“…pleasure in declaring Mr. Luis Ernesto Carles Rudy,
Minister of Labour and Professional Development of Panama,
President of the 106th session of the International Labour Conference.
I offer him my warmest congratulations
and invite him to come up to the podium to take the chair.”
"It is an honor for the government of Panama
to have been elected President
of this 106th International Labor Conference
and for me it is with great pride that I represent it."
“Climate change is real
and is the result of human activity
and that the overwhelming proportion of that activity
is work or is work-related.
The idea, long prevalent, deeply rooted,
that a choice had to be made
between job creation, growth and development
on the one hand
and protection of the planet on the other
- ladies and gentlemen,
that is now seen as a false choice.
It has given way to a strong tripartite consensus in this organization
that the pursuit of decent work opportunities for all
and of environmental sustainability
can and must advance hand in hand.
That is the logic of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
That is the meaning of just transition
as contained in the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.
And it is a key challenge,
a key challenge for the ILO and for its tripartite constituents
as the ILO approaches its centenary.
Yes, there will be major disruption.
Yes, jobs will be lost as well as gained,
and the new ones will not always be available to the same people,
in the same place,
at the same time as the jobs lost,
and nor will they necessarily require the same skills.
And all of this is to say
that the decent jobs of the future will not be green by definition,
they will be green by our design.
We need the right policies to make transition happen
and to make it just.
And like any other process of change at work
that will require the combined efforts
of governments, of employers and of workers
through social dialogue.
At a time when tension and conflict
is on the rise around the world,
when inequalities have become intolerable
and denial of social justice is so widespread,
when basic principles of international cooperation
are being called into question
and the practice of multilateralism is coming under strain,
we can call upon the example of the history of this organisation
to lift us to meet our responsibilities.
But in the end the responsibilities are ours.
Remember, the ILO was the very first building block
in the edifice of the global multilateral system,
a system that was later torn apart
by the rise of authoritarianism, terror and war.
And yet the ILO survived.
It survived because of visionary leaders
but mostly because the cause of social justice is not easily extinguished
by the vicissitudes of history,
nor the negligence of the disinterested,
nor the egoism of blind self-interest.
It survived because by working together
Governments, employers and workers
produce something stronger,
something more enduring than any of them can do on their own.
President, there is remarkable resilience in the cause of social justice
and it finds its strongest vehicle
in the successful practice of tripartism
– which means all of you.”
106th Session of the International Labour Conference