Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 11-13 September, 2007 - The OAS Ministers of Labour adopted the Declaration of Port of Spain 2007 “Making Decent Work Central to Social and Economic Development” and an accompanying Plan of Action. On this occasion, OAS Secretary General Mr. José Miguel Insulza and the ILO Director-General also signed a Memorandum of Understanding to further cooperation between the OAS and the ILO.

At the inaugural session, the Director-General traced the growing collaboration between the OAS and the ILO centred on the Decent Work Agenda and the key role that the ministers of labour and employers’ and workers’ organizations had played in having the Agenda adopted at the highest political levels. He went on to identify five priority areas for future action: achieving balance between state, market and society; consolidating a social protection floor in each national context below which no citizen should be allowed to fall; fighting youth unemployment and precarious employment; adopting a proactive approach to climate change and jobs; and strengthening social dialogue as an instrument of democracy, stability and development.