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FISENGE, the Brazilian engineer trade union affiliated to UNI P&MS held an international seminar on challenges to the labour movement in the 21st century, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Raul Otavio da Silva Pereira, General Secretary of the engineer trade union Senge of the State of Minas Gerais, said in his opening remarks that in a global economy unions have to set up global structures and cooperate at global level.

Several speakers of the trade union center CUT, the national labour party and academia underlined the need for trade union reform and intensified organising efforts. Considerations about the role of collective bargaining, reduction of working time, a fair allocation of the oil dividend, health and safety at work played a key role in the discussions.

Speaking on behalf of UNI P&MS, Gerhard Rohde said that seeking recognition and engage in social dialogue with multinational companies through global agreements was a key strategy of UNI in the global economy. P&MS would have an important role to play in campaigns to organise members and in campaigns for global agreements.

José Molina of UNI americas, said that P&MS were involved in the campaign for a global agreement with the finance sector multinationals HSBC and Santander. He encouraged FISENGE to play a leading role for P&MS in the Region.

Michel Patard of the French union for engineers and managers UGICT-CGT, underlined the importance of global trade union cooperation for the success of national trade union work. He invited FISENGE to actively participate in the preparation of the 5th Global Conference for Engineers to be held in Paris, in May 2011.