Organising commercial workers and setting up a social dialogue are the main priorities when Uni Commerce prepares for the enlargement of the European Union. Multinational retailers and wholesalers already dominate commerce in most of the applicant countries in Central and Eastern Europe. One by one, they are targeted in an organising campaign which unites unions from different parts of Europe.

During the first two years of campaigning, Poland’s Solidarnosc has built up a membership of over 2,000 in Metro’s hypermarket chain Real. The German commerce multinational was the first company to be included in the campaign. Uni Commerce has negotiated management acceptance for organising, which is carried out by Solidarnosc with support from German commerce unions DAG and HBV.

Social partnership in Poland

The Polish campaign will now be extended to Tesco, the British retail giant which is expanding fast in these new European market economies. Supported by British affiliate USDAW, Uni Commerce is building up additional organising resources and promoting social dialogue in the company. An intervention just before Christmas turned a threatening conflict into a dialogue between the social partners in the company. In July, they signed a social partnership agreement, which Uni Commerce helped to negotiate. French Carrefour and Casino as well as German-Austrian Rewe-Billa are some of the other companies where organising has already began.

Although Poland is the clearly largest of the candidate countries, it is not the only one to be part of the organising campaign. Concrete results have been reached also in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Uni Commerce organising courses have transferred know-how about dealing with the multinational traders and helped affiliates in developing new trade union concepts. In Hungary, KASz and Tesco are negotiating a social partnership agreement, with the participation of Uni Commerce.

The latest country to join the project is Croatia, where a full time organiser has now started her work, with Uni Commerce support. This project is sponsored by Norwegian commerce union HK.

Uni Commerce seeks employer acceptance for organising

An important part of the approach to this union-building process has been to ensure that the employers accept and tolerate the organising work. On the other hand, Uni Commerce has been able to set down ground rules for how recruitment is done.

An important role has been played by a series of Round Table Conferences in the capitals of the candidate countries, arranged by Uni-Europa Commerce and EuroCommerce within their European social dialogue. Here, both workers and employers have been assured that they have the right to organise, based on the European commerce agreement on fundamental rights and principles at work. The next round tables are scheduled for Bulgaria and Croatia.