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We need to reinforce the cooperation of trade unions for professionals in Latin America, said Christer Forslund, UNI P&MS President from Swedish Unionen in Buenos Aires at the opening of a seminar on organised by UNI Americas and FES (Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation). Unions should realise that the numbers of professionals was growing rapidly and they needed unions taking care of their specific needs,

FES representative in Buenos Aires, Maria Rigat, said that globalisation had also positive effects as could be seen in Latin America, also against this background, there was a growing importance for UNI Global Union and global cooperation.

Rubens Cortina, UNI Americas President, said that there were more and more professionals in the growing service sectors and that it was important to attract them into the labour movement. He also emphasised that more social dialogue was needed with so called Multilatinas (multinationals based in Latin America).

Some 20 unionists attend the seminar in Buenos Aires on 15-18 July representing professionals in various UNI sectors such as Telecom, Finance and IBITS from 7 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Peru.

The main focus of the seminar is on International labour standards, codes of conduct, and global framework agreements. The seminar also considers ways to set up a structure for P&MS in the Americas, which should aim at organising professionals and address issues of professional identity and life-long learning. José Molina of the UNI Americas Panama office and UNI’s Gerhard Rohde emphasised the need for the region to develop structure and activities for P&MS in the Americas. It was important for UNI Americas to develop a profile visible and attractive for professionals in the service sectors.

From left: G.Rohde, C.Forslund, R. Cortina, M.Rigat

Participants at work