Wednesday 5th September News:
We are all UNI family
"Freedom Roll" highlights human rights at UNI Congress
World needs UNI says Kurt

We are all UNI family

"The economy has to be there for people and not the other way round," President Rau - himself a trade union member - told delegates.
Profit maximisation - often at the expense of jobs - cannot be the whole purpose of an economy he said to loud applause.
"There has to be profit but at the same time there must be an obligation to give people work and allow them to earn."  
He called for an international outlook for unions in the face of a globalising economy.
"We cannot allow the internationalisation of capital to go hand in hand with provincialism among trade unions."
Mayor Wowereit - a Verdi member - told delegates that "even in the New Economy workers need to defend themselves properly".
At a time of change, "one thing does not change, we need strong trade unions, otherwise social peace cannot be achieved".
The youngest speaker, Verdi youth activist Martina Hartung, told of her work involving young people in a newspaper publishing house. She now represents young people nationally.
"The best way to attract young workers is to talk to them in their language," she urged her union audience.
UNI President Kurt van Haaren officially declared the first UNI World Congress open and urged unions to provide a countervailing force to the global decision makers of the multinationals.
"At this Congress we are demanding a social and humanitarian face to globalisation," he said.
Presiding over the ceremonies on behalf of Verdi, which is hosting Congress, Margret Moenig-Raane said she looked forward to good decisions. "We have to defend the interests all our members - in Germany and world-wide."
A Post Office stamp commemorating Congress was unveiled on stage by Parliamentary State Secretary Karl Diller and bound copies were presented to the President, Mayor, UNI’s President and General Secretary and other top officials of the international.

‘Freedom Roll’ highlights human rights at UNI Congress

The UNI World Congress - which began with delegates and Federal President Johannes Rau singing "We shall be Free" - will today demand freedom for trade unionists all over the world.
The focus at the first full day’s session of Congress will be Korea, where scores of trade unionists have been imprisoned for their union work.
Delegates - wearing traditional Korean headbands - will start signing a "Freedom Roll" calling for the immediate release of Korean finance workers leader Lee Yong-Deuk.
The Roll will be delivered to the Korean embassy in Berlin tomorrow (1pm Friday at the embassy at Schoneberrger Ufer 89-91, 10785 Berlin) by Korean and other delegates to UNI’s first ever World Congress, which is being held at the Estrel Convention Centre.
Mr Lee is held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day under a one year sentence for leading his members in fighting massive job losses in the wake of bank restructuring.
He is a member of the UNI World Executive and would have been among the 1700 delegates and observers in Berlin this week had he been free.
A UNI delegation visited him in prison in July.
"The President of south Korea may have a Nobel prize for peace but his country has a deplorable record for respecting core international standards for trade union rights," said Christopher Ng, UNI’s Asia and Pacific Regional Secretary.
The Congress will also debate trade union rights in Burma, Colombia and Zimbabwe.
Exiled Burmese trade union leader Muang Muang will talk about repression in his country under a military government.
A giant photo of the democratic leader of Burma, Aung San Su Kyi - who has been held under house arrest - hung over the stage during the UNI World Women’s Conference earlier this week.
Saúl Peña from Colombia will describe what it’s like to work in a country that is the most dangerous place for trade unionists on earth – where 92 were killed last year.
And on Sunday Congress will condemn attacks on trade unions by the Mugabe government.
"Trade unions are an essential ingredient of democracy around the world – that’s why they are feared by those with authoritarian tendencies," said Mr Ng.

The world urgently needs a strong, global trade union, said UNI’s first President Kurt van Haaren at the opening session of the UNI World Congress.
He told his distinguished guests, delegates and observers: "we want UNI and its members to become global players".
"UNI is our response to the profound transformations in the information, service and knowledge society brought about by the world-wide networking of work."
The Internet is the driving force of change affecting all business processes in the "old" and "new" economies alike which – linked to "merciless shareholder capitalism" - has led to a "gigantic programme of reorganisation with massive rationalisation", said Kurt.
Convergence of whole industries and de-regulation are going hand in hand with the creation of supra-national corporations. The state is increasingly withdrawing from the public service in many countries and private and public sectors are becoming intertwined.
"We must not leave this landscape to the massive multi-nationals to share out the world markets among them. This monstrous world-wide power demands control and a counterweight, indeed urgently requires a trade union counterforce.
"We are concerned with reforming a world economic order, in which some states are collapsing under burden of excessive debt, in which inequalities are worsening, in which workers and their trade unions are denied elementary rights in many places."
"Because this is the way it is, UNI must become stronger in all parts of its area or organisation," he told delegates.
"The global economy needs a new orientation, new priorities based on the principles of sustainable growth, a high rate of employment, humane work, social justice and the universal recognition of democracy and human rights."