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Ann Selin, president of the Service Union United PAM, is a popular choice to become the next president of UNI Global Union. Selin was nominated at the UNI World Executive Board meeting in Dublin last year. The elections will take place at the UNI World Congress in Cape Town this December.

Selin said, "It is an honour to the whole Finnish and Nordic trade union movement and our ways of doing things that I was asked to be a candidate. It is an important international task that will open even greater possibilities to examine how developments in the global labour market are shaping up and how to influence them.”

The Service Union United PAM is one of the major Finnish trade unions with 230,000 members working in the private service sectors. UNI has 12 Finnish trade unions as members.

Ann Selin was already involved in international activities back in the 1980s when working as the youth secretary in Liikeliitto, the predecessor of PAM. During the last ten years she has been a member of both the European and international Boards of UNI. At the moment Selin is the vice-president of UNI Global Union, representing Europe. She also has considerable experience when it comes to Nordic trade union cooperation and beyond. Selin is passionate about union organising. PAM is one of the driving forces behind the Baltic Organising Academy which has been set up to support organising across the Baltic States and to which UNI is also committed.

"UNI is now working a lot with multinational companies.” Selin said. UNI’s growing number of Global Agreements makes it possible to have trade union work even in countries with weaker traditions of trade unionism. The global economy and the resulting social consequences are firmly on the UNI agenda.

"UNI is also maintaining more cooperation with other global unions, as development in the different sectors are increasingly linked with each other," Selin added.

As an example of this Ann Selin cites the Rana Plaza factory disaster in Bangladesh and subsequent Accord which was led by UNI and its sister global union,  IndustriALL.

“The international union for the garment workers is IndustriALL, but as the clothes are sold through retail companies, UNI Commerce had an important role to play,” explained Selin.

What would Ann Selin’s goals and priorities be as the UNI Global Union president? Selin is clear:  "We have to be sure that every worker in the world has a voice that is heard. In many parts of the world there is still a danger of losing one’s life when working for workers’ rights. The international presence is often a source of life insurance."

“For this reason solidarity actions, recruiting members and cooperation to advance collective bargaining will be just as important in the future as it has in the past. The social dimension has to be more visible in international politics”, Selin added.

"The companies in our fields of work are more and more connected with each other and we must influence the workers' position in the whole chain. I also would like to attract more service unions to the UNI in order to strengthen our voice, especially for and with those workers who are in the weakest and most vulnerable position."

Selin also stressed the importance of UNI’s commitment to equal rights for women, “I’m proud of UNI’s 40/40 campaign towards gender equality and I also want to see more emphasis on youth development which goes to the core of a vibrant union movement.”

Selin’s involvement in UNI, also includes an interest in the Middle East. In September, she was a part of a high level UNI delegation which visited Palestine and Israel on fact finding mission.    

Finally as well as ably fulfilling her union responsibilities Selin has recently succeeded in gaining an MBA.

Ann Selin is looking forward to the UNI Global Union World Congress in in Cape Town in December.