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UNI Global Union World Professionals and Managers’ (P&M) conference opens today with more than 100 participants from around the globe.



With 20^th Century employment marked by industrialisation, innovation and advances in technology which led to rising tides of globalisation, the 21^st century shows signs that the supply of high-skilled workers will fail to keep up with high levels of demand.



Even McKinsey’s 2012 World at Work report which lists P&Ms among the fastest-growing section of the workforce, warns that current trends in education, population and labour demands indicate that by 2020 the global economy will have 40 million fewer P&Ms than employers need, while millions of young and women workers remain under- or unemployed, which leads to soaring social costs.



Given the scale of the challenge, expectations are high among the participants from academia, enterprise and trade unions, representing 32 countries including Brazil, South Africa and Japan, who will attend UNI’s two-day conference. They will focus on tackling the skills shortage, building organising among P&M workers and unions, and receiving practical training to promote the essential role of P&M workers in society.



UNI’s Professionals and Managers Group has long been an advocate for improved work-life management among workers, highlighting the negative impact of imbalance, and putting in place an array of strategies, raising awareness on the necessity of regulations to secure such balance. During the two-day event, delegates will also adopt a ‘manifesto for ethical P&M workers in employment’ which builds a union culture to safeguard workers’ rights on health and safety, whistle-blowing in collective agreements, and lifelong learning.



UNI Secretary General, Philip Jennings, will address the conference and urge P&Ms to break through on strategic organising by building local campaigns, lobbying national governments and pursuing global agreements with multinational companies. He’ll also encourage unions to do more to integrate P&M workers into membership.

For more information on the event

Sadia Kaenzig, Sadia.Kaenzig@uniglobalunion.org, mob: +41 79 396 37 18



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