News

Around 100 union leaders and activists met at UNI's offices in Nyon, Switzerland this week for the annual UNI Telecom world meeting.



Affiliates shared experiences of organising in UNI Telecom's target global agreement companies, including Telefonica, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, MTN, Telenor and TeliaSonera. The USA's CWA and Germany's ver.di explained their comprehensive and ground-breaking approach to trans-Atlanti organising at Deutsche Telekom. The General Secretary of SYNACO TEL, a UNI affiliate from the Cote d'Ivoire, talked about the union's innovative strategy to organise workers in the informal telecom sector. The group discussed next steps for organising, signing global agreements and implementing global agreements, at the national and international level.



Affiliates agreed to adopt a similar strategy for the Call Centre Action Month in 2010 as for the 2009 campaign. Affiliates will again take coordinated solidarity activity all around the globe to put pressure on one of UNI Telecom's target global agreement companies.



Regulation remains a hot topic for telecom and ICT unions, given the importance of strong ICT infrastructure for social and economic development. Unions from the UK, the USA, Australia and Japan gave information regarding their efforts to promote the development of high speed broadband in order to bridge the digital divide and to create quality jobs. UNI Europa continues its efforts on lobbying around the Telecom Package at the EU level.



The next UNI Telecom World Meeting will take place in Mexico City in 2011.