A global service union coalition, representing unions of janitors, nurses, telecom workers and other employees, is launching several mass projects to get the global employers it deals with to agree to universal core labor standards, notably the right to organize.
In a press conference Thursday during their convention in Chicago, leaders of the coalition, called Union Network International (UNI), said targets would include firms such as Deutsche Telecom and its U.S.-British subsidiary, T-Mobile, and Wal-Mart.
U.S. unions in the coalition include the Service Employees, with SEIU President Andrew Stern taking a prominent role.
"We are committed to global organizing plans...and to getting them (multi-national employers) into global labor standards, including the right to organize and the right to bargain collectively," said Philip Jennings, General Secretary of the Swiss-based coalition.
"We need new global unions" to create united action worldwide against firms such as Group 4 Securicor, a British-based security guard company that is parent of Wackenhut in the U.S., Stern said. SEIU has campaigned to organize Wackenhut.
"Until today, 'Workers of the world, unite,' was just a slogan," Stern added.
"Our sectors are dominated by a handful of companies," Jennings said in explaining the coalition. "There are four or five in security, 10 in retail, five in media, and 20 in financial services. We have to bring unions together to organize them."
One task UNI will undertake, he added, is to figure out where its member unions are strong in those sectors, where "we have a foothold" and where there is no union and the group needs to start organizing. Then it can allocate future resources. He noted that UNI member unions themselves train 30,000 organizers a year.
But UNI leaders had few specific details on what the international cooperation among their unions means. "Unions like ours will transfer resources and staff to accomplish not just our goals, but the goals of all the unions involved in this effort," Stern added, again without being specific.
Eddie Stamm, head of a 492,500-member grocery and cleaning workers union in Holland, said his union would host SEIU organizers in October "to teach us to do a better job of organizing," including in multi-country campaigns. "We're not very good at it yet," he admitted.
And Jennings said UNI has created a $5 million union development fund to help construct unions in nations -- such as in Central and Eastern Europe -- where they were either banned, government-run or co-opted. And despite their vagueness on details of international cooperation, UNI leaders claimed advances in their projects and plans already. They included:
* Discussions on launching a joint organizing plan -- the industries were not specified -- with Solidarnosc, the famed Polish workers' union.
* Contacts by letter and a telephone call with a Wal-Mart official in charge of international affairs. The anti-worker retail behemoth is known for rampant labor law-breaking, abuse of workers, sex discrimination, use of illegal child labor, unpaid overtime and more. The United Food and Commercial Workers realized it alone could not organize Wal-Mart, so it started a national publicity campaign, aided by other unions, to expose Wal-Mart.
* Opening of negotiations with several multinationals on reaching such core labor standards pacts. "We went from war-war to jaw-jaw with ISS," Jennings said.
* Use of labor's financial clout to achieve its aims. Danish and Swedish union pension funds found that some of their money was invested in Wal-Mart, and yanked it. Other UNI pension funds are considering following their lead.
* Success in getting Quebecor, North America's second-largest printer, to agree to company neutrality and card-check recognition, if achieved by the Graphic Communications International Union/Teamsters. That two-year campaign for neutrality ended with the victory for the concept two weeks ago, Jennings said. GCIU President George Tedeschi previously announced the win, but gave credit to strong U.S. worker solidarity, including technical and organizing aid from the AFL-CIO.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
For more information
For more on UNI and global solidarity, visit the UNI website, www.union-network.org
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A global service union coalition, representing unions of janitors, nurses, telecom workers and other employees, is launching several mass projects to get the global employers it deals with to agree to universal core labor standards, notably the right to organize.
In a press conference Thursday during their convention in Chicago, leaders of the coalition, called Union Network International (UNI), said targets would include firms such as Deutsche Telecom and its U.S.-British subsidiary, T-Mobile, and Wal-Mart.
U.S. unions in the coalition include the Service Employees, with SEIU President Andrew Stern taking a prominent role.
“We are committed to global organizing plans…and to getting them (multi-national employers) into global labor standards, including the right to organize and the right to bargain collectively,” said Philip Jennings, General Secretary of the Swiss-based coalition.
“We need new global unions” to create united action worldwide against firms such as Group 4 Securicor, a British-based security guard company that is parent of Wackenhut in the U.S., Stern said. SEIU has campaigned to organize Wackenhut.
“Until today, ‘Workers of the world, unite,’ was just a slogan,” Stern added.
“Our sectors are dominated by a handful of companies,” Jennings said in explaining the coalition. “There are four or five in security, 10 in retail, five in media, and 20 in financial services. We have to bring unions together to organize them.”
One task UNI will undertake, he added, is to figure out where its member unions are strong in those sectors, where “we have a foothold” and where there is no union and the group needs to start organizing. Then it can allocate future resources. He noted that UNI member unions themselves train 30,000 organizers a year.
But UNI leaders had few specific details on what the international cooperation among their unions means. “Unions like ours will transfer resources and staff to accomplish not just our goals, but the goals of all the unions involved in this effort,” Stern added, again without being specific.
Eddie Stamm, head of a 492,500-member grocery and cleaning workers union in Holland, said his union would host SEIU organizers in October “to teach us to do a better job of organizing,” including in multi-country campaigns. “We’re not very good at it yet,” he admitted.
And Jennings said UNI has created a $5 million union development fund to help construct unions in nations — such as in Central and Eastern Europe — where they were either banned, government-run or co-opted. And despite their vagueness on details of international cooperation, UNI leaders claimed advances in their projects and plans already. They included:
* Discussions on launching a joint organizing plan — the industries were not specified — with Solidarnosc, the famed Polish workers’ union.
* Contacts by letter and a telephone call with a Wal-Mart official in charge of international affairs. The anti-worker retail behemoth is known for rampant labor law-breaking, abuse of workers, sex discrimination, use of illegal child labor, unpaid overtime and more. The United Food and Commercial Workers realized it alone could not organize Wal-Mart, so it started a national publicity campaign, aided by other unions, to expose Wal-Mart.
* Opening of negotiations with several multinationals on reaching such core labor standards pacts. “We went from war-war to jaw-jaw with ISS,” Jennings said.
* Use of labor’s financial clout to achieve its aims. Danish and Swedish union pension funds found that some of their money was invested in Wal-Mart, and yanked it. Other UNI pension funds are considering following their lead.
* Success in getting Quebecor, North America’s second-largest printer, to agree to company neutrality and card-check recognition, if achieved by the Graphic Communications International Union/Teamsters. That two-year campaign for neutrality ended with the victory for the concept two weeks ago, Jennings said. GCIU President George Tedeschi previously announced the win, but gave credit to strong U.S. worker solidarity, including technical and organizing aid from the AFL-CIO.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
For more information
For more on UNI and global solidarity, visit the UNI website, www.union-network.org