News

In her report on organising before the Breaking Through Awards, UNI Deputy General Secretary Christy Hoffman outlined the many impressive organising successes over the past year, from UNI's work at DHL in Malaysia and Cote d’Ivoire to our work at Zara in New York City.

“In the wake of the devastating results of the US election, I can take heart in the fact that our work is a source of hope and purpose and restores our confidence that justice and humanity will prevail,” said Hoffman.

During the WEB, the UNI Global Union Breaking Through Awards for 2016 in recognition of outstanding organising were presented to the following unions:

SASBO – The Finance Union, South Africa, for their successful organizing campaign at Capitec, a new style banks that has completely revolutionized banking in South Africa. Capitec’s growth has been mainly achieved by introducing longer banking hours and seven-day trading. Wages at Capitec are also very low in comparison with the four main banks in South Africa, which have also started to introduce similar conditions. Capitec mainly employs young workers, capitalising on their vulnerability and using intimidation as a tactic to scare them away from joining SASBO. Due to the low wages and long hours of work, staff turnover is very high. SASBO, notwithstanding the challenge and within a short period, has managed to organise more than a thousand workers and are on their way to gaining recognition at Capitec bank.

SASBO General Secretary Joe Kokela and President Moses Lekota received the award received the award on behalf of the union.

Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union - RWDSU / United Food and Commercial Workers - UFCW, United States for successfully organising over 1,200 workers at Zara stores in Manhattan and achieving a first collective agreement shortly thereafter. The organising occurred as a result of UNI’s Global Agreement signed with Zara’s parent company, Inditex, in 2009. The breakthrough at Zara followed the continuing success at fellow fast fashion retailer H&M, which continues opening new stores in Manhattan, which are organised through the Global Framework Agreement with H&M. There are now over 3,000 fast fashion workers organized in NYC as a result of Global Framework Agreements with UNI .

The award was presented to HeeWon Brindle-Khym from the UFCW on behalf of her union and teh RWDSU.

Chunghwa Telecom Workers’ Union - CTWU, Taiwan, for their important role in supporting the creation of a strong and vibrant trade union movement in Taiwan. This included a major organisational restructuring of the union, as well as the provision of funds and other resources to support the founding of the Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions (TYCTU). Through collective bargaining, CTWU has been successful in safeguarding and enhancing the interests of its members, with breakthroughs on multiple fronts. The union has also helped vulnerable workers laid off by many textile and apparel factories to recover their pensions and severance pay. The union is actively working for women’s empowerment and gender equality.

CTWU President Chu Chuan-Ping was on hand to receive the award on behalf of his union.

Trade Union of Graphical Workers - KRZZP, Poland for their part in a successful joint campaign organized by the Polish union, UNI Global and UNI Europa Graphical Unions to organize workers at Smurfit Kappa. New unions have been registered at all of the five plants and organising continues at all five sites. Collective bargaining began at the end of 2015 but in January 2016 the company reversed its position and began union busting. The Smurfit Kappa Union Network organised support from all over Europe, after which the company withdrew all anti-union measures and agreed an immediate pay increase of between 4 & 6% and commitments to negotiate a bonus scheme, seniority payments and providing union facilities.

The President of KRZZP, Czestawa Sorita received the award on  behalf of her union.