Commerce
Home Page

• At the FIET World Congress in Sydney in April 1999 a global Commerce Steering Group was launched.
• Conclusions adopted in October 1999 at a tripartite ILO meeting called for a structure to be established within the International Labour Organisation to conduct a global social dialogue in commerce. The conclusions underlined that workers’ and trade union rights must be respected world-wide and addressed many other concerns of commercial workers and their trade unions. The ILO Governing Body approved the decisions in March 2000 and they are being followed up with the International Labour Office.
• Action on Wal-Mart was launched at a meeting in Sydney in April 1999, followed up at several meetings and through research and information work in 1999 and 2000, as well as interventions with the European Commission and other public authorities. Wal-Mart developments are monitored closely on the Uni Commerce web pages.
• An organising drive was started in Metro in Central and Eastern Europe and was expanded to Tesco and other leading multinationals in 2000.
• A new European social dialogue for wholesale workers and commercial sales representatives was launched with EuroCommerce. A joint research project will be completed during the year, to create a basis for future dialogue.
• A European agreement on fundamental principles and rights at work signed by Euro-FIET Commerce and EuroCommerce in October 1999 includes recognition of organising rights.
• A European agreement on combating racism and xenophobia was signed by UNI-Europa Commerce and EuroCommerce in May 2000.
• An agreement on telework has been negotiated and is expected to be signed before the end of this year.
• An agreement on elderly workers has been negotiated and is expected to be signed before the end of this year.
• A large e-commerce research project will prepare the necessary e-commerce related changes in vocational education and training programmes in Europe and world-wide.
• UNI-Apro has focused on e-commerce and held a major meeting to discuss its implications for employment and labour conditions.
• A report on how commerce can contribute to the fight against child labour was completed.
• A series of round table meetings with the commerce social partners in countries applying for membership in the European Union took place in the Czech Republic and in Poland. Meetings in Slovakia, Lithuania and Bulgaria are scheduled for later this year.
• European works councils have been established in Metro and Ikea and an agreement with Carrefour on changes caused by the merger with Promodes was completed in August 2000.
• Trade union rights in Brazil and Korea have been raised with Carrefour, leading to some development of labour relations.
• An agreement has been concluded with Metro AG and Metro Cash & Carry, confirming full respect for trade union rights in the company's subsidiary in Turkey. The continued problems have been followed up in several discussions with management.
• Solidarity projects in support of commercial workers' unions have been implemented in several countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia, as well as in the Baltic countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other South-Eastern European countries and in the Russian Federation.
• A website has been established (http://www.union-network.org/unisite/commerce.html).

The fast global expansion of leading multinationals, the continuous process of takeovers, mergers, strategic alliances and the continued expansion of Wal-Mart will affect wages, benefits and employment conditions. Commerce is a sector in turmoil. Set to reach a market share of between 5 and 10 per cent in only a few years, e-commerce will have a major impact. New ways of doing business using Internet-based trading sites will affect jobs and employment in wholesale trade and for commercial sales representatives world-wide. Regional and global integration continues and will eventually affect collective bargaining on all levels. The fight for reasonable shop opening hours and necessary establishment regulations continues. The inclusion of services in the world-wide free trade agreements of the WTO will impact directly on retail and wholesale trade, which underlines the urgency of global trade union co-operation within UNI Commerce, intensified organising efforts and a social dialogue with leading multinationals.

For UNI Commerce, protecting and promoting employment and safeguarding the quality of jobs remain the overriding concerns.

The expansion of the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart is acting as a catalyst to structural change in commerce. Competitors are positioning themselves through mergers, like those of Carrefour and Promodes, Metro and Makro and Ahold, Hakon-gruppen and ICA. At the same time, they are expanding outside their traditional regions, taking on a world-wide role. In many of the new countries, strong efforts with the support of UNI Commerce and its affiliates are needed to ensure a strong trade union presence in these companies.

Globalisation and regionalisation requires the strengthening of world-wide activities in UNI Commerce.

A major step forward was the joint request to the International Labour Organisation in October 1999, by trade unions, employers and governments, to establish a permanent structure for a global social dialogue in commerce.

UNI-Europa Commerce and EuroCommerce hosted a large employment conference in Lisbon in April 2000, with the participation of the European Commissioners for social affairs and for enterprise and technology, Anna Diamantopoulou and Erkki Liikanen. The aim is a retail and wholesale trade which offers secure and good quality employment for its workers, based on agreed minimum labour standards. The 1999 agreement on fundamental principles and rights at work was confirmed by the Lisbon Conference.

The new wave of technological change will deeply affect the conditions in commerce. A project is seeking to define new job profiles in commerce and to develop the necessary vocational education and training approaches.

In 1999, the European social partners in commerce began negotiating two related draft agreements, one on the rights of teleworkers and another on protecting and supporting elderly employees. The objective is to conclude these framework agreements before the summer 2000.

Together with TUAC - the trade union advisory council in the OECD, the sector has participated actively in world-wide policy debates on e-commerce.

For all commerce trade unions, organising remains a priority, with the focus of UNI Commerce being on multinational retailers and wholesalers.

• To develop a global dimension to the work with commerce multinationals, reflecting the world-wide expansion of the leading companies.
• To strengthen the trade union position in leading commerce multinationals and develop dialogue.
• To continue to intervene with companies when workers and trade union rights are not respected.
• To seek to establish global works councils.
• To develop the content of the work of European Works Councils.
• Negotiating a European Works Council with Tesco.
• Consolidation and setting up of pilot work programmes for the European Works Councils in Carrefour, Metro, Ikea and other companies.
• A Wal-Mart seminar, focusing on human resource management approaches and the effects on commerce jobs and employment of the continued expansion of this company.
• An Ahold meeting, focusing on organising, the establishment of a European Works Council, global co-operation and human resource management approaches in this company.
• A seminar on organising in the new private commerce sector, for the countries of ex-Yugoslavia.

• To continue to develop a significant dialogue on employment and labour relations, seeking to establish an agreement on minimum standards.
• To conclude European framework agreements on protecting mature workers and on telework during 2000.
• To initiate additional action with regard to the effects of e-commerce on commercial workers.
• To follow up on the agreement on child labour and the agreement on fundamental rights and principles at work, including the drafting and publishing of a handbook and training material for sourcing and purchasing, with a focus on child labour.
• To monitor the EU enlargement process.

• Project co-operation with commerce unions in Africa, the Americas and Asia will continue to be developed, as will the projects in Central and Eastern Europe and in Central Asia, including the Baltics, the Russian Federation, other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Balkan Stability Pact countries. The involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which also includes employers’ organisations, will continue.
• The project to organise in major multinationals in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary will be continued, with the active involvement of commerce unions in the home countries. Round table meetings with the social partners will be held in 2000 in Slovakia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and, if possible, Croatia.
• The UNI Commerce child labour campaign will be continued.

• The UNI Commerce Steering Group will meet in September 2000.
• The request of the tripartite ILO meeting for commerce in October 1999 to the ILO Director General to establish a permanent tripartite global forum within the International Labour Organisation, to meet at least once a year to consult on developments in commerce, will be actively followed up.
• Global dialogue with leading multinationals through establishing consultations structures will be actively sought with Carrefour, Metro, Ahold, Auchan, Tesco, Ikea and others.
• Global UNI Commerce meetings will be held on Carrefour, Ahold and Wal-Mart.
• UNI Commerce will continue to participate in the OECD-driven process to establish rules for electronic commerce.

• A UNI Commerce report on structural and technological change in commerce, focusing on the expansion of multinationals and the fast growth of e-commerce and e-business and their effects on wages, collective agreement benefits, employment and working conditions.
• Various reports on major multinationals, including information about labour relations issues.
• A publication on the right to organise, based on the conclusions from the ILO meeting on commerce in October 1998 and the agreement with EuroCommerce on fundamental principles and rights at work.
• Various organising materials (brochures and others) for the project in CEE countries and other purposes.

The UNI Commerce web site will be developed further into an active discussion and communications forum for affiliates, providing them with up to date information about corporate and labour-related developments in commerce. Through regular circular letters, affiliates will be kept abreast with and consulted about developments.

Statutory meetings

• The UNI Commerce Steering Group will meet Geneva on 20 September 2000.
• The UNI-Europa Commerce Sector Committee will meet in Geneva on 21-22 September 2000.

• Priorities for commercial sales representatives were agreed at a meeting in Brussels in February 1999.
• An informal UNI-Europa working group for commercial sales representatives was established in August 1999 in Helsinki to develop the work programme.
• The social dialogue for commercial sales representatives in Europe has been launched with a first working group meeting in January 2000.
• A project to gather information on the employment and labour relations’ situation of commercial sales representatives was launched in April 2000.
• A dossier requesting the European Union to include employed commercial sales representatives in the European directive on sales agents 86/653/EEC has been finalized and a new round of consultations opened with the European Commission.
• A model agreement has been produced for affiliates world-wide who wish to initiate bilateral arrangements for mutual support to each others’ members.
• A report has been drafted on the general provisions for social security for commercial sales representatives working abroad or in several different countries.
• The first UNI passports have been distributed to commercial sales representatives.
• A Uni-Americas meeting for commercial sales representatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina set priorities for the activities of this group in the Americas and discussed the global dimension of trade union work for these workers.

• Expanding the co-operation between commercial sales representatives’ trade unions to other regions, drawing particularly on the experiences of the long-standing co-operation in Europe and the Americas.
• Creating a basis for policy and action through a European Commission supported research project, as part of the European social dialogue in commerce.
• Organising commercial sales representatives in affiliated trade unions and integrating these trade unions into the work of UNI Commerce.
• The problems connected with working abroad are of major concern for commercial sales representatives and their trade unions. Consolidating the trade union organisation structure for commercial sales representatives and engaging them actively in the work of UNI Commerce is thus a priority.
• Commercial sales representatives will be strongly affected by the present technological developments of business to business relations as well as by other e-commerce applications. There is thus a need to ensure a full input to the e-commerce project, where one of the four professions for which vocational training needs are assessed and new programmes developed is that of a commercial sales representative. The results of this project will be useful for unions world-wide.
• Developing trade union approaches to health and safety and working environment concerns, including excessive traveling, road safety and ergonomics.
• Assessing and taking necessary action on social security issues, including the effects of international mobility on health care arrangements, pensions, unemployment benefits and other public and private insurance protection.
• Discussing and developing a joint approach to competition clauses, to ensure that commercial sales representatives enjoy the same freedom of movement on a regional and world-wide basis as guaranteed to other workers.
• Seeking international guarantees for claims by and compensation to employees made redundant because of insolvency.
• Many commercial sales representatives work in functions where they are directly concerned by the issues of child labour and social conditions in production. The work of UNI Commerce in these fields will therefore be extended to this group.