News

Support for global agreements in HSBC and Santander



A union proposal to build a global agreement campaign in HSBC and Santander, two of the world’s global banking giants, has been strongly supported by European Finance unions.



Participants of the UNI Europa Finance Conference joint by their colleagues from around the world sent Christmas cards to the heads of Santander and HSBC, Botin and Green, "wishing" for negotiations on global agreements.



The European unions pledged their support to other union colleagues from Spain, UK, US, Brazil and Malaysia to build a global alliance in these two banks. UNI Finance has approached both banks to negotiate a global agreement. At this stage we are waiting a reply from HSBC and Grupo Santander are still forming their position.



The key part of the campaign is to form a global alliance among all unions representing workers in these two banks. This alliance will serve as a hub for information exchange and bargaining strength to negotiate a global agreement with the banks. UNI Finance unions believe a global agreement in these companies could deliver:

• constructive/effective dialogue between management and unions throughout a multinational company.
• creation of union structures and recruitment of members where workers have been denied the right to belong to unions.

A Global Agreement with HSBC and Santander will help to build worker power in the Finance industry.

UNI Finance is committed to a global agreement with the following key elements:

• strengthened social dialogue processes to engage on workers’ issues;
• access to workers to discuss unionisation and other key issues
• recognition of unions without employer interference or resistance
• swift processes to deal with conflict locally and globally;
• commitment to ILO standards and legal minimums in each country.

In February 2010 unions throughout the world will be asked to join together in a Global Action and personally deliver their own message to their bank management, demanding a Global Agreement.



“We want to show HSBC and Santander management that UNI Finance unions are united in our campaign for a Global Agreement,” said Oliver Roethig, Head of UNI Finance. “In the second week of February, HSBC and Santander unions will send delegations of their members to local management and deliver their letter demanding a Global Agreement.”







UNI will post further information on this campaign here on this website. Please check regularly!