News

The UNI Finance Presidium bringing together union leaders from UNI APRO, UNI Africa, UNI Americas and UNI Europa recently met on 30 June in Turin, Italy. They were welcomed to the ILO building by ILO ACTRAV guest speakers Harry Cunningham and Evelin Toth. They gave the Presidium a warm welcome and underlined that having this meeting enriched the ILO Worker Activities core programme. Mauro Bossola, FABI also welcomed the group on behalf of the Italian unions and brought to their attention that the venue was the appropriate place to hold this meeting given the tripartite commitment to collective bargaining, labour law and labour rights.

UNI Finance President Rita Berlofa opened the meeting, giving an overview of the difficult situation faced by workers worldwide. In particular, she spoke of the attack by governments and MNCs on labour rights as well as the challenges brought by the use of new technology. She called for increased genuine solidarity and stated that as the Global Union Federation for workers in the Finance sector we must be even more engaged.

Agenda items included looking at UNI Finance "Breaking Through" campaigns in the regions, understanding the role of trade unions in central banks, regulating Fintech, the impact of Digitalisation on employment and challenges in the sector worldwide.

The group have affirmed their engagement and commitment to the principles of solidarity and democracy, in full recognition of the fact that the problems faced by colleagues all over the world are similar in nature. It is only through working together that the sector will have the tools to overcome the attacks on collective bargaining and build genuine industrial relations for bank and insurance workers around the world.