News

Meeting today in Nyon, the UNI Management Committee (MC) today endorsed plans to pursue the Breaking Through plan in every sector and every region around the world with a focus on organising and signing Global Agreements with some of the world's biggest multinational companies.



The committee said that in light of political shifts to the right in countries around the world and an increase in attacks on union rights, the importance of a united global movement is greater than ever.



After a special report on the situation in the United States, where Republican politicians are attacking union rights for public sector workers, most notably in Wisconsin, members of the MC reported a troubling trend toward the “American Model” in every region of the world.



“The US economy is a winner-take-all economy,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings. “There’s nothing chancy about Wisconsin. This is a deliberate attempt to crush the trade union movement in the world economy. The financial elite, business elite and political elite are out to crush this movement and take away our right to organize, to negotiate and to speak for working people.”



UNI is fighting back with an ambitious Breaking Through plan that targets key multinationals for organising and global agreements.



“We mean business and we have to get this job done,” Jennings said. “We’re trying to change working cultures and habits of working and we will be relentless in our push of the Breaking Through strategy. The aim is to change the rules of the game.”



To support organising work around the world, UNI has started a dedicated Organising Fund.



Deputy General Secretary Christy Hoffman said UNI will break its million dollar target, raising more than 800,000 CHF from affiliates and bringing the grand total to over 1 million CHF.



One key target for UNI is retailing giant Walmart. UNI, the South Africa Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU) and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) of North America have formed a global coalition of unions contesting Walmart’s buy of South African retailer Massmart in hearings in front of the South African Competition Tribunal.



The coalition says the deal should only go through if Walmart agrees to conditions on treatment of workers, union rights and sourcing products locally. The case in front of the competition tribunal is part of a strategy to hold Walmart to account for its labour policies around the world and to try to get the retailer, which is well-known for its anti-union behaviour in the US, to respect union rights.



Another target for organising is Colombia, where workers face grave threats if they try to organise. Following the recent UNI Americas Executive Committee meeting in Colombia—where Jennings and representatives from the Colombian unions met the Vice President—our affiliates will now take up direct action with a Breaking Through plan for success in Colombia.



Since 1987, more than 2,800 trade unionists have been murdered. Colombian workers are also forced into independent contractor working arrangements that are used to deny them of basic worker rights and union rights. UNI will push multinationals operating in Colombia to respect union rights as well as lobby the government change the laws that have left workers vulnerable to abuse.