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Philip Jennings opens UNI staff meeting in Nyon Worskshops look at developing work in UNI sectors

Organising and signing agreements with world’s biggest companies are key themes of the annual meeting of UNI staff, being held in Nyon, Switzerland. “We face amazingly powerfully companies that are increasing in size,” UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings told the opening session of the intensive four-day meeting. “There are more mergers and acquisitions than ever seen before and there are a trillion dollars of investment funds out there waiting to buy companies.” Global organising efforts and signing agreements with multinationals to ensure labour rights wherever those companies operate were two key priorities to emerge from UNI’s second World Congress in Chicago in August 2005. “We have to organise in multinational companies and we have to ensure trade union rights in multinationals,” said Philip. Last week Philip told the World Economic Forum of union concerns at the growing power and access to funds of private equity companies and their lack of accountability. “Private equity funds can now buy any publicly quoted company - any time, anywhere and any place,” he told the UNI staff.

Philip who linked the growing insecurity of workers and the growth of precarious employment to attacks in many parts of the world on trade unions and the wrecking of the employment relationship of workers.



In Australia for instance the government is enforcing individual contracts and undermining collective bargaining while Wal-Mart is considering putting all its 1.2 million US workers on permanent on-call contracts.

“The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting relatively poorer because unions are being weakened.”



There was good news – the total affiliated membership of UNI is fast approaching 16 million. But he warned the staff to prepare for “constant evolution”.

Already UNI is looking at building closer working between UNI’s Telecom and the IT dominated IBITS sector global unions.

UNI Postal is already active in the logistics sector as postal operators like Deutsche Post expand their operations.

UNI Gaming has received a recent boost with the affiliation of 50,000 gaming workers in the US, members of UNITE HERE. UNI Gaming is due to hold a global meeting in June in Macau - which has just passed Las Vegas as the global biggest gambling centre.

And a new focus is being put on sport workers across Europe.