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A call for dialogue in resolving the global financial and economic crisis was made by Juan Somavia, the Director General of the International Labour Organisation, at the signing of a global agreement with Japanese-based retailer Takashimaya.

He also called for credit lines to be opened up to pension funds so they don’t have to sell “battered stocks at battered prices” and so protect the future pensions of millions of workers around the globe. “Every pension fund in the world should have a credit.”



The signature of the agreement - the first with a Japanese-based multinational - was signed by UNI global union and Japanese commerce unions with Takashimaya in Nyon, Switzerland in the presence of Mr Somavia and the entire UNI World Executive.

The agreement establishes a global dialogue between unions and Takashimaya and ensures that worker rights established at the ILO will be observed wherever the company operates.

Mr Somavia welcomed the Takashimaya agreement and the dialogue it opens up. “This is an important agreement. It’s good news for the 14,000 Takashimaya workers worldwide - 65% of them women.”



Greeting Juan Somavia - Philip Jennings and Joe Hansen

Dialogue is “a fundamental element” in the global response to the current financial and economic crisis facing the world, Mr Somavia told the UNI World Executive. “It’s essential as we analyse the crisis - and how to get out of it - that we protect social dialogue and collective agreements.”

He called for an important role for the ILO in the negotiations over the future shape of globalisation - as the UN agency has workers, employers and governors sitting together. “Who better than the ILO to understand the crisis? We have to worry about people who are losing their jobs and those who did not have a job."

He congratulated UNI on the growing momentum for global agreements - UNI has now signed almost half the total number of agreements with all the global union federations.



UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings congratulated the Takashimaya union on the 1,300 shop floor meetings held to involve members in the process that led to the first global agreement with a Japanese based company. “We are breaking new ground and we are seeking to change the landscape of global labour relations.”

The union’s Yoshio Murata called for Union Social Responsibility as well as Corporate Social Responsibility. “Labour and management must work together to develop our enterprise’s activities,” he told the meeting. “The global agreement is important not just to support the company but we also have to be pro-active and enhance our own work.”

In Takashimaya the union has been working to eliminate harassment, to improve living conditions, tackle mental health issues and the environment.

Takashimaya’s corporate Vice President Atsunori Andoh said that companies “have to be more aware of corporate responsibility to be an honest and credible company. This agreement is an important pillar in our CSR and we want to work to ensure CSR values are understood at a global level.”

Signing the agreement is not the objective, said JSD's Takaaki Sakurada. "The work now begins." He told the Executive that the world is at a watershed. "We have to move from a shareholder oriented philosophy to a worker oriented philosophy. The social status of the work needs to be enhanced."