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Philip
J. Jennings, UNI General Secretary
Philip J. Jennings is General Secretary of the
world’s newest trade union organisation, Union Network International (UNI)...
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...UNI
was created on 1 January 2000 following a merger of four Internationals, the
International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical
Employees (FIET), the Communications International (CI), the International
Graphical Federation (IGF) and the Media and Entertainment International (MEI).
Union Network International (UNI) has 15 million members from 900 affiliates in
150 countries.
The creation of UNI is in response to globalisation and the need to build
stronger global links between affiliates. In a global economy it is vital to
build new forms of global union action. International union activity has become
an integral part of national union work.
Under
his leadership, UNI has developed a wide-ranging plan of action focussed around
ten key strategic objectives. The plan covers how to bring a social dimension to
globalisation, building stronger unions by reaching out to professionals and
managers, improving the recruitment of young people and women into unions,
targeted organising campaigns, establishing a global dialogue with employers,
campaigning for improved corporate social responsibility, developing global
solidarity action and ensuring that all affiliates are on-line.
In a world economy characterised by regional integration, dominated by
multinationals and linked by technology, UNI has a global, regional and sectoral
structure with staff and offices in all continents. With over 200 agreements in
multinationals, UNI will develop union co-operation in these enterprises.
UNI’s aim is to make local union members global players. UNI has a global IT
network.
Philip J. Jennings joined the Geneva-based FIET’s staff in 1980, following a
four-year spell with the Banking and Insurance Union in the United Kingdom. He
became General Secretary of FIET in 1989 and was re-elected to this position at
World Congresses in San Francisco in 1991, in Vienna in 1995 and in Sydney in
1999. He was elected General Secretary of UNI at the first UNI World Congress in
Berlin, in September 2001.
He is currently chairperson of the Global Unions Conference, which brings
together the eleven Global Union Federations.
Philip J. Jennings has a M.Sc. in Industrial Relations from the London School of
Economics. He was born in Wales, United Kingdom, in 1953 and is married with two
children.
See
his speeches
.
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Philip
Bowyer, UNI Deputy General Secretary
Philip Bowyer is UNI's first
Deputy General Secretary. Before the merger he was General
Secretrary of the Communications International (CI), one of the
founding partners of UNI...
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...Philip Bowyer was first elected General Secretary of the
Communications International (formerly PTTI) by the 26th World
Congress (Brighton, 1989) and reelected at the Lisbon Congress,
1993, and Montreal Congress, 1997.
He was born in 1947 in South Wales, United Kingdom.
He was awarded his first degree from the University of Sussex in
1968 and a degree of MA in Labour Studies from the University of
Warwick in 1970.
After working for a time in the civil service, he was appointed
research assistant in the Union of Post Office Workers (now
Communication Workers Union), in October 1970 and, in 1976, the PTTI
Executive Committee, appointed him as Research Officer.
He was promoted to Organisation and Research Director in 1980.
Philip Bowyer organised and participated in educational programmes
and activities of the International in many countries in each of the
regions of the world, including Poland with Solidarnosc in the 1980’s,
and with the Postal and Telecommunications workers of South Africa
during the apartheid years.
Philip Bowyer also represented the PTTI in different international
bodies such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the
institutions of the European Community.
Since being elected General Secretary, the International has
established Joint Committees of equal number of employers and union
representatives of Postal and Telecommunications Services from every
country in the European Union.
In recent years, he has been responsible for numerous PTTI
initiatives to meet the challenge of changes in communications,
including the expansion of multinational companies and the emergence
of multimedia. The International has established union alliances
such as the Ameritech Alliance to face the challenge of telecom
companies worldwide.
He has led the campaign to create a new international trade union
covering workers in the communications, media and services sectors.
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