About Us: UNI Leaflet

The union agenda goes global
World trade, finance, technology and the growing domination of mega-corporations have transformed global labour markets. National solutions are no longer enough to halt the ‘race to the bottom’ - the scouring of the world for the most exploitable workers and the lowest conditions - or to organise and dialogue in the world’s biggest companies. The union agenda has gone global.
$1,900bn a day flow around the foreign exchange markets. Companies can outsource work down the street or across the globe - and dump thousands of jobs to raise their share price. Governments have become clients of their biggest companies - pushing flexibility for business and preferring private to public. Industries are increasingly dominated by a handful of multinational companies, often with bigger economies than the countries they deal with.
UNI’s response is a global agenda to put a human face on globalisation. It’s an agenda based on global organising, on ensuring worker and union rights, on decent work and on building alliances among unions in multinational companies. We want a world of affordable health care and truly equal opportunity. A world where people come first.
UNI is the global union for skills and services with 15 million members worldwide. We bring together 1,000 unions to create a truly global union that can tackle multinationals and promote the interests of workers to governments, regional institutions and global agencies.  To win we have to be stronger - together.
We campaign to help women organise their future at work - in both the formal and informal economies - and we have a global network of youth activists. We help empower unions in developing countries and spotlight abuses wherever they occur around the globe.
Our aim is to make union members, global players.

Global organising
The rights to join a union, to bargain collectively and freedom from discrimination are cornerstones of global labour rights agreed by governments, employers and unions at the International Labour Organisation. Union membership gives you a voice and strength whether you are full time or part time, staff member or freelance. Ensuring those rights involves global organising and global monitoring.
UNI has launched global alliances and virtual committees in key multinationals to bring together unions involved with these companies around the world to improve union organisation. The aim is to sign global agreements with multinationals, committing them to respect labour rights wherever they operate, to open the door to organising and to monitor their behaviour.  UNI has already signed a handful of these agreements and signing up more global and regional companies to labour standards is a key priority.
UNI has launched organising initiatives to stimulate the recruitment of young workers in the new economy (an increasing number of them women), to create democratic unions where there were none before - and to help organise workers in countries receiving outsourced work. We hold global organising events in the world’s fast growing customer contact industry.

Global unions for global industries
UNI sectors have become global unions across increasingly global industries - commerce, finance, post, telecom, IBITS (industry, business and IT), graphical, property services, media and entertainment, casinos, electricity, hair & beauty, social insurance and welfare, tourism. Their task is to build new alliances, to set higher standards and respond to the growing power of multinationals.  
They give national unions a global edge.

Organising for decent work
Decent work is the global target of the ILO and global unions. It means changing the current face of globalisation to provide global access to decent work, fair income, equality, job security, social protection, the opportunity to develop at work - and the freedom to organise, bargain and dialogue. 
Offshoring sends jobs around the world by fibre optic cable. UNI has an Offshoring Charter to help unions in both outsourcing and insourcing countries to win job security and decent work. We have a Call Centre Charter to raise standards in this key new industry. 
Global pressures mean a big increase in migration - and UNI is working to ensure that workers on the move find the union support they need with our UNI Passport scheme.

Campaigning in the regions
UNI has four active regions that are major players on their own continents. They work closely with UNI unions to ensure a social dimension to growing regional economic integration and to influence institutions like the European Union, Mercosur, ASEAN and the African Union.

Setting global standards
Corporate scandals have rocked the USA and Europe , made thousands jobless and damaged economic growth. The greed of top executives has created a huge pay gap with other employees. Good behaviour by multinationals is vital, given their growing power and increasing dominance of market sectors worldwide.
There are guidelines for the behaviour of big companies - promoted by organisations like the ILO, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations’ Global Compact. Global agreements between UNI and multinationals help ensure that a company which behaves well at home also behaves well overseas. 
For agreements and guidelines to be effective, unions need to cooperate globally. 
UNI has launched a global campaign to organise workers in Wal-Mart - the world’s biggest retailer that is anti-union in its US homeland and is driving down pay and conditions.

Global solidarity
UNI is building an effective global network of unions.UNI Development helps grow unions in emerging economies to ensure workers everywhere benefit from collective organisation and bargaining.
UNI Online provides Internet access to unions on all four continents to bridge the digital divide and strengthen the UNI network.
We have a solidarity department that responds to calls for help within 24 hours.