UNI Commerce meeting in Nyon put focus on world-wide organisin in multinationals

UNI Commerce met in Nyon:
Global union for commercial workers puts focus on world-wide organising in multinationals

UNI Commerce Global Union continues to focus strongly on organising workers in multinational retail and wholesale companies. This was confirmed at the recent annual steering committee meeting in Nyon, Switzerland. Thirty union leaders, representing all continents, participated in the deliberations.

Ana Mico and Vanesa Barco at the recent UNI Commerce Global Union Steering Committee meeting in Nyon, Switzerland. They represent Spain's FECHTJ-UGT, one of the country's two main commerce unions. Together with FECOHT-CCOO, actively supported by UNI Commerce, this union is engaged in a forceful struggle to secure full respect for trade union rights Spain's leading retailers. Ever since democracy was restored in this large European country in the mid 1970's, some of the major traders have tried to preserve their control over the workforce by keeping genuine trade unions out and instead supporting management-dominated yellow 'unions'. Through the active involvement of UNI Commerce, a previously bad situation in companies like Carrefour and Metro/Makro has improved very considerably whereas El Corte Inglés remains a major problem.

Most of the UNI Commerce work and activities have indeed been related to the continuing globalisation of the commerce industry. Commerce unions worldwide are accompanying these developments rather than outright opposing them, with a view of ensuring that there is a solid social dimension built in to the process. Social dialogue and global agreements, both on a general level between organisations, and with individual multinationals, are essential tools for this work.

European agreements can be used also outside the continent

The UNI Commerce meeting took note of the various agreements concluded between the commerce social partners in the European Union, and of their usefulness in dealing with European employers also in other parts of the world. Here, the agreement on fundamental principles and rights and the joint statement by UNI-Europa Commerce and EuroCommerce on corporate social responsibility are particularly important.

Masao Igarashi of Japanese commerce union JSD told about his union's experiences of an advanced social dialogue with both domestic and foreign retailers in the country, which is the third largest market in the world. Together with the other large UNI Commerce affiliated commerce trade union in Japan, UI Zensen, his organisation is strongly present in the country's retail and distribution industry.

As the leading Japanese commerce enterprises continue to expand also outside the country, there is an increasing interest among UNI Commerce affiliates towards their way of approaching social dialogue. Some of these companies are very large, high up on the list of the world's biggest traders.

With companies like the Metro Group and Carrefour, important results have been reached in many countries. Workers' and trade union rights are generally respected in these companies. Although problems emerge regularly in individual countries, they can usually be resolved in negotiations and cooperation between UNI Commerce and the central management. It is therefore important to continue to develop global social dialogue between UNI Commerce and leading multinationals, and work towards formalising this in global agreements such as with Carrefour and H&M.

The Nyon meeting was informed by UNI general secretary Philip Jennings about recent contacts with the Chinese trade union confederation ACFTU and about their interest to cooperate on organising issues. Jan Furstenborg, head of UNI Commerce reported on similar discussions involving some of the leading European retailers that are fast expanding in China. There was agreement at the meeting that UNI Commerce Global Union should pursue these contacts in the near future.

Against this background, the meeting expressed its deep concern over Carrefour having been unable to ensure that the global agreement with UNI / UNI Commerce in Turkey. It was decided that solidarity action would be initiated by UNI Commerce if Carrefour's recognition conflict with commerce trade union Tez-Koop-IS is not resolved very soon.

On a general level, the Nyon meeting voiced its strong concern over increasing attacks against fundamental workers' rights, and particularly against the collective agreement institution. They include the anti-union policies of Wal-Mart, Lidl, Schlecker and other large international retailers, who systematically refuse to enter into proper collective agreement relationships. Another part of this approach is the pressure in many European countries to move from industry-wide collective agreements to negotiating company by company, which would considerably weaken the protection of commercial workers.

Government attack on Australian workers' rights was condemned by UNI Commerce

The most extreme example of these attempts to deny workers the opportunity to defend their rights trough their trade unions comes from Australia. The conservative government of John Howard has launched a frontal attack against the very foundation of labour rights and relations and is out to destroy the entire collective agreement system.

SDA general secretary and UNI Asia and Pacific president Joe DeBruyn checks his notes before telling the UNI Commerce Global Union meeting about the all-out attack that John Howard's conservative government has launched against the Australian workers' fundamental rights and the country's collective agreement system. The participants at the Nyon meeting were particularly shocked when they heard that if the proposed legislation would pass, an employer could easily force any worker to accept terms that are far below what the collective agreement would normally guarantee. UNI Commerce will now join the active global campaign in support of Australia's trade unions, who are working hard to stop this destructive attempt by the conservative government to destroy the entire labour relations system.

The UNI Commerce Global Union meeting was particularly shocked to hear from Joe DeBruyn, general secretary of Australia's large commerce union SDA, that the government wants to give individual or workplace level contracts a privileged status so that they can override the provisions of collective agreements. These contracts can be offered by an employer to a worker at any time, and it is not difficult to imagine what can happen if the worker says no to the provisions that the employer wants to impose.

This is of course not the only way in which the Howard Government is out to destroy labour relations and the foundations for a constructive social dialogue between employers and trade unions. Workers would also lose their protection against unfair dismissal, unions would lose most of their opportunities to inform and communicate with their members at workplaces, and the deduction of trade union fees by employers would not be possible anymore.

The Australian trade union movement, supported by a strong public opinion in the country, have launched a forceful campaign against this attempt to essentially destroy the entire labour relations system. The meeting expressed the strong support of UNI Commerce Global Union to SDA and the Australian trade unions, and called on all affiliates to participate actively in the global campaign to help fend off the John Howard Government's attack on human and trade union rights.

UNI Commerce to step up its work with African affiliates

UNI Commerce also wants to step up its support for African commerce trade unions. Many affiliates in the developed industrialised countries have been engaged in solidarity work over the years, supporting organising and trade union development efforts. In addition to continuing this work, there should be more emphasis on issues such as enabling workers in the informal commerce sector to defend their rights and interests, and helping to develop new trade union approaches to include them in their work. In certain parts of Africa, regional multinationals play an important role, and UNI Commerce will continue to promote and support trade union networking.

Napoleon Kpoh is general secretary of Ghana's Industrial and Commercial Workers Union ICU and president of UNI Africa. UNI's African region wants to step up its activities in the sectors, which UNI Commerce will strongly support. This will involve a broad range of issues, including regional multinationals, informal sector workers, and migration.

The Nyon meeting decided that questions related to migration, but also more generally to racism and xenophobia, will be highlighted next year. A UNI Commerce Global Union working party on these issues was established at the meeting, to be chaired by the general secretary of Brazilian commerce affiliate SEPROSCOS, Ricardo Patah. The meeting also took note of plans to initiate a dialogue on migration issues between UNI-Europa Commerce and UNI-Africa Commerce, in connection with the meeting of the European steering committee next year.

Advanced technologies bring major changes to work and employment in commerce

A new wave of introduction of advanced technologies will bring major changes to employment and working conditions in commerce within the relatively near future. Applications such as self-scanning and self-checkout are now at a stage where they can successfully be taken into use, and many RFID chip based processes are being tested and slowly introduced by leading retailers.

UNI Commerce president Alan Spaulding lead the workers' group at the recent tripartite ILO meeting in Geneva, which focused on the effects of introducing new advanced technologies in commerce. The UNI Commerce Global Union meeting welcomed the conclusions agreed on by unions, employers and governments, which clearly establish that technology issues should be subject to consultation and social dialogue. UNI Commerce will accompany the technological change process and has already initiated the first follow-up discussions with its social partners.

Reporting on the recent tripartite ILO Conference on advanced technologies in retail trade and distribution, UNI Commerce president Alan Spaulding welcomed the joint view that these technology issues should be subject to consultations and social dialogue between employers and trade unions. There are important employment aspects involved, but also issues related to the working environment. Education and vocational training will be among the most important areas of following up, in addition to the conditions on which the technology applications are introduced to companies and workplaces.

The UNI Commerce meeting agreed on the general approach to negotiate particularly with leading commerce enterprises about how these advanced technologies will be introduced, and to support affiliated unions in their efforts to use the productivity increases in their collective agreement negotiations, with a particular view of dealing with the widespread low-income problems in the industry.