UFA, July 9. /TASS/. Austerity measures are not a way out of the crisis, member of the Russian delegation at the BRICS trade unions’ summit, Secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FITUR) Alexander Shershukov said on Thursday.

"The most important theses of the declaration are in line with the position of the Russian trade unions based on which they act also inside the country. They say, in particular, that the austerity measures advocated by the financial bloc of the government, are not a way out of the crisis, and such measures have already failed in a number countries," he told TASS in an interview, commenting on the declaration adopted by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) trade unions’ summit in Ufa.

According to Shershukov, another important point of the declaration refers to the problems of inequality and social stratification. "In 2014, 1% of the world population owned 48% of the world’s wealth, and by 2016 this one percent will own more than half of it," said the FITUR secretary.

The BRICS unions’ summit focused major attention on the violation of the rights of trade unions. "The fact that employers are questioning the right of workers to strike poses a serious threat," said the official.

Shershukov said that the text of the adopted declaration was handed over to President Vladimir Putin.

The document says, in particular, that the working people of the BRICS countries see in BRICS a new, fairer model of global relations, which should be built on top of the traditional East-West and North-South divides. The BRICS strengthening plays a key role in democratization of international relations without violating the sovereignty and the right of peoples to self-determination, in improving the multi-polar world order without the policy of diktat and discriminatory economic sanctions, stated the trade unions’ leaders.

The BRICS trade union summit participants adopted on Thursday a declaration with recommendations to the group’s governments. In particular, one of them concerns the creation a BRICS rating agency and the group’s stock exchange.

The unions recommend that the governments of the BRICS countries create their own rating agency and stock exchange. This will create effective levers of influence on the world economy, the document says. The trade union forum participants believe that the austerity measures that have failed in Europe and in the United States are not a way out of the crisis. According to them, revenues should be used to increase investment in the real production sector, infrastructure projects, education, healthcare system, science and technology, vocational training and skills development.