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UNI Global Union is making peace a major focus of its work as it approaches its world congress in Japan next year.



Today at the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons 2009 Peace Forum, General Secretary Philip Jennings said UNI, which represents 20 million working people worldwide, is globalising its message of peace. The Peace forum was organised by Japanese trade union organisation RENGO and GENSUIKIN (Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs), and KAKKIN (National Council for Peace and Against Nuclear Weapons) in Nagasaki as well.



“We recognise that working people share common global desires: to have decent work, a decent job that enables individual and family income security to sustain life, where people have a roof over their head, food in their stomach, education, healthcare and support from the cradle to the grave, in caring societies,” Jennings said. “We provide the union tools to achieve this but all that we do has to be built on the bedrock of peace, tolerance and understanding.”



Jennings will be travelling in Japan in August to promote UNI’s involvement in a global campaign— started by trade unionists and peace activists in Japan— to abolish nuclear weapons. Takaaki Sakurada, president of Japanese commerce union JSD and Chairperson of the UNI Liaison Council of Japan is with Jennings in Nagasaki.



The arms’ race is spiralling out of control as billions are spent on weapons while unemployment and poverty climb. Global poverty lives side by side with the 1464 billion dollar cost of nuclear and conventional weaponry – a 45% increase since 1999.



UNI is encouraged, however, by President Obama’s speech to Russian students in July when he declared that America was committed to stopping nuclear proliferation and ultimately seeking a world without nuclear weapons and a new treaty signed with Russia to reduce warheads and delivery systems. The 2009 G8 Summit also addressed proliferation.



“We see this as a step of hope,” Jennings said. “We have to build our case for peace and take it to every worker in every nation and for them to take it to their political leaders.”



Ahead of the Nagasaki Congress in November, 2010, UNI is joining a peace initiative started by Japanese trade union center Rengo and its members. The goal is to get 10 million signatures on a petition addressed to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that calls for the abolition of the world nuclear arsenal and eternal peace. The UN will hold a conference in New York in May 2010 on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.



UNI chose Nagasaki as the host city for its congress because it is dedicated to peace.



“We want 2010 to be a year where we make a real breakthrough towards a nuclear free world,” Jennings said. “We recognise that with our Global Union action we can re-shape the world through our human activity. Let’s keep working on our dream to imagine peace and achieve a breakthrough for peace in 2010.”



Along with working on details for the 2010 UNI World Congress in Nagasaki, Jennings will visit affiliates and speak at union and peace events in Japan throughout the month of August.