Commerce
Home Page

Commerce
work in multinational
companies

Click to enlarge!

Pictures from the Summit

Commercial Workers' Summit Pages and Documents 

UNI Commerce will now step up its organising and trade union recognition work in the leading global retailers and wholesalers. World-wide cooperation and campaigning will ensure a trade union presence, which allows workers to seek decent wages, job security and good conditions.

Joe de Bruyn, national secretary of SDA and president of UNI Apro, was the host of the Third Commercial Workers' Summit. The Sydney meeting confirmed that UNI Commerce should keep its focus on leading multinationals. There is a world-wide dimension in commerce, which will increasingly be reflected also in trade union work.  Inter-linked regional and global activities will complement and support each other.

The Third Commercial Workers' Summit, held last week in Sydney, Australia, was a strong manifestation of trade union solidarity. One hundred commerce union leaders from all continents declared their intention to work together in order to build up a forceful trade union presence in their industry. The key priority will be to unionise the workers of world's leading retailers and wholesalers, which are expanding fast on a global scale.

Hosted by SDA, Australia's leading trade union, the UNI Commerce Commercial Workers' Summit was a follow up to two previous global meetings, both hosted by UFCW in Washington DC in the United States, during the 1990's.

The three day meeting agreed on draft conclusions, which will now be circulated among participants for final editing and approval. This document will form the basis for the future development of UNI Commerce and its role in supporting organising, trade union recognition and social dialogue.

Wal-Mart was condemned

Both in the discussions and in concluding, the Summit strongly condemned world's largest retailer Wal-Mart for its suppression of its workers' right to organise. Wal-Mart is exercising a downward pressure on wages and employment conditions, to the detriment not only of its own workers but also those working for competitors. Unless the company changes its approach to labour relations, trade unions will be opposed to its further global expansion.

Also in those companies, where a dialogue has been established on regional and global levels, much remains to be done before workers' and trade union rights are respected in all countries. UNI commerce is engaged in discussions with management to address these problems.

A more comprehensive report on the Third Commercial Workers' Summit, as well as other material, will be posted on this website shortly.