News

The UNI Americas Post & Logistics Conference held in Mexico City concluded with a comprehensive action plan to tackle liberalisation and privatisation of mail services, to organise the multinational post & logistics companies and a plan to face the changes taking place in the industry with new technology, the downturn in mail from the financial crisis and to work in an era of sustainable development.



At the closing event of the Conference a new postage stamp was issued by the Mexican Post Office in honour of the event. The stamp depicting letter carriers through Mexico's history, was cancelled by Lynn Bue, from the Canadian Postal Workers Union. Earlier in the day Lynn had been re-elected as President of UNI Americas Post & Logistics. Manuel Acevedo , General Secretary of the Mexican Postal Workers Union was elected Vice President and member of the UNI World Postal Committee, and Rogerio Ubine from the Brazilian Postal Workers Unions (FENTECT) was the second Vice President who was elected.



The main theme and concern of the conference, was the increasing pressure to liberalise and privatise the mail market in the region. Delegates heard from UNI that a study recently completed by UNI on the global results of liberalisation, and which included case studies from the Americas, showed that liberalisation has a detrimental affect on workers wages and conditions and on the quality of service for consumers. In a time of financial crisis with falling mail volumes and the need to maintain a a viable universal postal service, the idea of liberalisation and privatisation was roundly condemned by the conference delegates.



The conference also extensively discussed the way forward for postal workers in the region and it was agreed that urgent action needed to be taken to organise workers into unions in the "Big 4" express mail and logistics companies operating in the region, DHL, FedEx, UPS, & TNT, to help gain decent workers rights and working conditions for the workers in these comanies. Earlier in the week there had been a seminar of unions on their work on these multinational companies, and the unions committed to be involved in the joint campaign by UNI and the transport workers ( ITF) to organise these workers and assist them to gain collective bargaining and workers rights.



Other issues dealt with were the increasing need to deal with the affects of new technology and new postal products on workers jobs, training, and health & safety and the need to promote new services in post offices such as postal financial services and remittances of migrant workers money using the post office network.