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Hundreds of delegates attending the UNI ICTS World Conference in Sweden shared stories of successful organising campaigns won in the face of rapidly changing jobs and labour markets.

From IT to media, UNI is the global body bringing together workers from the fastest growing sectors in the modern workplace. UNI’s position at the forefront of the future job market means its unions are uniquely placed to lead the fight for social justice in the new world of work.

Unionen’s Peter Hellberg welcomed delegates to day one of the conference but soon delivered a stark warning about the threat to jobs posed by advances in technology.

“Almost half of all jobs in Sweden will be impacted by digitalisation in the next two decades,” he said. “Our job is to prepare trade unionists for that reality.”

UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings said UNI affiliates are charting a path for social justice. "The decisions we take here and the message that you take to the world is important,” he said. “We live on an age of digital disruption and it’s time for a new global deal.”

UNI Professionals and Managers Director Pav Akhtar gave an overview of key trends and challenges in the new world of work and warned that there are more people in paid work today than at any time in history but that workers are losing their rights faster than ever before.

Virginia Doellgast of the London School of Economics spoke on the challenge of organising workers in fragmented production networks.

Head of UNI Equal Opportunities Veronica Fernandez-Mendez discussed UNI’s push for gender equality in trade union culture. “We need to get more women into trade unions at all levels of activities,” she said. "Ask women, involve women and make women visible."

Irene Wennemo, Sweden’s Secretary of State for the Minister for Employment presented the Swedish model for labour relations talking quality jobs, wages, social dialogue and training.

“More and more economists are coming to the realisation that if you want to have well-functioning sustainable economic growth and to combat poverty then conditions in the labour market need to improve considerably.”

Delegates later heard about some key campaigns in which UNI is involved in the ICTS sector including Telenor, Orange, TeliaSonera, Deutsche Telekom and America Movil as well as an update on earthquake relief activites by UNI's Nepal unions.