News

The UNI G&P Executive Committee met in Barcelona on 27 – 28 June 2016. There was a full agenda which included national reports, the results of surveys, organising campaigns as well as presentations by Christy Hoffman representing UNI and Kemal Özkan representing IndustriALL.

The meeting was opened by the President of UNI Graphical and Packaging, Tommy Andersson. He said that the sector had been marked by two major developments since the World Conference in Istanbul in 2015: one was the strategy for, and the challenges faced by, the sector; the other was the appointment of Javier Carlés as head of UNI Graphical and Packaging since 1 March last.

This was followed by a round of comments and national reports from members. One of the highlights was a keynote speech by the President of UNI G&P and the International Director of UNITE, Simon Dubbins, who spoke about Brexit and the disaster this spelt for British workers.

A professor from the Trnava University Law School (Slovakia), Martin Bulla, gave an updated report on the study carried out for UNI G&P in 2013: “Employment trends and major companies operating in the graphical and packaging sector”, which included some informative facts about the industry.

Javier Carlés then introduced the action plan approved for 2016. The Regional Directors of UNI G&P spoke about the projects that they were spearheading in Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Thailand, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Europe.

Christy Hoffman for UNI and Kemal Özkan for IndustriALL took the floor to speak about the challenges facing the international trade union movement – in particular the global supply chains. Rafal Tomasiak presented the plan for a new trade union organizing centre for Eastern Europe (COZZ).

Andy Snoddy announced that he was standing down from the Executive Committee. He was officially commended for his work as head of UNI G&P. The Tunisian unions expressed their recognition for the work done by Christy Hoffman, Andy Snoddy and Javier Carlés, and handed over a copy of the Nobel Peace Prize which had been won by UGTT.

Closing the meeting, Tommy Anderson announced that he would be retiring on 1 April 2017 and recommended that Sister Joaquina Rodríguez from Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) should succeed him as President of UNI G&P. Her candidacy was adopted unanimously by the Executive Committee.