Global union for commercial workers puts focus on world-wide organising in multinationals

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

Global multinationals set the tone for development, competition and labour conditions in the whole commerce industry. UNI Commerce, the global trade union for commercial workers, will set its focus on helping affiliates unionise the workers of these companies. This will help commercial workers to secure sufficient wages, quality jobs, social security, good health care and stable employment under favourable conditions.

Mersiha Besirovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ana Knezevic of Croatia were among the 40 union leaders, who agreed on a road map for UNI Commerce for the next few years.

Forty top union leaders from all parts of the world met for the UNI Commerce Steering Group meeting in Nyon, Switzerland on Saturday (13.11.). In a resolution on priorities and future work of UNI Commerce, the meeting expressed its support for a continued social dialogue with leading multinational retailers and wholesalers:

- Global agreements and constructive cooperation with management ... continues to be the approach of UNI Commerce to its social dialogue with the commerce multinationals, the meeting stated: "The approach to solving problems related to workers' and trade union rights in the multinational companies where a global social dialogue exists is based on negotiations and joint interventions with management."

It is particularly important that UNI Commerce follows the multinationals to new markets, "helping to ensure that the workers in these countries are represented by trade unions who engage in social dialogue and collective bargaining on their behalf", the document continues.

UNI president Joe Hansen (left) and general secretary Philip Jennings participated in the UNI Commerce meeting, which was chaired by its president Gary Nebeker. Jan Furstenborg, head of UNI Commerce sector, right.

The union leaders also supported an opening concerning China, saying that "as a part of its dialogue and cooperation with leading multinational retailers and wholesalers, UNI Commerce will develop concrete approaches to ensure that China, which is by far the most important of all new global growth markets, is fully included in these objectives, principles and activities.

Not all multinational are prepared to approach their labour relations in a socially responsible way. World's largest retailer Wal-Mart, with 1.6 million workers, builds its competitiveness on social dumping. Wherever possible, workers are paid far below industry standards, deprived of health insurance and deprived of their rights. To support this approach, Wal-Mart is obsessively negative against trade unions and goes to great lengths to hinder its American workers from organising. Lately, also the Chinese trade unions have strongly criticised Wal-Mart for not allowing its Chinese workers to create unions.

Jean-Luc Delenne, international human resources director of Carrefour (right) reconfirmed his company's commitment to its social dialogue and partnership with UNI Commerce.

The Nyon meeting decided that UNI Commerce step up its campaign to help Wal-Mart workers world-wide to join their trade unions and to negotiate collective agreements. This will be a joint campaign with UFCW, the UNI Commerce affiliate in the United States.

UNI Commerce also confirmed its opposition against an indiscriminate deregulation of commerce within the GATS negotiations of the World Trade Organisation WTO. Protection continues to be needed against work during unsocial hours, and particularly on Sundays and holidays. Equally important is that national and local authorities must retain their right to regulate the establishment of new stores, on social and employment grounds.

Gary Nebeker of UFCW continues as president of UNI Commerce, with Joe de Bruyn of Australia, Jörgen Hoppe of HK Denmark, Rubens Romano on Brazil and Bones Skulu of South Africa as vice presidents.