and education of their people, they cede control to corporate greed.”

“Disproportionate corporate power over governments is giving license to the greed that denies workers even minimum living wages. It is also seemingly a license to allow the sheer brutality of treatment of working people at the base of the supply chains.”

“There is a great deal of sympathy amongst workers for the Occupy Wall Street movement. We understand their frustration.”

“The corporate community understands the need for rules. Indeed, it argues for regulation to protect intellectual property, physical property rights, and contract law. So why does it oppose global regulation to protect people and the environment?”

“A new model of business and economic development must ensure everybody's sons and daughters are treated as we would expect for our own.”

“Programs that reduce energy and water use and increase green agriculture and transport have huge job-creating potential.”

“Where laws recognize rights to collective bargaining, the truth is that employee rights to negotiate with employers are denied in many countries.”

“We may be living in a world of disposable electronics, but working people are not disposable commodities.”

“Politically, we have seen the impact of social media organizing people through the Arab Spring.”

“Workers know first-hand how corporate capture of government is undermining their rights and freedoms as citizens.”

“The competitive pressure to produce, buy, and sell to our global multi-national companies is so intense that contractors in supply chains are motivated to pay low wages, intensify exploitative conditions, keep workers fearful with insecure work contracts, or simply sack workers who have formed a union to fight back.”

“T-Mobile U.S.A. is one company that uses fear and intimidation to scare workers away from union representation.”

“In terms of emerging economies, we absolutely believe that the prescription is social protection and a minimum wage on which people can live.”

“Football, or soccer as it is known, is a game of two halves. It's a game with rules and a referee. FIFA, the governing body for football, follows neither the rule of law or has the oversight of a referee.”

“Work has always been influenced by technology and will continue to be.”

“My job is to represent working people.”

“Many governments and corporations take no moral responsibility for the enslavement of migrant workers and freely do business with states built on the back of slave labour. Illicit financial flows and tax evasion are ignored in the interests of some nations and their corporations, stripping the tax base that is so vital for essential services.”

“With global rules for global supply chains, we can end corporate greed.”

“When women are expected to bear the burden of unpaid work, everyone loses.”