UNI 1st World Congress
Thusday 6th September
Deutsch - English

All News:
Protection for the new workers of the new economy 09.09
Maj-Len elected 2nd UNI President 09.09
UNI Solidarity: Zimbabwe & Argentina 09.09
No racism here says youth 08.09
Call to end repression in Burma 08.09
Share power can re-shape globalisation 08.09
Union alliances key to countering multinationals 08.09
Annan and Riester back union rights 08.09
Workers rights endangered in Colombia 07.09
Impact of UNI’s launch 07.09
Congress gets down to organising, organising, organising 07.09
Long petition highlights imprisonments of trade unionists in Korea 07.09
Unions can stop merry-go-round says Frank 06.09
Congress call to free imprisoned trade unionists 06.09
People lose out in unstable new economy 06.09
‘Freedom Roll’ highlights human rights at UNI Congress 05.09
We are all UNI family 05.09
World needs UNI says Kurt 05.09
Millions paying price for unstable New Economy 05.09

People lose out in unstable new economy

Philip Jennings, UNI General Secretary

As redundancies mount across the world, people are again losers in the global economy, General Secretary Philip Jennings told the first business session of the UNI World Congress in Berlin.
"We have a new global economy which is unstable, volatile, unfair and does not work for working men and women. The dot.com frenzy has dot bombed.
"Asia in 1997, Argentina in 2001 - financial turbulence continues whilst the world’s policy makers look on and continue their mantra of privatisation, liberalisation and labour market flexibility."
UNI rejects a business community driven solely by shareholder value.
"UNI demands new business values which respect human rights, trade union rights and the environment," he told delegates.
And Philip spelt out the rules UNI stands for.
"We worked for and welcome the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Rights, the new OECD guidelines on multinationals and the United Nations Global Compact."
Globalisation has brought an unprecedented concentration of business power.
"My message is that we have to build stronger union networks and stronger recruitment initiatives in these global companies."
UNI has signed up three global corporations so far to observe – wherever they operate - the core labour standards of union and worker rights and the freedom from discrimination and forced or child labour.
"We are on the threshold of many more," said Philip. 
"Wherever there is a European Works Council there should be a global one as well."These agreements also need policing.
UNI’s aim is "to make union members global players – a global, regional and sectoral structure with the objective to build new rights in multinationals, show credible alternatives to globalisation and build a social dimension to regional integration".
Development in the Americas has been slowed by the requirements of international organisations, said Juan Zanola, President of UNI-Americas. And the process of globalisation has not helped.
"We depend on groups of yuppies somewhere deciding whether Argentina is a good or a bad bet.
"We are faced by a model of globalisation that we cannot run away from – but we do need to find a balance."
He also warned that, after struggling to throw off dictatorships, faith in democracy is being weakened by politicians who make promises they do not deliver on.
One of UNI’s early successes was the campaign to stop the merger between MCIWorldCom and Sprint that would have dominated the Internet "backbone".
"It shows we can take effective action against the multinationals," said Tony Young, Joint UNI-Europa President.

Unions can stop merry-go-round says Frank

  
  Frank Bsirske, verdi President, addresses Congress  

"Let’s get connected,’" ver.di President Frank Bsirske urged delegates to UNI’s World Congress.
His powerful call for stronger international work by trade unions came complete with a challenge to the current form of globalisation without rules.
"The global merry-go-round is going so fast that some passengers are in danger of being thrown off," he said. "The world is not an object".
"We hear as a never ending melody that the market is the only control of globalisation.
"There is probably not item on the agenda of the World Trade Organisation which does not affect people at home or at work - but it’s not prepared to talk about trade union rights."
Instead of no-rules capitalism he called for the democratisation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in favour of developing countries, better market access for poorer countries and the establishment of a trade union consultative body for the WTO.
"The power of capital is based upon a lot of money, ours is based upon our membership."
Worldwide trade union membership averages 13%.
"Our imperative task is most certainly the recruitment of new members," he urged delegates.

Jubilee Plus’s Ann Pettifor who won a standing ovation from Argentine delegations for her devastating attack on the way the international financial system has been treating Argentina.
"These people are jeopardising all our futures," she said.
The main beneficiaries of the policies forced on Argentina are foreign creditors. Privatisation at rock bottom prices is matched by the nationalisation of debt the private sector does not want.
And all this at a time when the real value of wages of Argentinians has fallen sharply.
"70% of their wages have been taken away in the name of neo-liberalism. 75% of the banking system is now owned by foreign banks," Ann told delegates.
She called for cooperation between UNI and Jubilee Plus - the movement reborn after its successful campaign to highlight the debt burden of the least developed countries.
Warning that a default on the country’s debts would happen she said: "we must break open the secrets and tell people what is going on."

Congress call to free imprisoned trade unionists

UNI’s first World Congress has endorsed calls for the immediate release of imprisoned trade unionists in South Korea.
The call came after an emotional debate with speeches from the men who are in charge of two UNI affiliates in Korea while their Presidents are incarcerated in a Seoul prison.

An empty chair on the stage of Congress symbolised the absence of one of those Presidents - Lee Yong-Deuk of finance affiliate KFIU - who is a member of the UNI World Executive.
Also in prison are Yang Kyong-Kyn, president of the public and private services union KPSU, and 150 other trade union activists.
"The Korean government has been using force and coercion to put down the Korean labour movement," said Hwang Min-Ho, who is Vice President of the KPSU.
"Why is the government placing the workers under such strong, coercive pressure? Because they wasn’t to press ahead with privatisation and re-structuring and that means massive redundancies."
The struggle to win the freedom of the imprisoned trade unionists will go on, said Kim Kee-Joon who is acting President of the KFIU.
"Workers face daily threats of job cuts and unilateral restructuring process without any shield or blankets for the coming winter," he added.

Korean delegates joined the speakers on stage and sang a campaign song while delegates wore their traditional headbands demanding Workers Rights in Korea.
UNI has agreed to take all necessary action to secure the release of the union officials and called for all charges against them to be dropped.
Lee Yong-Deuk for example was imprisoned on a charge of disrupting business.
In co-operation with the ICFTU and other global unions UNI will back Korean unions in their struggle to defend workers rights in the aftermath of the Asian economic crisis and their campaign to cut the working week.

Drop them a letter ….

You can send your solidarity message to Lee Yong-Deuk and Yang Kyong-Kyn.
They are both imprisoned at Seoul Detention Centre, Euiwang City, Kyongkido Province, South Korea. Mr Lee is in Cell 8 (in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day) and Mr Yang in cell number 135.

Signing the Freedom Roll
As soon as the Korea debate ended delegates queued up to sign a giant petition demanding the release of trade unionists in South Korea.