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Switzerland’s second largest union was born on December 3 as the 47’000 strong, newly created Syndicom brings together the former Union of Communications, which represented workers in post, telecoms and IT, with Comedia, which represented workers from the graphical and broader media sector. The joint presidents of Syndicom will be Daniele Lenzin and Alain Carrupt the former president of Comedia and the communications union, respectively.



UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings addressed the 300 participants, drawing parallels with the creation of UNI in 2000 and Syndicom.



“Our approach was to make it clear from day one that we were building something new. We would forge a new identity, a new global union,” he said of UNI’s formation ten years ago.



In a rousing speech he demanded that Syndicom make its presence felt in Switzerland and to "fight for a Switzerland that is fairer, more equal, that not only has social peace but social justice as well.”



He called upon Syndicom to change the rules of the game in Switzerland to fight for a minimum wage and for every branch of the economy to be covered by a collective agreement.



Syndicom was built on the awareness that we had a new labour market, a new workforce and a new workplace with an attitude from employers that anything goes. The global financial elites had brought economic disaster and were not deserving of our trust.



Jennings observed that “the business and financial elite made the rules. They lobbied. Political parties sang their tune. Their message: ‘Trust us. Don’t regulate us. Don’t burden us with taxes. The market knows best. Reward us. We won’t let you down.’ The result: greed won. People lost. We pay, the bond markets play.”



He congratulated the union on its national campaign to protect the postal service where the 50g letter monopoly had been maintained.



UNI Global Union also supported their call for a formal plan to deal with restructuring plans by post and logistics multinational DHL in Switzerland. The refusal of DHL to negotiate a settlement was unacceptable and Jennings welcomed the Syndicom support for a global agreement with DHL.