Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped

Abstract

2 | International Union Rights | 25/1 EDITORIAL Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped For decades wages have stagnated, public services have been squeezed and inequality has risen while workers struggle to understand why the riches of globalisation pass them by. This edition opens the lid on possibly the single largest scam in the globalisation riddle. And one of the central barriers to organised labour doing better for workers. It explains why nobody has noticed how capital and the richest in the world have hoarded and hidden the loot – because they shift it before they even declare it is made. Most importantly this edition provides a union perspective on these issues and outlines what is to be done. Make no mistake, tax avoidance supresses wages. Workers cannot bargain for profits that are not there profits that have been shifted to jurisdictions specifically designed to hide the cash and defend the secrecy of the owners. Recent scandals have highlighted how the global system has been established to shift profits to avoid taxes. But little attention is paid to how shifting these profits allows companies to claim they have no money to pay workers, and is often used to justify job cuts. If the tax office can’t find the money what chance do workers have? Recently, a few unions have understood the problem and fought back. Jason Ward outlines how the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) took on Chevron, one of the largest oil companies in the world, who are now required to pay 10 billion AUSD more in taxes. Nick Allen and Mary Joyce Carlson explain why a coalition of public and private sector unions lead by the SEIU pursued Mcdonalds tax practices in the Fight For 15. Perhaps none is more chilling than Dick Forlands article on the massacre of mine workers at Marikana, South Africa - killed for demanding decent wages - and the tax avoidance and secrecy of the company. In addition to supressing wages, Peters Adeyemi from the Nigerian Labour Council, demonstrates how corporate tax avoidance undermines economic and social development. It drives up inequality, starves public services and shifts taxation to those least able to pay. Jose Antonio Ocampo, explains the details of corporate tax avoidance and what policy change is needed to stop it. In each case a conspiracy of secrecy is at the heart of the scam. The indefensible can only be defended if never discussed. The beneficiaries deliberately keep information from the public. They know that each time we learn more, the foundations of the system are weakened. Ultimately tax is about power. There is barely more radical a project than taking from the wealthiest and most powerful on the planet for the benefit of workers. And without the collective power of workers organised into unions the project cannot succeed. Nadine Flood from the Australian CPSU, explains how unions have made corporate tax avoidance a popular issue and forced progressive and right-wing political parties to change tax policy. Dany Richard, Madeline Rodriguez and Sergio Hemsani argue that protecting workers from whistleblowing is a fundamental trade union right and essential for ensuring that secrecy and vested interests cannot continue to control the agenda. Recent union campaigns, like Chevron and McDonalds, show how holding corporations to account for their tax practices can build union power beyond traditional union action. They make immediate gains for workers and simultaneously raise awareness of the broken tax system and how it must be fixed. This edition is the first attempt to bring this knowledge together. A coalition of global unions has just launched an International Centre for Corporate Tax Research to help unions better understand tax avoidance and profit shifting in their industry and take action. A global conference will be held in the second half of 2018 for public and private sector unions that want to learn more, and do more. Daniel.bertossa@world-pse.org / Leo.hyde@world-psi.org Next issue of IUR Articles between 850 and 1800 words should be sent by email (mail@ictur.org) and accompanied by a photograph and short biographical note of the author. Please send by 5 June 2018 if they are to be considered...