The largest global union

Citation

Gennard, J. (2006), "The largest global union", Employee Relations, Vol. 28 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/er.2006.01928baa.001

The largest global union

International trade union organisations are taking on increasing importance in the era of economic globalisation and the ever greater presence of multi-national companies. International organisations grouping national trade unions within a particular occupational group, craft or sector, which were originally called International Trade Secretariats (ITS) date back to the end of the nineteeth century, growing to around 30 such bodies in existence by 1914. Over the course of the twentieth century the ITS – initially dominated by European trade unions, but increasingly bound in scope – grew in size and declined in number. In recent years the number of ITS has declined through mergers between a number of secretariats in related sectors, mirroring developments at national level in many countries. In the mid 1980s there were 16 ITS but today there are ten, all of whom have adopted the title “Global Union Federation”. The growth of an increasing number of multi-national companies requires if there is to be a counter-veiling force to them the growth of global trade unions.

In 2000 the largest global union came into being as a result of the merger of the Communications International, the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees, the International Graphical Federation and the Media and Entertainment International. The merged union adopted the title Union International Network (UNI). It has a membership of 15.5m in 800 unions from 140 different countries. It has 12 sectors – Commerce, Finance, IBITS, Social Insurance and Private Health Care, Property Services, Graphical, Tourism, Hair and Beauty, Electricity, Media, Entertainment and Arts, Postal and Telecoms. It also has four regions – Africa, America, Asia and Pacific and Europe. End of the sectors is also divided into these four regions. Within UNI there are also three groups – youth, women and professional and managerial.

The emergence of UNI is arguably one of – if not the most significant of – the developments in global trade unionism. The rationale for the creation of UNI was:

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  … the huge changes going on the global economy and because of the impact of technology on increasingly overlapping industries. By pooling resources UNI aims to give union members a more effective voice with multi-national corporations, with governments and with international institutions …

The supreme authority of UNI is its World Congress which meets every four years. To date two Congresses have been held – Berlin 2001 and Chicago 2005. The Congress elects the Credentials Committee, a Resolutions Committee, receives and approves the report of the General Secretary, receives a financial report, an auditors report, elects the world-wide officers of UNI and decides policy on the basis of motions from affiliates. The affairs of UNI between World Congress are managed by the world Executive Board. In the event of the UNI rules being silent on any issue the World Executive Board has the power to determine policy on such issues. Representation on the Board is on the basis of geographical areas approved by the Congress. The World Executive is empowered to appoint from its members a Management Committee to assist in the management of UNI between Board meetings which are normally convened annually.

UNI activities include participation in the International Confederations of Trade Unions, the International Labour Organisation, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the OECD and the World Trade Organisation. In these activities it has been campaigning for a social dimension to globalisation, including human and trade union rights. It also continues to develop solidarity action initiatives. It undertakes hundreds of solidarity actions a year and maintains a commitment to respond to solidarity requests within 24 hours. Major actions have included UNI-Graphical’s successful campaign at Quebecer World which successfully united members from plant to leadership level in 14 countries, the Telecoms campaign to gain recognition and organising rights for workers in T-Mobile throughout the world, the campaigns on the withdrawal of Marks & Spencer from continental Europe and the strike over health insurance involving 70,000 shop workers in southern California.

UNI with the unions concerned has been involved in the negotiation of Global Framework Agreements which include, for example, the right of access to the workforce for the purposes of recruitment; commitments by the company to ensure that the companies who supply them with goods and services observe the same standards. These issues are becoming more important as companies outsource and offshore work. It is the UNI members who decide how far to go in these negotiations. For example, UNI affiliates in the UK, AMICUS and Connect have successfully negotiated far-reaching agreements about offshore and sourcing with major companies, such as Barclays, Lloyds and TSB. In the global economy global agreements are needed. In practice global agreements include a commitment to observe international standards for the recognition of the right to join a trade union, to bargain collectively, to non discrimination in employment, to never employ child labour, to observe decent working conditions and to adhere to good environmental standards. A range of activities has been undertaken by UNI sectors leading to global agreements with ISS, H & M, Telephonica, OTE, Carrefour, Metro, NAB and Falck. Sectors have committed themselves to action plans to reach agreement with 40 target multi-national companies, including Kimberley Clark, First Caribbean Bank, Disney and Group 4 Securicor.

Democratic unions are the first and most important means for workers everywhere to defend their rights and their standard of living. To this end UNI is engaged in a development effort to build training and organising activities and to provide assistance to unions in developing countries. It is hoped by doing this to empower workers with rights, capacities and resources to organise, negotiate and grow. UNI is seeking to support the creation and development of strong and democratic unions and to support unions’ efforts to create strong international links and global unions in multi-national companies. The UNI Development and Regions Department co-ordinates these education and development activities within UNI’s world wide programme of action and solidarity. The Department maintains direct relations with funding and partner organisations. It develops and implements projects and co-ordinates the work between UNI sectors, inter-professional groups and the regional offices in UNI-Africa, UNI-Americas, UNI-Asia and Pacific as well is the UNI Moscow office.

At its World Congress in Chicago in August 2005 the delegates agreed to a number of Action Plans around a number of themes. Action Plan No 1 entitled “UNI’s Action Plan for Decent Work” was designed to wake up the World to decent work based on the principle that to have a decent job is a basic need of people in all countries. Action Plan No 2 was called “Plan for Global Union Growth” based on the principle that unions must develop the means to defend and further workers’ interests in the global economy and in the global companies. The Plan pledges UNI to globalise its organising and bargaining plans to grow unions and to raise labour standards everywhere. Action Plan No 3 entitled “Plan for Global Union Rights” centres on blowing the whistle on corporate greed. It is based upon the fact that in each of the UNI sectors, affiliates are confronted with a market dominated by a handful of companies. UNI aims to develop targeted campaigns to grow unions in each of them.

The Congress also approved motions on globalisation for the people, international peace, democracy and security, the rejection of all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance, the world summit on the Information Society, Culture and Cultural workers is an age of globalisation, HIV/Aids, building strong unions in the developing world, an increase in affiliation fees, off-shoring in the service sector, international solidarity with US unions, against the trade embargo on Cuban and a high standard of social protection from the social security system for everyone.

The Congress also committed itself to intensify its efforts to organise workers employed in the USA by Wal-Mart. It expressed concern that low wages, poor benefits, insecure jobs and no unions were the foundation upon which the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart had built its competitiveness and expansion.

UNI is continuing to develop. The development of Global Union Federations is an important response to the growth of multi-national companies and the globalisation of international economic activity. It is unfortunate that the analysis of the growth and behaviour of global unions, such as UNI are ignored in many academic business schools throughout the western world. They were an important part of the globalisation process.

John Gennard