UNI will be composed of the existing membership of the four ITSs, namely: the Communications International (CI), the International Graphical Federation (IGF), the Media and Entertainment International (MEI) and the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees (FIET).

All affiliates shall be expected to affiliate to UNI on the basis of the fullest possible level of membership.

Precise categories of workers eligible for membership of UNI are not included in the Statutes. However, it is understood that they should include workers involved in:

• Advertising and Public Relations
• Arts
• Audio Recording
• Audio-visual Activities and Laboratories
• Cable
• Cinema, Distribution and Exhibition
• Clerical
• Commerce
• Cultural Institutions
• Electricity
• Electronic Publishing
• Engineers, Research, Scientific and Technical
• Entertainment
• Exhibitions
• Film Production
• Finance
• Graphical
• Hair and Beauty Care
• Home-based and Distance Workers
• Industry, Business and Information Technology Services
• Insurance
• Mass Media
• Multimedia
• Packaging
• Paper Converting
• Postal
• Private Health Care
• Professional & Managerial
• Property Services
• Publishing
• Radio
• Radio Communications
• Social Insurance
• Sports
• Telegraph
• Telephone
• Television
• Theatre
• Tourism
• Transmission and Processing of Messages
• Voluntary and Non-Profit-Making Organisations

Although the Statutes refer throughout to "trade unions", this term is intended to embrace all independent workers’ associations engaged within the scope of UNI membership, however they may by titled.

In accordance with Article 8, the World Executive Board will submit advance copies of World Executive Board policy proposals to affiliates for their comments and will also, in due course, provide delegates to Congress with details of their views as to the motions and amendments on the agenda. Additionally, recognising that the elections for the World Executive Board will have already taken place, the World Executive Board will nominate and make recommendations to Congress in respect of the election to office of the President, Vice-Presidents, the General Secretary and the Auditors. It is for these reasons that Article 8.4h) refers to the "confirmation" of the World Executive Board.

Elections to the World Executive Board shall be based on all four constituent organisations (i.e. CI, FIET, IGF and MEI) according to the principles contained in Article 11.

To ensure the representation of each of the constituent organisations, it is proposed that seats on the World Executive Board be allocated as indicated below. The allocation of seats will be subject to regular reviews but shall be revised only following the fullest process of consultation which will aim to ensure the consent of all involved.

MEI 5 seats

IGF 13 seats to be distributed among the four regions

CI and FIET Seats to be determined according to a table produced on the following basis and updated with membership figures at the time of the first World Congress:

The first meeting of the World Executive Board will determine a timetable for the process of electing members to the World Executive Board. The IGF and MEI will have reserved seats, which will require consultations in the sectors concerned. For CI and FIET, consultations will have to occur in the respective areas.

The Presidents of the World Women’s Committee, World Youth Committee and World Professional and Managerial Staff Committee will be full members of the World Executive Board. The four women representatives (one from each region) on the World Executive Board (Article 11.2 c) of the UNI Statutes) will be elected by their respective Regional Women’s Conference.

Additionally, regions shall elect their representatives to the World Executive Board. On the first occasion, should the timescale not permit the holding of the appropriate Conference, the Regional Executive Committee shall have interim powers to determine the regional representatives on the World Executive Board.

Further to Article 11.3, the list of countries that are to form the areas for the World Executive Board elections are detailed as an Appendix. This list of countries has not been contained in the Statutes because it may be subject to changes in order to meet future developments. For this reason, the World Executive Board will be empowered, when and where appropriate, to make the necessary adjustments.

With respect to representation on the World Executive Board, it is understood that in some of the areas, because of local circumstances, affiliates will not be in a position to pay full affiliation fees. The World Executive Board will decide any derogation from Article 7.

Article 11.13 provides for the affiliates concerned to be responsible for the travel and subsistence expenses in connection with attendance at World Executive Board meetings. To do otherwise would place a huge financial burden upon UNI, especially given the size of the proposed World Executive Board. But other factors are fully understood and appreciated, e.g.

• that meetings of the World Executive Board would normally be held in Nyon and most members domiciled at a distance from Europe would need to meet higher costs in order to participate.
• that some members belong to affiliates whose resources are severely limited.

Bearing in mind that every reasonable effort should be made to ensure that World Executive Board members are not prevented, by reasons of finance, from exercising their rights and responsibilities to UNI, the new World Executive Board will be asked to consider the whole question with sensitivity and to respond particularly to the problem of those members whose participation creates genuine financial hardship.

Efforts have been made consistently, throughout the Statutes, to provide for an element of gender balance. In this respect it should also be understood that should Article 12 fail to produce in the first instance a Management Committee which adequately reflects this principle, the World Executive Board under the authority vested in them in Article 12, can redress the deficiency. Under the same provisions, the World Executive Board shall ensure that in the formative years of UNI, each of the four constituent organisations will have at least one representative on the Management Committee.

No alteration to this principle will occur without the fullest process of consultation which will aim to ensure the consent of all involved.

Under these articles each region will have the authority to develop its own statutes. However it will be necessary for each region to ensure that in line with the global statutes, executive structures are representative of membership, geographic, inter-professional and sectoral interests.

Each region shall ensure the representation on the Regional Executive Committee and the Regional Management Committee of at least one representative from each of the four constituent organisations by the application of a similar arrangement as contained in paragraphs 2 b) and 2 c) of the Memorandum.

In order to assist in this process and to secure a measure of consistency between regions, model statutes will be produced. Subject to Article 16 of the Statutes, regions would then build upon the core requirements of the global statutes and provide for their own regional needs such as proposals to generate additional income from within the region, e.g. regional affiliation fees and voluntary contributions from affiliates.

The globalisation of the economy has changed the economic context of the economies in the respective regions.

In Africa, Asia and the Pacific and the Americas, agreements aimed at promoting trade and economic integration have been introduced. In Europe there has been considerable progress towards achieving economic, social and political integration, where the key objective is to achieve a Social Europe.

The aim in all regions is to achieve a social dimension to these agreements.

This will require action from the regional organisations and they will have the authority to decide policy and action with respect to the institutions established to bring about regional economic integration. The same principle will apply to the social dialogue with employers.

UNI-Africa, UNI-Asia and Pacific and UNI-Americas will all play an active role in the work of the ICFTU in their respective regions. UNI-Europa will support and participate in the fulfilment of the objectives of the ETUC.

4. Sectors

Sectors will differ significantly in terms of their membership regionally and globally. In some cases, membership will be concentrated in a particular region, whilst in others it will have a global dimension. The aim will be to promote regional and global sectoral structures and activities. It is recognised that some flexibility and adaptability will be required and that the sector will have the opportunity to determine its priorities.

In order to ensure consistency between the sectors, model sectoral guidelines will be produced.

Sectoral groups have not been listed in the Statutes as these in the future may be subject to changes arising from e.g. the effects of convergence or technological developments.

UNI will be an open organisation capable of dealing with future changes such as the development of new sectors or the integration of compatible sectors.

The sectors which are currently represented by the four partners will be those which will form the sectoral departments of the new organisation i.e.

• Commerce
• Commercial Sales Representatives
• Electricity
• Finance (Banking and Insurance)
• Graphical
• Hair and Beauty Care
• Industry, Information Technology and Business Services
• Media, Entertainment and Arts
• Postal and Allied Services
• Property Maintenance and Security Services
• Social Insurance and Private Health Care
• Telecommunications
• Tourism

Affiliates will be asked to complete an annual update to the UNI membership database, in which they declare their membership in each of these sectors.

Whilst there will be a statutory Regional Conference for Sectors every four years, other regional meetings of the sector, either singly or in conjunction with other sectors, will be held annually in order to deal with policy developments or themes of current concern.

The World Steering Groups for the major sectors will aim to meet at least once a year.

All inter-professional groups shall operate on a global and regional level with provisions being made as appropriate in the Statutes for Women, Youth and Professional and Managerial Staff.

In constituting the inter-professional groups, it is important to ensure that there is participation from each of the four constituent organisations.

The objective of UNI is to bring about gender balance at every level of its structures by applying the complementary policies of:

a) strengthening women’s structures and activities and sustaining these with support for an inter-active network of women;

b) accelerating the achievement of gender balance by extending the use of reserved seats and the development of women representatives being contact persons in other elements of UNI’s structures.

Additionally, during the transitional period, it is intended that the global and regional women’s committees be the combination of the existing committees operating within each of the four founding partners. At an early date, these committees themselves shall be asked to prepare suitable proposals for the structure of women’s activities for the consideration of the World Executive Board.

In order to give greater practical effect to the commitment of gender equality the following global measures will be put into place by UNI:

• A World Women’s Conference, to be held immediately prior to the Statutory World Congress.
• A strengthening of the inter-professional work on behalf of women, including additional measures for positive encouragement and development.
• The establishment of a comprehensive World Network for Women to promote communications, self-help and mutual support.
• A requirement from affiliates that they seek to ensure that the composition of their delegations to all UNI meetings is a reflection of the percentage of their women members.
• The objective of ensuring that the composition of Executive Committees reflects the number of women in membership.
• The provision of an additional guaranteed seat on the World Executive Board for the President of the World Women’s Committee, as well as four reserved seats for women representatives, one elected by each region.
• Measures of gender equality to be introduced in the regional and sector-based structures.
• The monitoring and review of progress towards gender equality within UNI structures.

UNI will work towards the objective that activities for youth will be open to those aged 25 and under.

Global sector committees for telecommunications, graphical workers, and the International Entertainment Alliance, will continue to be represented in ICEMU.

Similarly agreements such as those between MEI, FIM and FIA (the International Entertainment Alliance) will continue to be honoured.

UNI-Europa will be an Industry Federation of the ETUC. There will be continuity of representation for post, telecommunications and graphical workers in the ETUC. The MEI section of UNI-Europa will continue to be part of the European Entertainment Alliance. In other regions, the regional committees will maintain relations with regional organisations of the ICFTU and other international organisations.

Heads of Department will be appointed by the General Secretary following consultation with the Steering Committee of the Sector concerned and with the agreement of the Sector President and Vice-Presidents and the UNI Management Committee.

10. Paid-up Members

In numerous articles of the Statutes, reference is made to "paid-up members" or "paid-up membership" for the purposes of representation, elections and voting.

Paid-up membership means that all fees due to the end of the preceding calendar year have been paid up.

Paid-up membership is calculated as follows: The total amount of fees paid by the affiliate, in respect of the immediately preceding calendar year, divided by the current rate of affiliation fees.

Subject to Article 4.1 of the Statutes, the World Executive Board will decide on applications for affiliation. After receiving applications for affiliation, the General Secretary will consult: any existing affiliate in the country concerned, the Regional Executive concerned and the President/s of the Sector/s concerned before making a recommendation to the Executive Board.

UNI has the objective to enable participants to be able to express themselves in the language of their choice. It recognises, however, that it will be impossible to satisfy all requests in this regard, given the logistical and financial burden involved.

Standing Order No. 7 details the procedures to be adopted in respect of voting. The position in regard to policy decisions presents little if any problem insofar as motions, amendments and World Executive Board documents will be carried by a simple majority of hand votes, or in exceptional cases by card vote. However, in the case of elections for office, although the procedures should normally result in a "confirmation" process, in the unlikely event of multiple candidatures, voting shall be carried out by card vote on an exhaustive ballot basis. The candidate receiving the lowest vote would drop out of the next round until only two candidates remained. In the final round between the two remaining candidates, the candidate receiving the highest vote would be deemed elected.

Israel
Jordan
Lebanon
Palestine

Bolivia
Colombia
Ecuador
Peru
Venezuela

Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Uruguay

All Caribbean
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama

Bangladesh
India
Nepal
Pakistan
Sri Lanka

Indonesia
Malaysia
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand

Japan
Korea
Mongolia
Republic of China/Taiwan
SAR Hong Kong

Kazakstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbeckistan

South Pacific Nations
Australia
New Zealand

Albania
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Macedonia, FYR
Moldova
Poland
Romania
Slovak Republic
Slovenia

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Georgia
Russia
Ukraine

Cyprus
Greece
Italy
Malta
Portugal
Spain
Turkey

Area XVII  

Belgium
France
Luxembourg
Monaco
Netherlands

Area XVIII 

Austria
Germany
Switzerland