WFTU: Billionaires owe thanks to workers

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ATHENS, Greece, March 13 (UPI) -- The World Federation of Trade Unions in Greece said Wednesday the world's 1,426 billionaires owe their success to the global labor force.

"Let us remind ourselves that these riches could not have been accumulated without the most vital means of production: the labor force," the federation said in a statement.

The federation said there were 1,426 billionaires on the Forbes magazine list of the world's richest people for 2013 and that their wealth had grown $800 billion since 2012 and reached a total net worth of $5.4 trillion.

By comparison, the federation said 80 percent of the world's population lives on $10 per day.

"These billionaires are only appropriating the product of the social work and exploiting the natural resources that belong to the people," the organization said.

"While these billionaires are celebrating in their jets and swimming pools, there is an 80 percent of the population that lives with under $10 a day. ... Some many millions of them live in slums, are still illiterate, lack sufficient access to clean water and adequate medical services," the group said, urging support for trade unions to rebalance the world's wealth.