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UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings used his speech to the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) in Chicago to call for a new collective bargaining law in the United States.



Sharing the bill with the likes of U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senators Dick Durbin and Sherrod Brown, and actor and activist Ashley Judd, Jennings said workers’ rights belong at the centre of America’s economic recovery.



“President Obama, get people back into the equation. Let’s have a new birth of freedom, and a new birth of freedom of association. There will be no economic recovery without improved pay,” he said.



“You have 1,257 days of your presidency left. We need a new collective bargaining law in the United States. We want to organise for action but give us a level playing field.”



President Obama has said publically that his top objectives are tackling unemployment and creating new jobs, and Jennings praised him as “one of the few global leaders that is talking about jobs, education, healthcare, reducing poverty and ending inequality.”



For now, the end of inequality remains a distant dream in America where the income of the top one per cent nearly quadrupled between 1979 and 2007 but typical family incomes barely moved. Jennings suggested an inclusive law to ensure workers have a fair share of wealth and profits made.



“The US Declaration of Independence refers to the inalienable rights to Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness,” Jennings said. “We did not see that as life just for the top one per cent, liberty for the top one per cent and happiness for the top one percent. A one percent world is unsustainable, corrupting and we are rising up against it.”



Jennings reserved time to praise the UFCW for leading the fight for fairer working conditions at WalMart in America, and vowed never to relent on the global campaign to help WalMart workers elsewhere.



“We have taken to the streets in all continents. We are working with other global unions in the WalMart supply chain. We are winning,” he said.



“One day you will win here. Do not give up. Unions worldwide support your efforts. We recognise the courage of WalMart workers here who have taken a stand and walked off the job.”



“We are the global union for global commerce. You will find no lack of global union ambition from us. Our pulse beats to the rhythm of Breaking Through to win.”