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In October 2008 at during a workshop in Bangalore, India UNI commerce global union together with Belgian affiliate SETCa/BBTK founded a commerce trade union named UNICOME which will set out to organise workers the enourmous Indian retail and wholesale sector. SETCa/BBTK sponsors a three year project ending in 2011 which aims at establishing a free and independent trade union and secure decent working conditions for the Indian commerce workers.



UNICOME is in the process of being recognised in the three target cities of New Delhi, Bagalore and Hyderabad but recent development might force the project to include more cities as the multinationals are growing increasingly interested in India. Already now UNICOME has been officially recognised by the local authorities in Bangalore and has filed a request for recognition with the local government in Hyderabad.



Among the target companies are some of Indias biggest supermarket chains like Shubiksha but also the German retailer METRO which has a presence in Hyderabad is among the companies where organising will take place. Due to the often fierce resistance from Indian employers towards organising iniatives it is beleived that the German retailer METRO which usually respect hte core ILO Conventions will demonstrate to other employers that business can thrive even if trade unions are allowed in the workplace and therefore there is little to fear from such activity.



The Indian retail market has been suggested to be worth US$350bn annually and is one of the markets most eligible for expansion.



You can read more about the project on:http://www.bbtk.org/Internationaal/Pages/UnicomeIndiaEng.aspx