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UNI Commerce - USDAW Freedom From Fear Campaign

USDAW's Freedom From Fear campaign gets a new dimension. At the European social dialogue session for commerce, on 10 September in Brussels, UNI-Europa Commerce and EuroCommerce agreed to start preparing a joint project to combat violence. This project, which was proposed by UNI-Europa Commerce, would build on the 1995 social dialogue agreement on combating violence in commerce.

Presenting the proposal, Jan Furstenborg of UNI-Europa Commerce made reference to the successful Freedom From Fear campaign which USDAW has launched in the United Kingdom:

 - This campaign is really close to the hearts of all people working in commerce, be they workers or shop keepers. It is not right that people have to be afraid every day when they go to work. Here, the employers and workers have a genuinely common interest to do something about an unacceptable situation, he said.

UNI-Europa Commerce and EuroCommerce will now start to prepare a project, which will map out the situation within the European Union and seek out good practices, useful in addressing the problem.

USDAW's Freedom From Fear campaign will occupy a prominent place on the programme for a major conference on corporate social responsibility, which the commerce social partners arrange in Brussels in November. USDAW's deputy general secretary John Hannett will join  speakers such as European commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou and ILO executive director Kari Tapiola, presenting the campaign and asking European employers and trade unions to join.

Also leading commerce multinationals are paying increased attention to the theme. Carrefour has entered it on its European Works Council agenda, and UNI Commerce has proposed to Metro that it be discussed at the next meeting between the company, ver.di and UNI Commerce, scheduled for early October.