Organising for Global Union Growth

By Noel Howell

The future of trade unions depends on growth - reaching out to new members and creating new agendas.

The role of a global union like UNI is to help national unions grow in the multinational companies - and help spread best recruitment and organising practices from country to country. UNI Development helps build the expertise and resources that unions in developing countries need while UNI Women and Youth focus on the needs of these fast growing contingents of the global workforce.

UNI has set up a global organising fund and sectors have become global unions in their own right with their own organising targets.

Union alliances bring together unions across the world who deal with the same multinational and many are currently negotiating or campaigning for global agreements with these companies to ensure labour rights wherever they operate.

Quebecor unions have new colleagues in Chile and Peru and a neutrality agreement with management in the USA.

Nordic unions are helping to organise commerce workers in the new European Union members in Eastern Europe.

US unions are helping to organise property workers in Europe, Africa and Asia - and to prepare commerce unions in Wal-Mart's new target countries.

Media and entertainment unions - long used to representing freelance and casual workers - are expanding in new countries.

New services are being developed - often IT-based - to cater for the growing number of independent professionals.

And unions are being launched or stimulated in the new IT centres and back offices of India and in the fast growing logistics companies like DHL.

"In a global labour market we have a global mission. It means the well organised helping the less organised and local actions producing global strength," says UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings.