FAQs

What is UNI Global Union?

UNI Global Union is a global union representing 20 million workers from over 150 countries worldwide.

Headquartered in Nyon, Switzerland, UNI represents workers in skills and services – the fastest growing sectors in the world of work.

UNI's mission is to build power for working people in service sectors world-wide through the growth of unions and expansion of collective bargaining; to improve the working and living conditions for workers; and support decent jobs for all and sustainable economic growth.

Belonging to a local trade union was once enough to protect your rights and to improve your conditions at work. Working people came together because they were stronger together. Your local union was able to defend you, intervene with your local employer in times of trouble and help to improve your conditions. As local union members you were strong.

In a workplace now dominated by powerful multinational companies, the conditions under which local employees work are largely dictated at the regional and global levels.

The interest in building links across national borders has marked the trade union movement and we have developed this idea further with the creation of UNI Global Union.

At UNI Global Union, national unions remain our pillars. Those unions continue to organise workers, negotiate and mobilise for a fair deal at work. However, in today’s global workplace it is no longer enough to only have only local unions. It is now necessary for those unions to affiliate to a global union for representation on an international scale.

How and when was UNI Global Union founded?

UNI Global Union was founded as Union Network International in 2000. UNI brought together four global union organisations: FIET (International Federation of Employees, Technicians and Managers), MEI (Media and Entertainment International), IGF (International Graphical Federation and CI (Communications International.)

We began the new century with a new global trade union. UNI represented a powerful response from the worldwide labour movement to corporate globalisation, new technologies and changes in business and commerce.

In March 2009, Union Network International changed its name to UNI Global Union.