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Some 200 trade unionists representing finance sector workers from throughout Europe and around the world came together in Dublin to chart a fair and transparent financial future.



Delegates from unions from 25 European countries and observers from another 12 countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas met at the UNI Europa Finance Conference in Dublin on December 10-11 to coordinate their plans to fight for a new level of transparency in labour representation in the restructuring of the finance industry.



“We have to make sure that managers, governments and regulators don’t think they woke up from a nightmare and just need to take another sleeping pill to continue sweet dreams,” said Oliver Roethig, Head of UNI Finance.



“This is the worst generation of bankers in modern times,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings in a speech to attendees. “We condemn their greed, their recklessness and their lies to customers, staff, shareholders and regulators. We have to bring these bankers back into the real world.”



The delegates forged a plan to advocate for regulation and supervision created at a global level to cover all financial products and players in the industry and to ensure that trade unions are represented in supervisory structures.



Bernadette Ségol, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa, told activists that they must act in concert to ensure that the European Union closes loopholes that lets banks dodge taxes and cloak their corporate policies in secrecy.



“European regulation must be overhauled to ensure that financial institutions will not simply “shop around” to find the countries that have the weakest tax laws or the least oversight of banking policies,” said .



The conference included an update of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol provides a cautionary tale for the financial sector as the ghosts of Banking Past, Banking Present and Banking Future warn Mr. Scrooge of the ruin that awaits the industry if it does not rebuild itself in a fair and transparent way that respects customers and workers.



The centrepiece of UNI Europa Finance’s response to the crisis is the call to give workers the right to serve their customers’ best interests. Sales targets at banks have put ordinary employees in a situation where they cannot give good advice to their customers. As Scrooge found out in the play, this model can only lead to the downfall of the industry.



Delegates made clear that finance employees want to serve their customers. Yet, managers push sales targets that force employees to promote aggressively high-priced and risky products not suited to their clients.



Oliver Roethig called upon colleagues “to work together with UNI Finance and the unions to create a fair finance industry. One that is sustainable and long-term, that treats customers fairly, with decent working conditions, where workers are not profit automatons but human beings.”







You can find photos from the conference here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/unieuropafinance09/



You can watch the Banking Christmas Carol here: http://www.youtube.com/user/UNIglobalunion#p/a/u/0/-tZ8PxVxu10