FES Bendt 2004library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/02281.pdf · 2004-09-27 · Catering, Tobacco and Luxury...

1GLOBAL UNIONS

FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG

Heinz Bendt

Worldwide Solidarity

The Activities ofthe Global Unions in theEra of Globalisation

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

2 GLOBAL UNIONS


Publisher: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung,Erwin SchweisshelmCoordinator, Global Trade Union ProgramDivision for International Development CooperationGodesberger Allee 149, 53170 Bonn

© Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Author: Heinz Bendt

Editing: Sabine Gürtner

Translation: Annette Brinkmann

Cover Photos: ILO International Labour Organization, Global UnionsPhotos: Trade Union Rally – May 1, 1989 Guatemala

(Photo: IUF-Archive)ILO International Labour Organization, Global Unions

Layout: Pellens Kommunikationsdesign, Bonn

Production: Gerd Ernst

Printing: Toennes Druck und Medien GmbH, Erkrath

First published in Germany 1996Second impression in Germany 2003

ISBN 3-86077-561-8

The Author

Heinz Bendt, born in 1929, worked as miner and factory worker whileattending evening school; he enrolled in correspondence courses and earneda degree in business administration. After serving on the staff of the LabourDirector of a steel company for several years, specializing on personnelorganization, he became head of its department for data collection andstatistics. For almost 20 years he served as Trade Union Adviser and Re-presentative of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Africa and South-East Asia.As early as 1948 Heinz Bendt joined the trade union movement and actedas a works councillor for several years, while working as union lecturer inhis free time. He retired in 1994 and has since specialised as a consultantin support and promotion of international trade union activities. He nowlives in Cairns/Australia.

We are very grateful to the Global Unions for the many photos which they have allowed us topublish in this brochure.

3GLOBAL UNIONS


4 Preface

7 Introduction

9 Who are the Global Unions

19 Historical Survey

26 How They Work – Tasks and Activities of the Global Unions

39 Problems and Challenges

46 Individual Descriptions

47 Education International (EI)

52 International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW)

58 International of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers (ICEM)

65 International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

69 International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF)

74 Public Service International (PSI)

80 International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF)

83 International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)

87 International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,Catering, Tobacco and Luxury Goods Workers (IUF)

93 Union Network International (UNI)

97 International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)

103 European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)

109 Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC)

111 Addresses

112 Abbreviations

The term “Global Unions” refers to the ICFTU, TUAC and the Global Union Federations.

Contents

4 GLOBAL UNIONS


Preface

Trade unions have a long history. They wereand are organisations founded to represent theinterests of the workers. By means of joint andcarefully directed actions it is their aim to protectthe interests of the many who are disadvantagedfrom powerful interest groups, above all fromthe employers. They give workers a chance toparticipate in the shaping of their working andliving conditions. By creating and experiencingsolidarity, it is their purpose to create democraticpower and to safeguard not only the economicinterests, but equality of opportunity and pros-perity for all groups in society. Implementingand protecting human rights, trade union orga-nisational rights, social security, education andtraining for all, together with a democratic sys-tem are the foundation stones upon which thework of the trade unions is built.

At an early stage trade unions recognisedthat these problems could not be solved solelyat a national level, but that external political,economic and social factors influence a country’sdevelopment. That is how the former Interna-tional Trade Secretariats – today the GlobalUnion Federations – as the first workers’ inter-national organisations came to be establishedabout 100 years ago. From the beginning theywere, of necessity, essential elements of inter-national trade union activities and have lostnone of their importance up to the present day.

Since then, they have had a chequered his-tory. Their work underwent many changes and,although successful, suffered setbacks as well.They were banned, persecuted and broken up,they quarrelled with each other and found to-gether again, but in all this they grew and be-came strong. Today they are more necessarythan ever, and they are facing the greatest chal-lenge of their history.

Globalisation and privatisation are the buzz-words of our time. The fact that with the end ofthe East-West conflict there was an almostcomplete global acceptance of the principles ofthe market economy nurtured this trend. Newcommunications and transport technologieshave turned the world into an almost boundlesseconomic area. There is ever greater different-iation in the production of goods and services,and in some sectors they are even moved aroundfrom one part of the globe to another in an attemptto make use of political, social and economicadvantages. According to estimates there are,worldwide, 37,000 international enterprises withmore than 170,000 dependent firms in actiontoday. Their real influence, in fact, goes further.The system of franchising and production underlicence without the need for capital investmentgives the large multinational corporations a do-minating economic power everywhere.

This global entrepreneurial force maximizeseconomic advantages, but cuts out to an evengreater extent areas with huge social or politicalcosts, causes structural disruptions in manycountries and through international competitionpushes down wages and income, while at thesame time demanding state subsidies with in-creasing frequency. National policies are becom-ing less and less effective. We already speak ofthe „powerless state“ which has been defeatedby internationally-operating businesses. In ma-ny countries of the Third World, structural ad-justment programs increase economic subju-gation, concomitant with growing hunger anddeprivation. Many parts of the world are in thethroes of radical exploitation; there is child labourand working conditions akin to slavery.

Furthermore, workers and their organisationsare at present faced with a universal attack on

PREFACE

5GLOBAL UNIONS


democracy and human rights, indeed in manycases the very existence of labour organisationsis being questioned. Animosity towards tradeunions is increasing – even through terror andmurder, because economic power is to be forcedupon the market without let or hindrance.

The battle against political suppression andsocial distress begins with the building-up of abody representative of people’s interests, whichhas the power to act. This mission is not restrict-ed to the national level.Today, solidarity andinternational trade union cooperation are theanswers to this new internationally-determinedeconomy which even governments are increas-ingly powerless to restrain. National sovereigntyin economic and social questions no longer de-termines what happens in the world economy.The world is in turmoil, it is slipping from thegrasp and possible influences of the individualand of forces operating at the national level. Itis becoming increasingly obvious that withoutthe cooperation of all societal forces it is nolonger possible to cope with global crises.

The bodies responsible for the coordinationand promotion of international activities on thelabour side are the International Confederationof Free Trade Unions and the Global UnionFederations. The opportunities open to them inspite of all the difficulties can best be seen fromthe example of trade union activities in Europe.What has been achieved there proves that, inspite of the inadequacies that still exist, tradeunion activities are still possible and even suc-cessful in this international framework.

This is why the work of the Global UnionFederations has a high level of priority. The con-tinuing globalisation of the world economy con-fronts them with ever new challenges. Theirsituation is somewhat reminiscent of the storyof David and Goliath: the underfunded and un-derstaffed secretariats doing battle with trans-national corporations which in many cases to-day have more power than some governments.

Side by side with these disadvantages theirroom for manoeuvre is determined by conditionsin connection with their internal organisation.

On the one hand, high hopes in the possibilitiesof forming an international power counterweightare challenged by differences in interests be-tween trade unions in industrial and developingcountries. On the other, the dominance of thenationally and rank-and-file-oriented member-ship produces a rather hesitant willingness tohand over competences to an international or-ganisation.

It is therefore possible that what we need isalso a new definition of the international tasksand activities of trade unions in a future glob-alised society. Together, they need to developeffective mechanisms to meet this purpose. It isalso necessary for the trade unions to grasp theinitiative more firmly with regard to the changestaking place at the international level. The de-bate is now in full swing and to a large extentpractised at the international level, but it is ne-cessary for the national organisations to followsuit more energetically. They have the necessaryspecialised knowledge and this is, after all, theirown domain.

In this situation it is important to give as widepublicity as possible to the work of the GlobalUnions. Since their areas of activities are be-coming increasingly complex and thus threatento forfeit the understanding of the rank-and-file,it is of growing importance to make clear theirorigins, development, structure, programs, sig-nificance and main fields of activities and theinterrelations between them.

For this reason, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftungis issuing a revised and enlarged handbook onthe Global Unions. This handbook offers a briefdescription of a wide range of activities. It is in-tended for those who are interested in what theGlobal Unions do and how they originated. Itprovides both a general overview and infor-mation. Its purpose is to awaken understandingand to prompt further questions, but it is inparticular an invitation to participate in thework.

We dedicate this handbook to our dear friendand colleague Rüdiger Sielaff, who died entirelyunexpectedly in the year 2000 at the age of 59.

PREFACE

6 GLOBAL UNIONS


For more than two decades Rüdiger Sielaff per-sonified the international trade union activitiesof the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. He was dedicatedto the international trade union organisations aswell as the national trade union movements inthe Third World in friendship and solidarity likeno other in this institution. He suggested andinspired the preparation of this handbook. It is

therefore a special obligation for us to continuecooperation with the international trade unionmovement in his spirit.

Erwin SchweisshelmFriedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Coordinator,Global Trade Union Program

PREFECE

7GLOBAL UNIONS


This publication is a successor to the FESbrochure under the title ”One World – One Voice– Solidarity – The International Trade Secreta-riats” by the same author of 1995. Since in thepast eight years International Trade Secretariats– today Global Union Federations – have chang-ed in many significant ways both organisation-ally and in respect of their areas of activities ithas become increasingly urgent to follow it byan updated version of the handbook. ThreeGlobal Unions quoted then even no longer existin the form described.

This publication continues to be intended asa source of information about all existing GlobalUnion Federation and the most important inter-national trade union organisations. The size ofthe handbook is, of course, subject to certainlimitations or a more condensed approach be-cause of the complex nature and the growingtasks and activities of the organisations des-cribed. On the one hand, it is not possible tosupply all details on the history, structure andworking method of all Global Unions individuallybecause of the limited space. On the other, thefact that all Global Unions are associations ofnational workers’ organisations produces cer-

tain analogies in their forms of organisation andscope of activities. In this respect descriptionsin summary form avoid unnecessary duplicationand thus leave more space for the more specificinformation on the individual Global Union.

Attempts have been made to always quotethe latest data and facts. The fact that we aredealing here with living active organisationswhich are subject to constant changes, however,creates the additional difficulty that a lot of theinformation is short-lived. The latest data, factsand information, however, are made availableon the Web site of all Global Unions so that gapsin the information provided in the handbook arecompensated for.

The handbook is structured in two parts: thefirst part summarizes general information whichapplies to all member unions of the Global Unionsequally: their common roots, fundamental struc-tures, identical areas of activities, analogous pro-cedures and their associated problems. In thesubsequent survey the handbook deals withfuture challenges and tendencies and outlinesbriefly possible responses.

The main part then introduces all GlobalUnions individually and in alphabetical order.

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

8 GLOBAL UNIONS


Facts and situations which are subject to un-foreseen or short-term modifications will onlybe mentioned to the extent necessary. Not allprojects can be mentioned either for reasonsof space required. The text will therefore con-centrate on essential items of information as re-gards the self-perception, the specific tasks andstructure, concrete measures taken and specialproblems, as well as future target areas of theorganisation concerned. Whenever the availablematerial permits, attempts are made to select anapproach which distinguishes that specific GlobalUnion from the rest and to present it in greaterdepth.

No judgmental statement is intended evenwhen terms like “the largest” or “the only” areat times used or if mention is made of extraordi-nary successes in the one or other case. Con-sidering that this is a description of 13 complexorganisations with worldwide activities and avaried history covering approximately 100 years,this handbook cannot present a critical academicanalysis of the subject, nor does it intend to.However, in spite of these limitations, an attempt

is being made to describe it from a problem-oriented perspective.

The author and the editors hope that thishandbook is not only read and used for occa-sional reference, but may also encourage thereader to request information on specific sub-jects (such as free trade zones and child labour)from all Global Unions and to use it for seminarsor similar activities. For this purpose, a list ofaddresses and contacts of all Global Unions canbe found in the appendix to this handbook. Allthe Global Unions have a wide range of infor-mation material which they send free on requestto interested parties. If continuous informationis required, they recommend an application forinclusion in their mailing lists.

This handbook is largely based on publi-cations of the individual Global Unions whichwere available to me in large numbers. I alsoprocessed information which was willinglyprovided in interviews or in correspondence.And finally, some ideas and inspiration from therelevant literature was taken up in this work. Ifinformation has been misrepresented or de-scriptions have been incomplete, it is only theauthor who is to blame for such shortcomings.Statistics and other data are based on infor-mation collected mainly in the years 2000-2003.Changes may have occurred, however they donot change the substance of the descriptions.

The author would like to take this opportun-ity to thank everyone in the Global Union Fed-erations or other relevant organisations who notonly provided extensive information materialbut also patiently explained and supplementedit whenever necessary. He continues to be gratefulfor the wealth of information, critical analysisand extensive explanations provided by otherpublications on the same subject. Without themthe compilation of this handbook would not havebeen possible. A special word of thanks also tothe colleagues of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung,in particular to my friend Rüdiger Sielaff, whounfortunately died in November 2000, and toErwin Schweisshelm, Coordinator of the GlobalTrade Union Program, for their encouragementand advice in every phase of the work.

INTRODUCTION

9GLOBAL UNIONS


9GLOBAL UNIONS


A Global Union Federation (GUF) is a federation of nationaltrade union organisations which operate worldwide and whosemembers work in specific, clearly-defined occupations, branches,industries or other specific areas of employment. In other words,they are international federations, representing workers from aspecific background, either from a specific sector or an area definedby other criteria. As they are directly confronted with the problemsin the sector they represent – which offers them an immediateand effective influence – they are indispensable in complementingthe activities of the International Confederation of Free TradeUnions (ICFTU), to which the national confederations are affiliated.

The Global Union Federation, together with the ICFTU andTUAC, form the group of free, i.e. independent international tradeunion associations. Democracy and freedom are the basic valuesof the Labour Movement to which all of them adhere. They arelinked to the ICFTU on this basis as to a family. However, GUF isnot a sub-organisation of the ICFTU; they are organisationallyautonomous federations. But since they pursue the same basicobjectives, they have a moral obligation to it.

Who are theGlobal Unions ?

WHO ARE THE GLOBAL UNIONS?

10 GLOBAL UNIONS


amendments, the last in December 1990, gavea more concrete definition of the GUF’s involve-ment in setting out ICFTU-policy.

Twice a year, in January and June, the Secre-taries General of the 11 GUFs and the ICFTUund ETUC come together for a meeting, knownas the General Conference of the Global Unions.Each Global Union is represented at the ICFTU-Congress by a number of participants corres-ponding to its size. These representatives alsohave the right to participate, but not to vote inICFTU-Executive meetings. The same applies tothe Women’s Committee and to a certain num-ber of delegates defined by the ICFTU from theGeneral Conference of GUF for the meetings ofsub- or special committees. In turn, the GUF

In early 2000, at the ITS General Confe-rence, there was broad support for the creat-ion of a website which would group togethernews and campaign information from all of theInternational Trade Secretariats, the ICFTU andthe Trade Union Advisory Committee to theOECD (TUAC).

The commonly-owned website, designedby the ICFTU in close consultation with theGUFs (then ITS) and TUAC, was launched un-der the name “Global Unions” on April 6, 2000,during the ICFTU Congress in Durban. Thewebsite was the first step in the creation of aclearly understandable identity for the orga-nisations involved. Four years later, over athousand pages have been added to the siteby the twelve member organisations.

The Global Unions name, and the logo (de-veloped by Education International) have sub-sequently been embraced as a means of com-municating the close and friendly collaborationwhich characterizes much of the commonwork of the international trade union organi-sations. Members of this family of 12 organi-

The Relationship with the ICFTU

The relationship between the GUF and theICFTU has been defined under the Milan Agree-ment of 1951 which stipulates that the formerInternational Trade Secretariats – today theGlobal Unions – are autonomous organisations,that all parties to the Agreement see themselvesas part of one single international Trade UnionMovement, that they cooperate in matters ofcommon interest and that they will follow theICFTU-line in matters of general internationaltrade union policy. ICFTU recognizes the Gene-ral Conference of the GUF as the representatio-nal body of the GUF, but reserves to itself theright to deal with each GUF individually. Later

International Trade Secretariats become Global Unions

sations often refer to themselves as being partof the “Global Unions group”.

This common identity has been used in-creasingly as for initiatives which involve se-veral or all Global Unions members. Recentexamples include the 2003 May 1st Mobili-sation, the Global Unions WTO Day of Action,and the Global Unions “Women for Unions”Organising Campaign. Many working groups,previously referred to as “ICFTU/ITS/TUACworking groups”, are now referred to as “GlobalUnions working groups”.

In January 2002 the ITS General Confe-rence took a further step, when those presentsupported changing the generic name “Inter-national Trade Secretariat” to “Global UnionFederation”. It is important to note that theGlobal Unions group, which comprises theICFTU, the 10 Global Union Federations andTUAC has no formal constitution, and relationsbetween the members of the group are governedby the “Milan Agreement”. All members of thegroup are politically independent of one another.


11GLOBAL UNIONS


have committed themselves to inviting ICFTU-representatives without voting rights to theirworld congresses and other meetings of com-mon interest.

The division of activities between the GUFand the ICFTU is complex, but regulated in asatisfactorily rational manner. The differentcomposition of membership naturally and sen-sibly leads to a different orientation.The GUF concentrate mainly on:■ branch-specific questions,■ support of concrete industrial action,■ the comparative monitoring of working con-

ditions and wages, and■ the implementation of health and safety re-

gulations in defined areas of work.Conversely, the ICFTU is involved in:■ mainly lobbying the inter-governmental or-

ganisations in favour of a labour-oriented eco-nomic and social policy,

■ organising and coordinating a strong tradeunion presence within the ILO,

■ speaking up for the protection of trade unionrights worldwide, such as the freedom of as-sociation and the right to free collective bar-gaining, and

■ supporting the inclusion of social clauses ininternational trade agreements.

The two organisations might be called the sup-porting pillars of trade union activities, one inthe political and the other in the industrial area.As both work for the same objectives, though indifferent ways, it is understandable that the linebetween them cannot always be drawn so finelyand clearly. Owing to greater interdependenceof national and international problems, theirtasks and the way they are handled are increas-ingly overlapping. Globalisation has produced aneed not only for a much greater measure ofmutual support, but in many cases a new di-vision of labour. In consequence, cooperationand networking are crucial in many areas ofresponsibility much more than in the past.

And yet in most cases the roles have beenclearly apportioned. Let us take the example ofhow they divide the work as regards the trans-national enterprises: GUF represent workers’interests within the TNEs, while ICFTU leadsthe struggle for general public controls and re-gulations. This does not mean, however, thatthe Global Unions do not have a role to play ininternational bodies: they supply the detailedtechnical know-how for discussions.

The ICFTU has close links with the GlobalUnions and often speaks up on their behalf ininternational organisations. It cooperates withthem in all areas of activities. In many cases


12 GLOBAL UNIONS


and particularly on special committees, repre-sentatives of the Global Unions might assumefunctions which arise directly from an adviseror observer status of ICFTU in internationalinstitutions. General aspects of internationalaction are coordinated: frequently ICFTU startsby addressing questions of principle and theGlobal Unions follow up the subjects.

Of course, there are differences of opinionat times. As in any family, harmony does notalways prevail, but extreme differences seldomoccur. It is understandable that the GUF at timesregard the problems of their members as morerelevant than the more general political priorit-ies. In such a situation people may get the im-pression that ICFTU perceives itself as the moreprominent entity – with corresponding reactionsfrom the self-confident GUF. However, a lot oftolerance prevails on both sides and all differ-ences are discussed and settled consensually ina democratic manner.

The success of the Milan Agreement de-pends, in the final analysis, on the willingnessof all parties concerned to comply with its pro-visions. That there have been no problems asyet which would seriously question its existenceis probably in parts due to the fact that most

members of GUF are also affiliated to ICFTUthrough their national trade union confedera-tions. Thus we are faced on the one hand withthe basic, more or less uniform goals of theirfederations and on the other with the fact thatthe same people frequently hold leadershippositions in both organisations and preventfrictions or settle disputes in negotiations andcompromises.

The few times when serious disruptions oc-curred in the past they were caused by ICFTU’sstrict opposition at the time of the Cold War toany contact with those trade unions which didnot want to align themselves with the free West-ern bloc or simply by fundamental differencesof views in respect of trade union policies amongstthe leading personalities and bodies. The endof the East-West conflict and the threats causedby globalisation have contributed to the ranksbeing closed again more firmly.

Areas of Organisation

Traditionally, the individual GUF by and largeorganise specific sectors or industries. However,these days the dividing lines between the clas-sical categories are becoming increasingly more


13GLOBAL UNIONS


blurred, not least because of the tendencyamongst large international corporations todominate all stages of operations from researchto production and transportation and commerceon the one hand, and of the privatisation ofmany traditionally public services on the other.The creation of UNI, for example, comprisesboth workers from the fields of communica-tions, the media, entertainment and graphicalindustries and manual and clerical workers inpublic administration and public services, thusrepresenting one of the largest GUF not only interms of total membership, but one that cor-responds most closely to the model of an asso-ciation organised along mainly functional lines.

The name “trade secretariat” does thereforeno longer apply to parts of today’s membershipin all cases. But in an organisation so firmlyrooted in traditions as the International LabourMovement – which also does not change theterm “trade union” in spite of the different con-notation it had originally – the semantically nolonger appropriate name expresses exactly whatis meant: the traditional name for a new chang-ed content represents the GUF’s organisationalphilosophy – a corporate identity of the GlobalUnions in the best sense of the word.

Membership

Even if individual GUF may have differentdetailed regulations concerning membership,the fundamental conditions are the same for allof them: they are all based on the principle thatthe affiliated unions must be free, independentand democratic institutions.

Membership presupposes a written appli-cation which is examined and voted on by theExecutive Committee or a sub-committee. In theevent of rejection an appeal can normally bemade to the Congress. Adoption of the Statutesand of the general policy of the GUF concernedis a basic requirement for membership. Membersare obliged to comply with the decisions of thecorresponding bodies and to pay their member-ship dues in time. In exceptional cases reduceddues or temporary suspension altogether can

be negotiated on application. According to theStatutes, non-compliance will lead to sanctions,but attempts will normally first be made to findan acceptable settlement.

Membership or affiliation is in principle opento all independent democratic trade unions, ir-respective of their other ideological or politicalorientations. It is expected, however, that alltheir internal affairs be regulated on the basisof democratic procedures and that candidateunions are free organisations, independent ofany directives or other influence by govern-ments, employers or political parties. As a rule,GUF is rather pragmatic in the way they select.Yet applicants from countries with previouslydictatorial rule are closely scrutinized to makesure that their democratic structure and inde-pendence of parties and employers do not onlyexist on paper.

Moreover, applicants should normally oper-ate at the national level, i.e. lay claim to beingmore than merely a locally restricted organi-sation. The principle of accepting only one unionper country has been abandoned because se-veral occupations, branches and industries arenowadays gathered in one Global Union Fede-ration as a result of mergers between GUF; how-ever, not all have proceeded in the same way.Instead, agreements were concluded in manycases according to which affiliated membershave to be heard when new applications of otherorganisations from the same country are sub-mitted.

The complexity of modern industrial pro-duction and the fact that many enterprises oper-ate on a large scale in more than one industryand that many trade unions, in particular in thedeveloping world, organise in more than oneindustry resulted in the affiliation of individualnational unions to more than one Global Union.

Normally, membership figures of GlobalUnions are broken down into three categories:■ number of affiliated unions;■ number of countries in which these member

organisations are represented;■ number of members registered by the affiliat-

ed unions.


14 GLOBAL UNIONS


As is to be expected the latter figure is not alwaysvery precise and normally gives an approximation(such as “more than 10 million”). This is partlydue to the fact that affiliates include non-paying“sympathizers” in their countries or simply blowup the figure so as to appear stronger than theyare and thus gain in importance. More frequent-ly, however, real numbers are not quoted becauseof financial considerations: since membershipsubscriptions of national trade unions to theirGlobal Union Federations are normally calcu-lated on the basis of registered members, theobvious thing to do is to quote lower numbersto avoid excessive subscriptions, at times evenwith the consent of the Global Union concerned.In fact, there are cases where individual tradeunions even quote a reduced number of membersto their national centre with the result that weend up with three different versions of the realmembership numbers.

Yet any exact quote of membership has alsobecome somewhat illusory in recent times be-cause of large-scale redundancy measures in thewake of globalisation. If, for example in Indo-nesia, 40 percent of the workers lose their jobswithin a period of a few months, any informationconcerning the number of members in a tradeunion will be rapidly outdated even consideringthat a major part of these workers were notorganised.

And even the number of affiliated tradeunions alone is not a criterion for the strengthof a particular Global Union. In some countries,trade union structures are still related to tra-ditional branches and trade organisations; thisapplies, in particular, to Great Britain and tocountries under her influence where freqentlymany trade unions organise one sector of indus-try. In contrast, the pure principle of industrialunions based on only a few large unions prevailsmainly in Germany and Scandinavia, but alsoto some extent in other parts of the world.

Subscription Fees and Finances

The most important source of income for theGlobal Unions are the annual subscription feesof the affiliates. Only in the case of the formerInternational Federation of Plantation, Agri-cultural and Allied Workers (IFPAAW), whichbecame part of the International Union of Food,Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobac-co and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) in Ja-nuary 1994, was it necessary to supply extern-al funds from the ICFTU for a prolonged period.This was not surprising considering that plan-tation workers belong to the poorest of the poorand that most member organisations came fromthe Third World. This situation changed as aresult of the merger, which followed logicallyfrom the trade union principle of solidarity: byuniting it is easier to compensate for the weak-nesses of individual organisations.

While delayed payments of affiliation feeshad been treated very leniently in the past, Glob-al Union-executive committees have recentlybecome more rigid in enforcing the rules. If af-filiates can prove that problems do exist, re-ductions are still possible, but only on applica-tion to the executive committees.

The method of calculating the fees and theamounts involved differ from one Global Unionto the other. The easiest method, which is usedby the majority of Global Unions, consists of afixed rate per union member. This procedureworks in favour of unions with high wage levelsand correspondingly high revenues, with the re-sult that frequently others are either granted spe-cial terms or quote reduced numbers of members.

The procedure based on a certain percentageof average hourly wages for assessing contri-butions to the Global Union is more just, but alsomore complicated. This method has been in-troduced to accommodate the difficult financialsituations of unions in low-wage countries. Theassessment of average wages is a critical factorin this case: as a rule, use is made of periodicalcollections of data which are often already obso-lete at the time of assessment. This difficulty


15GLOBAL UNIONS


may be overcome in future with the introductionof electronic communication systems and databases – a project to which all big Global Unionsare very much committed.

The latter procedure reduces the revenuesof Global Unions and complicates the calculationand allocation of potential future income. Themulti-stage procedure is a compromise betweenthe two: on application by members, varyingdues are fixed according to the financial strengthof the union concerned; the system provides for upto 4 stages. In exceptional cases, extremely weakorganisations can maintain membership by pay-ing a very low subscription, but in most casesthen lose their voting rights.

Difficulties arise when currency restrictionsprevent payments from being made in interna-tionally convertible currency. In such a case Glob-al Union-affiliation fees have to be banked fre-quently in the country itself and can only be usedin aid of the local affiliate. Further problems ofpayment and financial planning may arise as aresult of variations in the exchange rates.

Because of the different modes of assessingdues it is difficult to draw conclusions from thenumber of members as regards the financialposition of the Global Union. Not only has adistinction to be made between paying membersand those that only exist on paper, but it is es-sential also to know the numbers involved inthe different “contribution grades”.

Apart from income from affiliation fees, Glob-al Unions receive a limited income from specialcontributions of their members, earmarked forselective tasks and campaigns and occasionallyvoluntary grants of their wealthier affiliates.

All these revenues (regular budget and grants)usually cover the current expenditure for theSecretariat and its worldwide administration aswell as for publications, congresses, meetingsand direct aid. A major cost factor is the trans-lations: almost all Secretariats publish or com-municate in three to five languages, in somecases even double that figure. The Statutes ofmany Global Unions provide for a separate fundfor solidarity action or even educational pro-

grams. In most cases this absorbs all availablefunds; there are hardly any reserves worth men-tioning.

A break-down of the annual budget showsthat between 40% and 50% of all expenditureis entered under “salaries” of full-time staff.Another 10% to 20% are passed on to regionalorganisations to subsidize their costs. Additionalunavoidable expenses are incurred for meetingsof the executive committees and various commit-tees as well as reserves for the next congress.Current office costs (rents, electricity, postage,printing etc.) are another item, while a consider-able part of the budget is also spent on publi-cations, PR activities and translations. There isoften a limited budget firmly earmarked for edu-cational programmes and the little that remainsis left for the reserves and unexpected expenses.

Because money is scarce, specific programsare frequently co-sponsored by third parties.Major education and training projects and extra-ordinary support measures will normally be co-funded by the international organisations suchas the International Labour Organisation (ILO),the European Union (EU) or the ICFTU-SolidarityFund as well as by friendly public-interest orga-nisations such as the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung,the regional Labour Institutes of the AmericanAFL-CIO, the Scandinavian trade union centres,the Dutch FNV, among others. As a rule, thisadditional income is earmarked for specific pro-jects and comes partly from public sources. TheGlobal Unions therefore strictly control whetherthis is paid with no strings attached because itmight otherwise adversely affect the content ofthe project concerned.

When comparing the worldwide operationsand global tasks with the actual revenues of theGlobal Unions we realise how limited their fi-nancial scope in fact is. Globalisation presentsthem with an additional challenge: not only be-cause workers who lose their jobs are largelyalso lost as paying members of their union,which ultimately reduces the revenues of theGlobal Unions, but because many Third Worldcountries – owing to structural adjustment pro-


16 GLOBAL UNIONS


grams, international financial speculation andother factors – are confronted with considerableinflationary crises which cannot be made goodby adjustments of wages, and thus membershipdues.

In view of the growth of global tasks or op-portunities we have to ask ourselves whetherthere is not a critical mass in the decisive fi-nancial criterion, i.e. membership figures, belowwhich they must not fall if they want to continueto provide the necessary expertise and presence.The mergers that took place between someTrade Secretariats in recent years with the aimof forming larger entities must ultimately beregarded as a response to this situation as well.

Organisational Structures

All Global Unions are autonomous organisa-tions. There is no higher authority to which theyare accountable. Every Global Union is managedon the basis of its Statutes and decides independ-ently on activities, organisational policy and pro-cedures. The authority to make decisions is leftexclusively to its bodies and officers.

All Global Unions have the following bodies,even though they may at times use a differentname for them or establish additional bodies:■ Congress (World Congress, World Conference)

■ Executive (Managing Committee, ExecutiveCommittee, Presidium)

■ President, Vice-President/s■ Secretary General/SecretariatAs a rule, Congress takes place every three orfour years, normally every four years nowadays.In the past, the interval was shorter, but highcosts caused by continuously increasing globalmembership, and thus global delegations, gradu-ally became an almost unmanageable burden.Improved transport infrastructure also makesit easier to meet at a regional level, while mo-dern communication technology has signifi-cantly facilitated both the exchange of informa-tion and the process of decision-making withthe result that it was possible to extend the in-tervals between world conferences.

The composition of the congresses is to avarying degree representative of the individualindustry/occupations and geographical regionsrepresented by members. Delegates of all mem-ber organisations are represented at the Con-gress in proportion to the size of their local mem-bership. All unions with paid-up dues have theright to send delegates, either in proportion tothe number of members for whom dues havebeen paid or based on regressively increasingnumbers to give a proportionately greater num-ber of seats to smaller organisations.


Relations between the national and international levels

➤➤

➤➤

Cooperation under theMilano Agreement

affiliation➤ ➤

➤ ➤

➤➤ International Con-federation of Free

Trade Unions (ICFTU)

affiliation

National Centresfor Trade Unions

IndividualNational Unions

affiliation

GlobalUnion Federations

(GUF)

17GLOBAL UNIONS


The Congress is the supreme decision-mak-ing authority. It listens to and discusses the Re-port of the Executive, debates and decides onresolutions dealing with current political, socialand economic questions, fixes affiliation fees andconfirms or reviews the main areas of the organ-isation’s activities. Economic and social problemsin the industry or occupation concerned frequent-ly become a central theme of the Congress andare, as a rule, discussed in respect of their im-plications for the future.

The President appointed by Congress chairsthe Congresses and Executive meetings andusually holds a representative position. Almostall Global Unions have also one or more Vice-Presidents.

The Executive Committee elected by Con-gress is the supreme decision-making body be-tween congresses. As attempts are made tomake them as representative as possible interms of country groups and branches, theseExecutive Committees are frequently ratherlarge these days. As a result, appropriately fre-quent meetings are difficult to organise, as arethe problem-resolution and decision-makingprocesses. In many cases there is therefore alsoa Managing Committee of a manageable size. Itconsists of the most important representativesfrom the member organisations, who should belocated in centres easily accessible by transpor-tation whenever possible, i.e. frequent meetingscan take place without difficulty.

Congress also elects the Secretary Generalwho is a full-time employee of the organisation.He/she is in charge of the day-to-day businessof the Secretariat. Within the framework ofguidelines adopted by Congress and policiesdetermined by the Executive Committee he/shedecides on the content and direction of activitiesby his/her Global Union. The Secretary Gene-ral is therefore the most influential figure forthe leadership and effective work of a GlobalUnion whose personality leaves its mark on allactivities of the organisation; rarely does it hap-pen that secretaries general are voted out of of-fice; normally they are elected for several terms

of office until they resign out of their own freewill.

All head offices of Global Unions are tradi-tionally situated in Europe (Geneva, Brussels,London). There was once a secretariat of thepetrol workers’ organisation in the USA, butafter lengthy disputes with the International ofChemical, Energy and Factory Workers (ICEF,nowadays in ICEM), it ceased to operate. Theoffices vary in size and financial strength: thelargest employs 30 or more office staff and deskofficers. All of them are equipped with the elec-tronic hardware and software required for theirwork and have built up the corresponding net-works and databases, or are in the process ofdoing so.

Sectional and Regional Groups

At a very early stage Global Unions startedto establish separate structures to concentrateon specific needs of the different sectors andoccupations which they organised. The first oneswere the trade groups or sectional committees.The International Transport Workers’ Feder-ation (ITF), for instance, has had committeesfor seafarers, railroad workers and other groupsfor decades, while others such as the Interna-tional Textile, Garments and Leather Workers’Federation (ITGLWF) and the IUF establishedthem in the course of mergers; acceding TradeSecretariats became the nucleus of new tradegroups or industry sections.Today all GlobalUnions are, with very few exceptions, multi-industry organisations and have a correspond-ing number of sectional committees. Sectionalgroups have an advisory function, hold theirown conferences at times and prepare studiesand strategy papers about their industry. Insome cases sectional groups are also repre-sented on Executive Committees.

Another category is formed by the special com-mittees. All Secretariats have one for women,or at least a department for women’s issues. Inseveral cases there are special committees orworking groups of young members and frequently


18 GLOBAL UNIONS


one for environmental problems as well ashealth and safety problems.

The third area concerns regional committeesand offices in response to specific needs frommembers in economically less developed coun-tries demanding more autonomy and better re-presentation on decision-making bodies. Someregional committees have regional executiveboards, regional offices and hold regional con-ferences. In contrast, other regional offices aresimply sub-structures of the central Secretariator exist as a regional branch with a regionaladviser appointed by the head office. There arealso differences in decision-making powers:while some regional committees take their ownregional decisions which only require the final„blessing“ of the International Executive Com-mittee, others have only an advisory status. Oncean organisation has been accepted as a memberof a Global Union, it will automatically receivemembership status in the respective regionalor sectional group as a rule.

Nowadays Global Unions are represented innearly every corner of the world with few excep-tions because of the extension of regional officesin recent decades. As a rule, they have at leastone regional office each in Africa, Latin Americaincluding the Caribbean and in the Asian-Pacificregion. Even though in individual cases sepa-rate institutions may exist for North Americaincluding Canada, and for the new economiccommunities (NAFTA, MERCOSUR, ASEAN), nodeliberate attempt has so far been made to in-fluence specifically these concrete areas. Inparticular in Asia and Africa whole continentsor sub-continents with completely different setsof problems are part of the same regional struc-ture, with the result that little room for ma-noeuvre or political influence is left to them apartfrom organisation, education and information.

Due to special developments at an economicand political level, separate structures emergedfor regional activities in Europe, some of themacting in addition to the original European Glob-al Union-regional committees. These Europeanindustry federations (EIF) of the ETUC are opento all European trade unions in a specific in-dustry irrespective of whether they are affiliatedto the Global Unions or not.

In the European region we were consequent-ly faced with a structure which deviated fromthe other regions and the usual clearly-definedjurisdiction. In spite of some initial reservations,all Global Unions eventually agreed to cooperatewith the European industry federations of theETUC and to use their already existing structuresfor this purpose.

Problems resulting from this complicatedorganisational situation are resolved by the indi-vidual Global Unions in various administrativeand organisational ways. They had in principletwo options: either to establish completely inde-pendent European regional organisations or toattempt to incorporate the EIFs as much as pos-sible in their own structure. The InternationalMetalworkers’ Federation (IMF), for example, de-cided in favour of the first option by establishingthe European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF)which is also financially autonomous.

Jurisdictional problems may arise when EIFsnegotiate with TNE-subsidiaries with head-quarters outside Europe or when they discussworking conditions of subsidiaries in other partsof the world with company head offices in Eu-rope. It is a tight rope to walk and may at timeslead to arguments over alleged interference ininternational affairs. The introduction of Euro-pean works councils and of EU-Directives oninformation and consultation in transnationalenterprises may create further points of friction.


19GLOBAL UNIONS


While the power of business enterprises originates from theircapital in the form of accumulated profits, the strength of the In-ternational Trade Union Movement is founded on its tradition, i.e.the willingness of all its members to promote justice by acts ofsolidarity. Its current structure has developed with the help of allthose who continued to struggle and made sacrifices in order topave the way and to push ahead its development in a chequeredhistory which was not free of errors and mistakes. A brief surveyof this history full of vicissitudes is therefore indispensable in orderto understand the situation today.

HistoricalSurvey

HISTORICAL SURVEY

19GLOBAL UNIONS


20 GLOBAL UNIONS


Roots

The former International Trade Secretariats(today Global Unions) and the predecessor or-ganisations of the International Confederationof Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) together form theroots of international activities by the LabourMovement. They have a long, distinguished anduninterrupted tradition. The history of the twoorganisations is inseparably connected andtherefore is largely described here as one.

Both organisations were the product of the19th century and emerged first in Europe. Theywere supported and inspired by the simulta-neous emergence of the Socialist Labour Move-ment. This influence is still more or less felt intoday’s Global Unions. While the internationallabour federations suffered in the course of timefrom fragmentation caused by ideological dif-ferences and then started again, the Global Unionswere to a great extent spared that difficulty. Theyprogressed by uniting and merging, but expe-rienced no break in their traditions.

Workers and their organisations realised atan early stage how useful and necessary inter-national solidarity would be. This dates back totimes when crafts journeymen and occasionallyfactory workers „journeyed“ across Europe andestablished first ties between local societies forworkers’ protection. As it seemed the practicaland necessary thing to do, first contacts andagreements were established across nationalborders as early as the 60s and 70s of the 19th

century. Natural differences in language andcustoms, as well as arbitrary territorial barrierswere soon overcome by the spirit of solidaritybased on the shared experience of dependenceand exploitation.

Initial Steps

National workers’ unions genuinely cooper-ated for occupational reasons as early as the80s and 90s of the 19th century. When represent-atives of socialist parties and of some trade as-sociations met in Brussels in 1891 for the ”In-ternational Labour Congress“, delegates of the

timber, metal and textile trades took the op-portunity to agree on some form of cooperation,albeit modest from today’s perspective, acrosstheir national frame of action. Initially, the so-called mutual agreements were intended toensure that members received equal treatmentfrom foreign trade union organisations andmutual support financially when on the road.How to prevent the use of foreign workers asstrike breakers was another issue to be coveredin these agreements.

It is interesting to note in this context that asearly as 100 years ago a question was raisedthat still comes up now and then in discussions,notably why trade unions from the industriallymore developed countries should be interestedin enforcing socio-political concepts by meansof international action for other unions in lessdeveloped regions, while it might be easier andmore beneficial for them to simply enforce themin their own country by means of national action.Indeed, opinions were divided at the time, butworkers were very much aware of the fact thatthey were all living in a similar situation of de-pendence, and firmly convinced that the LabourMovement would grow in strength with greaterinternational cohesion.

In other words, the occupational groups start-ed to internationalise before the national centresdid. The national confederations established aninternational confederation only after the turnof the century, and when they did they dividedthe political and industrial representation of theLabour Movement. After a first meeting in 1901,representatives of the most important nationalconfederations in Europe at the time decided tobring together national trade union confed-erations in one international centre which wasfounded the following year. Its name was changedinto International Trade Union Confederation(ITUC) in 1913.

Time of Foundation

The 20 years between 1890 and 1910 weredecisive in so far as a large number of internatio-nal organisations of various trade unions were

HISTORICAL SURVEY

21GLOBAL UNIONS


established. The shoemakers, for instance,united in 1889, the miners in 1890 and thetailors in 1893. Initially, some were just informalstructures without permanent influence, but themajority of present-day Global Unions can tracetheir origins directly to them or to a forerunner.

Almost all of these first associations werestrongly ideologically oriented towards a so-cialist or social-democratic philosophy. But theirmain activities were of a more practical naturefrom the start: exchanging information aboutworking conditions, defending themselves againstattempts by employers to use foreign workersas strike breakers and mobilizing support inlarge-scale industrial disputes.

When the trade union movement grew in theindustrial countries there were more and morethings they had in common. At the third Inter-national Metalworkers’ Congress in Paris in1900, the agenda already included such topicsas:■ organisational assistance,■ supranational industrial action (strikes) or

counter-measures (support fund, fighting strikebreakers) to oppose employers who were oper-ating transnationally or threatened lock-outs,

■ implementation of uniform working conditions,■ training and protection of young workers,■ mutual information and■ disclosure of unfair production and trade

practices.These topics are still pressing today and

continue to play a central part in the activities ofGlobal Unions.

As Europe was the centre of industrialisationas well as the centre of the Labour Movementat the time, only a few unions from outside thecontinent were initially members, amongst themthe United Mineworkers of America (UMWA),who joined the Miners’ International Federationin 1904.

The fact that the majority of Global Unionsdid not have the financial resources for an officeof their own was a considerable problem. Thework of the Global Unions was normally takenon as a supplementary job by the Secretary Ge-neral or the President of a member organisation,

as a rule from the largest of them. Before WorldWar I, the majority of Global Unions were lo-cated in Germany as a result. Here, in the veryheart of Europe, was found not only the bestorganised Socialist Movement of the time, butthe largest and best-funded trade union organ-isation of the whole world. Berlin was to allintents and purposes the inofficial capital of theLabour and Trade Union Movement.

From 1914 to 1945:between War and Crisis

In 1914 there were 33 International TradeSecretariats. The outbreak of the first world warput an end to the Global Unions’ development.Even though it was possible to keep up thecontacts during the whole time of fighting, theactivities of most Global Unions came almost toa standstill. The international contacts were notstrong enough to oppose successfully nationalforces in favour of war action. And it is also truethat at the outbreak of war some political organ-isations of the workers (such as the GermanSocial-Democrats) were quite patriotically in-clined and lost sight temporarily of internatio-nal workers’ solidarity.

When hostilities ceased, old contacts couldbe revived, but the new beginning took placeunder changed conditions. London, Amsterdamand Geneva had now become the headquartersof the Secretariats. But only very few of themhad their own office. It was still the largest na-tional union which as a rule ran the office. Fora long time, the limited knowledge of foreignlanguages among the early labour leaders con-tinued to prevent international contacts fromtaking effect more rapidly. Some Global Unionsdid not do much more than provide a mailboxaddress. At the same time, the foundation waslaid for developments which contributed to theinfluence that the Secretariats enjoyed later.

In a first step, a number of mergers tookplace in the early 20s. Many trades disappearedor lost their important role, the principle of in-dustrial unions was gradually applied morewidely and unions realized that they could in-

HISTORICAL SURVEY

22 GLOBAL UNIONS


crease their bargaining power by uniting; theresult of this was that the number of Global Unionswent down slowly, but steadily. Objectives andtasks remained practically the same, but theymoved into new areas of activities.

This opportunity was offered with the foun-dation of the International Labour Organisationin 1919, which provided a platform for the parti-cipation of workers’ representatives in formu-lating international minimum standards andnorms at work (International Conventions andRecommendations). Several Global Unions seiz-ed the opportunity immediately, and particularlythe International Transport Workers’ Federation(ITF) moved in at an early stage. As early as 1921the Joint Seafarers’ Committee was initiated andin the years to come regulations concerning thetransport sector absorbed a major part of ILOresolutions, due not least to the purposeful lob-bying of ITF and the strong personalities at itshelm.

However, all these successes could not pre-vent economic and political developments in theinterwar period from pushing the InternationalLabour Movement into the defensive. All labourorganisations at the time were fighting with theirbacks to the wall against the effects of the greateconomic crisis which engulfed the whole of theWestern world and indeed did not spare thevictorious nations of the war.

The split of the movement from one whichoriginally encompassed the whole of the unifyingsocialist ideology into two different wings, asocial-democratic and a communist one, and thefoundation of the Soviet Union meant a contin-uing schism in the International Labour Move-ment. As early as 1921 the Red International ofthe trade unions was founded. And about thattime, too, the Christian trade unions began tounite in an international association. But bothof these were more keenly in competition withthe ICTU than with the Global Unions. The latterwere able to ward off successfully the accessionof organisations under communist influence,since these were not prepared to cooperate dem-ocratically.

The lack of unity had fatal consequences, forfrom the mid-1920s onwards fundamentalistideas began to spread in some of the heartlandsof Europe, which led to the rise of dictatorshipsof a national-socialist, fascist and falangist line.At the beginning of the 1930s these regimes be-gan systematically to destroy the large nationalGlobal Union-member bodies in Italy, Germany,Austria, Spain and Czechoslovakia. Many of thefounder organisations of the International TradeSecretariats and the important supporters of theirwork were thus eliminated. After 1933 it wasGermany, in particular, which lost its role as thecentral location of the Labour Movement for good.

The outbreak of World War II in 1939 againbrought the activities of the international labourorganisations to a standstill, particularly sincethe German occupation power dissolved anddestroyed the offices of some of the Secretariats.A number of offices had to close altogether forthe duration of the war, others operated on alimited basis in neutral countries or in Britain.

The Cold War and Decolonialisation

In 1945, after about six years of war andbarbarism, the old centres of the InternationalTrade Union Movement in Europe were des-troyed, discredited and some of them paralyzedby the hostilities. But immediately after the endof the war the general mood was in favour ofstarting anew and of rebuilding a united inter-national trade union movement. It was not leastthe great influence of the Soviet Union which atthat time took effect: as part of the Allied ArmedForces it had made an important contributionto the defeat of fascism. Thus the ITUC wasdissolved in 1945 and the World Federation ofTrade Unions (WFTU) was founded. In this theAmerican CIO, the British TUC and the Sovietnational organisation of trade unions were theprime movers.

However, the conflicting opinions about therole of trade unions in society soon proved tobe an insurmountable obstacle to cooperationbetween these most important partners in theunited organisation. From the beginning, the

HISTORICAL SURVEY

23GLOBAL UNIONS


question of the role and function of the GlobalUnions, amongst other things, was at the centreof these controversies. The WFTU-wing underSoviet influence rejected independent tradesecretariats and demanded complete integrat-ion. The Global Unions saw this not only as anattempt to end their existence as independentorganisations, but as an attack on the principlesrepresented by the International Labour Move-ment, and fought off the attack vehemently. Theycontinued to exist as independent organisationsand were supported by many of the nationalconfederations of Western trade unions, andabove all by their member organisations. Duringthe prolonged negotiations, which in the enddid not lead to agreement, a number of US-Amer-rican trade unions, which had been reservedtowards international trade union activities be-fore, joined the Global Unions in the course ofworldwide East-West confrontation and helpedto strengthen their power of resistance.

The cooling-off process on the political scenebrought about the disintegration of the WFTU.The attempt of the Soviet affiliate to dominatethe WFTU led to major tensions and internalcontroversies. Insurmountable differences aboutthe attitude of the trade unions to the MarshallPlan brought matters to a head. Most of the na-tional trade union confederations of the Westleft the WFTU in 1949 and founded the Inter-national Confederation of Free Trade Unions(ICFTU) as the successor body of the ICTU – withthe emphasis on free. Since then, the vast ma-jority of the GUF have again cooperated withthis body.

In the following period, the members of theWFTU were recruited primarily from the tradeunion organisations of the Eastern bloc. In addi-tion, the WFTU was able to attract a number oftrade unions from Third World countries andalso the communist-oriented labour unions fromindustrial countries. The opposite number of theGlobal Unions in the WFTU was the Interna-tional Trade Departments, later renamed TradeUnion Internationals. They were an integral partof the WFTU and their work was to a large extentcontrolled by it.

The antagonisms of the systems and thestruggle for power and spheres of influence atthe beginning of the Cold War had a considerableeffect on the work of the international federations.Above all the emerging independent nations ofAsia and Africa, but also those in the Latin Ameri-can and Caribbean regions and their young tradeunion organisations, which had often played aprominent part in the independence movements,became a favourite battlefield for ideological con-frontation. In this, the ICFTU, in particular, de-veloped a high profile as a defender of Westerndemocracies, although sometimes ideologicalconfrontation became more important than itsrole of spearheading the Labour Movement.

After the war, the International ChristianTrade Union Movement attempted a new begin-ning as well. In 1968 it changed into the WorldConfederation of Labour (WCL) and establisheda number of so-called International Trade Fede-rations (ITFs), following the model of the Glob-al Unions. But by and large these remained iso-lated organisations with no more than regionalinfluence. Recently some of their members havemoved over to the GUF.

Decolonialisation and the foundation of ma-ny new independent states brought renewedgrowth in members and activities. Many liber-ation movements had operated under the so-cialist banner, and the trade unions frequentlyformed the spearhead of the struggle for in-dependence. In principle they constituted a largegrowth reservoir, but they were soon involvedin the antagonisms of the Cold War. This led tosome of them moving away from the worldorganisations. The foundation in Africa of itsown continent-wide body (OATUU), however,remained relatively unsuccessful.

In the course of and as a result of this deve-lopment, the Global Unions slowly grew into gen-uinely international organisations, comprisingall continents. In the phase between 1950 and1980, which was dominated on the one handby the Cold War and the „cold warriors“ and onthe other by the huge rates of growth in the in-dustrial countries, they pursued a strategy whichwas less burdened by ideology and was in fact

HISTORICAL SURVEY

24 GLOBAL UNIONS


quite pragmatic. They thus remained attractivefor many trade unions from the Third World,wanting to hold themselves aloof from the East-West controversy, and were able to extend theircooperation with them.

The Recent Past

The last 20 years of the last century broughtunprecedented challenges and led to consider-able changes for the international trade unionorganisations. With the collapse of the Sovietregime, the WFTU disappeared as a competitorwith any claim to leadership. This body and itstrade union internationals now play merely aperipheral part. The ICFTU is incontestably theuniversal top-level organisation, even though itsstrong earlier anti-stance and its pro-West pro-clivities have not been forgotten by everyone.The WCL asserts its independence, but has re-cently entered into many alliances for action pur-poses and many forms of cooperation. A numberof its affiliates have acceded to Global Unions.In Europe the foundation of the ETUC, whichadmits members primarily according to geo-graphical, i.e. non-ideological criteria, broughttogether organisations from formerly dividedcamps.

Whereas this development brought greaterunity and leverage, the need for help grew withit. The opening-up of former Eastern-bloc coun-tries made powerful demands on internationalcapacities to organise and on solidarity. Thetrade unions that had existed in the East wereeither dissolved or transformed and new onescame into being; almost all of them sought con-tact and support from the Global Unions. De-cisions about admission have not always beeneasy and continue to be difficult. Frequently oldfunctionaries are still in office and it is difficultto believe in a genuine change of heart. New or-ganisations frequently do not have a viable basis;other organisations are so large that they threatento upset the balance of regional membership.But they almost all have one thing in common:because of their weak currencies they do not

have enough financial strength to pay their af-filiation fees in full, and they need help in almostevery field: infrastructure, material and edu-cation.

As a result of the return to neo-liberal regu-latory concepts in economic policy, the Global Un-ion Federations have concentrated again to agreater extent on questions of principle. At theirmost recent world congresses all the GUF dis-cussed how to bring about solidarity, justice andsocial partnership under the new conditions.Moreover, there are new subjects on their agen-da, such as environmental protection and sustain-able exploitation of resources, new productionmethods and new lifestyles and at the same timea strengthening of the basis for internationalcampaigns in favour of human and trade unionrights and demands that social clauses be con-sidered in international trade as well as de-velopment cooperation.

These days the Global Unions are not onlyinternational associations of trade unions fromall parts of the world, but in the best sense glob-al organisations with fields of activities not onlyin all the continents, but above all at the supra-national level. The growing importance of theTNEs is forcing the trade unions to seek the con-clusion of agreements to be applicable world-wide in such companies. Transnational cor-porate policy and the global implications of newtechnologies, as well as human rights, environ-mental degradation, discrimination against wo-men, child labour and unemployment are veryconcrete fields of activity for the Global Unionsbecause they are directly linked to individualindustries; they are not just subjects for theo-retical debates at international meetings.

From the beginning the Global Unions haveconfronted these challenges. They have recognis-ed the opportunities and possibilities of moderncommunication technologies and without hes-itation used them comprehensively for infor-mation to their members and exchanges of in-formation between the organisations. Whereasinitially only some Global Unions rushed aheadand did the pioneering work for this process,

HISTORICAL SURVEY

25GLOBAL UNIONS


they are by now all on the Internet and can ex-change messages and information in real-timeacross the globe. This has enormously added tothe punch of the trade unions.

If these days a government or an employerfrom any part of the world does not comply withcore labour standards or violates agreed work-ing rules, the international centres are able toappeal to other trade unions for solidarity supportwithin hours or to direct complaints about griev-

HISTORICAL SURVEY

ances to international bodies, to initiate protestsand, generally speaking, to inform the public atlarge about these violations of the law. At the sametime it is possible to coordinate joint actions ina much different, and more effective manner bymaking use of these new technologies. And lastbut not least, they are helpful in uncovering anincreasing number of violations of human rightsthrough exploitative or suppressive practiceswhich can then be disclosed to the public.

26 GLOBAL UNIONS


How They Work

Tasks andActivities of the

Global Unions

The aims and activities of the Global Unions are laid down intheir constitutions and statutes and are supplemented throughdecisions of congresses, when required. As democratic organi-sations of the Labour Movement, i.e. as “trade union of the tradeunions in their trade and industry sectors”, the Global Unions followthe guidelines laid down by the members. Their effectiveness inall situations depends upon the willingness of all to join togetherin their efforts to achieve a specific aim. The Secretariats functionas a clearing house for information to be exchanged amongst themembers and as coordinators and facilitators of activities whichmembers wish to carry out. All short-term activities must be ac-commodated to the overall long-term objectives.

The basic inspiration for the activities of the International TradeUnion Movement derives from the ideas of earlier socialist labourmovements. Even though the initially strong ideological foundationof the original bodies no longer exists, the constitutions of the Glob-al Unions still talk of the common struggle for social and equitableaims and not merely of improved working conditions and wages.As a rule, they contain a mixture of idealistic and concrete elements.

26 GLOBAL UNIONS

FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNGTASKS AND ACTIVITIES

27GLOBAL UNIONS


Nor do the resolutions of the world confe-rences concentrate solely on practically achiev-able objectives within the range of expectationsof the members affected, i.e. direct and tangibleimprovements in the immediate situation of or-ganised workers and their organisations. Themost recent past and the rise of neo-liberal andneo-capitalist ideologies, in particular, haveagain created a need as well as a call for greaterattention to be paid to long-term visionary ideas.In this context, two major directions can be not-ed: firstly, more declamatory decisions as a basicingredient and justification for efforts towardsa more equitable world order and secondly con-crete decisions which can be translated into day-to-day activities.

Objectives and Tasks

The objectives and tasks of the Global Unionscan be compressed into three basic messages:■ promoting worldwide solidarity■ ensuring and enforcing human and trade

union rights■ creating economic and social justice.

Promoting Worldwide Solidarity

The basic principle underlying the activitiesof the Global Unions is international workers’solidarity. This does not mean that all other aimsare simply derived from this one, but without thisbasis there is no long-term ”uniting bracket“ tohold them together.

Solidarity is the fundamental principle of thetrade unions just as private property is the funda-mental principle of the capitalist economic system.And as employers derive from this the strivingfor maximum profit, trade unions regard solidar-ity as more than simply belonging to an associat-ion to achieve certain aims: it is a common philo-sophy with the aim of permanence. It means notonly helping others because they help me, butbecause it is right and just. Solidarity is not like atap that people can turn off and on. It is a specificmindset which attempts to overcome parochial-

ism and narrow-mindedness. Solidarity is a pro-cess of mutual learning and teaching.

The Global Unions have the task of promot-ing and supporting worldwide solidarity amongmembers from the same occupation, branchand/or sectoral group. In this connection, soli-darity can assume various forms – a messageof support or protest, material assistance offinancially stronger trade unions accorded topoorer ones, campaigns and even active supportof industrial action in order to help bring aboutsocial justice for workers in another country.

But it is not restricted to mere actions of soli-darity. It also means to help in the foundationand development of trade unions and to ensurethat they become functionable organisations andthat member organisations support each other,thus adding to their strength. Moreover, it meansto constantly promote cooperation and mutualassistance, both morally and materially.

International solidarity of the kind activatedand provided by the Global Unions is of partic-ular importance to the relatively weak tradeunions in countries with a low level of develop-ment. When they cooperate with internationaltrade union organisations which organise intheir industry, it becomes more difficult for em-ployers or governments to ignore their demandsor to oppose them. Affiliation to a Global Unionensures support from workers in the same oc-cupation, branch or industry and their tradeunions from many other countries. A trade unionaffiliated to a Global Union does not struggle onits own, but receives support from a worldwidetrade union movement.

Ensuring and Enforcing Trade Unionand Human Rights

It is only logical that from the start the GlobalUnions have regarded the protection of univer-sal human rights, in addition to the protectionand implementation of trade union rights, asone of their traditional tasks. They fight for theintroduction of and respect for trade union andhuman rights in general, and for the rights of

TASKS AND ACTIVITIES

28 GLOBAL UNIONS


workers to influence decisions which affect theirlives at the workplace and in society, in particu-lar. This still constitutes an essential problemto workers in many countries, because only ifcertain fundamental rights have been grantedcan they represent their interests by themselves.

The Global Unions oppose all forms of ex-ploitation and suppression. They support anactive practice of democracy in all spheres oflife. It is true that positive results in enforcingtrade union and human rights are not exclu-sively due to trade union intervention. On thecontrary, they are part of a national and inter-national framework which is influenced to alarge degree, but not exclusively, by the tradeunions.

Closely related to trade union and humanrights are freedom and democracy. These areinseparably interwoven. The whole history of theLabour Movement has been a struggle againsteither direct threats to democracy or againstdangers from non-democratic forms of govern-ment which only accept a trade union movementwhich is controlled from the top. Owing to theirsupport of freedom and democracy, trade unionmembers have always been among the firstvictims of totalitarian regimes. Their fight forfreedom – personal freedom and free choice ofoccupation, freedom of speech and of artisticexpression – and for democracy has thereforebeen another ideological foundation of the freeInternational Trade Union Movement from thestart, and thus also of the Global Unions. Allnon-democratic forms of government are, as amatter of principle, unacceptable to them.

The combination of trade union and humanrights includes not only freedom and democracy,but opposition to war, the use of force, tortureand oppression of minorities of whatever kind.The Global Unions have consequently led thestruggle against narrow-minded nationalism andany form of racism and discrimination as well.

The Global Unions have always been involv-ed in campaigning for improved conditions forwomen, but more emphatically so in recentdecades. Their aim is not only to integrate wo-men workers more actively in the trade unions

and in leadership positions, but in general toabolish any form of suppression and unequaltreatment. The Global Unions are committed tothe principle of unconditional equality of oppor-tunity for women at all levels of their activities.

Creating Economic and Social Justice

It has been and continues to be one of themajor demands of labour organisations that anequitable economic and social order should beestablished. Their aim is not to level down alldifferences and to create a paradise-like situa-tion, but to abolish worldwide deficiencies causedby the creation of an unbridled capitalist eco-nomic system in favour of an economically re-sponsible and socially just form of life.

Globalisation leaves individual governmentswith an increasingly smaller scope of action.This applies, in particular, to the large majorityof economically weak countries in which deci-sions on economic and social policy depend to alarge extent on the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the World Bank (WB), and more andmore also the World Trade Organisation (WTO).For some time it has become increasingly dif-ficult to fight for better working and living con-ditions in isolation within a limited nationalframework.

To strengthen their affiliated unions has beendefined as a top priority in the Global Unions’efforts to pursue these aims. Without partici-pation of workers’ representatives no economicand social justice will be attained. This involvesnot only higher wages and better working con-ditions; the question of how to use natural re-sources is just as much part of it as is the crea-tion of employment or basic public educationfor all children.

At the level of transnational enterprises(TNEs), the Global Unions attempt to come toterms or agreements on standards applicable toall units of a company, and to oppose all formsof exploitation and social dumping. They usetheir influence to prevent an erosion of thefunctions of the ILO; they cooperate with thelatter and with many other international organ-


29GLOBAL UNIONS


isations with the aim of improving internatio-nal standards and norms.

Furthermore, the Global Unions campaignfor the inclusion of social and environmentalclauses in global trading structures and speakup in favour of social aspects being properlyconsidered when regional economic blocs areestablished. Recent developments have shownsome success in these efforts, giving rise tohopes for further positive long-term changes.

Measures and Instruments

All the Global Unions use more or less com-parable instruments and measures in order torealize their aims and tasks. Frequently severalmeasures are used in combination. Their im-plementation may vary in form. Each GlobalUnion has developed specific methods of its own.New facets are added to traditional patterns inflexible and creative adaptations. More recentattempts towards concluding international agree-ments with TNEs in the form of a skeleton agree-ment, called “Global Framework Agreement”,which directly regulates conditions for workersof the enterprise in any part of the world, maypossibly significantly extent the scope of actionof the Global Unions, which has originally beenof a more indirect nature. It has opened a fieldof activities to the Global Unions in which theycan act in their own responsibility and exertdirect influence in an institutionalised form onbehalf of their members.

The measures and instruments can be rough-ly subdivided into:■ measures of protection and support■ measures to strengthen the affiliated unions■ exchange of experience, publications, studies

and information■ international negotiations and lobbying

Measures of Protection and Support

Support and protection measures of the Glob-al Unions are classical examples of internatio-nal workers’ solidarity and they still have a placetoday. They take primarily the form of direct

humanitarian support during emergencies. TheGlobal Unions assists, for example, in mobilisingrescue aid in major disasters and coordinatefinancial assistance to dependants of accidentvictims.

The far greater part of this task of the GlobalUnions deals with assistance and protection incases of a violation of human and trade unionrights and industrial actions over existentialquestions. It covers a wide area ranging fromunjustified dismissals of trade union officials,refusal of collective negotiations to non-recogni-tion of trade unions; it includes governmentalrestrictions of the right to organise, controls oftrade unions and interference with the right toindustrial action; reglementations of national orinternational associations may be as much partof it as a ban on and suppression of workers’organisations; and last but not least they includepersecution, detention and assassination oftrade unionists. The list of incidents is endlessand in each individual case exceeds the powerof the Global Unions to act effectively and suc-cessfully. But frequently it is the moral supportthat counts because it demonstrates that theorganisation under pressure does not stand alone.

The Global Unions call upon other affiliatedorganisations to assist trade unions in difficul-ties; they coordinate and organise internationalsolidarity actions, including sympathy and tokenstrikes in other countries, in order to give moreweight to the struggle and the demands offraternal organisations.

One of the few benefits that the Global Unionsare reaping from increasing globalisation is thepossibility – so far merely in individual cases –of exerting influence on national labour conflictsin subsidiaries through the head office of trans-national enterprises. This applies equally toorganisations which organise the public sector.In such a case direct contacts with the govern-ments concerned is the rule, though it is notalways successful. But more and more oftenchanges are brought about by persistently talk-ing to international institutions such as the WorldBank or the IMF, or international organisationssuch as the ILO, UNESCO or OECD.


30 GLOBAL UNIONS


Orientation and monitoring missions of high-ranking union leaders, direct international pro-tests and condemnations, campaigns to supportprolonged industrial conflicts or those dealingwith matters of principle as well as legal assist-ance fall into this category. Public relations playsa key role in this respect. It can be done very ef-fectively if there is already some critical publicity,for instance if a multinational company has abad image because of environmental pollution.

Boycotts can also be very effective. However,specific requirements must be met for they mustbe initiated and promoted by the national unionsconcerned. The Global Union can only coordi-nate activities at an international level. In fact,as a rule actions are launched only on requestof the people concerned and implemented onlyif they consent. Moreover, the volume of theseactivities is naturally limited by a shortage offinancial resources and by the fact that the Glob-al Unions will not get the backing of their affi-liates for involvement in every industrial dispute.

Generally, it makes sense to internationaliseindustrial conflicts if an enterprise has provedto be vulnerable, for example to pressure exert-ed on a subsidiary or to transport restrictionson its products or even in situations where afriendly trade union is in a position to interveneeffectively on behalf of the organisation con-cerned at the head office of the enterprise.

The chances of success for international ac-tions vary from case to case. As a rule, they aremost effective if the conflict is caused locally andrestricted to a particular company. However,they always presuppose the ability of the unionconcerned to mobilize. As far as the GlobalUnions are concerned, the promise of successis not always the foremost criterion in givinghelp. To demonstrate solidarity with the peopleconcerned and affinity with their cause are fre-quently just as important in the ongoing struggleagainst hostile governments and enterprises.

Frequently, the reasons for activities of thekind quoted above suddenly turn up in the courseof crisis situations and require an immediateresponse. The function of a “fire brigade” putsgreat strain on the extremely limited personnel

resources of the Global Unions, even though mo-dern information technology has made manythings possible and easier in the last few years.

The anti-Apartheid campaign of the Inter-national Trade Union Movement, in which theGlobal Unions played a major role, was a spec-tacular success story. It was not least their un-ending activities against racial discriminationand the suppression of trade union bodies thatfinally brought the Apartheid regime to its knees.As an example for all the others, mention ismade here only of the support for the South Afri-can Union of Miners (NUM/SAF) by the Miners’International Federation (MIF, now ICEM). Inthe course of this support campaign – which hadhad two targets from the start: direct supportof a trade union and opposition to the blatantviolations of human and trade union rights bythe Apartheid regime – the NUM/SAF developedinto the largest union in terms of membershipand into one of the most influential labour or-ganisations in South Africa, spearheading thestruggle against Apartheid and thus contributingin no small measure to the final victory.

Cases such as these demonstrate how pro-longed conflicts of this kind can be and that onlytenacity and perseverance will bring success.Changes of a fundamental kind are rarely achiev-ed overnight, they presuppose persistent effortsand unflagging optimism, they may call for greatsacrifices, but can lead to success provided thereis solidarity of everyone concerned.

Measures to Strengthen the Affiliated Unions

To strengthen the affiliated unions is one ofthe elementary tasks of Global Unions: the strong-er the affiliate, the greater its potential influenceand the more successful its international activ-ities. In practice, this happens in three ways:1. by assisting in organising members2. by assisting in building up infrastructure and3. by education and training.These measures are not always put in placeseparately, but frequently come as a package ofmutually complementary elements.


31GLOBAL UNIONS


Organising campaigns are primarily intend-ed to strengthen the affiliated union by increas-ing its membership. This may be done by trainingthe organising union officers, thus improving theeffectiveness of recruitment efforts in the longerterm, and by supplying advertizing material orsuitable equipment for its production. Depend-ing on the circumstances, other material andfinancial support may also be provided in orderto implement selective or nation-wide cam-paigns.

The target groups for infrastructural assist-ance are weak organisations in countries hostileto trade unions or those which are still beingbuilt up. They include, in particular, emergingindependent trade union movements in coun-tries with previously dictatorial rule in the formerEastern bloc or in Africa. Assistance means bothfinancial and material support and special ad-vice and education in order to establish functi-oning trade union and communication struc-tures and to apply them.

In contrast, support for trade union trainingand further training is intended to strengthenunions by improving the organisation’s quality.The main objective of Global Union-educationalactivities is to strengthen the power and inde-pendence of affiliated unions. Education is alsointended to broaden the basis of membershipby improving the competence of union officersand by providing basic trade union education.As a result, trade unions are better able to parti-cipate in international trade union policy-mak-ing and to fulfil their financial commitments vis-á-vis the Global Unions. Education is often pro-vided with the assistance of friendly organi-sations because of the high costs involved. How-ever, all Global Unions ensure that organisation-al targets are not imposed from out-side, eventhough preferences and specific competences ofdonor organisations may play a role in decidingwhich target group will be supported in whatway: some focus on support for women tradeunionists, others prefer to support the rank andfile and a third group may specialise in educa-tion for leadership.

The same pattern is followed through the in-struments involved: seminars, courses, studygroups, meetings, workshops and discussionfora to exchange ideas, to compare experienceand to prepare problem solutions and decisions.The range of topics covers all kinds of areas, butalso follows the agenda laid down at an interna-tional level. For example, in recent years almostall Global Unions have intensifed training onoccupational health and safety.

Education and training supported by GlobalUnions have lost much of their ad-hoc characterin the last few years. They are planned with reci-pient organisations on the basis of long-term ob-jectives and are jointly monitored in their im-plementation. Even though each project has itsown special features, all activities in this area canbe summarised under the following objectives:1. establishment of new trade unions

(union-building);2. recruitment of additional members;3. increasing the number of organisations affil-

iated to the Global Union;4. motivation to unite into larger national unions

or coordination committees;5. capacity-building for the organisation and im-

plementation of education within their organ-isations;

6. greater competence to participate in societal,economic and social matters.The problem, in particular in educational ac-

tivities, is to define the right measure of externalassistance. In fact, the principle of “help for self-help” underlies all activities and the recipientorganisation is generally expected to contributeto some extent (even though very often only byproviding administrative services locally). How-ever, if the size of the union concerned and itsarea of organisation is so small that its revenueswill probably never cover more than the runningcosts for trade union offices, i.e. it can be anti-cipated that it will not be able to fund its owneducation programs even in future, this wholepolicy becomes questionable. Some Global Unionsare therefore discussing guidelines according towhich external grants for educational activities


32 GLOBAL UNIONS


should not exceed a certain percentage of thefinancial strength of the recipient organisation.

Exchange of Experience, Publications,Studies and Information for Members,as well as Public Relations Activities

Exchange of experience and information hasbeen one of the core activities of the GlobalUnions from the start and an important mediumto improve the quality of their relationship toaffiliated unions. To know what working con-ditions are like in the same occupation or industrygroup in other countries is a valuable point ofreference for all union leaders worldwide. Inview of growing mutual dependence on eco-nomic and social conditions in other countries,trade unions cannot successfully pursue theirstruggle in one country alone. Rapid and com-prehensive information about developments inother parts of the world is therefore indispen-sable. Modern communications technology isbeing applied by the Global Unions for this pur-pose.

It is equally important for the Global Unionsto inform the public at large as well as to passon specific information to important friendlyorganisations and institutions. The point is tocreate a critical public, in particular by publish-ing spectacular successes or disclosing extreme-ly radical employers’ practices. The more con-crete the case, the more effective their inter-vention. The Global Unions act as a switchboardfor communication both between the affiliatedunions of the same occupation, branch, industryor employer and with other international tradeunion organisations and other players in theglobal world of work.

In order to meet the requirements of affiliatesfor accurate up-to-date information, the GlobalUnions collect and disseminate data concerningspecific industrial areas, tendencies in collectivebargaining, activities of transnational enterpris-es, occupational hazards, important social, eco-nomic and political developments and other mat-ters of possible interest to the member unions.They organise conferences, workshops and sub-

ject-specific meetings between the members inorder to exchange experience and to draw upcommon strategies.

Almost all Global Unions have a more or lessextensive publishing program. Normally eachGlobal Union has a news magazine which ap-pears at regular intervals. Additional publica-tions are issued from time to time about specificsubjects. Selective information for specific sec-tional groups is also available. At times regionaloffices or sub-organisations have their own printmedia for the distribution of information. Circu-lar letters, news-sheets and magazines are wide-ly distributed and constitute the most frequentlink between the Secretariat and the members.They circulate information about campaign ac-tions, problems and successes among the mem-bers and as a rule are sent to the national headoffices for further distribution among unionofficers. However, there is hardly ever a checkon how effective this is, i.e. whether the newsmagazines ever leave the over-crowded officedesks of the top-level officers.

The challenges of modern communicationhave been taken up and mastered successfully.These days the latest information about in-dustrial disputes or agreements is availablearound the clock in all parts of the world. It wasthe Global Unions, in particular, which spear-headed efforts towards using the Internet forexchanging information between head office andmembers, and also between the members them-selves. To exchange experience worldwide inresponse to concrete situations has become awidespread exercise. The Web sites of the inter-national trade union organisations provide fastand comprehensive orientation and contributeconsiderably to an almost instantaneous dissem-ination of the latest statements of leading per-sonalities. Not least the new information tech-nology offers an excellent medium for fast actionor reaction in the confrontations with employersand governments. However, the digital divide alsoleaves its mark on the International Trade UnionMovement: for various reasons a major part ofthe weak trade unions in the Southern hemi-sphere has not yet access to the Internet.


33GLOBAL UNIONS


Governments, international organisations andinstitutions, the press, research institutes, friend-ly associations and individuals are found moreoften on the mailing list for special-subject publi-cations and congress reports than for the cur-rent-affairs bulletins. In contrast, direct dispatchto the local offices of affiliated unions is rare.The layout and content of publications may vary,but the majority of them are of a professional qua-lity nowadays and are able to attract the attentionof readers outside the official circles, includingsympathizers.

Some deal almost exclusively with the specialaffairs of the Global Union concerned or are verysubject and occupation-oriented. Others makean effort to present trade union developmentsin the broadest sense of the word. Some give alot of room to the concepts and ideas of theirSecretary General or look into questions of ge-neral policy which go far beyond a purely tradeunion-oriented framework. The focus of contentvaries. While in some cases the Global Unionmagazines merely report about the results ofcongresses, executive meetings and importantevents and limit themselves to relevant develop-ments in their areas of organisation, other ma-gazines contain more extensive subject-specificinformation, for example the results of polls andstudies. Editorials frequently address not onlycurrent affairs but more general policy issues;they often reflect ideological claims and refer tohigher objectives such as democracy, freedom,peace and social justice.

Additional costs result from the fact thatpublications must be produced in several lan-guages. Minimum requirements include English,French and Spanish; but many also have aGerman and Swedish edition. Some go even furt-her and with the help of their regional officesdistribute information also in other internatio-nal languages such as Japanese, Chinese orArabic.

Some Global Unions commission studies orproduce them themselves. Apart from othersources, they use the results of polls amongstindividual members which in many cases aretaken at regular intervals. This was done, and

still is done in some exceptional cases today, bysending out questionnaires. However, extensiveopportunities are available with the new com-munications and information technologies suchas databases and email. All Global Unions al-ready use them, though to varying degrees. Butthey have all realised that more needs to be donein this respect because this provides the po-tential for more successful international activi-ties in future.

International Negotiations and Lobbying

In the era of globalisation, all activities inthe abovementioned areas must be supplement-ed by measures at the international decision-making levels. This includes the setting-up ofparticipatory structures in the top-level bodiesof multinational companies, the campaigns forsocial clauses and similar arrangements in trademechanisms as well as the setting of labourstandards by the ILO. It is in this field that thebodies of international trade union organi-sations are playing a specific and indispensablerole these days. This applies to both the level ofEuropean and global works councils in con-junction with national trade unions, the ETUCand the Global Union concerned, and to conflictsand cooperation with the internationally-oper-ating special agencies in cooperation betweenthe ICFTU and the Global Unions.

Representation vi-a-vis TransnationalEnterprises (TNEs)

The ability of the International Trade UnionMovement to negotiate with transnational enter-prises is constantly being challenged. Suprana-tional bodies representative of workers in TNEsare not a completely new development, but haveacquired an unprecedented dynamic in the lastdecade. As early as the twenties, the ITF wasconvinced that in view of the internationalisationof capital, the Labour Movement also had to fightat an international level not only in theory, butin practice as well. The Global Unions were theideal medium for organising in such an inter-


34 GLOBAL UNIONS


national environment and for fighting theircause, wrote ITF-Secretary General Edo Fim-men in 1924.

There was never any doubt about the pur-pose of international activities at company level.Since these enterprises evade control by natio-nal unions by globalising, trade unions have tofollow them to the decision-making levels byoperating at an international level themselves.As early as 1966 the International Metalwork-ers’ Federation established world companycouncils for General Motors, Ford and Chrys-ler. In the London Declaration of the worldcompany councils of automobile manufacturersof 1971 it is stated: “Centralised control of mul-tinational companies must be confronted withthe best possible coordination of trade unions’negotiating activities in all countries whereworkers of these enterprises are represented.”

Today, internationally-operating enterprisestake their decisions on investment, flow of capital,trade, production and marketing in disregard ofnational borders. National governments are fre-quently powerless and no longer able to imple-ment an economic policy of their own. Workersfeel the effect every day: in the form of unemploy-ment, wage cuts and stringent new managementmethods, introduced in the name of “internatio-nal competition”. Increasing global control ofworld production requires more intensive cross-border influence of trade unions, the more so asthe technical set of instruments developed for aglobalized economy have brought about a re-emergence of the ideologies of old Manchester-type capitalism in a new guise.

Globalisation through modern means of com-munications and the opening-up of marketshave also changed the conditions for possiblepressure on the employers. National trade unionsfind it extremely difficult to negotiate with com-pany managements whose head offices are lo-cated in another country, while internationalholdings with a budget larger than that of smallcountries have no difficulty whatsoever to imposetheir will on weak governments in the regulationof working conditions.

In the last few years, the Global Unions haveintensified their activities in connection withTNEs in all fields. As these enterprises operatemainly from the industrialised countries it waspossible to mobilise the big and powerful affiliat-ed organisations in those countries to join inthese efforts, for one because they are them-selves affected and secondly because they havethe necessary influence. The Global Unions in-tervene regularly on behalf of individual mem-ber unions which are facing difficulties in ne-gotiations with or conflicts in international sub-sidiary companies. This strategy has proved suc-cessful both in terms of negotiations and long-term industrial action.

The most important task of world councilsof the kind established by IMF, IUF, UNI, ICEMand others in many enterprises consists in en-suring a continuous direct exchange of infor-mation between workers’ representatives of allsections of the enterprise in respect not only offacts, but of planning background, reports onsituations and conditions and discussions ofstrategy. In such cases strong individual tradeunions assist weaker affiliates, for instance vis-a-vis a subsidiary in a Third World country. Ac-tivities include coordination of collective nego-tiations as well as centralised negotiations withcompany managements.

The signing by the Global Unions of inter-nationally binding collective agreements in theoriginal meaning of the term remains the ex-ception for the time being. Yet the Global Unionsare the most significant direct opponents of theTNEs when it comes to interventions. Their grow-ing activities in this area have demonstrated,on the one hand, their ability to act at an inter-national level and, on the other, follow logicallyfrom the globalisation of corporate activities.

In Europe, the implementation of the EU-Di-rective for the establishment of European workscouncils has brought about new opportunities andchallenges in this field. Preparation and trainingof personnel for the future works councils andensuring the participation of member organi-sations in these bodies are major tasks on theagenda at present. As many European TNEs are


35GLOBAL UNIONS

FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG TASKS AND ACTIVITIES

also operating globally, promising opportunitiesfor exerting influence through these channelsmay arise far beyond the European arena.

Representation vis-a-vis InternationalOrganisations and Institutions

Trade unions are increasingly being forcedto exert their influence not only at a national,but also at an international level because ofgrowing international interdependence of na-tional economies, the integration of economicblocs, the establishment of regional and globalmarkets, international concentration of capitaland the resulting global nature of economicproblems such as inflation, cyclical or structuralcrises, varying monetary stability, under-em-ployment and unemployment as well as growingpoverty. More and more discussions and de-cisions which affect the lives of workers aretaking place at an international level. Workersmust be represented in fora of this kind throughtheir trade unions. Organisations such as theGlobal Unions are able to exert an influence onthe relevant decision-making processes.

Almost all Global Unions maintain perma-nent contacts to international organisationswhich are responsible for an area of union organ-isation. The latter have grown in numbers inrecent years so that by now linking up with themhas become one of the most time-consumingactivities of the Global Unions. Since they are notonly growing in numbers but are playing anincreasingly important role in drawing up labourstandards or regulations dealing with the worldof work, representation of workers’ interests inthese bodies is becoming increasingly crucial.

The Global Unions represent the interests oftheir affiliated unions vis-a-vis internationalorganisations such as, for example, ILO, WHO,FAO, OECD and other sub-organisations of theUN, but also vis-a-vis international employers’organisations and new institutions such as theWorld Trade Organisation (WTO). In many ofthem the Global Unions hold an official observerstatus, in others they are consulted because oftheir expertise, their competence as partners

in dialogue or simply because they have beeninsistently pushing for recognition. Frequentlythey act in cooperation with the ICFTU, ETUC,TUAC and other Global Unions. In many casesthe official status is attributed to the ICFTU asthe primary body responsible for the politicalrepresentation of free trade unions, while the GUFare consulted because of their expertise andcompetence or they act on behalf of the ICFTU.The ICFTU-offices in New York and Geneva areplaying an important role in this context as con-tact, support and coordination units.

At the centre of their efforts is the ILO. In thisbody 169 member states are represented by dele-gates of governments, employers as well as em-ployees. As part of the UN-system it has a man-date to regulate social and working conditions.Global Unions take part in the annual ILO meet-ings and are entitled to address the plenary andparticipate in committee meetings. The Genevaoffice of the ICFTU coordinates cooperation be-tween the Global Unions and the workers’ groupon the ILO-Governing Body. The director of theoffice acts as secretary to the workers’ group.

The Global Unions lodge complaints againstgovernments which violate international con-ventions adopted by the ILO or disregard itsrecommendations, they insist on discussionsabout pressing problems and on the adoptionof new guidelines concerning labour standardsand minimum standards, and with their ex-pertise contribute to many consultations on la-bour and social problems. Recently, special at-tention has been paid to the problems of grow-ing unemployment, home work industry andlabour migration. The “free export zones” in agrowing number of Third World countries areanother major problem. In most cases they are“free of trade unions” and valid internationalagreements are either violated or not enforced.In this respect, they are increasingly threateningthe rights of workers in many parts of the world.

Moreover, the Global Unions have empha-tically opposed all recent attempts to underminethe position and status of the ILO. On the con-trary, they demand a more extensive mandateand more powers for the ILO.

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FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNGTASKS AND ACTIVITIES

How does the ILO function?

The ILO is a UN-specialized agency with 174member States (1998). It functions through thefollowing bodies and institutions composed ofrepresentatives not only of governments, butof employers and workers from all memberStates according to the principle of tripartism:■ the International Labour Conference■ the Governing Body with 56 members■ the International Labour OfficeThere are also industry committees.

The Governing Body is the executive coun-cil of the ILO and takes decisions on ILO’s policy,establishes the budget and programmes andsets the agenda for the Conference; it alsoelects the Director-General. The GoverningBody is headed by Juan Somavia from Chile,the 9th Director General by now, but the firstwho is neither from Europe nor the UnitedStates of America.

The International Labour Conference meetseach year in June in Geneva involving 1,800to 2,000 participants (2 delegates each per

government, 1 representative of the employersand workers each, plus experts) from all mem-ber States. They elect the members of the Go-verning Body, discuss important problems ofthe working and social environments in allcountries and prepare and adopt internatio-nal standards.

The International Labour Office is the centralsecretariat of the ILO in Geneva. It manages,coordinates and supervises the extensive ac-tivities of the ILO.There are regional and localILO-offices in many countries of the world tosupport the secretariat. Amongst other things,the Office collects relevant information andstatistics from all parts of the world to be usedas the basis for research and documentationas well as for its own publications. In addition,the Office publishes studies and handbooks onworkers’education, social security, health andsafety at the workplace, trade union rights,industrial relations etc., and also periodicalsand the Yearbook on Labour Statistics. The

37GLOBAL UNIONS


Many Global Unions cooperate with WHO inthe fields of education and information. Apartfrom topics like occupational diseases and safetyat work, a number of Global Unions have con-centrated on the subject of Aids in particularand intensified their contacts to WHO in thisrespect. Contacts to the OECD are maintainedthrough its Trade Union Advisory Council (TUAC).The Global Unions are frequently given anopportunity to present their views in the specialcommittees and thus participate in the decision-making processes of OECD-bodies.

Some international organisations, however,do not see international labour organisationsas either a partner in discussions or in coope-ration. The International Monetary Fund, forexample, is still rather averse to it, even thoughits influence significantly affects employmentopportunities and conditions in many countries.

Yet the Global Unions successfully fought forgreater involvement of their national member or-ganizations in the IMF-country consultations. Al-though many national governments disregard thefact that trade unions are entitled to take part inthis process, an increasing number of the unionsuse their rights with support, and if required, co-ordination by the ICFTU and the Global Unions.

Representation vis-a-vis regional institutionsis becoming increasingly important. Mentionmust first be made of Europe where the majorityof economic and social problems are no longerthe sole responsibility of sovereign nationalgovernments, but of European authorities andbodies. In the course of many years of growingtogether, a large number of opportunities forhearings and interventions have emerged whichare used intensively. Organisationally, the Glob-al Unions have responded to this in different


central secretariat is also responsible for ac-tivities of the experts in the ILO-offices in thecontext of technical cooperation.

The head office constitutes a research anddocumentation as well as a campaign centre.There has been an International Institute forLabour Studies in Geneva since 1960 and aninternational training centre of the ILO in Tu-rin since 1965.

Four international trade union organi-sations have been awarded full consultativestatus with the ILO: ICFTU, WFTU, WCL andOATUU. This entitles them in principle to takepart in all the conferences or other meetingsof the ILO without voting rights. The ICFTU,in particular, is playing an active part as ad-viser, especially for the so-called workers’group at the ILO-Conference.

The ILO-Declaration on Fundamental Prin-ciples and Rights at Work sets out the obli-gation of all member States to respect thesefundamental rights which are defined as so-called core labour standards, irrespective ofwhether countries have individually ratified itor not. The core labour standards had been

identified and given prominence as early asthe Summit for Social Development in Copen-hagen in 1995. They comprise the followingconventions:

No. 87 and no. 98:freedom of association and the rightto collective negotiations

No. 29 and no. 105:ban on forced labour

No. 100 and no. 111:the precept of equal treatment andnon-discrimination

No. 138:ban on child labour.

ILO-responsibilities are a matter of inter-national treaty law, not of constitutional law,and thus decisions are not enforceable in theindividual member States. All decisions aretherefore consensual and must be ratified bymember States before they attain an enforceablestatus.

38 GLOBAL UNIONS


ways, in many cases by establishing special of-fices, but also independent European regionalassociations. The European Trade Union Con-federation (ETUC) takes over the role of theICFTU in the region – a relationship not alwaysshort of conflict. The Global Unions closely co-operate with the ETUC through its EuropeanIndustry Federations (EIFs). They also use theirown direct channels to exert influence.

Alliances and other Forms of Cooperation

In recent times, greater cooperation withother NGOs in international campaigns has beenplaying an increasingly important role. In thiscontext, the international union organisationshave often entered into temporary alliances withother organisations of the civil society. In caseswhere enterprises and corporations started tooperate across borders, the international tradeunion organisations followed them; where enter-prises and corporations acted outside the controlof national legislation, trade unions extendedtheir influence through the supranational worldorganisations.

The number of campaigns and actions coor-dinated and coorganised with other non-govern-mental organisations of the civil society has goneup noticeably in the last few years. As a rule, theyare not so much arrangements for long-termcooperation as single-issue alliances. In the case

of violations of human and trade union rights,joint action with human rights groups makes theprotest more effective; in the case of industrialdisputes and boycott measures, consumer asso-ciations can add to the pressure; and during thelatest world summits joint actions with othergroups from the international women’s, environ-mental and social-work associations contributedto achievements not possible without this co-operative approach.

But greater openness to cooperation is stillnecessary on the part of the established tradeunions, as is more information to potential part-ners for action whose target groups as a rule arenot the workers. Some human rights groups, forexample, have still to learn that trade union rightsare also human rights.

But the most important and closest forms ofalliances are those within the Global Union familyitself. Technical interlinkage of operational pro-cesses and the establishment of enterprises acrossindividual lines of production and areas of in-dustry provide an important background forjoint activities vis-a-vis the same multinationalcompany or for bundling experts’ know-how ininternational committees. Coordination frequentlyexceeds the framework of general meetings andsteering committees provided by the Statutes andin many Global Unions makes up a major part oftheir activities.


39GLOBAL UNIONS

FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

39GLOBAL UNIONS

Problemsand

Challenges

PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGESFRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG

Like all organisations, the Global Unions are being confrontedwith recurring problems related to questions of principle and there-fore requiring discussions, reactions, adaptations and changes of afundamental kind. Only a few of these problems are “home-made”,the majority of them are determined by external circumstances; somehave been around for a long time, but most of them are the result ofrecent developments under the influence of globalisation. They areconcerned with questions of principle in trade union organisationalpolicy and jurisdictional issues as well as with areas of activity, op-portunities to exert influence, questions of efficiency and finally, butoften predominantly, the availability of funds.

Some conditions which are causing these problems and chal-lenges are of a structural kind, in other words they have developedwith the trade unions and are linked to them. This includes thequestion of how to optimise the relationship between negotiatingand organising strength. On the one hand, Global Unions mustrepresent the largest possible entity for action, on the other makethe best out of limited resources by re-orienting their administra-tive structures, by saving as much as possible and concentratingtheir resources and by action-specific or permanent alliances.

40 GLOBAL UNIONS


The indispensable work of the Global Unionstherefore takes place in a context of conflictingdemands, expectations and their own aspira-tions on the one hand, and realistic opportunitiesand existing scope of manoeuvre on the other.The increasing global interdependence of eco-nomic, political and social developments andproblems has led to an increase in the numberof tasks they have to deal with. At the same time,the expectations of their clientele, above all thosefrom Third World countries, are high and con-tinue to increase.

This means that the demands made on staffare increasing with regard to both content andformal matters. This is not surprising consid-ering the scope of their mandate and the factthat the number of those representing the in-terests of the employers’ side with which theyare confronted in the international organisa-tions, for example, out-number their own repre-sentatives many times over. Large internatio-nal corporations can hire without difficulty asmany consultants for dealing with specific prob-lems as the Global Union concerned employsfor its entire staff. And the companies have thefunds needed to buy the best know-how avail-able. In consequence, the response must be: so-lidarity versus financial power, dedicated ideal-ism with the necessary skills versus know-howeasily bought. Modern information technologies,political and sociological analyses, internationaltreaty law, the knowledge of languages and ofthe countries involved, new methods in adulteducation and organisation – first-rate expertknowledge is in great demand in every field.The Global Unions have successfully addressedall these demands in the last few years by takingon more activities and at the same time im-proving the content of their work.

As membership-funded organisations, theGlobal Unions are also confronted with certainproblems of available resources. First of all,there is a weakness in the financial basis. NoGlobal Union has any financial reserves worthmentioning and sources of independent incomedo not exist. All the funds needed for their workmust come from members. But there are natural

bottlenecks and only little hope for short-termimprovements in this respect. In recent years,the impressive growth in membership numbersof the Global Unions resulted, in the majority ofcases, from the affiliation of trade unions fromthe states of the former Eastern bloc or fromThird World countries. In other words, they didnot add to the financial strength, but initiallyincreased the need for aid. This imbalance ledand still leads to a situation that in some GlobalUnions little more than 30 percent of the affiliat-ed organisations finance 90 percent of the bud-get.

From among the group of members who canpay their way most are themselves threatenedby falling membership. It is not to be expectedthat increased dues, which are not fixed by theGlobal Unions themselves but voted upon bymembers, will come about to any great extent.The Global Unions have no weapon, beyond thepower of persuasion, to place further financialburdens upon the affiliated organisations whichare themselves wrestling with great problems;their power of persuasion, however, dependson how useful they prove to be in the mediumterm, i.e. on how successful they are. This meansthat it cannot be assumed that any considerableamount of additional finance will be available.

This is also true of funds which have up tonow been made available by friendly organi-sations for educational programmes, On the onehand, the grants they receive from their govern-ments for this purpose are increasing only mar-ginally, if at all; on the other, there is an ongoingdebate about new forms of aid with a greaterbilateral emphasis which will often lead to a lesssignificant role of the Global Unions in this areaof cooperation.

If it is not possible to increase staff and fundsdirectly, the solution left for mobilising greaterforce and increasing action capability is to makeuse of the corresponding capacities of the mem-ber organisations. What will be important in thisrespect is to highlight the necessity of interna-tional activities beyond the circle of top-level of-ficials; this means that the realisation must growthat the question of industrial bases in the in-

PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

41GLOBAL UNIONS


dustrial countries is also decided in Third Worldcountries and that it is necessary to influencethis process through strong trade unions inthose countries and to participate in internatio-nal organisations and in transnational enter-prises.

The multi-lingual composition of member-ship continues to present a special difficulty forthe Global Unions. Normally, documents andpublications are distributed in the three majorlanguages – English, French and Spanish. Butthis is certainly not adequate for all officials inthe member countries and in many cases pre-vents basic information and quick mobilisation.Additional translations would thus be necessary,but are unaffordable. Even the present volumerequires considerable funds for translation costs.ITF, which publishes its information in up to sixlanguages, has increasingly started to use thecapacities of member organisations as a result.This saves money for head office and at the sametime involves the members in international ac-tivities to a greater extent.

An old problem which has assumed new andconsiderably wider dimensions lies in the quest-ion of organisational jurisdiction. Whereas for-merly it was a question of trade unions accedingfor traditional reasons to a Global Union otherthan the one responsible for them, or of organ-ising a wide range of activities in smallercountries which were not covered by one GlobalUnion alone, it is today the changes in interna-tional economic structure which blur the divid-ing lines and which link branches hitherto at-tached to different Global Unions. Since TNEscan have either a horizontal or a vertical structure,a number of Global Unions have already mem-bers in branches which cut across each other:in manufacturing, in the service industry andin raw material production.

A difficulty arising in this context when ne-gotiating with globally-operating enterprises isone of responsibilities which are not corres-ponding: the global responsibility of an TNE’scentral office is often in collision with a tradeunion strategy of industry-specific negotiations.It happens with increasing frequency that agree-

ments contain regulations governing the pro-ductivity, quality and profitability of an enter-prise. Under certain circumstances, the necessityarises to negotiate with one enterprise acrossbranch and industry-specific jurisdiction. Again,the Global Unions have made a lot of progressin adapting to this process in the last few years.

Such changes in the economic structures arefurther complicated by changes in the employ-ment structure. The changed composition of theworkforce brings about a loss of the traditionaldifferences between occupations, skills, and jobgrades. More and more people are employed inhighly-qualified and specialised jobs, and moreand more in unskilled service jobs. This meansthat the old trade union rules which could beused as guidelines to find out which workerbelonged to which trade union no longer apply.The question is no longer exclusively one of co-operation, but of bringing a new order into thesituation.

It is in this connection that a critical order ofmagnitude for action and influence of the GlobalUnions must be pondered. This cannot simplybe read off from the absolute membershipstrength, however, but depends just as muchon its composition. With the same total numberof members, there are Global Unions where thenumber of affiliated unions exceed a hundredby only a few or are below that figure, whereasothers have more than double the membership.In other cases affiliates are largely concentratedin industrial countries or operate preponderant-ly in developing countries. Of necessity, all thesefactors lead to different approaches to proce-dures and possibilities.

Similarly, a critical mass in respect of organi-sational equipment and financial basis is re-quired for maintaining a minimum representa-tion. Amalgamations and various forms of co-operation, for example in the fields of data-processing, communications and publications,have a role to play in this context. Sharing ma-terial and staffing for education and training canalso produce the necessary synergetic effects toachieve greater punch.


42 GLOBAL UNIONS


A further difficulty related to globalisationlies in the enormously increasing tendency togive sub-contracts to other firms and the result-ing demands on trade unions. Large enterprisesconcentrate on a few core areas in which theyenjoy a comparative advantage, technologicallyspeaking, and contract out other activities (ser-vicing, transportation, security etc.) to outsidefirms. This policy challenges existing trade unionstructures and branch-wide collective negotia-tions. What is required here are new approachesto form alliances across a number of trade unions,a task which as a rule can only be achieved bythe Global Unions at the international level.

The potential influence of the internationalunion organisations on international organi-sations and institutions is still restricted by theabsence of institutionalised partnerships be-tween equal partners. Comprehensive union re-presentation has rarely been achieved so far andis often limited to an observer status or consul-tation rights. In addition, international organi-sations and institutions are based on agreementsbetween national governments; the majority ofthem enjoys no, or merely limited, independentregulatory powers in supranational matters. Therecognition and inclusion of trade unions as

social partners in discussions afforded by somenational governments, and the EU itself in sometentative measures, are still an absolute ex-ception, globally speaking.

Conversely, the negotiating mandate of theGlobal Unions rests, of course, solely upon con-sensual decisions taken by national members.Majorities are not always to be found for actionswhich are, in fact, necessary, nor can the oppo-sition of individual interests always be over-come. And sometimes the decision-making pro-cess simply takes far too long. It is like a convoy:the slowest tanker sets the speed. But in thelast few years, under pressure from the world-wide emergence of neo-liberal economic prin-ciples, the view that international action isnecessary and the willingness to cooperate havecontinued to grow.

At the beginning of this century, the Inter-national Trade Union Movement once againfinds itself faced with a great challenge, somesay the greatest in its history. This challenge toits power of resistance has been triggered offby new political ideologies and phenomena suchas privatisation, individualisation and a beliefin the market as a means of solving all problems.It has become possible as a result of technical


43GLOBAL UNIONS


innovations in the communications and trans-port sectors and by the worldwide disappear-ance of trade barriers; this permits unlimitedglobal activities and the circumvention of in-fluence exerted by national governments.

The globalisation of the economy forces tradeunions to act globally themselves. The attempton the part of businesses and governments toenforce a neo-liberal economic policy worldwideand to undermine national protective regula-tions and standards that were achieved after along struggle calls for worldwide solidarity. In-ternational cooperation between the trade unionshas never been so much in demand before. Whatis needed is innovative and strong associationsat the international level and their reinforce-ment.

Professional pessimists already forecast theend of organised labour owing to the globali-sation of the economy, the trend from an indus-trial to a service society, the declining impor-tance of many occupations and the new pos-sibilities of work organisation. In so doing, theydisregard the fact that essentially trade unionsstruggle against exploitation and denial of theright to self-determination. At least as long asthe capitalist form of business prevents humanedevelopment and an equitable distribution ofgoods and services produced and denies de-mocratic rights at work, trade unions with theability to defend themselves must not only exist,but will have an indispensable role to play.

Moreover, the new transnational world eco-nomic order does not bring the proclaimed grad-ual and general rise in living standards throughprogress and the lasting development of under-developed economies. Instead, it leads to theimpoverishment of firms and economies whichcannot keep pace with this global competitionand which is accompanied by massive, risinglong-term unemployment. This is why it requirescorrective measures which give priority to theidea of solidarity and humanity against thepostulate of individualism and worldwide com-petition of each against the other. This is a taskthat can only be fulfilled by internationally or-ganised labour.

As a first step, it is necessary to adapt theindividual organisations involved. This calls fora rational application of existing resources withmore professionalism, competence and to agreater extent. The organisational conditionsand bases must be put in place to enable theconcentrated force of all Global Unions to res-pond to the manipulations of the global labourmarket through transnational capital. The an-swer to the global challenge can only be globalsolidarity.

This includes the necessity of guaranteeingthe greatest possible measure of united actionand the necessity of making the best of limitedfunds by better arrangement of administrativestructures, by savings of scale, by concentratingresources and by uniting for the purpose of in-dividual action or on a permanent basis.

Every reduction in the number of GlobalUnion Federations can only be a gradual, slowlydeveloping process. However, there were amal-gamations in the past and there is no reason toassume that this will not be the case in future.From this point of view, which is no longer pri-marily related to specific occupations, therewould be a link-up of fields of activities of sector-specific and interest-related groups and cor-responding synergetic effects. This would in-clude greater functional coordination of cross-sector education and training projects, commonresearch and publication, the use of moderncommunication media as well as effective money-saving activities with respect to office servicessuch as mailing services and the administrationof data, which may seem trivial at first glance.This is not to suggest that an amalgamation willnecessarily take place in these areas.

Furthermore, the Global Unions must try tobecome even more independent in their edu-cational activities, for they do not know to whatextent and for how long they can count on ex-ternal donor organisations to support the edu-cational programmes of the Trade Union Move-ment. This is primarily a financial problem, butnot one that can be solved by simply increasingmembership dues. What it does mean, amongstother things, is that member unions must be


44 GLOBAL UNIONS


made even more aware of the internationaldimensions of their problems so that they willbecome genuine players in the InternationalTrade Union Movement.

The further development of regional eco-nomic groups such as NAFTA, MERCOSUR,ASEAN and others will be an inspiration to re-organise the regional Global Union-structures.To set up regional offices may increasingly bethe appropriate response to the question: whereare the regional structures in which the GlobalUnions can work together with the existing tradeunion organisations in order to exert an activeinfluence on the social and economic policy ofthat region.

Another consideration in connection withpossible new Global Union-structures aims atpushing forward the organisation of sectors andpopulation groups which until now were not or-ganised, or which were under-represented inthe Trade Union Movement. This applies to boththe informal sector and to the unemployed ingeneral. The problem of the inclusion of the in-formal sector, above all in developing countries,remains unsolved in spite of many tentative ef-forts. The rising number of unemployed persons,i.e. potential workers, has so far found too littlerecognition in organising activities.

Here it is necessary to analyse in how farthe traditional definition of the Trade UnionMovement, as accepted by the older establishedindustrial countries, can be applied to conditionsin Third World countries as they are today. Manyindustries and services there are based on “in-formal” labour, but often without a clearly-de-fined employer in the usual sense of the termand without definite agreements as to wagesand working conditions. What exists are manyquasi-self-employed persons or what one mightcall “one-person or one-family sub-contractors”,who have to scrape together a living whereverand whenever they can. They are undoubtedlysubject to exploitation and unable to defend them-selves against it on their own. In the long run,the International Labour Movement will not beable to avoid becoming more deeply involveditself with these individuals and their problems.

The future will evoke changes in orientation.If it is true that we are leaving an age in whichthe manufacturing industry was the determiningfactor and entering an era which will be charac-terised by information and communications,then the question arises what this means for anorganisation which arose together with industry.What international trade union movement dowe need in tomorrow’s society? What will be thetasks and activities of the trade unions in a futurepost-industrial society? Whatever answers emergefrom these questions, they will always rest onthe fact that workers must first of all create so-lidarity in order to ensure the representation oftheir interests, and this in every society what-ever its name.

It is obvious that this calls for extensive con-tinuous coordination at all levels. And it isequally obvious that every member of a tradeunion in any country of the world must under-stand the general implications of this so thathe/she can contribute him/herself to a strongerposition and greater success of trade unions atthat level.

One of the problems is that everything hap-pens so far away that the individual at the work-place can no longer comprehend what is goingon. As nothing is caused by the miraculousforces of the world market, however, but by actsof will of individuals guided by their interests, itis necessary to influence these decisions. In thefinal analysis, it is the decisions taken at thislevel that will directly affect the shaping of work-ing conditions and the earnings of worker(s). Inconsequence, it becomes even more importantthat workers in all parts of the world are in-formed about these activities and understandwhat this ultimately means for them.

In particular in the last few years, interna-tional trade union organisations achieved somebreakthroughs at the international level, or theywere achieved with significant contributions ontheir part. Not all of them attracted quite somuch public attention as the confrontations inconnection with the WTO meeting of ministersin Seattle in December 1999. Some achieve-ments are less spectacular or are not regarded


45GLOBAL UNIONS


as quite so important by representatives of theprivate media. The struggle about the declarationon fundamental principles and basic labour rights(core labour standards) which was adopted bythe ILO in 1998 was just as fierce, but coveredless extensively in the general press.

In many countries, members have not yetcompletely realised that this was achieved bytheir representation, or they do not quite under-stand the implications. In fact, Global UnionFederations function far away from the memberof the individual trade union. Their acting of-ficials are not directly elected so that even thenational functionaries below the top leadershipmay not know their names. This distance pre-vents a proper sense of unity, in other words thedevelopment of an emotional basis for genuinesolidarity. In the final analysis, it negativelyaffects the willingness to help, both in terms ofideas and material support. But without the fullbacking of the company-based or national organ-isations and without an adequate financialbasis, the acting bodies of the International TradeUnion Movement are poorly equipped for theirwork. Whatever is negotiated at the global levelmust be intended and supported by the entiremembership. It is therefore imperative thateveryone – down to the rank-and-file member– fully understands that the labour organisationsare not only providing assistance and infor-mation globally, but that they are involved inproper negotiations at the highest level whichdirectly affect working conditions.

There is no doubt that, contrary to whateverpeople may believe, the organisations of the In-ternational Trade Union Movement are alreadyplaying a prominent part as the vanguard of la-bour worldwide. Globalisation has opened upan enormous field of action to globally-operat-ing firms, often exceeding nationally restrictedboundaries, which they brutally abuse. There-fore the fight against them can only take placeon the same global field of operation. A new,greatly enlarged role is attributed to the world-wide organisations of the International Trade

Union Movement in the process. To come to termswith it calls for hard work, great flexibility andnew visions. The fact that they have achievedsome initial impressive successes clearly de-monstrates that the International Trade UnionMovement has entered the new century withundiminished strength and greater willingnessto act than ever before.

Conversely, recent successes may not necces-sarily last, or even lead to a complete reversalof the massive cutbacks resulting from globali-sation. A few initial hope-inspiring signs mustbe followed up by further unabated efforts. Thepoint is not to contain the damage, but to initiatea development which will bring about genuinepositive changes.

In the international field, the Global Unionshave done all they can to this end. Their presentand future roles also depend on the willingnessof the affiliated unions to make available thenecessary material resources. The instabilityand organisational weakness of many tradeunions in the countries of the Third World, thelimitations of their ability to represent their in-terests and the threat to the existence of theorganisations because of restrictive and repres-sive state and corporate influences will makedirect promotion and support necessary for along time to come.

International trade union policy must there-fore not be looked upon as an adjunct to natio-nal trade union policy, but must be its extensionand complement through information, coordi-nation and support. It is not enough that onlythe top leaders of the member unions participatein the work of the Global Unions. Internationalsolidarity, which manifests itself through theactivities of the Global Union Federations andthe International Confederation of Free TradeUnions, must become the concern of all members.That is why this kind of work should have itsproper place in the information and educationalactivities of the national trade unions. The pre-sent handbook attempts to make a contributionto this.


46 GLOBAL UNIONS


Individual Descriptions

47GLOBAL UNIONS


Education International (EI)

47GLOBAL UNIONS

E IFRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG

Specific Information on History andOrganisation

The Education International (EI) was found-ed on January 26th, 1993. It is the result of theamalgamation of the World Confederation of Or-ganisations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP)and the International Federation of Free Teach-ers’ Unions (IFFTU). With more than 26 millionmembers, including 17m women, in 310 af-filiated organisations in 159 countries in mid-2003, the EI was the Trade Secretariat with thelargest membership.

Areas of Organisation

Educators, teachers, lecturers and other em-ployees in education, research and teaching.■ Organisational structure: world congressevery 3 years, President, 4 Vice-Presidents, 17Executive Committee members and the SecretaryGeneral form the Managing Executive Commit-tee; the latter is in charge of the day-to-day bu-siness and the Secretariat.■ Regional structure: 4 regions with offices forAfrica in Lomé, for Asia/Pacific in Kuala Lumpurand Samabula, for Latin America in San Joséde Costa Rica as well as for North America/Caribbean in St. Lucia and for Europe in Brus-sels. Regions advise the Executive Committee,but do not themselves have a mandate to ne-gotiate with governments.■ Sectoral structure: 2 advisory committees, oneeach for preschools and primary schools, andsecondary schools, and 2 round-tables for vo-cational training and for further and highereducation. There is also a committee dealingwith the status of women and a working-groupon the subject “Violence against Women”.

As a non-governmental organisation, EIholds consultative status with UNESCO and ILO

and maintains permanent contacts with the UN,WHO, UNAIDS, OECD, the World Bank and theIMF, amongst others.

Special Aspects in its Area ofOrganisation

The educational sector is the largest em-ployer worldwide with almost 50m employees.Conversely, the share of the Gross National Pro-duct spent on education is merely 5.5%. In de-veloping countries, where we find 75% of allschoolchildren and 75% of all primary school-teachers, the percentage is frequently far belowthe world average.

Faster technological development, openborders, worldwide competition and growingmutual dependence in an increasingly morecomplex world are forcing politicians in the fieldof education in all countries to respond to thenew challenges. At the same time, almost allreform packages in education are under pres-sure to also include some cost-cutting measures.

e

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In many cases, “privatising” the school systemhas been regarded as the cure for all ills in thisdilemma.

In this situation, cooperation between affil-iated unions has gained new momentum sincethe Congress in 1999, not least as a result ofthe new communication media and the Internet.

Tasks and Objectives

The EI seeks to defend the professional rightsof teachers and others working in education,and accordingly to improve their status andposition in line with the important role of schoolsand educational institutions for future develop-ments of society. Apart from representing itsmembers, the EI seeks to become itself involvedin drawing up educational policy. It is in thisspirit that it calls for and promotes democracy,social justice and equality of all individuals inevery country.

The EI regards the right to education as a fun-damental right which is part of the universal hu-man rights. It therefore speaks up for respect forand improvement of human and trade unionrights. It campaigns against all forms of discri-mination for reasons of race or gender. In thiscontext, the EI regards a greater involvement ofwomen in leadership positions in society, inteaching and school administration and in the pro-fessional organisations as another major task.

Activities

Since the EI is the Trade Secretariat for em-ployees who come mainly from the public sector,support of members in industrial disputes doesnot play such an important role as it does forthe classical industrial unions. However, thedesire to be involved in policy-making meansmulti-facetted and personnel-intensive coope-ration with international organisations, govern-ment bodies and representatives at variouslevels. This process, which EI considers to be amajor part of its remit, frequently involves thebundling of interests to be represented andcampaigned for in alliances with friendly or-ganisations.

At the same time, the need for teachers toinclude human rights and human dignity inschool curricula is also emphasized. Further-more, political adult education, as a democracy-building exercise, is part of the EI-list of prio-rities. With this in mind, EI is cooperating withCIVITAS, a worldwide-operating association ofNGOs aimed at reinforcing political adult edu-cation in both the emerging and established de-mocracies.

In order to structure these activities the Edu-cation International has defined specific focalareas which are handled by departments byway of organisation.

Public school education (school educationprovided by the State) is regarded as the cen-trepiece of education – both for the family andfuture professional prospects and for the orderof the country. The EI-Department for Educationtherefore focusses primarily on the promotionof activities in this field. For this purpose it organ-ises conferences and seminars, circulates pub-lications and issues statements on the subject.

In particular, the EI campaigns for the rightof its member organisations to participate in thedrawing-up and implementation of educationalpolicy as well as for the right of all groups of thepopulation to have free access to schools andother educational facilities. Priority is given tothe demand for preserving State school educa-tion and free primary education. The campaignagainst child labour, in which the EI is involvedtogether with the ICFTU, other Global Unions,ILO, UNESCO and UNICEF, has to be seen againstthis background.

A worldwide action campaign was startedin mid-October 1999 entitled “Global Campaignfor Education”, together with ActionAid andOxfam International and in cooperation withcivil-society networks such as, for example, theGlobal March against Child Labour, which callsupon governments to account for the fact thatthere are still 120 million children with no op-portunity to attend school. The campaign is in-tended to ensure school education for all childrenby the year 2015. In support of the campaign, EIorganised a Global Action Week in April 2000.

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FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNGE I

49GLOBAL UNIONS


49GLOBAL UNIONS


The Committee for Vocational Training re-gards the non-integration of vocational train-ing into the general education system in manycountries as a fundamentally wrong decision.The EI therefore submitted a draft paper toUNESCO in which the demand for and possibleways of integrating vocational training into se-condary and higher education policy were pro-posed. It was, however, also emphasized thatelements of general education should be incor-porated into vocational training.

The Department for Trade Union and Hu-man Rights, and Equal Opportunity is primarilyinvolved in disseminating the Universal Decla-ration of Human Rights, the ILO-Conventionson international labour standards and the rightof the child and similar international instru-ments, in order to ensure that they are respectedand, in particular, complied with. In this context,the department is active in the defence of per-secuted trade union members and supportsmember organisations which are oppressed bytheir governments. It is here that solidarity cam-paigns for the promotion and defence of the rightsof teachers are mobilised. The department isalso mandated to assist the affiliated unions inrepresenting their interests with the ILO andinternational authorities. Special attention ispaid to the protection of indigenous peoples,ethnic minorities, emigrants and children. Lastbut not least the promotion of gender equality,as a condition for the comprehensive implemen-tation of human rights, is a special concern ofthis department.

In this context, EI, together with ICFTU andPSI, played a major part in the UN-Special Confe-rence “Women 2000: Equal Rights, Developmentand Peace for the 21st century” (the Beijing+5Women’s Conference) held in June 2000. Theysucceeded in incorporating in the final documenta firm commitment for the ILO-Declaration onFundamental Principles and Rights, with specialemphasis on the rights of women.

The number of violations of human and tradeunion rights has reached a deplorable level inthe last few years. It always starts with a denialof trade union rights and ends with disrespect

for even a minimum level of human rights ofteaching staff and children. In Rwanda, forexample, more than half the teaching staff waskilled in 1994. Since then, new violations ofrights on a major scale in Ethiopia, Algeria, Ken-ya, Sierra Leone, Colombia, in the Kosovo and inseveral other countries have enforced furthercampaigns focussing specifically on these sub-jects. Children and adolescents are increasinglybeing used as soldiers.

Whenever possible, EI gives direct supportto the victims and in its worldwide informationcampaign concentrates on information aboutthese incidents. Moreover, it mobilises huma-nitarian aid and legal support.

The Department for Development Coopera-tion is attempting to reinforce the member or-ganisations in their structure, their organisa-tional capacities and institutional relationships.In this, it applies both a thematic and organi-sational approach. In the first case, it respondsto the specific content of the areas of work dis-cussed and adopted at the world congresses, in

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the latter it orients itself towards the develop-ment of strong, independent and efficient tradeunions as a precondition for introducing andimplementing the established priorities. Thisprogram includes education and training oftrade union leaders and members, membershiprecruitment actions and other trade union-re-lated matters. Special emphasis is placed on thetraining of skills for women in this process, whowill in turn be available as lecturers.

A major part of the activities of this depart-ment is the result of cooperation with and/orsupport by friendly organisations.

The Information Department has the task ofsupporting the work of EI by appropriate PR-activities and of publishing material on the in-dividual areas of its work. This includes infor-mation and exchange of experience by meansof publications and networks, and more re-cently also the Internet.

EI publishes, amongst other things, the“EI Monthly Monitor” in English, French andSpanish with a circulation of 2,800 copies, andthe quarterly “The Education InternationalQuarterly Magazine” in English, French andSpanish with a circulation of some 10,000 copieseach. Both publications are available on theInternet. They focus regularly on subjects suchas human rights/racism, globalisation, the statusof women, child labour etc.

The EI-survey “Education is a Human Right”which was published in 1998 presents a country-by-country description of the level of educationand the situation in respect of educationalstandards, child labour and trade union rights.

Based on the respective congress resolutions,EI and PSI published a joint paper describingthe attitude of the Global Unions towards therights, the protection and support of lesbian andgay colleagues.

In addition, posters, fliers and press releasesare being regularly produced in connection withspecific campaigns and action programs. Vide-os provide a further source of information.

With the aim of raising awareness about the“most important profession in the world”, theEI – with logistical and financial assistance byUNESCO – invited the nations of the world to

issue memorial stamps on October 5th, 1999,the International Day of the Teacher, depictingthe heads of outstanding teachers. This was ac-companied by a Web site on the subject “phi-lately and education”.

Representation vis-à-visInternational Organisations

Efforts towards exerting an influence oneducational policy are also reflected in the im-portance attached to involvement in those in-ternational organisations with an impact oneducation.

Links with the workers’ representatives atthe ILO are particularly close. A permanent forumfor the discussion of the working conditions ofteachers was successfully established: the“Standing Technical Committee for EducationalPersonnel”. At its annual meetings, this bodydiscusses pressing topics concerning the workin the educational professions.

EI continues to cooperate closely with theEFA (Education for All)-Forum – a coalition ofthe UN, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF and theWorld Bank aimed at promoting education forall children of the world.

The UN declared the year 2000 to be the Yearof Culture and Peace and non-Violence. At themeeting of the Managing Committee in March1999, EI decided to give full backing to this in-itiative because it regards education as a majorstepping stone towards achieving a culture ofpeace. With this in mind, a set of informationmaterial was developed for use by the memberorganisations. In addition, EI has been activelyinvolved in the campaign for the InternationalYear for a Culture of Peace which had collectedmore than 100 million signatures worldwide bySeptember 2000.

The “Memorandum of Understanding” con-cluded with UNESCO in 1994 was extended in1999 and adopted for another 3 years. It formsa general framework for cooperation and per-manent consultations. In 1998, UNESCO pub-lished the World Education Report entitled“Teachers and Teaching in a Changing World”for which EI had supplied background infor-

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mation and provided a contribution of its own.Moreover, 3 videos were produced in cooperat-ion on the subject “Teachers make a Difference”.A manual about how to use the media and cor-responding teaching material for further andadvanced training of teachers are in the pipeline.

In cooperation with WHO concepts of healtheducation and disease prevention (among othersconcerning AIDS) are drawn up. Schools are theideal place for drawing the attention of youngpersons to the dangers of this disease, yet teach-ers are rarely prepared to address this subjectin the classroom.

The working group of TUAC on education,vocational training and employment met re-peatedly with EI-members for an exchange ofviews. Together they drew up a paper on the sub-ject “Globalisation and the Necessity of Educationand Training”. At a seminar with OECD-TUACand -BIAC on “How to Fund Life-long Learning”,EI firmly disagreed with the view that lifelonglearning could not be publicly-funded.

The World Bank influences educationalpolicies in many countries through its structuraladjustment programs (SAPs). The EI thereforeholds the view that structural adjustment mea-sures which affect educational policy should bedrawn up only in consultation with nationalteachers’ unions. The EI succeeded in initiatinga consultative dialogue with the World Bank. Af-ter a series of seminars starting in 1996 on “Co-operation with the World Bank in the EducationalSector”, further activities of the same kind tookplace in subsequent years. Since 1998 the EI hastaken part in the preparation of the annual WorldBank report on “Human Resources Development”.

It has been agreed with the PSI to have mu-tual participation in and discussion of questionsof principle in respect of workers’ education andworking methods. It is also planned to cooperatein the development of a human rights network.

With the backing of the other Global Unionsand the ICFTU, EI is pressing for an open dialoguewith the WTO which has so far regarded edu-cation as an area to be liberalised as well.

Future Challenges

Progress in education can be made only ifeconomic and social conditions are improvedat the same time. Children who will later takecare of them are the only “social insurance”people in poor countries have. As a result ofdemographic growth, the number of school-children is constantly rising in these countries,in contrast to the wealthy nations. At the sametime, the quality of education is deteriorating be-cause education budgets are not excluded fromcuts when money is short. However, if childrendo not learn enough they have no opportunity tobreak the vicious circle of poverty.

Conversely, educational resources may beentirely wasted if educated children do not findemployment on the labour market and if thegovernment does not spend money on creatingalternative employment. The EI has focussedeven more intensively on labour and social po-licies as a result.

In addition, the new maxim of lifelong learn-ing applies to all parts of the world in an era ofaccelerated developments in technology. No onecan disregard the call for education for all. Thisadds another and much larger dimension to theimportant role of learning and teaching. Torespond to it and to influence it effectively willrequire greater efforts in organising and mobi-lising the members as well as more intensiveand stronger alliances with like-minded part-ners of the civil society.

Teachers are at the forefront of educatingfuture generations in the spirit of democracy andsocial justice. They are, as individuals, a forcefor social change simply because they exist.

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The IFBWW was founded in 1934 as a re-sult of the merger between the ConstructionWorkers’ International and the Wood Workers’Federation. Early activities already date backto the Joiners’ Federation in the year 1883. Thismakes the IFBWW one of the oldest Global Un-ion Federations.

The German occupation of the Netherlandsin the Second World War forced the IFBWW togive up its original head office in Amsterdam. Itlost all its furniture and the archives at the same

time and in 1946 had to start from scratch witha reduced membership. At the End of 2003 theIFBWW had 287 affiliated organisations from124 countries with more than 10 mio. members.■ Areas of organisation: building industry, tim-ber industry, forestry and allied sectors.■ Organisational structure: congress (every 4years); Executive Committee (President, Vice-President, Secretary General and 30 membersfrom 19 geographical regions); Managing Com-mittee (President, Vice-President, Secretary Ge-neral and 8 members). Voting rights at the con-gress depend on the amount of paid-up dues.Organisations with dues arrears of more thantwo months lose the right to take part in thecongress and other conferences.■ Regional structure: regional committees existfor Africa, Asia /Pacific and Latin America. Since1998 a regional committee for Europe has beendealing with the specific activities of memberswhich are relevant in this continent. In addition,regional offices exist:

● for Africa in Johannesburg/South Africa,● for Asia/Pacific in Malaysia/Kuala Lumpur,● for Latin America in Panama.

In addition, a program office in the Philippines islinked to IFBWW and there is an IFBWW-pro-ject in Lebanon for the Middle East.■ Sectoral structure: 1 industry committee eachfor the building industry and the timber andforestry industries. Additionally, there are inter-professional working groups for women, forsalaried employees and for occupational healthand safety.

There is also close cooperation with the top-level organisations of the European and theNordic building and wood workers.

International Federation of Building and

Wood Workers (IFBWW)

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Special Aspects of the Area ofOrganisation

The subject of social and labour standardsof migrant workers in the building industry isbecoming increasingly important in view of thegrowing number of migrant workers from poor-er countries. On the one hand, the human dignityof these migrant workers is frequently com-pletely disregarded and their rights blatantlyabused. On the other, specific attempts are beingmade to exploit migrant workers in order toundermine wages and labour standards whichhave already been established in the host coun-tries.


The main tasks are the development andprotection of workers’ rights in the sectors re-presented. The principles of international soli-darity guide the activities by the IFBWW in thisrespect. In addition, it actively promotes respectfor and development of human and workers’rights.

In the last few years, the IFBWW has addedanother specific aim to its general objective of sup-porting member organisations and of strength-ening the International Trade Union Movement,notably fighting neo-liberal economic policypursued by many governments since the 80s ofthe last century. In this, the IFBWW pursues anactive policy of promoting the relationship withenterprises which are operating in a socially res-ponsible manner. For this purpose, it has drawnup a model framework agreement for multina-tional companies in which important subjectsare clearly regulated and which is intended toprevent the practice of individual multinationalsto conclude agreements of a non-committal na-ture.

In mid-1998, a code of conduct was agreedwith IKEA in respect of workers’ rights. IKEA isone of the world leaders in the business of in-terior decoration, buying products in some 70countries and selling them in approximately 30countries. The code of conduct provides for IKEA

to oblige its contracting suppliers to offer work-ing conditions to their workforce which complywith at least the existing national legislation.Supplier firms must in any case respect ILO-conventions and recommendations applicableto their lines of business. In other words, childlabour is unacceptable and workers can join thetrade union of their choice and take part in freecollective bargaining. The code provides for acontrol committee with equal representation ofboth sides for monitoring compliance with theregulations concerned. Similar agreements havebeen concluded in the meantime with com-panies like “Hochtief”, “Faber Castell”, “Skans-ka” and others.

Activities

The IFBWW has always preferred practicalactivities at the rank-and-file level to meetingsand resolutions on abstract subjects. However,the changes that have impacted on the buildingand timber industries as a result of liberalisationand deregulation in a globalized world economyhave also left their mark on the activities of theIFBWW. This does not mean that the organi-sation disregards completely activities at therank-and-file level, but that it acknowledges theimportance of the changes that have taken place.

The 20th Congress of the IFBWW in 1997decided to launch a program for action in favourof a positive strategy of modernisation. Amongst

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other things, mention is made of the need forreorientation towards global obligations byinstitutions such as the IMF, World Bank, WTOand others. It calls for international campaigns,for example for the rights of indigenous popu-lations, compliance with ILO-conventions andrecommendations or for pro-active climate pro-tection.

Trade Union and Human Rights

Protection, assistance and support of affiliat-ed unions are matters of priority to the IFBWW.Every single attack against workers’ rights in anypart of the world is considered by the IFBWW asan attack against its membership as a whole.

The IFBWW reacts quickly and unbureau-cratically in all parts of the world, for instancewith protest letters to governments and enter-prises and with “solidarity appeals” and “callsfor urgent action” to affiliates. Money is madeavailable from the IFBWW-Support Fund forstriking or dismissed workers. Costs for courtproceedings and for lawyers are also coveredby the Fund. Moreover, IFBWW-delegations aresent to the scene of the dispute or to negotiationswith local managers. The IFBWW frequentlyintervenes at the international headquarters ofthe subsidiary involved.

The above-mentioned measures are comple-mented by campaigns in support of ILO-corelabour standards by talking to the national go-vernments concerned and by presenting casesof possible violations to the relevant bodies ofthe International Labour Organisation.

Furthermore, the IFBWW informs and mo-bilizes friendly organisations of the trade unions,the ILO, the UN and international aid organi-sations as well as friendly networks of the civilsociety with a specific interest in the subject underconsideration. Coordinated international cam-paigns and actions are launched against countrieswhich have been on record for notorious viola-tions of human and trade union rights.

A handbook on trade union rights compiledby the IFBWW offers information on solidarityactions and campaigns against enterprises andinforms members about how to get internatio-nal support in the event of a dispute with acompany.

Education and Training

The IFBWW regards training and qualifi-cation as an important part of its work and hasdefined it a focal point in its activities as a result.The IFBWW started at a very early stage to drawup efficient support programs for projects inthe field of trade union education in developingcountries. Preference is given to educationalcontent of a practical nature, i.e. to make theorganisations stronger by greater involvementof members and to increase the organisations’punch in order to defend workers more effec-tively. To focus on real problems in training andto involve the activists in the field is what reallycounts; female members must not be neglectedeither in this process.

At present, IFBWW supports some 90 edu-cational programs worldwide, emphasising theneed for a well-functioning and effective regio-nal structure for education everywhere. Net-works of education coordinators ensure closecooperation in planning, implementation andevaluation. At the Center of the educational stra-tegy of the IFBWW are the national educationalprojects implemented by the respective memberorganisations with support from the IFBWW.

The head office compiled the handbook“Trade Unions in Transition” for training pur-poses. Educational activities are at times carriedout with support from friendly organisations.

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Sustainability, Health and Safety

In the building, timber and forestry indus-tries, materials and substances are still beingused in many places which are a risk to thehealth of the people working there and to theenvironment; the same applies to the workingconditions. The IFBWW holds the view that theuse of asbestos must be banned worldwide andthat safety on building sites must be consider-ably improved. For this reason, it tries by everymeans to ensure the ratification of the corres-ponding ILO-Conventions 162 and 167.

Over-exploitation of forests and monocultureare destroying valuable ecosystems. Such work-ing and production methods negatively affectworkers in the industry, and in the longer termwill jeopardise the industries themselves. TheIFBWW therefore supports sustainable forestmanagement which will not cause environmen-tal degradation or health problems and will pre-vent over-exploitation. This will ensure sustain-able stable employment and living conditionsfor the future. The IFBWW also supports thecertification of timber and wood products andthe inclusion of minimum social standards inpublic tenders and international developmentprojects as a result.

Representation vis-a-vis InternationalOrganisations

The IFBWW tries to get support for its in-dustry policy from international organisationssuch as the ILO, the International TropicalTimber Organisation (ITTO), FAO, UNIDO andfrom international environmental associations.In addition, the IFBWW is extending its contactsto the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It stud-ies the impact of trade liberalisation on its in-dustries and gives advice to its affiliates. Its aimis the practical implementation of a social clausefor the sectors organised by IFBWW-affiliates,in other words to establish minimum socialstandards and to ensure compliance with them.This is intended, in particular, to put a stop toexploitation of migrant labour and the resultingwage dumping.

Transnational Enterprises (TNEs)

Activities of TNEs are increasingly becomingthe cause of industrial disputes worldwide. TheIFBWW therefore developed strategies for mo-nitoring and investigating such activities in orderto assist the member unions concerned with ap-propriate information and proposals for action.

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A model has been drawn up on how to concludeframework agreements with transnational en-terprises which is made available to the mem-bers, including specific advice. It is intended toincorporate these activities in a worldwide cam-paign to promote respect for trade union rightsand the recognition of minimum labour stan-dards in the building, timber, forestry and alliedindustries.

In March 2000 an agreement was signedwith the German construction group HOCHTIEFwhich regulated the recognition of and respectfor ILO-core labour standards in all HOCHTIEF-units. These regulations are thus directly appli-cable to some 37,000 workers. Simultaneously,the agreement obliges HOCHTIEF to ensure thesame standards on the part of all its suppliersso that they are, in fact, binding for several timesthat number of workers. On the part of the tradeunions, the agreement was negotiated and sign-ed by representatives of IG BAU (the construc-tion workers’ union), the central works councilof HOCHTIEF AG and the IFBWW.

Women

Women workers represent 15 percent ofIFBWW-membership worldwide. The IFBWWhas drawn up guidelines for positive actionprograms for its affiliated unions and otherinterested organisations which can be used incollective negotiations. These guidelines arebased on the corresponding ILO-conventionsand call for equal pay for equal work, educa-tional leave, daycare Centers, access to vocatio-nal training and measures to stop sexual harass-ment at the place of work.

The IFBWW actively supports the participa-tion of women in all its educational programsand gives financial aid for workshops for womentrade union leaders.

Child Labour

The IFBWW again and again draws attentionto the fact that child labour continues to exist andhas even gone up again lately. At times children

not older than 5 or 6 years are even working inbrickworks, in stone and slate quarries, in roadconstruction or are auxiliary staff in civil engineer-ing projects. Many are kept in serfdom or asbonded labour as “guarantors” for their parents’debts ( a working conference about child labourand bondage in Asia provided extensive back-ground material on the subject). The IFBWWcalls for a ban on child labour, including throughsocial clauses in international trade agreements.

Information, Networks

Apart from regular publications on specificissues such as occupational health and safety,women, education and workers’ rights, theIFBWW sends a weekly “IFBWW-Fax News” toits affiliated organisations. Fax News gives sum-mary reports of important events and develop-ments in the IFBWW, its members and the in-ternational world of organised labour. In theevent of violations of human and trade unionrights the IFBWW calls for urgent action andmobilises the affiliates to this end. Appeals forsolidarity are used if one member is in need ofmoral support by others. Press releases explainthe attitude of the IFBWW towards currentevents.

Other publications are the bi-monthly bul-letin on building and timber, and the bulletin“News about Education” which is issued twicea year. Some material is also published in lan-guages such as Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

A great deal of information and source ma-terial is in the meantime retrievable from a com-puter database. The Web site is informative andgives a clear picture, containing the most im-portant strategy, conference and discussionpapers. There is one video on the subjects “Or-ganizing the Future” and “Modernising our TradeUnion” respectively.

The IFBWW compiled examples of case stud-ies on labour disputes in a number of countriesin its handbook about “Trade Union Rights”(published in English, French, Spanish and Rus-sian); they demonstrate how the combinationof appropriate strategies and international so-

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lidarity can be successful. Affiliated unions canlearn valuable lessons from this handbook anduse it as a kind of guide when conflicts arise.

Challenges and Future Tasks

In the last few years structural change hasalso been accelerating in the building and timberindustries. Changes and transfers of whole areasof production affected not only the way in whichconstruction planning and implementation aredivided. In the timber industry many product-ions have been integrated into other industries,for instance the chemical industry. Trade unionsmust respond flexibly to this in their organi-sational structure. Moreover, they must cooper-ate more intensively at an international levelwith the aim of preventing the exploitation ofmigrant labour for wage and social dumping.More and more international cooperation withother Global Unions will be necessary in orderto effectively represent workers in the sameoccupations.

In May 2000, the Executive Committee adopt-ed a declaration in favour of a pro-active indus-trial relations policy. It starts with a commitmentto the concept of a socially-responsible corporateculture and calls for the recognition of workers’

rights and the introduction of internationallabour standards in line with the ILO-core labourstandards. Enterprises, governments and inter-national organisations are called upon to exertdirect influence with the aim of eliminatingpoverty.

The Declaration formulated the following sixobjectives:1. To protect trade union rights and to promote

the member organisation at the national level.2. To use the ILO-conventions as the fundamen-

tal basis for the protection of workers.3. To press for the inclusion of worker’s rights

in the policy-making of international institu-tions, including financial institutions such asthe World Bank, IMF and other developmentbanks as well as the WTO.

4. To exert influence in order to ensure thatworkers’ interests are considered in impor-tant government initiatives.

5. To ensure complete protection of workers atthe level of companies.

6. To ensure that industry-related activities ofthe IFBWW are supported by a high standardof surveys and consultancy.Globalisation in the building industry calls

for global rules which take into account socialand ecological standards.

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Information on History and Organisation

The ICEM is the second most recent GlobalUnion. It was established in November 1995with the amalgamation of the International Fed-eration of Chemical, Energy and Factory Work-ers (ICEF) – established in 1907 as the FactoryWorkers’ International which had merged sever-al times in the course of history – and the Miners’International Federation (MIF), an organisationwith a long tradition which had existed since1890. The foundation congress took place in Wa-shington under the motto: “Unite and Organise”.On November 1st, 2000, the United Alliance ofDiamond Workers (UADW) also affiliated to theICEM. The combined Trade Secretariat comprisessome 399 trade unions in more than 108 coun-tries with a total membership of 20 million.

Areas of organisation: the energy sector (oiland gas production, electricity generation in-cluding nuclear power plants), chemical indus-tries (including pharmaceuticals and biotech-nology), rubber and plastics industry, ceramicsindustry, paper and cellulose production, theglass industry, cement industry, environmental

protection industries, coal mining, mineral min-ing and stone and sand quarrying. Since No-vember 2000, services have also been providedto the members of the former UADW in a newbranch “diamonds, precious stones, ornamentsand gems“. Services and other industrial sectorswhich are not organised by another Global Unionare included as well.■ Organisational structure: Congress (every 4years); Presidium (President and 13 Vice-Presi-dents, Secretary General and Deputy SecretaryGeneral); Executive Committee (62 members);Secretariat (some 30 members of staff).■ Regional structure: Asia/Pacific, Africa, LatinAmerica, North America, Eastern Europe andCentral Europe. In parallel, the European Min-ing, Chemical and Energy Federation (EMCEF),which is not a regional organisation of the ICEM,operates in the area of organisation of the ETUC.■ Sectoral structure: committees for the chem-ical industry, rubber and plastics industries,cellulose and paper industry, ceramics industry,glass industry, coal mining and non-coal miningand also for the energy sector.

International Federation of Chemical, Energy,

Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM)ICEMICEM

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Specific inter-professional groups exist forwomen, for salaried employees, for academic,highly-qualified and administrative occupationsand for the subject of occupational safety.

Special Aspects

Globalisation has hit the areas of organi-sation of the ICEM in particular. While its activ-ities and objectives have always been orientedtowards the international level owing to theconcentration of enterprises with worldwideoperations in its area of organisation, nationalproblems were, as a rule, resolved at the samelevel in the past so that strong national memberunions paid greater attention to the tasks athome. These days, however, all the giant com-panies in the oil, gas, electricity, chemical, phar-maceutical, mining, tires, ceramics and glassindustries are producing worldwide and are, ingeneral, amongst the largest global enterprises.Decisions on production and sales are taken inthe headquarters which are situated in othercontinents. National and local union represent-atives are increasingly being confronted withmanagements who do not have negotiating ordecision-making powers. In consequence, it hasbecome imperative to set up representationalbodies across national and continental borders.

In addition, the mergers and takeovers of thelast few years have resulted in continuous job

cuts. In consequence, the ICEM experienced aconstant decline in membership during thisperiod which could be halted only recently.

Both trends have challenged global solidaritymore than ever before. At its World Congress in1999, the ICEM responded with a strategy ofglobal trade union mobilisation. Assuming thatglobal enterprises are not like international or-ganisations, i.e. they are not merely coordinatingnational forces and their mutual relationships,but are being managed in a centralised manner,the ICEM called for a joint policy amongst allits affiliates in respect of international activities.The new elements of trade union activities mustbe based on the realisation that workers in allparts of the world depend on each other, notonly on their historical relationships with natio-nal centers of power, and that, as a result, theyshare a common vision of progress in a justworld.

Tasks and Activities

In its foundation document the ICEM com-mits itself to bringing about positive and pro-gressive changes in the lives of working menand women. The ICEM lends moral support tothe poor, oppressed, exploited and those whoare discriminated against. It is committed to theprinciples of solidarity, democracy, informationand effective organisation.

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The ICEM regards itself as a forerunner ofthe new global labour institutions. It intends tounite all workers irrespective of race, nationality,gender or faith. It supports sustainable industrialdevelopment which is democratically decentral-ised, in contrast to the exploitative and exces-sively centralised approaches of large corpo-rations. The ICEM calls for a maximum level ofhealth and safety at work and for an environ-mentally responsible attitude in the productionof industrial goods. It is committed to the globalapplication of the best possible standards andprocedures, in particular within multinationalcompanies. With this in mind, the World Con-gress in 1999 adopted a number of resolutionswhich defined the concrete tasks in the years tocome.

A series of global or regional conferences forthe individual sectoral groups were organisedin the last few years. The conference materialprovides a valuable source of information forthe ICEM and ensures continuous feedback fromits work.

World Trade Union Movement

The ICEM has decided to build up a worldtrade union movement in the true meaning ofthe word for its area of jurisdiction in order tobetter come to terms with the globalisation ofcorporate power and the institutions supportingit. For this purpose, the ICEM sets up perma-

nent networks of organised workers in impor-tant multinational enterprises. These networksexchange data concerning remuneration, work-ing conditions and other relevant topics in theglobal corporations concerned. They also de-termine the issues to be focussed on for jointsolidarity actions, if required.

In addition, the ICEM has decided to pursuea dialogue with leading representatives of largecompanies wherever possible. On the one hand,this is intended to contribute to the settlementof industrial disputes, on the other to ensurethat social objectives play a key role in corporatestrategies because information about long-terminvestments is available in time.

Global agreements are to be negotiated withTNEs which recognise the rights of workers tobe organised and to negotiate collectively – aslaid down in the ILO-conventions. In addition,these agreements are intended to ensure com-mon standards of best practice in the fields ofoccupational safety and environmental protec-tion. They should also regulate joint educationalprograms for trade unionists and managerialstaff on how to implement the agreements. Inorder to achieve this aim, the ICEM seeks toinitiate campaigns in favour of negotiations forglobal agreements which focus especially oncorporations in the developing countries. More-over, these agreements are to be extended step-by-step so as to cover ultimately all subcontrac-tors and suppliers. Additionally, the ICEM seeksto enter into dialogue with organisations fromthe fields of the environment, women, humanrights, indigenous people and other relevantgroups if this seems appropriate for strength-ening the role of trade unions as guarantors ofgreater social freedom.

The ICEM will take part in the planning andimplementation of programs of multinationalagencies such as the World Bank, OECD, theWTO, the ILO and the UN-Development Pro-gram in order to ensure that their resources arespent for sustainable social results only, and willgenerally work for greater transparency anddemocracy within these multinational institut-ions. If required, such measures will be taken inclose cooperation with the other Global Unions.

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Union-Building and DevelopmentActivities

A major part of development activities takesplace in the form of projects. They are, as a rule,designed in such a manner that they strengthenthe member unions or potential members. Theyinclude information and research, organisation,preparation of campaigns, education, thebuilding-up of sectoral networks and multina-tional company councils. All projects pursue oneultimate objective: to unite and to organise, aslaid down in the policy resolution of the Congress.Since traditional differences between tradeunions in industrial countries and those in thedeveloping countries no longer play a role in aglobalised world, ICEM-projects include variousforms of cooperation between trade unions fromall regions of the world these days: South withSouth, North with South, East with East, Eastwith West or any other possible combination.

As part of the alliances to be built up withother social and campaigning organisations, theICEM will also develop experimental and in-novative projects in cooperation with society asa whole which will bring together the tradeunions and non-governmental organisations. Inad-dition, the ICEM cooperates in projects withfriendly international organisations whereverthis seems appropriate. External funding forprograms and projects, however, will only beaccepted if it is provided with no strings at-tached.

Sustainable Development

The ICEM has undertaken to take part in allactivities with the aim of defining, promotingand sophisticating the concept of sustainabledevelopment. It strives for economic, social andenvironmental harmony without disregardingthe fact that the relationship between these threefundamental factors may change over time. Thisapplies, in particular, to the areas in which out-dated technologies are replaced on a large scaleby new, environmentally-friendly ones.

In this context, the ICEM also seeks to con-tribute to the development of policies and stra-

tegies which ensure fair results of the changesand in which the needs of workers and theirfamilies are taken into account in the phase oftransition and in the pursuit of sustainabledevelopment. The World Congress emphasizedthe international implications of such a “justtransition”, especially as far as it concerned sup-port of workers and their families in the de-veloping and the newly-emerging industrialcountries.

In all global agreements with transnationalcorporations, irrespective of their location, theICEM insists on best practice standards in thefields of occupational health and environmen-tal protection. It also intends to make greaterefforts in fields requiring urgent action, such asthe prevention of environmental dumping, thedevelopment of more efficient and cleaner formsof using energy and the phasing-out of outdatedand/or undesirable products and experiences.In this context, special mention is made of theneed to cooperate with the other Global Unions,while cooperation with other groups of the civilsociety is not excluded either.

Women

The ICEM has traditionally been involved inwomen’s issues; the structure was largely pro-vided by the ICEF since only a few women wereorganised in the MIF because of the large num-ber of jobs in deep-mining. There are specialconferences, workshops and educational semi-nars for women in the individual regions, deal-ing with equality of opportunity for women at

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work, in society (including the trade unions), withhealth and safety problems of working womenor home work industry jobs as well as the effectof free export zones and economic blocs (suchas MERCOSUR in South America).

The women workers organised in ICEM-affiliates represent slightly more than 30% ofthe membership, tendency increasing. The Con-ference in 1999, however, confirmed the firmwill to do much more in order to ensure properequality of women in the movement, includingthe ICEM itself. “Inclusion” is the key to ICEM-equality policy, in other words the dimension ofgender equality must be incorporated in all policy-making areas. Equality must be comprehen-sively addressed in all aspects of trade unionpolicy and greater participation of women beachieved at all levels, independent of goodwilland voluntary mechanisms. Since women areregarded as one of the most important targetgroups in recruitment campaigns, the ICEM-program calls upon all members to take a pro-active attitude in women’s issues.

More than 13 million people are working insmall mines and their number is increasing.These workers, amongst them many womenand even children, are completely unprotectedand often victims of extreme forms of exploita-tion. Accidents and occupational diseases occurin disproportionate numbers and children oftenage prematurely in their physical development.Together with the ILO, the ICEM is drawing upa comprehensive policy for the industry whichcalls specifically for an immediate ban on childand bonded labour and on the exploitation ofwomen in small-scale mining. It also calls forthe introduction of safety regulations under ILO-Convention no. 176. The eradication of poverty,poverty being one of the root causes of suchexploitation, is included as an accompanyingmeasure. The ICEM insists that trade unionsneed to be extensively involved in the design ofa World Bank program for the industry.

The ICEM-Women’s Committee monitorswhether the female membership as well aswomen’s issues and rights are adequately takeninto account in project activities.

Cooperation with and Representationvis-a-vis International Organisations

The ICEM cooperates with many internation-al organisations or is accredited to them throughits forerunner organisations: for instance withWHO (with a consultative status for the formerICEF), ILO (amongst other things in the com-mittees for coal-mining and for the chemicalindustries) and OECD (via TUAC). The ICEM alsoparticipates in the International Programs forChemical Safety (IPCS), a joint programs of ILO,WHO, UNEP, FAO, UNIDO and OECD. It is alsoinvolved in the ICFTU/Global Union jointworking group on occupational diseases, oc-cupational safety and the environment. In ad-dition, there are permanent contacts and com-munications with some employers’ organisationsand environmental organisations.

Information and Exchange ofExperience

The ICEM supports its affiliates by makingavailable facts, figures and by setting politicaltargets which are interesting and relevant forthe organisations. In addition, it provides timelyand accurate analyses and other relevant infor-mation.

With the electronic communications networkdeveloped by ICEF, the ICEM has an instrumentwith which to exchange information quickly, asrequired in the face of growing globalisation,and which has enabled it to realize the synergyeffects from amalgamation in a short period oftime. Moreover, databases contain collectiveagreements which have been collected overyears and cover the most important items in in-dustrial negotiations such as pay, working time,leave, holidays and social benefits.

Computer-based information networks havebeen created for the most important TNEs. Everythree or six months, after intermediate resultsof enterprises have been published, the ICEMwill report by electronic mail on company fi-nances and recent investment decisions; con-clusions can be drawn from this in respect of

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future corporate strategies, for example. Indi-vidual trade unions with access to this databasecan benefit from it in their negotiations withenterprises. They, in turn, feed information intothe system, for instance details about currentindustrial actions. The ICEM then translates thenews into other languages and makes it avail-able to interested members.

The ICEM installed a Web site as early as1996. International cooperation has gained anew dimension through the opportunity of ex-changing information globally and interactivelyin a manner which is both cost-effective and“real-time”, or at least instantaneous. The ICEMcannot yet exhaust the full potential of thistechnology for its activities, but is purposefullymoving ahead in this process. The full capacityis opened up not least with the development ofa Web site by the regional offices and by an in-creasing number of affiliated organisations.

In addition, the classical sources of infor-mation are not neglected either. The ICEMpublishes a quarterly news magazine, the “ICEMINFO”, as well as the “ICEM GLOBAL” twice a year;both publications are available in 7 languages.Moreover, the ICEM publishes practical guideson health and safety at irregular intervals aswell as individual studies about sectors or oc-cupational groups and for special events.

The ICEM also produced a documentary“One World – but What Kind of World?” as a

video. The video examines and describes thesocial consequences of globalisation, the oppor-tunities for agreements between trade unionsand enterprises at the global level and the roleof networking between both the trade unionsfrom various countries and between trade un-ions and other campaigning groups.

Challenges for Future Activities

In 1999, UN-Secretary General Kofi Annancalled for a “Global Compact” in Davos with theaim of ensuring respect for workers’ rights, hu-man rights and the environment. In this context,the ICEM declared that such a global compactcould best be achieved if organised labour andorganised enterpreneurs were to negotiate andto implement global agreements. In consequence,the ICEM-Congress of November 1999 mandat-ed the executive bodies to negotiate and to con-clude global agreements with transnationalenterprises. This decision gave the Trade Secre-tariat a direct mandate for negotiating agree-ments on trade union rights, occupational healthand safety, environmental protection and equalopportunities for women – a prerogative whichup to that point had been exclusively in thehands of the national trade unions and couldonly be exercised if there was complete agree-ment between the national and internationallevel on this issue.

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On July 10th, 2000, the ICEM announced thatthe first global sectoral agreement had been con-cluded with the Freudenberg Group – an enter-prise with headquarters in Germany. The agree-ment covers all units which are part of the Groupworldwide and a workforce of 30,000 workersin 41 countries. This global agreement concen-trates on the issues of trade union and otherhuman rights. Specific reference is made to thecorresponding ILO-conventions. The agreemententitles the ICEM to monitor compliance and todiscuss annually with the central managementany problem arising from it. In the event of con-flict or violation of the agreement, the two par-ties undertake to contact the respective otherparty immediately and directly in the firm de-termination to find a common solution. The Ger-man union IG BCE contributed considerably tothe shaping of the agreement which also bansany kind of unlawful or unethical businesspractice. ICEM-Secretary General Fred Higgscalled the agreement not only a positive under-taking for the workers, but one which was inthe interest of the enterprise and the share-holders as well.

To exert influence on transnational enter-prises continues to be the focal point of ICEM-activities since it organises the workforce in avery large number of these giant companies.Their influence through economic decisionsoften goes beyond the sphere of influence of in-dividual governments. It goes without sayingthat the ICEM gives priority to this line of worksince it is imperative to negotiate with the partythat has the power to change matters. The factthat the ICEM has traditionally regarded itselfas an organisation fighting for its membershiprather than a political lobby group in no waycontradicts the trend amongst other organisationsof the International Trade Union Movement to-wards greater emphasis on the political arena.

The ICEM defines solidarity unreservedly asany form of action which offers advantages andimprovements to all organised workers in anequal measure in both the industrial and thedeveloping countries. For this purpose they mustorganise themselves to a much greater extentin both parts of the world and must consult each

other and coordinate their activities throughconstant contact. The affiliated trade unionsmust build up the capacities which enable themto organise campaigns successfully. ICEM’s keyunion-building programs is therefore gearedtowards strengthening the affiliates and turningthem into strong organisations by applying thesame fundamental principles at the global levelwhich have proved to achieve good results lo-cally. The motto is: the harm done to one of usis done to all of us and must therefore be fendedoff by all.

Generally speaking, the ICEM seeks to re-place the voluntary self-imposed codes of con-duct of industry by global agreements with thetrade unions because only then will the organi-sation be entitled to monitor compliance and tonegotiate in the event of non-compliance withthe code. It is through such rights only that theenterprises will gain the desired credibility sothat such measures are ultimately in their ownself-interest.

Efforts have thus been made to conclude fur-ther global agreements with TNEs. Exploratorytalks have taken place with Shell, Rio Tinto andBP Amoco on subjects such as trade union rights,health, occupational safety, equality of oppor-tunity and environmental protection.

Talks with the International Confederationof Chemical Associations (ICCA) concerning theconclusion of a global sectoral agreement havealready reached an advanced stage. They focuson a program for responsible prevention andpreventive measures in the fields of health, occu-pational safety and environmental protection.If the ICEM were, in fact, to be recognized as anequal partner in this process it would be able tomaintain a high standard for good.

In addition, the ICEM has decided to paygreater attention to the setting-up of allianceswith other groups of the civil society in future.New and informative forms of project work fororientation and exploration are to be developedto this end in order to exert greater public pres-sure in favour of concerns of trade unions andnon-governmental organisations as well as othergroups in society.

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I F JFRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG


A first attempt at establishing an Internatio-nal Federation of Journalists was made in Pa-ris in 1926, but it soon failed; further abortiveattempts followed later. In its modern form theIFJ was founded again in 1952 by journalists’unions from 12 West European countries as wellas from the USA and Canada. These unions hadsplit from the International Journalists’ Organi-sation, founded in 1946, because of continuousconflicts over fundamental principles such asthe freedom of the press and independence oftrade unions from the government. In 1985, theIFJ was recognized as a Global Union by the Gen-eral Conference of Global Union Federations.Today, the IFJ has member organisations in morethan 100 countries with some 500,000 membersand represents the largest organisation of jour-nalists worldwide.■ Areas of organisation: print media, broad-casting, film and television, news agencies, pressoffices, public-relations agencies and new elec-tronic media. But members must be full-time (pro-fessional) journalists (text or graphic). There areareas which partly overlap with other GlobalUnions. For example, layout designers can bemembers of either the journalists’ unions or be or-ganised in one of the classical printers’ unions.Associations for the freedom of the media thatdo not meet all trade union criteria may becomeassociate members with the right to speak, butnot to vote in decision-making bodies.■ Organisational structure: congress (every threeyears); 21 members on the Executive Committee(President, 3 Vice-Presidents, 16 directly electedrepresentatives of which 8 are regional repre-sentatives, plus the Secretary General without

voting right); Administrative Committee consist-ing of the President, 3 Vice-Presidents, Treasurerand Secretary General.■ Regional structure: the IFJ has regional officesin Brussels for Western Europe, in Australia forAsia/Pacific, in Caracas for Latin America andin Ljubljana (Slovenia) for Eastern Europe. Itsrepresentational body for Europe EJF has beenrecognized as European Industry Federation (EIF)by the European Trade Union Confederation. Re-gional activities are not initiated and extendedto the same extent in the various regions.■ Special-subject groups: there are groups forspecial subjects such as authors’ rights, therights of free-lance journalists, defense of publicbroadcasting, freedom of information, racismand xenophobia.

Special Aspects

Freedom of the press and the media are pil-lars of democracy; journalists who speak up forthese principles are therefore frequently the firstvictims of persecution by dictatorial regimes oranti-democratic organisations. Assistance for

International Federation of Journalists

(IFJ)

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FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNGI F J

persecuted and endangered members and thefight for democracy therefore use up a lot of IFJ’sresources.


The IFJ is first and foremost committed tofreedom of expression and the press as well asindependence of journalists and their vocationaltraining and further training. As far as the IFJis concerned, the main point is to define itselfwhat it means by journalist ethics and not toleave this to governments. The IFJ holds theview that the State should refrain from con-trolling the media.

Activities

Human and Trade Union Rights

As early as 1992, the IFJ set up an “Interna-tional Safety Fund” to provide humanitarian aidto journalists and media-workers in dire straits.The money is donated by journalists and theirtrade unions from all parts of the world. Fundresources are also used to send monitoring com-missions to regions and countries where therights of the press and of trade unions are vio-lated and to report about these cases.

For instance, the IFJ launched a worldwidecampaign against the sentencing of journalistsin Indonesia. In former Yugoslavia, the IFJ sup-ported some 50 independent media organisationsacross the borders caused by the war. In 1995,the Congress decided, amongst other things, toestablish a commission to examine the so-called“hate media”, which have been spreading warpropaganda and provoking hatred between dif-ferent ethnic groups, nationalities or religions.In solidarity with endangered journalists, theCongress also decided to establish a regionalCenter in Algeria. Between 1993 and 1996 al-most 50 journalists were killed by terrorists inAlgeria. Another Center offering assistance tojournalists was later established in East Timor,and since 1999 the IFJ has provided active sup-

port to the association of journalists in the Ko-sovo with the aim of relaunching their activities.

In 1999, more than 80 journalists lost theirlives worldwide while on duty, including manywho were murdered. The IFJ therefore calls forthe adopton of an international code of conductfor the protection of journalist activities.

Defense of Democracy and Pluralism

The IFJ has drawn up a program “Media forDemocracy” with which to defend democracyand pluralism. It sponsors activities for the pro-motion of independent media and cooperateswith those publishers, who train journalists andhuman rights organisations on three continents.

The IFJ also speaks up in favour of coop-eration between media-workers’ unions andbroadcasting staff with the aim of defendingpublic broadcasting. It initiates regional cam-paigns for the freedom of broadcasting and forstrengthening social and professional rights inthe development of the “information society”.

The IFJ has published a policy document en-titled “Access and Pluralism in the InformationSociety”. While it welcomes the potential advan-tages of the “information society” such as grow-ing economic activity, greater opportunities forwork, access to considerably improved publicservices for the public at large, more democracyand greater public participation in decision-making, the IFJ also cautions that this processcannot be successful without more extensiveinvolvement of citizens and workers. As long asit is merely driven by technological progress andmarket conditions, there is a danger of increas-ing media concentration on the basis of com-mercialized programs in a sensational andviolence-ridden television dominated by adver-tizing and sales interests; this may ultimatelylead to a situation in which political institutionswill be under the influence of media conglom-erates. At the same time, the concentration ofmedia power in the wealthy, metropolized so-cieties will widen the gap between the rich andthe poor around the globe as well as exclude

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certain sectors of the population from infor-mation, thus keeping them in discriminatoryisolation.

The IFJ-policy document calls for a more ho-listic approach which brings together all stake-holders at the national, regional and internatio-nal levels for a joint discussion of the problems.To ensure the same free access to the networkfor everyone must ultimately be the objective.In this context, the IFJ also calls for a closerexamination of the social effects of the infor-mation society and a regulatory framework forthe protection of social and employment rightsof tele-workers.

In June 2000, the IFJ organised an interna-tional summit in Caracas on the topic “authors’rights”. It ended with a decision for a global cam-paign of coordinated action to protect authors’rights. The target groups are writers, journalistsand other creative individuals, and also humanrights groups, trade unions, politicians and em-ployers. The underlying principle is that moralrights are also universal human rights. Collectivenegotiations are intended to strengthen theorganisation of both employed and freelancejournalists and to make their representationmore effective. Closer cooperation with othertrade unions and other sympathising groups isrequired in order to improve legal protection.For this purpose, strategies for legal harmoni-sation, information and advanced training andalso for awareness-building are to be drawn upfor both IFJ-members and sympathisers. In ad-dition, it is necessary to develop a code of con-duct, to campaign for the right to collective nego-tiations where appropriate and to build up suit-able databases.

Projects, Education, Training

The IFJ-project department has planned orimplemented a total of 42 project activities forthe period 1999/2000, some of them of a long-

term nature. They include very diverse educa-tion and training courses dealing with both tradeunion and journalistic aspects. There were 14programs in Europe which were concentratedon the south-eastern part of the continent withspecial funds being available in the wake ofevents on the Balkan. Africa held 9 meetingswhich dealt primarily with trade union and le-gal problems. In Asia, the IFJ also sponsored 9project activities which focussed almost exclu-sively on organisational problems of trade unions.In contrast, the Latin American program in-cluded an educational program for young tradeunionists over several years and seminars onlegal problems and election reporting. At theglobal level, a survey was compiled with the ILOon working conditions for free-lance journalistsas well as a study on the contribution made bywomen journalists in the struggle for trade unionrights and freedom of the press. A competitionfor products which highlight the importance ofhuman rights for development was organisedover a period of three years and concluded bySeptember 2001.

A major part of the IFJ-anti-racist campaignsis handled by the International Media Groupagainst Racism and Xenophobia (IMRAX). IMRAXrepresents another European coalition of jour-nalists and media experts which was set up in1995 to deal specifically with professional ethicsand standards. IMRAX aims at drawing up aninternational strategy for improving the qualityof reports on race, tolerance and multi-culturalco-existence. IMRAX organised 7 internationalconferences since its inception and took part indesigning the IFJ-award for journalists whoreport on problems of anti-racism and xeno-phobia.

In addition, the IFJ is in charge of the Roy-aumont journalistic sub-project funded by theEU which is intended to enhance peace, stabilityand good neighbourly relations between South-East European states.

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Relationship vis-a-vis InternationalOrganisations

The IFJ maintains relationships with UNESCO,the ILO, the World Intellectual Property Organi-sation (WIPO), the UN-Center for Human Rights,the International Committee of the Red Crossand Amnesty International, among others. TheIFJ also participates in the Information SocietyForum of the EU which studies the effects oftechnical and social change in connection withthe emerging information society and new me-dia systems.

Information and Networks

The IFJ circulates the information letter“Directline” among its affiliated organisationsand some 1,500 subscribers in three languages.It reports on activities of member unions, hu-man rights issues, new technologies etc.. Specialissues publish the evaluation of questionnairesfrom members, for instance concerning workingconditions, minimum and maximum wages,working hours, leave regulations, overtime pay,holidays and holiday pay etc..

In addition, the IFJ issues the “Euronews”-bulletin for the area of organisation of the Euro-pean Journalists’ Federation and the “NewsLine” in connection with the Royaumont-project.

In order to monitor attacks against the mediaand to make them public, the IFJ – together withother free-press organisations – has establisheda worldwide electronic network to quickly dis-seminate such news via electronic mail.

Future Challenges

A technological revolution is in full swing inthe media sector, accompanied by radical chang-es in the ownership of capital. By now, interna-tional media conglomerates, telephone and com-puter companies are fighting each other overworldwide domination of the new multi-mediamarkets. This technical revolution will result indramatic changes in work contents and locations.Cross-border networks destroy the division linesbetween national and regional jurisdiction. Newcopying and conversion technologies and dis-tributed databases on worldwide computer net-works are making it increasingly difficult toprotect intellectual property. Protection of sourc-es of confidential information is in jeopardy ifeach digitalized telephone call can be latertraced back to source.

Access to information in this new mediaworld cannot be left to Capital alone. Even todaythe overwhelming majority of people in thisworld have never made a telephone call, whilea small minority has been surfing the Interneteach day for a long time. Those who control in-formation will also have the power. Concentra-tion of information in the hands of the few mustbe stopped if the gap between the haves andthe have-nots in information is not to widen evenfurther.

The radical changes in the communicationssector are particularly drastic for those workingas journalists. It is becoming increasingly obviousthat the media revolution will become the greatestchallenge of all for future activities of the IFJ.

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Metalworkers who participated in an inter-national socialist congress in Zurich founded theInternational Metalworkers’ Federation in 1893.It started with an information office for theexchange of information and one liaison officerin each of the 8 countries: Switzerland, Ger-many, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, GreatBritain and the USA. At the time of foundationthe Federation had 60,000 members. The in-ternational movement grew fast and gave itselfthe name International Metalworkers’ Feder-ation (IMF) in 1904.

Today, the IMF has more than 200 affiliatedunions in 100 countries with more than 25million metalworkers.■ Areas of organisation: production workersand salaried employees in the automobile indus-try, aerospace industry, electrical engineeringand electronics, mechanical engineering and themetal-processing industry, ship-building, ironand steel production as well as in the productionof non-ferrous metals.■ Organisational structure: Congress (every fouryears); Central Committee (as executive body);Executive Committee (as managing committee);

Finance Committee. The located Secretariat isin Geneva from where the General Secretary and27 members of staff take care of the day-to-daybusiness.■ Regional structure: in the face of growing glob-alisation of the economy, special attention hasbeen paid to the building-up of regional struc-tures in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Centraland Eastern Europe. 16 sub-regions have beenestablished in these four regions and regularmeetings take place between them. There are of-fices in Johannesburg for Eastern and SouthernAfrica, in Santiago de Chile and Mexico City forLatin America and the Caribbean, in New Delhifor South Asia, in Kuala Lumpur for SoutheastAsia and the Pacific. There is also a project officein Moscow, for the CIS-countries.■ Sectoral structure: sectoral groups in theabove-listed areas of organisation and inter-pro-fessional groups such as women and non-manu-al workers.

Special Aspects

The International Metalworkers’ Federationis supporting solidarity across national bound-aries between blue- and white-collar workersin important industrial sectors, with the aim of

International Metalworkers’ Federation

(IMF)

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improving pay and working conditions formillions of people.

This goal has been guiding IMF policy forover 100 years. Trade unions are now confront-ed by new and difficult challenges with economicglobalisation. Modern technology has in manyways erased national boundaries and increasedthe pace of change in industry. Twenty yearsago, companies found it very difficult to moveproduction from one country to another; today, itcan be done in very little time. The driving forcebehind it is usually the search for the cheapestpossible production. Every one of these decisionsaffects working people and their families.

The most important job for unions today isthe struggle to make economic globalisation serveall people. The trade union movement must actas a global counterbalance to the power of in-ternational capital.

It is not only globalisation which is havingan impact on the work of trade unions. Increas-ing numbers of women workers and white-collarworkers urgently require changes in workingpractices and in trade union structures. Industryhas new demands for knowledge, which meansthat trade unions have to think in new ways.Increasing numbers of white-collar workerscombined with a decreasing number of tradi-tional blue-collar jobs are having an impact ontrade unions at all levels.

Thus international trade union activities aremore relevant than ever.

The aims of the IMF include working withaffiliates to:● organise new members and democratic asso-ciations for metalworkers all over the world;● strengthen the rights of workers, especiallywomen workers;● ensure that International Framework Agree-ments are introduced into transnational com-panies;● influence politicians so that their decisionslead to a fair distribution of growth and resources.

Activities

The IMF and its large affiliates in the in-dustrial countries have been in the vanguard oftrade unions’ successful campaigns, in partic-ular since the second World War. It was fre-quently an affiliated union of the “Iron Interna-tional” which brought down so-called “ultimatebarriers” of the employers in a given country, forinstance in the fight for a reduction of workinghours, longer leave or work-free weekends. Inmost cases this was the result of bitter strike ac-tion. The successes achieved by member unionsof the IMF could later be claimed by workers inother branches of industry as well. IMF-solidari-ty played a not insignificant role in achievingthese breakthroughs.

The IMF seeks to build a global movementof metalworkers by adding a global dimensionto all trade union activities. In this context, theIMF supports worldwide the campaigns aimedat organising the unorganised Activities includeorganising projects and education of trade uniontrainers.

The IMF organises dozens of seminars andcourses every year, often in developing countriesor in countries with fragile or threatened unions.Courses are normally organised by the IMF’sRegional and Project Offices, and subjects includehow to organise a union, how to recruit and re-tain members, or how to negotiate and formulatecollective bargaining agreements. Special semi-nars are organised for women.

Regional conferences for specific industriesprepare the ground for collaboration and ex-changes of information within a particularsector. World Company Councils bring togethertrade union activists within transnational com-panies.

A Summer School is organised by the IMFin Geneva, Switzerland. Around 20 membersfrom nearly as many countries attend. The Sum-mer School is aimed at young women and menwho are active in affiliated unions. For the tradeunion movement all over the world, it is a mat-

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ter of survival to recruit not only more women,but also younger people.


Against the framework and the priorities setby the IMF Action Program, IMF co-operationwith the other Global Union Federations, theICFTU and TUAC focus mainly on action towardsthe international financial institutions, the WTO,the World Economic Forum, the World SocialForum and the movements of the civil society.

Social movements all over the world are lead-ing struggles that the trade union movementshould be leading. In order to play its role fullythe trade union movement needs to have clearobjectives in mind when meeting with institutionsof the multilateral system, and coherence withthese objectives should be reflected in the af-filiates’ strategy at national level, especially vis-à-vis the international financial institutions.

The IMF Action Program clearly sets the fightfor a social dimension to economic globalisationas a main goal. Collective bargaining is indicatedas the key instrument for the promotion and theprotection of fundamental rights and to tackleinequalities in society. In order to achieve thesegoals metalworkers need to act at national and

international level, and to establish alliances withsocial movements sharing their fundamental val-ues and aspirations.

For trade to benefit the world’s people areform of the WTO is indispensable; social, la-bour and environmental norms have to be incor-porated in its rules; WTO and BWI policies needto be reoriented with a development focus in-cluding increased purchasing power for workersin developing countries and improved access tomarkets in the developed world. Reform of theinternational financial institutions is long over-due and their greater transparency and account-ability is indispensable.

The IMF will join other trade union bodiesto push for the establishment of a so-called TobinTax, for debt cancellation, for human and work-ers’ rights issues to be addressed by the BWIpolicies, and more generally for the organisa-tions of the UN system to follow-up the principlesof the UN Copenhagen Summit.

Transnational Companies (TNCs)

For a large number of TNCs, the IMF organ-ises regularly industry-wide conferences andmeetings at company level at which the workerscan develop joint strategies and adopt a coor-dinated trade union negotiating policy.

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International Framework Agreements (IFAs)are a relatively recent tool but one now widelyused by the IMF and other Global Union Fed-erations to lay down the rules of conduct fortransnational companies. Since they are nego-tiated on a global level and require the partici-pation of trade unions, International FrameworkAgreements are an ideal instrument for dealingwith the issues raised by globalisation.

International Framework Agreements (for-merly called Codes of Conduct) are negotiatedbetween a transnational company and the tradeunions of its workforce at the global level. It is aglobal instrument with the purpose of ensuringfundamental workers’ rights in all of the targetcompany’s locations. Thus, IFAs are negotiatedon a global level but implemented locally.

Generally, an IFA recognises the ILO Core La-bour Standards. In addition, the company shouldalso agree to offer decent wages and working con-ditions as well as to provide a safe and hygienicworking environment. Furthermore, there is anagreement that suppliers must be persuadedto comply and, finally, the IFA includes tradeunions in the implementation.

Transnational business operations and aglobal economy raise issues that go beyond thereach of national legislation. Through IFAs, theILO’s Core Labour Standards can be guaranteedin all facilities of a transnational company. Thisis especially helpful in transitional and develop-ing countries, where legislation is sometimesinsufficient, poorly enforced or anti-worker.

IFAs are a way to promote workers’ rights inthe global arena. The arrangement guaranteesinfluence and the possibility of a dialogue that ismutually beneficial. Unlike unilateral Codes ofConduct, IFAs emphasise implementation, whichpaves the way for actual improvements.

Currently (July 2003), the IMF has signed 5IFAs, for the TNCs Merloni, Volkswagen, Daim-lerChrysler, Leoni and GEA.

Equality of Opportunity and Women’sWork

To implement equality of opportunity andequal rights at the workplace for everyone, wo-men or men, young or old, irrespective of raceor origin has been an central area of activity forthe IMF. As early as 1952, a solidarity fund fortrade unions from Third World countries wasestablished. 40 percent of the IMF’s income isearmarked for activities in the developing coun-tries. The money is spent, in particular, on assist-ing the colleagues in the impoverished countriesto build up and to strengthen free, independentand democratic metalworkers’ unions.

Special attention is paid to the recruitmentof women workers. The IMF makes efforts toadd momentum to this field of work by meansof industrial actions and international cam-paigns, and also to call for greater solidarity withwomen.

Moreover, the IMF is also addressing thecritical under-representation of women in IMFstructures. The IMF Executive Committee hasvoted unanimously to recommend to the nextIMF Congress (in 2005) that the IMF Rules bechanged to increase the size of the Executive to24 members, of whom at least six must be wo-men, and to reserve six seats for women, dis-tributed equally between the regions.

The decision forms part of a broader plat-form of measures endorsed by the Executive.These include establishing women’s structuresat world and regional or sub-regional levels, set-ting a 20 per cent target for women’s partici-pation at meetings of the Central Committee andCongress, and holding a Women’s Conferencein conjunction with the Congress.

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The IMF communicates with its affiliates,their members and the rest of the world througha number of different channels. The website,www.imfmetal.org, is updated daily. A news bul-letin, IMF NewsBriefs, is distributed weekly bye-mail or fax, in English and Spanish.

A magazine, Metal World, containing articles,interviews and analyses, is published quarterlyin English, Japanese and Russian.

Reports are published frequently. One of themis a classic, “The Purchasing Power of WorkingTime”, a comparative study on the developmentof purchasing power in various countries. Theconstant changes in the auto industries of theworld are covered in the “IMF Auto Report”,which appears regularly.

All IMF publications are available for down-loading from the IMF’s website: www.imfmetal.org.The majority are available in several languages.

Challenges and Future Activities

The traditional iron and steel industry hasprovided (and is still providing in many coun-tries) a strong basis for IMF-membership, but itis increasingly being shifted into raw-materialproducing low-wage countries. Overcapacitiesare the result of this development and in timesof economic decline (as in the former USSR) theycan only be fully utilized with the help of dump-ing prices. In consequence, formerly dominatingindustries are unable to compete and turn wholeregions into an industrial wasteland. Conversely,former heavy-industry enterprises are increas-ingly using high-tech. The IMF is challengedto organise a new stratum of highly-qualifiedskilled workers in these firms, of whom manybelieve that they have little in common with thetraditions of workers in heavy industry.

The IMF has applied for the status of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with the WorldTrade Organisation and the World Bank.

With the aim of giving new impetus to inter-national solidarity, the IMF has adopted a cross-border action program for the next few years inorder:● to strengthen international cooperation in theeconomic and financial fields by promoting pro-ductive investments and creating jobs, by regulat-ing and stabilizing the financial markets and bypreventing a dismantling of social security sys-tems and ensuring sustainable economic growth;● to ban social dumping of any kind;● to integrate developing countries in the worldeconomy.

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The PSI was established in the year 1907.In 1935, the International Federation of SalariedEmployees in Public Administrations and Com-panies merged with the International Federationof Government Servants and Teachers (theteachers had already left in 1927). Until 1958the organisation called itself “InternationalFederation of Salaried Employees in Public andGovernment Services”.

At the end of 2003 the PSI membership con-sisted of more than 600 organisations in about140 countries with a total of some 20 millionmembers. The share of women in the overallmembership amounts to some 65 percent world-wide.

Public Service International (PSI)

Areas of organisation: employees in publicadministrations, enterprises and institutions oflocal authorities, public authorities, foundations,public-law institutions; in companies generatingand distributing gas, electricity and water, inwaste management; in the environmental, socialand health sector; in public educational, cultural,leisure-time and similar facilities, administra-tions and companies delivering public services;and last but not least employees in internatio-nal institutions which have been established bystates or communities of states. Following theprivatisation of services which were originallyprovided by the State, a growing number ofworkers from private companies are membersas well. Teachers and employees of State-runpostal and railway services are explicitly ex-cluded; for them, decisions of the PSI are merelyrecommendations.■ Organisational structure: Congress (every fiveyears); President, General Secretary, and 12 Vice-Presidents (six from Europe and two each fromthe three other regions – with equal represen-tation between men and women). Steering Com-mittee consisting of President, General Secretary,Chair of Women’s Committee and Vice-Presidents;Executive Board consisting of President, GeneralSecretary, Chair of the Women’s Committee, Vice-Presidents and titular representatives from 24geographical areas; Women’s Committee (24 ti-tular members); Secretariat (with General Secre-tary and 27 members of staff at headquarters).■ Regional structure: 4 regional committees, i.e.AFREC (Africa/Arab countries), APREC (Asia/Pa-cific), IAMREC (the Inter-Americas) and EUREC(Europe), and 4 Regional Secretaries. In addition,PSI has 16 Sub-regional Secretaries each presid-ing over a sub-regional committee. PSI also em-ploys project coordinators (varying in numbers).The line of accountability, planning and budg-

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eting in this well-established worldwide net-work is from sub-regions to the regions to theExecutive Board. In 2003, there were some 50staff members in the regions.

Special Aspects

Originally, the main criteria for membershipin the PSI was that only organisations withpublic-sector employees who could not join anyother trade secretariat would be accepted. Thisprinciple has been diluted in the course of priva-tisations, for PSI-affiliates did not leave theirmembers in the lurch when their enterprise wasprivatised, but continued to take care of them.

However, this resulted in an overlap with otherGlobal Union Federations, notably with UNI.

As neo-liberalism with its emphasis on in-dividualism has been gaining ground, it hasbecome more difficult to recruit new memberseven in countries with long-standing establishedpublic-service unions. Many member unions areinvolved at present in defensive campaignsagainst cuts and reductions in staff in the publicsector. But in many countries the right to strikeis being handled more restrictively for public-sector employees than for those in the privatesector so that alternative forms of industrialconfrontation and action must be found. ThePSI is supporting its member unions through

Decision-making Structure

Executie Board(Steering CTTEE)

➤➤

SUBRACs

NCCs (Affiliates)

➤➤

➤

➤

➤

➤

➤

➤

➤

World Women‘s Cttee

RECs

➤➤

➤

Regional WOCs

National WOCs

Sub-Regional WOCs

Accountability

General Secretary

Regional Secretaries General Secretary

➤➤

➤

➤

➤

Sub-reg. Projekt Coordinators

Sub-regional Secretaries

➤

General Secretary

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political action to get them off the defensive andinto pro-active campaigns.


The PSI vehemently opposes ideologically-motivated developments towards privatisationof each and every public service. Public serviceshave an important social part to play, they preventinequalities in the fulfilment of basic needs andin the eradication of under-development and poverty.The PSI is therefore firmly convinced that publicservices need democratic control and must not besubjected to the dictates of profitmaximisation.

Therefore the PSI does not restrict itself todirect union representation of its affiliates, butis involved at the political level in creating andprotecting the necessary general conditions. ThePSI is committed to the principles of parliamen-tary democracy and a pluralist political system.It supports dialogue and negotiations. It is con-vinced that for a market economic system, in par-ticular, to be successful it needs a strong, democ-ratically-structured public sector and powerfulunions which, together with a strong economy,secure employment, an adequate standard ofliving and social justice for everyone in society.Without a sense of community a democracy isdoomed to fail.

The PSI does not deny the necessity of public-sector reforms. Public services must be decen-tralised to ensure greater participation of citi-zens and to be able to respond flexibly to chang-ed general technical and economic conditions.This requires a rethinking among public serviceemployees as well. Trade unions, which are stillstrongly centralised in many countries, mustreform their structures accordingly.

Activities

The range of PSI-activities is as wide as itsmembership and continues to expand in orderto meet new requirements. The PSI attachesgreater importance to political activities than domost of the other Global Union Federations inprivate industry. Conversely, topics that consume

a lot of energy in other Global Union Federations,such as competition through wage dumpingabroad or transfer of production in transnationalenterprises, only started to influence the workof the organisation with the progress of globa-lisation. However, structural adjustment meas-ures by governments affect the public sectormuch more than many of the private industries.

Some of the PSI-affiliates have more than 1million members and can certainly influence thediscussion on social policies in their countries.In other cases, the unions are still too small andin their infancy have to fight for their recognitionas partners in negotiations. In addition, thesalaried employees and civil servants in theirmembership are still denied fundamental tradeunion rights. This is a special concern of thePSI, which has always dedicated much attentionto this subject.

The PSI World Congress in 2002 in Ottawa,Canada, adopted a program of action (POA) toguide worldwide operations, actions and con-crete campaigns for the next five years. The POAis divided into four broad areas, entitled: Win-ning Workers’ Rights; Public Sector Workers andTheir Work; Equality, Equity and Diversity; andUnion Development and International Solidarity.See www.world-psi.org for details.

On the basis of the POA, detailed planningtakes place each year at regional and sub-re-gional levels. This enables the member organi-sations to identify their own needs, which canthen be translated into regional and sub-region-al action programs.

Congress also decided to start a global cam-paign for quality public services. There is grow-ing awareness that quality public services areessential in the eradication of poverty, centralto generating sustainable growth and develop-ment and well-functioning societies. The ob-jectives of the campaign are:● to ensure that public services are adequatelyfunded and resourced, with well-trained work-ers delivering quality services;● to develop the ability of public services to meetsocial objectives – particularly the eradicationof poverty and the empowerment of people;

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● to ensure that public services meet highstandards of ethical behaviour, and enable na-tional and global economies to operate effective-ly and equitably;● to ensure that public sector workers have fullrights and decent working conditions.


The PSI represents the public-service unionsat an international level. It is recognised andconsulted by the ILO and other UN-organisationsas well as by the institutions of the EuropeanUnion. At a time of globalisation, monetarism,privatisation and downsizing, PSI has made aname for itself for its uncompromising supportof public services and of social and politicalvalues represented by the public sector.

Since the First Ministerial Conference of theWorld Trade Organisation (WTO) in Singaporein 1996, PSI has monitored WTO work. However,it was in the lead up to Seattle in 1999, PSI start-ed to follow proceedings closely and make a dif-ference in that environment. PSI is part of theGlobal Unions’ Trade, Investment and Interna-tional Labour Standards Network (TILS), and isalso actively involved with two NGO-orientedcoalitions: the ‘Our World Is Not For Sale’ net-work (OWINFS), and the ‘Stop the GATS attack!’coalition. PSI is recognised as a leading critic ofGATS implications for public services, govern-

ments’ abilities to pass regulations with confi-dence, on secret and anti-democratic decision-making and for its effects on developing countries.

Each year, the Global Unions group meetswith the World Bank and IMF senior leadersand officers. The issues covered are: structuraladjustment policies, debt relief, involvement oftrade unions in country-level discussions by theInternational Financial Institutions (IFI) withgovernments, and specific project issues. In ad-dition, PSI is currently participating in discus-sions with the bank on the World DevelopmentReport (WDR) 2004, entitled ‘Making ServicesWork for the Poor’.

Sponsored union development activities in 2002

Africa & Arab Countries37%

Asia Pacific27%

Interamericas25%

Global projects5%

Europe 6%

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Educational activities play a key role in thePSI. This is reflected in the new POA, whichdraws education and capacity building into themain body of the activities under the title ‚Un-ion Development and International Solidarity‘.PSI’s approach to education and developmentprograms are dynamic and clearly linked toissues at the workplace. Based on the principleof ‘learning by doing’, programs encourageactive involvement of the membership in differ-ent activities to strengthen their capacities. Thestrategies involve a variety of tools and elementssuch as:● Strategic planning● Feasibility studies● Local and international campaigns● Membership recruitment● Specific programs for women, and for

young workers● Equal opportunities● Gender awareness● Collective bargaining● Sectoral networks● Leadership development, and more

Women

At the PSI World Congress in 2002 it wasdecided to adopt a new constitution that makesPSI the first major international union organi-sation to have equal gender representation atall decision-making bodies as its official policy.

In addition to the long-running gender main-streaming and empowerment of women cam-paigns, PSI continues to focus on the promotionof pay equity. PSI has been working with theILO and has developed a resource package anda video on this subject.

PSI also works with the ICFTU and EI on amaternity protection campaign. This campaignhas three aims: the ratification of the new ILOConvention 183; lobbying for improvements innational provisions and finally, negotiating im-proved maternity protection in collective agree-ments. A maternity protection kit has been dis-

tributed in 8 languages and PSI has promoted awide range of activities at national level. In thiscampaign PSI has developed a working alliancewith the International Baby Food Action Net-work (IBFAN) and the World Alliance for BreastFeeding (WABA).

Information, Exchange of Experience

PSI publishes a number of regular publicationssuch as the quarterly magazine ‘FOCUS on thePublic Services’, the quarterly ‘PSI Women’,monthly newsletter ‚flashes‘ for each of the re-gions, and a fortnightly PSI World News. In ad-dition, PSI publishes an annual ‚Report of Activ-ities‘ and an unspecified number of one-offbooklets or series on specific subjects. Most ofthese publications are also placed in part or infull on the PSI website (www.world-psi.org).

In co-operation with the Public Services In-ternational Research Unit (PSIRU) at the Uni-versity of Greenwich in the UK, PSI maintains a

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database on multinational companies in utilitiesand health and related services. Reports drawnfrom the database are published as needed andused at international and other relevant meet-ings. All reports are available from the PSIRUwebsite (www.psiru.org).

PSI has for a number of years worked with Bren-dan Martin, Public World (www.publicworld.org).In 1993, he wrote his first book ’In the PublicInterest?‘, which was published in cooperationwith PSI. His next book, entitled ’In the PublicService‘, was published in the Northern Autumn2003.

PSI is also working with a number of re-searchers elsewhere on a more ad hoc basis.


Globalisation has been the driving force ofchange for workers at the international, region-al and national level. Globalisation has beenmade possible by changes in technology, which

have allowed an easier flow of capital, infor-mation, goods and services and people. Inter-national Financial Institutions (IFIs) and theWorld Trade Organisation have acted as the con-veyor belts of these policies.

The neo-liberal policies coming out of theseorganisations have translated into liberalisation,deregulation, tight monetary control, privati-sation and shrinking public sector expenditure.They have also translated into more power tothe already powerful, including the multinatio-nal enterprises (MNEs), which are driving thecurrent form of globalisation, and less respectfor people and human and workers’ rights.

To be effective in the face of deterioratingconditions and rights for unions and its mem-bers, it is necessary to focus scarce resourceson core priorities as outlined in the POA. PSI iscommitted to retaining a strong public serviceidentity, and to recruiting and organising moreworkers.

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Membership

The ITGLWF today represents 216 organi-sations in 106 countries with a total member-ship of more than 10 million workers. Over thepast years there had been a significant decreasein employment and in union membership in theindustrialised world. The growth in the ITGLWF’smembership is Centerd in developing countriesand in the transition economies. This shift inthe base of the industry has been accompaniedby a very considerable increase in workers rightsabuses and in problems faced by unions, ne-cessitating greater global solidarity.

The ITGLWF is funded by subscriptions fromits affiliated organisations. Education and de-velopment aid programs are funded by donororganisations.

Objectives

The aims of the ITGLWF are to:● draw up policy guidelines on important issuesfor unions in the sectors and coordinate the ac-tivities of affiliates around the world;● act as a clearing house for information of re-levance to the daily work of unions in the sector;● undertake solidarity action in support of unionsin the sector whose trade union rights are beingdenied;● run a program of education and developmentaid to assist unions in developing countries inorganising workers and educating their mem-bers to play an active role in their union;● lobby intergovernmental organisations andother relevant institutions to ensure that theinterests of workers in the sectors are taken in-to account in decisions made at internationallevel.

Organisational Structures

The decision-making authority of the ITGLWFis vested in its governing bodies, which are re-presentative of union membership worldwide.The Congress is the supreme authority of theITGLWF and meets once every four years to de-cide general policy. It is composed of delegatesfrom affiliated organisations.

The Executive Committee meets once a yearand is responsible for directing the activities ofthe ITGLWF and implementing the decisions ofthe Congress. It provides representation on thebasis of number of paid-up members by countryand currently includes representation from 34countries.

The Presidium meets twice a year and isresponsible for the administration of the affairsof the ITGLWF as well as having the authorityto take decisions on matters of immediate ur-gency. The Presidium is composed of the Presi-dent and fifteen Vice-Presidents. The Secretariatof the ITGLWF is headed by the General Secre-tary with a team of 8 staff members.

While the overall priorities and policies ofthe ITGLWF are handled at global level, region-al activities and relations are covered by theregional organisations. The regionals operateas an integral part of the ITGLWF, though eachhas its own decision-making bodies and con-ducts its own activities:● FITTVCC/ORI, the Americas’ regional organi-sation, is based in Venezuela.● ITGLWF/ERO, the European regional organi-sation, is based in Belgium.● TWARO, the Asian regional organisation isbased in Japan.● ARCC, the African Regional ConsultativeCouncil, is based in South Africa.

International Textile, Garment and Leather

Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF)INTERNATIONAL TE

XTIL

E G A

R ME N

T & L E A T H E R W O R K E R S © F EDERATION

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The textile, garment and leatherindustries

Nowhere is globalisation more apparent thanin the textile, clothing and footwear industrieswhere production is carried out in 160 countriesfor export into the markets of only about thirtynations.

As many as ten different countries may havecontributed to the production of any single gar-ment we are wearing. The cotton grown in Se-negal, spun in Pakistan, woven in Turkey, cutin Germany, stitched in Tunisia, the thread fromIreland, the buttons from China, the labels fromIndonesia, the packaging made in Mexico, thegarment finished in Malta.

In addition, much of the production is nowcarried out in Free Trade Zones where nationallabour legislation either doesn’t apply or is ignoredby employers and the authorities. More than 27million workers are now employed in such zones.

This competition, fragmentation of produc-tion and lack of respect for basic worker rightsis having a major impact on workers in the sector.

Exceptionally low wages and long workinghours are common. For example, women inBangladesh sew garments for up to 16 hours aday, seven days a week for a monthly wage ofless than US $ 20. In Cambodia, teenagers dieat their sewing machines from a combinationof exhaustion and malnutrition.

Activities and Priorities of the ITGLWF

The 8th World Congress held in Sweden in2000 charted a path for the ITGLWF for the nextfour years and beyond.

Organising

At the Center of ITGLWF activity are organ-ising, improving the ability of trade unions torepresent their members and encouraging theparticipation of ordinary union members in thedemocratic life of their unions.

Without the right to organise, the most fun-damental of all workers rights, it is almostimpossible to secure or defend other rights.Unions must broaden their membership baseand put organising and recruitment at theforefront of all their activities. The 8th WorldCongress committed the ITGLWF to devoting atleast 15% of its total resources to organising.

Developing the ability to negotiate interna-tional framework agreements with leading mul-tinational manufacturers, merchandisers andretailers in the sector and the extensive use ofcorporate codes of conduct plays a key role inthe organising process. The ITGLWF is currentlyengaging a number of MNCs in discussionsaround a detail framework agreement.

Faced with constant attacks on their members,unions must make full use of other measures, in-

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cluding trade mechanisms and corporate cam-paigning, to enforce international minimum la-bour standards. All affiliates should vigorouslypursue the linkage of trade to respect for inter-nationally recognised labour standards

Health and Safety

Health and safety is a major problem in thesesectors, though workers and even unions maynot be aware of work-related health problems,some of which may not manifest themselves foryears. Noise, dust, bad postures, lack of sanitaryfacilities, overcrowded workplaces, very longworking hours, chemicals, repetitive movementsand stress are just some of the problems workersface both in developed and developing countries.

The ITGLWF runs an extensive health andsafety program which aims to reach not onlyorganised workplaces but also reach the unor-ganised sector, including the informal economyand small workplaces.

Child labour

The ITGLWF is committed to the abolition ofchild labour. Much has been achieved in recentyears to raise awareness of the evil of child la-bour, and this awareness had provided the po-litical pressure needed to force government inmany countries to begin to devote the resourc-es needed to provide a decent education systemwhich will bring children out of the workplaceand provide them with a future. However, manygovernments still fail to make the necessaryeducation provision, and still trot out traditional

excuses for the use of child labour. But the causesof child labour remain the same – the greed ofemployers, the connivance of certain govern-ments and the continuing insensitivity of thosewho buy goods made by exploited youngsters.

Women

The majority of workers in the textile, cloth-ing and leather sectors are women, who areamong those worst affected by violations of hu-man and trade union rights, which occur mostfrequently in the informal sector and in exportprocessing zones, which employ a high pro-portion of women.

The ITGLWF is committed to increasing thenumber of women recruited through its organis-ing program. It is actively participating in theICFTU’s 3 year worldwide campaign “Organ-ising for Equality”, aimed at doubling the unionmembership of women, with special attentiongiven to those in the informal sector, export pro-cessing zones and atypical work.

Used clothing

The trade in second-hand goods is destroyingjobs in the industry and worsen poverty, particu-larly in Africa, where local industries are beingsuffocated by the onslaught of imported usedclothing.

The ITGLWF is committed to ensuring thatused clothing donated for the poor is used forthat purpose and is distributed free of charge,thus avoiding the damage being caused indeveloping countries.

International structures of the tradeunion movement

One of the priorities for the ITGLWF ispursuing the restructuring of the internationaltrade union movement, in order to secure tradeunion structures which will best representworkers interests 20 years from now and tomake the changes necessary to these structuresto ensure a more responsive, professional andeffective global labour movement.

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The International Transport Workers’ Fede-ration originates from the International Feder-ation of Ship, Dock and Riverside Workers,which was founded in London in 1896 as an or-ganisation for seamen and dockers. Two yearslater it included land transport and changed itsname to ITF. When the aviation sector haddeveloped technically, it was integrated as well.Its headquarters were first in Berlin and thenAmsterdam before, under the growing threatof Nazism, it moved to London in 1938.

At the beginning of 2004 the membershipfigures exceeded 5 million from 621 trade unionsin 137 countries. Around 12% of members arewomen.■ Areas of organisation: all workers in thetransport industry, fisheries workers and tour-ism services workers.■ Organisational structure: congress (every 4years); President and 5 Vice-Presidents (at leastone of which comes from each of the 5 regionsand one must be a woman); Executive Com-mittee with 38 members, including the GeneralSecretary who heads the Secretariat.■ Regional structure: regional/subregional of-fices in Nairobi and Ouagadougou for Africa, inTokyo and Delhi for Asia/Pacific, in Brussels andMoscow for Europe and in Rio de Janeiro forLatin America and the Caribbean.■ Sectoral structure: 8 industry sections, nota-bly the railways (1.3m members), road transport(1.5m), inland navigation (55,000), docks (380,000),seafaring (655,000), fisheries (112,000), civilaviation (602,000), tourism services (60,000).For the latter a European Liaison Committeewas established in 1995, which operates jointlywith UNI and IUF because of overlapping juris-diction with these other Global Union Federa-

International Transport Workers’ Federation

(ITF)

tions. A Special Seafarers’ Department overseesthe industrial side of the ITF campaign againstFlags of Convenience (FOCs) which reports tothe Fair-Practices-Committee (FPC) a body con-sisting of equal numbers of members of ITF sea-farers’ and dockers’ unions.

Each of the section committees maintains anetwork of subcommittees and working groupsand task forces dealing with specific occupa-tional categories, issues or campaigns. Campaignsconducted by the industrial sections include theregular Action Day against long hours and fa-tigue in road transport, the campaign for publicservices and safety in railways, the ‘air rage’campaign in civil aviation, the campaign to stampout union busting in the ports and the campaignto concentrate attention on seafarers on the an-nual World Maritime Day organised by the In-ternational Maritime Organisation.

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Special Aspects

Whereas the ITF operates in a similar wayto other Global Union Federations in sometransport sectors, in shipping, thanks to the Flagof Convenience system, it has taken over manyfunctions which normally would be taken careof by national unions. For over 50 years, in whatwas the first demonstration of globalisation,shipowners have been registering their vesselsin countries which have rented their flags outto owners of any nationality and which make iteasy to avoid tax, social legislation and natio-nal trade unions. Since seafarers on these ves-sels cannot be protected by their national unions,the ITF seafarers’ and dockers’ unions have to-gether been operating a campaign against theflag of convenience system. This takes two forms;a political campaign to persuade internationalorganisations such as the UN to end the FOCsystem itself, and an industrial campaign de-signed to provide trade union protection andminimum employment standards for the sea-farers concerned. Having long laid down suchstandards unilaterally, in 2000 for the first timethe ITF concluded an international collectivebargaining agreement laying down minimumwages and conditions for seafarers on FOC shipswith a large international group of maritime em-ployers. Seafarers concerned are either mem-bers of an ITF union or, if no union exists in thecountry concerned, can be enrolled directly intothe ITF Special Seafarers Department. The ITFthus is the only global union federation whichdirectly influences wages and working con-ditions of a specific group of workers.


Apart from regular tasks such as campaign-ing for human and trade union rights and sup-porting affiliated organisations, the ITF is alsocooperating in international and regional bodieswhich regulate the transport sector economicallyand socially and draw up policy guidelines forthe industry. Owing to the special conditions inthe transport sector, the ITF must frequently pro-

vide direct help in cases where other GlobalUnion Federations can indirectly assist throughtheir member organisations.

Activities

Mobilising SolidarityAt its 1998 Congress the ITF adopted a policy

program ‚Mobilising Solidarity‘ designed tobring international action much closer to themembers of transport unions and to flatten the‚communications pyramid‘ which can often slowdown international solidarity. This has includeda series of education activities including an an-nual summer school for key activists, educationmaterials and networks of rank and file unionofficials. At its 2002 Congress, the ITF adopteda second policy program ‘Globalising Solidarity’which built on the progress made since Delhiwhile also concentrating attention on buildingmore effective international campaigns, strength-ening links with the global trade union move-ment and the wider social movement and deal-ing with the increasingly integrated global lo-gistics business for transporting goods world-wide. Both programs have also highlighted theneed to build national coordinating committeesof ITF unions as the basis for building nationalunity.

Direct Assistance to SeafarersThe ITF plays a central role in providing

assistance for seafarers worldwide both througha network of over 130 inspectors in ports aroundthe world, and through a headquarters staffdealing directly with seafarers’ problems. Thisactivity is funded by the International Seafarers’Welfare Assistance and Protection Fund whichis financed by levies on shipowners who havesigned ITF collective agreements on more than6000 Flag of Convenience ships .

The FOC campaign has recently launchednew activities in special sectors of shipping. Onecampaign, dealing with the offshore oil supplyindustry, is being run jointly with ICEM. Another,dealing with cruise ships, includes a campaignoffice in Florida.

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Representation vis-à-vis TransnationalEnterprises

The ITF is increasingly being confronted withthe impact of globalisation in the large corpo-rations with which it has dealings. However, in-ternational solidarity could be mobilised in aseries of spectacular cases to halt it. This is par-ticularly important in aviation where multina-tional companies are as yet unable to operatedue to international regulations and which haveinstead created so-called airline ‘alliances’. TheITF has created parallel ‘solidarity alliances’bringing together the unions in the airlines con-cerned. The ITF also maintains a network ofunion officials and representatives responsible forrelations with the growing number of transna-tional companies in the bus/rail industries suchas Vivendi/Connex (where it works with PSI andUNI), and UK based companies including FirstGroup, National Express and Stagecoach.


The ITF participates in all international organ-isations that are relevant to the transport sec-tor. A special role is attributed to its activitieswithin the ILO and the International MaritimeOrganisation (IMO). As a result of efforts made

by ITF affiliates in the course of many years, itwas possible to have more than 50 conventionsand recommendations adopted by the ILO spe-cifically covering workers in maritime shipping.In 2001, the ILO decided to merge all these in-struments into a single framework maritimelabour convention which will effectively becomemandatory for any ship engaged in internatio-nal commerce. It is expected that this conventionwill be adopted by a special ILO conference in2005. A similar instrument is also planned forfisheries.

WomenThe ITF vigorously supports gender equality

in all areas of the transport industry. The elec-tion of a Women’s Committee in 1998 greatlyreinforced the relevant activities. Five membersof the Executive Committee including one of theITF-Vice-Presidents are women. The Women’sCommittee is responsible for an intensive pro-gram of educational and campaigning activitiesin the different regions and for the creation of aseries of women’s networks

A preliminary survey in 1999 identified themost important areas for future activities forwomen. An initiative based on these findingshas two major objectives:

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● to improve employment rights of women inthe transport sector,● to extend national and international unionactivities earmarked for the female members.

Information

The ITF publishes ‘Transport International’– an in-depth publication aimed at transportunion activists four times a year together withan electronic information bulletin ‘ITF NewsOnline’. It also publishes regular sectional bul-letins, leaflets and campaign guides. The ITF‘Seafarers’ Bulletin’ is distributed directly toworkers involved in the maritime industry in 10languages with a circulation of nearly 230,000copies. It also produces a wide range of educat-ion materials, films and other audiovisual ma-terials, details of which can be found on the ITF’sweb site: www.itf.org.uk


The transport industry is developing rapidlyand becoming increasingly integrated betweentransport modes. The growing role of logisticsin goods transport, coupled with the use of ‚just

in time‘ production methods in an increasinglyglobalised manufacturing makes the transportchain increasingly important. This was shownclearly for example when the lock out of US WestCoast portworkers in 2002 quickly paralysedproduction in factories throughout Asia. So-called ‘informal work’, usually involving com-panies using ‘self employed’ contract workerswho were once employees and are still totallydependent on the company for their work butno longer covered by employment protection,is becoming a major challenge particularly inthe road transport sector. Railways are increas-ingly being subject to privatisation and restruct-uring, often under pressure from internationalinstitutions such as the World Bank, and dock-workers are now facing the same trends. Theaviation industry is facing demands for a majorchange in the regulatory regime which has go-verned it for over 50 years coupled with majorjob losses made worse by the effects of Septem-ber 11th and the 2003 SARS epidemic. Togetherwith the influence of urban transport transna-tionals all these developments require even morepractical international solidarity between trans-port unions than ever before, and closer links withother parts of the Global Unions family.

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The IUF was established in 1920 as a resultof an amalgamation of the international secre-tariats of brewery workers, bakers and workersin the meat industry. Other trade groups joinedthe IUF later: in 1958 the International Federa-tion of Tobacco Workers, in 1961 the Interna-tional Union of Hotel and Catering Workers andfinally in 1994 the International Federation ofPlantation, Agricultural and Allied Workers’Unions (IFPAA).

Early 2004 the IUF consisted of 336 unionsin 120 countries with an affiliated membershipof 12 million workers.■ Areas of organisation: the preparation andproduction of food and drinks, hotel, restaurantand catering services, agriculture and plantationfarming as well as tobacco processing.■ Organisational structure: congress (every 5years); Executive of 50 members, representinggeographical regions; Administrative Committee(Secretary General, President and 11 Vice-Presi-dents). The President is normally elected for oneterm of office only.■ Regional structure: 6 regional organisationsin Europe, Africa, Latin America, North Amer-ica, the Caribbean and the Asian/Pacific region.There are additionally educational and or re-

gional/subregional coordination offices in India,Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, Hungary, Croatia,Lithuania, and Russia and a Japan CoordinatingCouncil.Regional organisations have their ownstatutes which require the approval of the IUF-Congress.■ Sectoral structure: branch group for the hotel,restaurant and tourism sector, branch group ofthe tobacco workers and the branch group ofagricultural workers. If required, special indus-try conferences or general conferences are or-ganized for workers in transnational companies.

Special Aspects

Many affiliates have great problems in organ-ising workers because they work mainly in smallbusinesses. Moreover, home work/cottageindustry production, which still exists in the foodindustry, and the informal sector confronts themwith requirements quite unlike those for nor-mal union activities in companies. The IUF isalso present in global enterprises such as Nestlé,Coca Cola, Unilever or McDonalds. In the de-veloping countries, in particular, there are stilla large number of financially weak member or-ganisations in agriculture.

When the International of Agricultural andPlantation Workers merged with the IUF in 1994,the manifesto of the new branch group stated:

International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel,Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’Associations (IUF)

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“Working and living conditions of agricultural,land and plantation workers are by far amongthe worst known. Wages, working conditions,social security and occupational safety standardslag far behind those in the manufacturing in-dustry. Accommodation is frequently in a de-plorable state, healthcare and education is attimes non-existent. The vicious circle of povertyleads to children being used frequently as la-bourers.“

Millions of workers in agriculture have beendenied, and continue to be denied the freedomof association. In the few cases where tradeunions have been permitted to operate at all,their activities continue to be precarious. Notinfrequently death squads are hired againsttrade union activitists.

Moreover, agriculture continues to be one ofthe most dangerous areas for work both in theindustrial and the developing countries. Apartfrom mining and construction, it has the hightestproportion of casualties, accidents at work andoccupational diseases. More than half of themore than 300,000 fatal accidents at work eachyear occur in agriculture which is estimated toemploy approximately 1.3 billion workers alto-gether. Yet workers in agriculture also representa disproportionate number of the more than 250million workers each year who have an accidentat work and of the more than 160 million ofthose who fall ill because of risks and exposureon the job.

However, women and men who are workingin the fields, the fruit plantations, the green-houses, on animal farms and in primary pro-cessing plants do not only suffer from a highrate of deaths, injuries and diseases. They arealso working in a rural environment where thereis frequently no clear dividing line betweenworking and living conditions, as would nor-mally be the case with their colleagues in thefactories and offices.


International workers’ solidarity is the guid-ing principle of the IUF. It is therefore the raison

d’etre of the IUF to strengthen the memberunions by means of mutual support. It functionsas a central clearing house for information andas coordinator of activities. In the course of in-creasing globalisation, the IUF has also beenbecoming directly involved in representing theinterests of its affiliates vis-a-vis transnationalenterprises.

Activities

The International Union of Food, Agricul-tural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco andAllied Workers’ Associations:● advocates human and trade union rights vis-à-vis governments, international organisationsand employers and assists its members in in-dustrial or political conflicts,● monitors the operation and development ofmultinationals and of political and economicinstitutions,● promotes equality of women,● implements trade union educational programs,● organises meetings for the exchange of experi-ence and ideas and for planning joint programs,● informs about developments in bargaining,occupational safety, employment problems anddevelopments in commerce and technology.

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Trade Union and Human Rights

The IUF protests against all forms of viola-tions of human rights and trade union rightsand supports the members with all its resourceswhen violations occur. This may be done bymeans of coordinated solidarity actions, includ-ing work stoppages and boycotts, and requeststo member organisations not to supply specificcompanies or markets. International campaignsdraw public attention to shortcomings and op-pression.

The IUF actively promotes programs whichgive the working population greater control overits economic, social and political lives and whichextend fundamental freedoms, the freedom ofexpression and association as well as the rightto strike. It supports all individuals in theirattempts to determine their own lives and topreserve the freedom of their national culture.It fights against discrimination of any kind andexplicitly champions lasting peace on the basisof freedom for all.

Representation vis-à-vis TransnationalCompanies

In its relationship with transnational com-panies the IUF follows the principle of defendingand promoting the interests of members bycommon action based on the decisions andsupport by everyone concerned.The IUF is oneof the few Global Union Federations which atan early stage have successfully signed agree-ments with transnational enterprises which areenforced worldwide in all subsidiaries. The IUFwas most successful in the Danone and Accorcorporations. As early as 1980, the IUF estab-lished a world council for the Danone company(at the time called BSN). In the meantime four‘platforms’ have been signed in which guide-lines are laid down for the subsidaries of thecompany in all parts of the world, including itssubsidiaries in China. Agreements provide fora right to information about economic and socialaspects, for gender equality and qualificationmeasures to prepare employees for production

changes and modernisations. In 1994, a decla-ration was signed which gives all workers theright to join a trade union of their choice. It alsoemphasizes the key role of unions in represent-ing the interests of the workforce vis-à-vis man-agement and protects workers’ representativesagainst discrimination because of their activitiesor function.

Apart from Danone and Accor, the IUF alsosigned internationally valid agreements with,the international dairy company Fonterra andthe banana transnational Chiquita.

Representation vis-à-vis InternationalOrganisations

The World Bank, the IMF and the WorldTrade Organisation are at the Center of effortsmade by the IUF in connection with internatio-nal organisations. The IUF believes that agri-culture, in particular in respect of its role of en-suring food security, ought to be free of inter-vention in the instance of regulations forced uponindividual countries by these organisations.

A constant working contact is maintainedwith the UN-Organisation for Food and Agri-culture (FAO). If required, the IUF cooperateswith other Global Union Federations.

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Workers Employed in Agriculture

By its very nature, the above-mentionedsituation in the agricultural sector outsideplantations and large farming estates requiresa great deal of resources for response. First ofall, organisers and union officials need to betrained and strong unions be built up. Otherprograms are intended to ensure the equalityof women at the workplace, the implementationof international labour standards, improved livingand working conditions, an end to unrestricteduse of pesticides and a ban on child labour.

Organising activities are stategically directedtowards closer cooperation of workers at everystage of the food chain in order to strengthenthe position of the IUF in transnational com-panies. Target areas have initially been the pro-duction, processing and marketing of tea, coffee,sugar, cocoa and bananas.

The IUF believes that it is in the interest ofsociety as a whole that agricultural workers inall parts of the world are no longer excludedfrom effective occupational safety. The IUFtherefore called upon governments and em-ployers to support its demand for an interna-tional convention and an international recom-mendation on occupational safety in this extreme-ly important branch of the economy. The IUFwas actively involved in providing assistance inthe preparation of the convention on health andsafety in agriculture. “The ILO had good reasonsto prioritize improved occupational safety stand-ards in agriculture”, said IUF-Secretary Gene-ral Ron Oswald. “The democratic public in allparts of the world has a definite interest in con-cluding the relevant activities with an effectiveconvention and a recommendation. Workers andhuman rights activists, consumers’ and environ-mental organisations, and also all active membersof the public, should keep a close watch on theattitude of governments and employers’ repre-sentatives to ensure that they support our ef-forts towards creating safe jobs in agriculturewhich are necessary to protect the health of theworkers and the public as well as the environ-ment“.

The ILO-convention on health and safety inagriculture was needed because the workers inagriculture are not only amongst the poorestworldwide, but the most endangered and theleast protected. Workers in agriculture are fre-quently not covered by any legislation on tradeunion rights, minimum wages and social secu-rity in individual states – including the industrialcountries.

Home Work Industry, the Informal Sectorand Labour Migration

Home work industry, the informal sector andlabour migration are a second major and ex-tremely difficult area of work in addition to agri-culture. Working conditions are even worse therethan in the official sector and yet it is an areawhich is difficult to organise. The IUF is workingon an analysis of the needs of these workers.

In the course of liberalisation and a globaldivision of labour, contracting out to home-basedsubcontractors is becoming increasingly im-portant for the decentralisation of production.The majority of those workers are women whoare often forced to make their children work aswell, thus contributing to hidden child labour.In the area of IUF-jurisdiction home-industryjobs are found mainly in the tobacco and fishingindustry, in confectionery production, in the pro-cessing of spices and a number of other agricul-tural products.

Migrant workers, in particular illegal mi-grants, are even more difficult to represent. Themajority of them find themselves at the bottomof the pay scale and must put up with the mostabominable working conditions because theyare threatened by immediate expulsion if theytry to defend their human dignity. In manycountries, they cannot even afford to send theirchildren to school and do not use the officialhealthcare services because they are constantlyafraid of being found out. They are blamed forunemployment, while themselves being victimsof it in their countries of origin. Only more hu-mane immigration laws, and above all more em-ployment in their countries of origin, will in thelong run give these migrants a better chance in life.

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Women and Youth

With women being the overwhelming majo-rity of workers under IUF-jurisdiction, specialattention is being paid to their interests. Thereare regular seminars about the problems ofwomen workers. The IUF emphasizes in thiscontext that women’s rights can only be imple-mented if family policy is designed accordingly.What is needed, for instance, is a sufficientnumber of childcare facilities and an opportuni-ty for both husband and wife to educate thechildren and to look after them.

The IUF and the International Tobacco Grow-ers’ Association (ITGA) issued the first interna-tional declaration on the elimination of childlabour in the agricultural sector. The declarationwas signed in Geneva by the Executive Directorof the ITGA António Abrunhosa and IUF-Secre-tary General Ron Oswald, and was witnessedby the ILO-Executive Director Kari Tapiola. Theagreement, in which the ITGA and the IUF un-dertake to work together for the elimination ofchild labour in the global tobacco-growing in-dustry, was triggered off by a survey disclosingthe fact of child labour on tobacco plantationsin Malawi.


The educational projects of the IUF are intend-ed to increase the independence and strength ofits member unions. Their aim is to enable theaffiliated unions to draw up and to implementprograms in line with their actual needs. Thereare, as a rule, preparatory seminars for this pur-pose at which educational programs are de-veloped between the educational officers of theunions and the IUF.To inspire and to encouragemembers to manage their own education pro-grams without outside interference is the ulti-mate objective.

In all IUF-regions, projects are implementedwith particular attention paid to equality of wo-men and greater participation of women in tradeunion activities and structures. The participatingunions themselves share some of the costs of

education, additional funds are made availablethrough grants from members in the industrialcountries.

Information, Networks

There is a long tradition behind the politicalculture of the IUF. Regular publications alwaysinclude a political editorial, and for readers inthe Third World they are frequently one of thefew union information sheets which deal spe-cifically with global political problems. Circularletters of the Secretariat and regular publicationsare sent to affiliated unions in five languages(English, French, German, Spanish and one ofthe Scandinavian languages) and are in most cas-es distributed free. The bi-monthly „IUF News“is also directly dispatched to union members.Everyone can subscribe to it. There are regio-nal publications such as the Japanese versionof the newssheet, periodical information leafletssuch as “Women and Work” and “Questions ofWork” (“Labour Issues”) as well as a set of bro-chures on issues of general interest to the La-bour Movement.

In addition, the IUF collects and disseminatesinformation about the industrial sectors in whichthe members are working, about trends in bar-gaining, the operations of transnational enter-prises, occupational hazards and about social,economic and political developments; the infor-

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mation is made available to every member unionon request.

Like other Global Union Federationss, theIUF also runs an informative Web site withreports on current activities.

As part of a pilot project in Ghana and India,the IUF compiled a handbook on pesticides andother hazards. Moreover, a specific traininghandbook was published for women in theAsian-Pacific region.

Challenges

The IUF has made amazing progress in someareas and has been admirably active in others.Yet for a globally operating organisation, acertain critical mass of members and revenuesis needed to maintain its punch in the longerterm. However, the members of many unionsin the area of IUF-jurisdiction are among thepoorest of the poor and cannot afford high dues.In this situation, a lasting improvement of thefinancial base can only be achieved if new mem-bers are recruited.There is certainly some scope

left for this outside the smallholdings and me-dium-sized farms. But the bulk of potential mem-bers are the workers in food production and incatering. (In theory, the bulk of potential mem-bers is clearly in agriculture, the ILO estimatesthe worldwide agricultural proletariat, i.e. strict-ly-defined wage earners, at one billion womenand men). The problem with this line of employ-ment, in particular in Third World countries, isthat there are still millions of businesses whichcannot be reached, or barely so. They employworkers, very often migrant or home workers,in small and subcontracted businesses whichare frequently excluded from any effective oc-cupational safety measures and national legis-lation on trade union rights, minimum wagesand social security. These workers continue torepresent in principle a huge potential member-ship, but it is unlikely that they can be recruitedgiven the existing political and social circum-stances. And it will probably take some moretime before the tentative steps by the ILO to-wards the setting of international standards forthis industry will prove successful.

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UNI is the skills and services internationalwhich was formed as result of the amalgamationof four international trade secretariats on Janu-ary 1st, 2000 after two years of negotiations. Itis thus the most recent Global Union Federation.Its 1st World Congress took place in Berlin inSeptember 2001.

The forerunner organisations were the Com-munications International (CI) which had evolvedfrom the International of Postal, Telegraph andTelephone Workers (PTTI) only a few years ear-lier, the International Federation of Salaried Staffin Private Industry (FIET), the International Gra-phical Federation (IGF) and the International ofMedia and Entertainment Unions (MEI). Someof those, in turn, had a long history of amalgam-ations themselves which began as early as the19th century with amalgamations of classicaloccupations such as the lithographs and alliedtrades. This development from the early indus-trial society to the early information society clear-ly reflects the growing processes of transformationand integration in both the forms and contentof employment as well as a general structuralchange in favour of the service sector and thepolitically desired transformation of public intoprivate companies.

UNI consists now of more than 900 nationaltrade unions from more than 140 countries witha total membership of 15.5 million.■ Areas of organisation: unions affiliated to UNIcan no longer be classified as part of a specificindustry, occupation or sector. They organise blue-collar workers, salaried staff and specialists inlarge administrations, service firms and smallbusinesses, in the professions and in managerialpositions.

■ Organisational structure: congress (every fouryears, the last one in 2001); Management Com-mittee (President, 4 Vice-Presidents, Regional Pre-sidents, Treasurer, Secretary General and deputySecretary General); World Executive Board (apartfrom the MC-members it consists of another 50members from 12 geographical regions).Regional structure: 4 regions (UNI Africa, UNIAPRO, UNI Europa, UNI Americas) with officesin Harare, Singapore, Brussels, San José.■ Sectoral structure: 12 sector committees, nota-bly UNI commerce, UNI electricity, UNI finan-cial services, UNI graphics, UNI hairdressers andcosmetic services, UNI IBITS (= white-collar andmanagerial staff, IT-specialists), UNI media andentertainment & art, UNI postal service, UNIsocial insurance and private health services, UNIproperty services, UNI telecom, UNI tourism.

Inter-professional groups exist for specialistsand managerial staff, for women and for youth.These groups deal with cross-sectoral problems.

Special Aspects

The impact of globalisation on trade unionshas become even more evident as a result ofthis amalgamation.

In the course of the privatisation of furtherenterprises formerly government-run there isfrequently an overlap with public-service unionswhich continue to look after their members inthe State enterprises now privatised.

In many countries managerial employeeshave the problem of being excluded from collec-tive agreements by law or ordinance and/or ofnot being allowed to join a trade union. The UNI-Committee for Managerial Employees is there-fore drawing up strategies of how to organisemanagerial employees in trade unions.

Union Network International (UNI)

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The UNI opposes economic and social ex-ploitation at all levels, rejects any form of racialdiscrimination, defends and promotes the social,economic, legal and cultural interests of salariedemployees at an international level and repre-sents their interests vis-a-vis all relevant inter-national institutions. It supports union activitiesif the circumstances in the organisations con-cerned make this necessary.

UNI-affiliated unions organise sectors of theeconomy in which change is all-pervading. Inparticular the manufacturing industry, servicesin the commercial sector and information tech-nology have been at the Center of attention inthe last few years. Special organising efforts willhave to be made vis-a-vis big IT-corporationswith their extensive influence on public opinion.

Activities

The World Action Program is a summary ofall UNI-activities. Its areas of activities coverorganising campaigns, wage and salary prin-ciples, the regulation of working hours, leaveand public holiday regulations, job security,bonuses above agreed rates, occupational healthand safety, effects of new technologies and in-formation technologies as well as organisationalsupport for its affiliated unions.

These activities include, amongst other things:● preparing a report on global organising activ-ities with detailed information about the tradeunion situation in the countries concerned;● bridging the digital divide by equipping all UNI-affiliates with computers and Internet connect-ions. All affiliates should become Web-friendly andbe able to use the Internet for organising purposes;● drawing up surveys on how best to supportthe member unions and to develop new strategies;● cooperating with other associations of the civilsociety and exchanging views and dialogue withthe OECD, EU and ILO;● emphasizing the organisation of youth, wo-men, part-time staff, the self-employed and work-ers on limited-term contracts;● organising activities in the “new economy”.

Union Development

The Department for Union Development isresponsible for and manages the worldwidesolidarity program. Its tasks include:● building up strong and democratic unions insectors organised by the UNI● promoting the integration of women in tradeunion structures and activities● improving the skills of trade unionists at alllevels of the organisation● supporting the trade unions on the roadtowards greater independence.

At its first meeting in July 2000, the newly-elected Executive Committee of the UNI decidedto introduce a UNI-passport which enables theincreasingly mobile workers in UNI’s area of or-ganisation to claim support and rights at anyposting location.


The Department for Union Development isalso responsible for education and training.

UNI-educational activities are traditionallyfocussed on developing countries. Since the endof the 80s of the last century, a number of Centraland Eastern European countries have beenincluded in the educational program as well. Na-tional programs are given priority, if possiblein cooperation with the regional structures ofthe ICFTU and the other Global Unions. The UNIreceives support from donor organisations forits educational programs.

In March 2000, the UNI organised a work-shop for journalists from UNI-affiliates whichwas followed up by a meeting of the webmastersin charge in 2001. A seminar for national UNI-bargaining officers was organised in September2000 by the European Trade Union College toprepare for the official introduction of the EURO.


After the amalgamation, one of the first taskswas to give the new organisation a distinctiveand unmistakable profile. Public relations activ-ities have thus been combined under the new

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UNI-logo and divided into UNI info, UNInet.newsand UNIwebsite.

The UNI-Secretariat collects information fromaffiliated organisations about their activities, dataon salaries, working and living conditions ofsalaried employees in the different countries, in-ternational regulations etc. Edited informationis passed on to all member organisations throughthe UNI-Info.

The Secretariat can be reached from all partsof the world via electronic mail within seconds.Since January 2000, the UNI runs a UNI-home-page on the worldwide web of the Internet withfacilities for online discussions and links to friend-ly organisations or to organisations which arerelevant for its international activities.

In addition, affiliated organisations can re-trieve data about more than 500 leading com-panies in their sectors from an electronic data-base. If required by member organisations inindustrial disputes, additional data can be re-trieved from commercial online databases. TheSecretariat has also a CD-ROM with data onmore than 7,000 firms.

Relationship vis-à-vis InternationalOrganisations

The UNI maintains close links to the ICFTUand its regional organisations. At the ILO, UNIparticipates in the Bureau for Workers’ Activitiesand in the Department for Salaried and Intellec-tual Employees. In so doing, it continues theactivities of its forerunner organisations which,for example, contributed to an ILO-Conventionon Part-time Work which was signed as earlyas 1994. And together with the ICFTU it drew

up the contribution from the labour side for theILO Working Conference 1995 on the issue ofhome work industry.

In its relationship to the World Bank and theIMF, UNI speaks up in favour of more consider-ation for social questions in structural adjust-ment programs. At the WTO and GATT, UNI in-sists on including social clauses in internatio-nal trade agreements. At the OECD, UNI parti-cipates through the Trade Union Advisory Com-mittee (TUAC), for example in the drawing-upof safety guidelines for information systemswithin the framework of an OECD-group of ex-perts. As special adviser of the ICFTU on patents,trademarks, copyrights and similar matters, UNItakes part in sessions of the World IntellectualProperty Organisation WIPO.

UNI has posted a Commissioner in Washing-ton who attempts to influence the policies of theWorld Bank and other international financialinstitutions in cooperation with the ICFTU. Inaddition, sectoral activities of these institutionsare regularly monitored by the UNI.

Women and Youth

Campaigns for more women’s rights play akey role in the UNI. At the Center of these activ-ities is the project “global equality”. It aims,amongst other things, at extending regional net-works for the training of women trade unionists.A first seminar in 2000 brought together 24women in Senegal from 22 UNI-affiliates from13 African countries. Participants discussedsubjects such as violence against women, sexu-al harassment at the workplace, health andsafety for women workers as well as collectivebargaining and trade union organising activitiesfor women.

In May 2000, the first European Women’sConference of UNI took place in Luxembourgwith 90 delegates from 21 countries. It estab-lished structures for the inter-professional groupof women and elected a new committee.

In view of the fact that today’s young mem-bers are the leadership of tomorrow, the UNIdeliberately intensifies its efforts towards inte-grating the young workers in the Trade Union

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Movement and at the same time involving themin the decision-making processes. For this pur-pose, the UNI encourages and promotes com-munication and systematic exchanges betweenyoung people from all parts of the world so asto enable them to play an active part in tradeunion life and thus to promote internationaltrade union solidarity. UNI-youth activities areprimarily focussed on encouraging young indi-viduals to participate in a global exchange ofviews and to discuss matters of common inter-est, to draw up action-oriented plans and topresent them within the democratic structuresof their trade union.


New organisation of work processes andworldwide computer links make it possible foreven sophisticated work processes to be contract-ed out today to the other side of the globe viadata networks. In consequence, a growing num-ber of qualified workers are exposed to a contin-uous dumping of wages. In addition, new tech-nologies open up an enormous potential for ra-tionalisation of almost all services.

This globalisation of the division of labourand deregulation of working conditions sorelytest the fighting strength of UNI-affiliates. UNIhas therefore placed the first World Congress afterthe amalgamation, which took place in Berlin inSeptember 2001, under the motto: “Global action@ for the people in the New Economy”. The cor-

responding agenda included subjects such as therole of UNI and the rights of individuals in thenew economic order as well as trade union organ-ising activities in the era of worldwide networks.Delegates also discussed the potential role of net-work-based solidarity in connection with the hugesums of workers’ money paid into pension fundswhich are currently used for financing trans-national companies.

UNI-Secretary General Philipp Jennings saidabout the challenges for the future: “The distri-bution of wealth, not its concentration in thehands of a few, should be the primary objectiveof international politics. Globalisation producesinstability and disadvantages for workers in allparts of the world. The downward spiral, inwhich the world is searched for the cheapestand least protected workers, should be replacedby intelligent upward competition. We are mov-ing towards a knowledge-based economy inwhich success will ultimately depend on the pro-fitable deployment of knowledge. Globalisationhas no future as long as billions of individualsare mere spectators and victims instead of ben-eficiaries of the enormous potential of tech-nological and economic change”.

One thing is certain: in order to cope success-fully with future conflicts, many more qualifiedwhite-collar workers have to be recruited for theunions. Organising is the challenge to be facedby UNI-members on the threshhold of the 21st

century.

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Specific Information on Organisationand History

The ICFTU was founded in 1949 when theCOMECON governments took control of theWorld Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). Inthis respect, it was initially a result of the ColdWar. The ICFTU sees itself, however, as a suc-cessor to the International Confederation ofTrade Unions (ICTU) which was founded as earlyas 1903 and even existed as a united federationbefore it split into a social-democratic and acommunist-oriented trade union internationals.

At the end of 2003 the ICFTU had 233 affi-liated federations worldwide from 152 count-ries, in which some 151 million workers are or-ganised, 63 million or 40 percent of them women.■ Areas of organisation: The ICFTU is the in-ternational organisation of the national tradeunion Centers of individual countries. In somecountries there is more than one national Cen-ter and therefore more than one memberfederation affiliated to the ICFTU. The ICFTU mayalso, un-der certain conditions (if, for example,no natio-nal Center from that country is affiliatedto the ICFTU) accept individual trade unions. Af-filiated unions have to be completely independ-ent of outside influence (for example from thegovernment) and its leadership must be de-mocratically elected.■ Organisational structure: Congress (every fouryears, the next one in December 2004, in Japan);Executive Board (consisting of 53 members,roughly the same number from industrial anddeveloping countries, amongst them at least 5women); Steering Committee (of up to 19 mem-bers: Secretary General, President and up to 17Executive members). The Executive Board, meet-ing annually, coordinates activities between thecongresses. ICFTU-management rests with the

Secretary General who runs the head office inBrussels with around 65 members of staff atpresent. The Steering Committee meets twice ayear to oversee ICFTU finances and to handleany urgent matters between meetings of theExecutive.

There are further permanent offices in Gen-eva, Washington and New York and special re-presentative arrangements in other parts of theworld.■ Regional structure: regional organisations areformed by the member organisations of the re-spective regions. They are to a large extent au-tonomous, particularly in the area of trade uniondevelopment cooperation work, and elect theirown Executive Committees, Presidents, Secre-taries and offices. There is APRO (Asia/Pacific),AFRO (Africa) and ORIT (America). When the Eu-ropean Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) was

International Confederation of

Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)

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founded in 1969, the regional ICFTU-organi-sation for Europe stopped functioning. There isclose cooperation with both the ETUC, the Glo-bal Union Federations and the Trade UnionAdvisory Committee to the OECD (see below).

Thematic areas are covered by special com-mittees, notably the Women’s Committee, theProjects Committee, the Committee for Humanand Trade Union Rights, and the Economic andSocial Committee. The work of these is supple-mented by a range of ad hoc taskforces andworking groups, such as the Working Party onOccupational Health, Safety and the Environ-ment, the Global Unions Taskforce on Trade,Investment and International Labour Standards(TILS), and the ICFTU Child Labour Taskforce.■ Funding: Basic activities are financed entirelyfrom affiliation fees paid by member organi-sations. Affiliation fees can be reduced by theExecutive Committee in the case of organisationswhich are passing through economically, sociallyor politically difficult times. There is also an In-ternational Solidarity Fund into which some ofthe larger and financially stronger member or-ganisations make voluntary contributions. Somemembers with access to public developmentassistance funds make available resources forICFTU-projects for trade union education, train-ing, capacity building and for campaigning orthematic work in developing countries.

Special Aspects

Since the mid-80s, the ICFTU has experienceda number of dramatic changes in the politicalcontext of its work. The end of the Cold War,the almost global change of direction from so-cialist economic forms to a capitalist marketeconomy have brought about enormous politicaland social upheavals. On the one hand, thebreak-up of the Soviet bloc put an end to theconstant ideological confrontations with State-controlled compulsory unions and resulted inthe return to a largely united trade union move-ment across the globe. While this contributedto a considerable increase in membership in themedium term, initially causing major problems

of integration and transformation and thus con-suming more resources than it produced, thisreversal of the political trend has brought abouta strong anti-social climate in many establisheddemocratic industrialised countries. And the glob-alisation of the world economy, which is givenfurther momentum by new technologies, addsanother threatening dimension to this challenge.

Such tendencies are a threat to trade unionrights and social achievements attained afterdecades of struggle.Unrestrained movements ofcapital and at the same time the establishmentof regional economic and political blocs haveundermined national protection legislation. Inconsequence, the ICFTU has had to concentrateall its resources for some time on defending whathad been taken for granted before. However, inrecent times the ICFTU has regained some ofits old momentum.


The motto “Bread, Freedom, Peace” from itsfounding manifesto continues to be the “leitmotif”of the ICFTU to the present day. It is the objectiveof the ICFTU to promote the interests of workingpeople worldwide. It defends the right of work-ers worldwide to organise and to have their or-ganisation recognised as a free independent part-ner in negotiations. The ICFTU champions socialjustice in all parts of the world and throughoutthe international system, with a special focuson the ILO, WTO, the international financialinstitutions and other UN agencies. It defendsand promotes human and trade union rights and

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campaigns for a better standard of living, fullemployment and social security.

The ICFTU is committed to closing the gapbetween poor and rich, both among and withinnations. It works incessantly for internationalunderstanding, disarmament and peace. It op-poses every kind of oppression and dictatorshipand every form of discrimination. It is committedto equality of opportunity for women.

Activities

As the top-level organisation, the ICFTU givespriority to organising and facilitating the ex-change of experience and views between na-tional trade union Centers – this process leadsto the emergence and broad national supportfor global union policies in a variety of areas.There are a number of conferences and meet-ings to this end, for example the Economic andSocial Committee or the Committee on Workers’Capital, in addition to the Executive Board andthe Congress itself.

The ICFTU pays special attention to the prob-lems facing workers in developing countries andseveral ICFTU-projects are linked to the erad-ication of poverty. The ICFTU, for example, incollaboration with the IUF, cooperates with tradeunions of plantation workers. Some projects pro-duce concrete employment effects, for examplein building up agricultural and trades cooper-atives, community-based industries, commu-nity settlements or the construction of vocationaltraining Centers and some work focuses on the

eradication of child labour, for instance in thetobacco sector. Practical training for organisingofficers is another focal area of work. Supportby the ICFTU is intended to prevent new de-pendence and to give help towards self-help. TheICFTU is convinced that the best way to helpthose who are marginalised in the world econ-omy is to strengthen their trade unions.

Whenever possible, the ICFTU defends hu-man and trade union rights in the field. It sendsout fact-finding missions, studies the facts, visitsimprisoned trade unionists, attends court pro-ceedings and provides legal assistance. TheICFTU cooperates closely with human rights or-ganisations such as Amnesty International inthis area. For a long time, the ICFTU has speci-fically focussed on providing information aboutworkers’ rights in countries where children,prisoners or individuals in quasi-bondage areemployed under appalling working conditions.Each year, the ICFTU’s flagship publication, theAnnual Survey of Violations of Trade UnionRights, highlights, country by country, trade unionrights situation all over the world.

In its cooperation with international organi-sations, public bodies and institutions as wellas governments the ICFTU, in consultation withthe GUFs, attempts to bring about a meaningfulSocial Dialogue between trade unions and em-ployers in connection with political issues. Ef-forts towards including core labour standardsin the agendas of ministerial meetings or all rel-evant international fora are given a central rolein ICFTU’s activities.

In the context of its work coordinating theGlobal Unions Working Group on Trade, Invest-ment and International Labour Standards (TILS),the ICFTU conducts discussions at the highestlevel with the World Bank and the IMF. TheICFTU, usually in close cooperation with the GUFsand TUAC, represents the labour movement atinternational conferences, at the United Nationsand its specialised agencies, in particular theILO, UNCTAD, UNESCO, FAO and WHO. It alsocampaigns and lobbies around the World TradeOrganisation (WTO) and facilitates, coordinatesand, if required, actively ensures the participa-

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tion of trade unions in the IMF-country con-sultations because many national governmentsdisregard the fact that trade unions have theright to take part in these meetings.

Within the OECD, the ICFTU, together withthe GUFs, exerts influence on the long-term strat-egies of the Organisation for Economic Coop-eration and Development (OECD) through theTrade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD(TUAC).

Continously, the ICFTU analyses and providespositions on global socio-economic developmentsand the developments in and effects of globali-sation. It has drawn up detailed positions overrecent years with its Global Unions partners onsuch as a global solidarity pact, involving aninternational program for coordinated actionsto promote growth, for an end of debt crisis, fora reform of international finances and the re-duction of unemployment and poverty.

The ICFTU is also campaigning, at the WTOand in the context of regional and bilateral trade

negotiations, for respect for workers’ rights ininternational trade agreements. Cooperation withthe Global Union Federations has also gained anew level of intensity in the development of stra-tegic approaches to industrial relations at theinternational level. The ICFTU works closely withthe GUFs in exchanging information and indeveloping common approaches on many issuesrelated to multinational companies.

Joint ICFTU/GUF campaigning is being ex-panded, often coordinated by the ICFTU, underthe banner of the Global Unions group. In No-vember 2001, the first Global Unions Day ofAction was coordinated, at the start of the WTOmeetings in Qatar, and this resulted in 70 relatedtrade union actions in 50 countries. In 2003, aGlobal Unions theme for May Day, “Respect”,was promoted and unions in around 90 coun-tries linked up in various ways to this initiative,in the context of a campaign on globalisation.Another Global Unions campaign is being launch-ed in 2003 on the fight against HIV/AIDS.

ORIT, the Inter-American regional organi-sation of the ICFTU, agreed with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 1999to set up a joint working group. At the firstofficial meeting of the group in September2000 the subjects for discussion included,amongst others things:● the effects of globalisation and of economicintegration on labour markets and the appli-cation of core labour standards,● policy and practice of IDB in respect ofconsultations with the civil society and tradeunions,● future changes in IDB-evaluation proce-dures and opportunities for trade unions to takepart in the evaluation of projects and policies,● reforms of social services in America andthe role of workers in this reform process,● proposals for a joint IDB/ORIT-programmeaimed at promoting ILO-Conventions 182 (elim-ination of the worst forms of child labour) and111 (ban on discriminatory action).

It was agreed that the following measuresbe taken before the end of 2001:● the IDB Vice-President sensitises the Bank’ssenior management in respect of core labourstandards,● IDB, ILO and ORIT jointly prepare a pro-gram proposal for joint or parallel surveys onglobalisation and submit it at the next meetingof the working group,● ORIT draws up a pilot project for the pro-motion of ILO-Convention 182 to be passedon to the IDB for support,● the IDB Vice-President informs the IDBcountry representatives that the trade unionsare to be included in action plans for con-sultations with the civil society.

These discussions and proposals were afirst attempt towards cooperation with a re-gional development bank which may lead tonew developments in this direction.

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The ICFTU maintains an especially close re-lationship with the International Labour Organi-sation (ILO). So far the ILO is the sole UN-agencywith a tripartite structure of representatives ofthe governments, employers and employees.Almost all the members of the workers’ groupelected to ILO-executive bodies are at the sametime leaders of an ICFTU-affiliate. It is due totheir commitment that the ILO has been able toadopt many international standards for theprotection of workers. The ICFTU runs an officein Geneva, which is involved, among other things,in the preparation of the annual InternationalLabour Conference of the ILO; the head of theGeneva ICFTU office also serves as secretary tothe ILO Workers’ Group.

In addition to a wide range of ongoing in-volvement with the ILO, for instance, in the workof the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association,in recent years the ICFTU has been monitoringin particular the development and activities ofthe ILO Working Group on the Social Dimensionsof Globalisation, which was launched in 2002,and progress made in the implementation of theILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles andRights at Work.

ICFTU-educational activities are, in partic-ular, intended to build up democratic structuresin trade unions. ICFTU-educational programs arerun mainly by the regional organisations andtarget national trade union Centers and theiraf-filiates. Whenever possible, the ICFTU willtry to link educational programs to its latest cam-paigns and priorities and at the same time totake into account the educational priorities ofthe individual national unions. It is particularlykeen on leaving the organisation of educationin the hands of the local unions. The ICFTU of-fers courses in all parts of the world, especiallyfor trade union leadership.

The ICFTU is committed to the equality ofopportunity and equal treatment of women interms of employment, pay, training, and workingconditions. This presupposes sufficient partici-pation of women in trade union bodies and pro-grams. The present minimum quota is 30% forwomen’s representation.

Youth membership is a decisive issue for thefuture of trade unions. The ICFTU, through itsyouth programs, encourages trade unions toorganise young workers. It campaigns for betterschool education and vocational training andbetter employment conditions for and protectionof young workers. It promotes internationalcontacts between young trade unionists anddemonstrates to them the value of internatio-nal solidarity.

The ICFTU has played a major role in develop-ing common approaches and cooperation aroundthe issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR)and codes of conduct, and in particular in con-nection with the international institutions andprocesses which have emerged in connectionwith CSR in recent years, such as such as theUN’s Global Compact, the Ethical Trading In-itiative and the Global Reporting Initiative. TheICFTU has also helped develop and set up in-ternational networks for information and con-sultation on framework agreements with multi-national companies. This is another area inwhich the ICFTU is active with the GUFs.

There are regular publications for informa-tion purposes, for example “Trade Union World”background briefings on a wide range of issuesare published regularly, and ICFTU Info is a bul-letin targeted at unions in developing countries.The ICFTU also runs a free e-mail based newsservice, ICFTU Online, which anyone can sub-scribe to, over the ICFTU website, in English,French and Spanish. The annual survey, launchedeach year in June, covering violations of tradeunion rights, recorded incidents in 133 countriesfor 2002 alone. In addition, the ICFTU regularlypublishes research papers, and thematic publi-cations, all of which can be downloaded or or-dered from the ICFTU website.

From an early stage, the ICFTU has beenusing the Internet as a means of exchanginginformation quickly. National trade union of-ficials can read up on the detailed summariesof developments and negotiations which theICFTU disseminates to affiliates and close part-ners by e-mail as soon as they are available.Draft papers for international conferences are

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available for discussion and so are documentsabout concluded agreements. Information issent out by the ICFTU to all the unions concernedfor all the international meetings, often con-taining at the same time draft letters and modelpress releases to national representatives forlobbying purposes.

The globalisation of commerce and industryand the growing importance of multinationalcorporations have forced individual trade unionsto become more involved at an internationallevel. As a result, their Global Union Federationshave taken over a number of functions in whichthe ICFTU is also active. More and more coordi-nation is required to avoid duplication or evenconflict of activities. Communication must there-fore be even more closely linked by networks inorder to produce the necessary synergies. Therepresentation of the Global Union Federationsat the ICFTU-Executive Board Committee andother joint working meetings with the GlobalUnion Federations ultimately serve to facilitatesuch coordination. At the same time, one mustnot neglect the practical work when faced withall these coordination requirements.


At its last Congress in spring 2000, the ICFTUlaid out its priorities for the 21st century. Amongstother things it proclaimed:

We want to build a world free from poverty,free from discrimination and injustice, and freefrom the threat of war and oppression. We wantto see an end to unemployment and the reali-sation of full-employment. It is a world whereextremes of opulence and misery are eliminated,where women and men are equally able to workto fulfil their potential and share it with the com-munity. We want decent work for all. We wantdemocratic processes based on respect for, andenforcement of, universal human rights, to regu-late concentrations of private power and big in-ternational business. We want to achieve thefull equality trade unions have worked so longto attain, with a society free from discriminationbased on race, colour, creed, political opinion,

gender, sexual orientation, disability, health orage. We want to create ways of living and work-ing which are safe and promote quality livingand are designed to sustain the environment forfuture generations. And we want our children tohave lives of continuous learning and progresswith real prospects of achieving better livingstandards than our own.

This is fleshed out by a long list of tasks tobe tackled in the coming years. The immediatechallenges are to ensure general respect for theright to organise and to organise all those with-out a voice at present and, in particular, to inte-grate the workers in the informal economy.

Amongst other things, the following objec-tives are to be attained:● full equality and equal treatment at work anddecent work for all;● building up partnerships across borders inorder to make multinationals accountable, in-cluding working with groups of the civil societyand non-governmental organisations;● developing the negotiating strength of the In-ternational Trade Union Movement on the basisof broadly-based representation in order to addto the weight of workers in the power Centersof the new global economy, the multinationalsand inter-governmental organisations.

The millenium review names a great, almosttoo great, number of additional tasks and ob-jectives. But we are just at the beginning of thenew century. The ICFTU has entered it with greatconfidence. This confidence is the result of acritical stock-taking. While globalisation haschanged our world in the last 15 years at an un-precedented pace, the International Trade UnionMovement is now being challenged to respond tothese changes in an appropriate manner. Theresolution of the ICFTU-Congress spells it outclearly:

“In view of such a challenge no trade unioncan afford to enter into competition withother trade unions or to become involvedin political trench warfare. We must changeourselves in order to change the world.“

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The European Trade Union Confederationwas founded by 17 national union Centers andICFTU-affiliates on February 8th, 1973. In thecourse of time, other organisations joined ofwhich some were affiliated to the ICFTU, whileothers belonged to the WCL or to no internatio-nal organisation at all. Today, the ETUC consistsof free independent and democratic nationalunion Centers and European industry federations.It lays claim to represent all workers at the Eu-ropean level as a united pluralist organisation.

The ETUC is therefore not a suborganisationof the ICFTU, but an autonomous organisationof trade unions in Europe, including countrieswhich are not part of the EU. It also has mem-bers from outside the ICFTU and some affiliatedto the WFL.

The EU-Commission has recognised the ETUCas the sole social partner and representative bodyof the workers with universal orientation. Thisrecognition also covers the affiliated industryfederations in their respective industries.■ Areas of organisation: The ETUC as a top-levelorganisation today comprises 77 national unioncenters from 31 European countries, including33 from the fifteen EU-member States. As aresult, the ETUC represents 60 million payingmembers. 6 organisations from Central andEastern Europe have observer status (as ofOctober 98). The second pillar of the ETUC are15 European industry federations, one of themwith merely observer status. Owing to the differ-ent basis of membership, these industry fed-erations exist in parallel with the European re-gional organisations of the Global Unions, butoften with the same officials in positions ofleadership.

■ Organisational structure: congress (every 4years, the next one in 2007, consisting of dele-gates from the affiliated national Centers, of theEuropean industry federations and the Wo-men’s Committee); it elects the President, whochairs the congress, the Executive and the Steer-ing Committees, and also the Secretary Generaland the two deputies, who manage the day-to-day business together with the Secretariat.

Technical committees exist on subjects suchas economic policy, social policy, collective bar-gaining, international politics, working conditions,regional policy and employment and education.There are also working groups for environmen-tal questions, energy, immigration and racism,democratisation of the economy and trade unionorganisation. The Women’s Committee, estab-lished by force of Statutes and also representedwith its own delegates at the congress, holds aspecial status. Specific age or function-relatedgroups are Eurocadres (European Council forManagerial Employees), FERPA (European Fed-eration of Pensioners and Old-age People), theETUC-Youth and 38 IUCs (interregional unioncouncils).

The latter ensure cross-border cooperationbetween national Centers affiliated to the ETUCin economic and industrial regions of Europe

European Trade Union Confederation(ETUC)

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which extend beyond national borders: for exampleSaar/Lorraine/Luxembourg or Elbe/Neisse, butalso Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland.

ETUI, the European Trade Union Institute,conducts research into varying subjects. It runsa documentation Center and publishes a largenumber of publications, including the scientificquarterly journal “TRANSFER”.

ETUA, the European Trade Union Academy,on the one hand seeks to promote Europeanawareness in trade union education by supply-ing national unions with didactic material andby training European lecturers. On the other, ittrains unionists directly at a European level forfunctions in supranational bodies or for Eu-ropean works councils.

TTUB, the Technical Trade Union Bureau forHealth and Safety produces expert opinions forthe ETUC in its role as the mouthpiece of theworkers’ group in the Advisory Committee ofLuxembourg. It provides a network of tradeunion experts for the activities of the Europeanstandardisation bodies, it acts as an expert bodyon the classification of substances, chemicalpreparations and similar matters, draws upstatements on testing and certification pro-cedure in Europe and produces the appropriateeducational material for trade union activities.

AFETT, the European Association for Train-ing Employees in New Technologies was set upon the initiative of the ETUC. It combines train-ing in technological and organisational inno-vations with aspects of social dialogue andindustrial relations.

The European Commission, the EuropeanCouncil and EFTA have recognised the ETUCas the sole trade union organisation at theEuropean level representing all sectors.


The ETUC campaigns for the protection ofhuman and trade union rights and for a societybased on freedom, justice and solidarity, for anextension and consolidation of political libertiesand democracy, for a democratisation of theeconomy. It opposes all forms of discrimination,

champions the rights of immigrants and min-orities against racial hatred and hostility to for-eigners.

It is committed to equality of opportunity andequal treatment of men and women (not leastin the trade unions themselves), a geographi-cally-balanced, environmentally-friendly eco-nomic and social development, a freely-chosenproductive paid job for all, constant improvementin living and working conditions, continuousdevelopment, improved education and betterqualified training.

The ETUC takes steps to strengthen the Eu-ropean Union socially, politically and democrat-ically. It supports an active role of Europe in theefforts towards peace, development and socialjustice in this world.

Activities

It is the task of the ETUC at the Europeanlevel to realise the trade union initiatives re-quired to attain the above-mentioned objectivesas part of the process of European integration.

In the pursuit of these objectives, ETUC-ac-tivities are directed towards● the European Union with the aim of givinggreater emphasis to its social, political and dem-ocratic aspects and to bring them in line withthose at the monetary and economic levels;● the European Council, EFTA and other Eu-ropean institutions with the aim of promotingcooperation in areas affecting the interests ofworkers;● the Federation of European Employers withthe intention of establishing sound working re-lationships at the European level by means ofSocial Dialogue and negotiations.

A major part of the work of the ETUC is takenup by introducing workers’ interests and mini-mum social standards into European legal reg-ulations and political programs.

In negotiations with employers’ federations,for example, the ETUC was successful in havingthe principle of “social dialogue” included in theprotocol of the EU-Treaty of Maastricht, thusgranting the European social partners the right

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to conduct negotiations and to conclude agree-ments at the European level. When the ETUC-Congress in 1995 had to note that there was noapparent interest in such a solidarity pactamongst the employers, it was decided “to doeverything to move the social dialogue out ofthe present stalemate”.

One positive step in this direction was theagreement signed with the employers’ centralorganisations UNICE and CEEP in respect of aEuropean minimum right to parental leavewhich is intended to guarantee fathers andmothers of children up to the age of eight a min-imum of 3 months unpaid leave and job securityfor that period in all countries of Europe. A newprocedure was applied in this case for the firsttime which enables trade unions and employers,instead of national governments, to draw uplegislation which is binding across Europe. Thisregulation was followed up by another agree-ment on part-time work. The two agreementswere ratified by the EU-Council of Ministers andare now part of the enforceable European bodyof law .

The ETUC vigorously campaigns for the in-clusion of social clauses in the General Pref-erential System of the European Union. In De-cember 1994, the EU-Council agreed to excludecountries with forced labour from most-favourednation status in future. The same regulation isnow in place in respect of core labour standardsof the International Labour Organisation. Thisis a major step forward since the subject of socialclauses has been fended off in other internatio-nal bodies. In addition, the ETUC insists thatnew regulations concerning the flow of specu-lative capital, which take into account the con-cerns of the workers, are a matter of great ur-gency.

From the very start, the ETUC has campaignedfor the right of workers to information and con-sultation in transnational enterprises. This hadbecome the more urgent since the TNEs wereincreasingly shifting decisions from the natio-nal to the European or international levels. OnSeptember 22nd, 1994, the EU finally adopteda Directive concerning this matter; the ETUC has

been monitoring its implementation in nationallegislation since then.

In consequence, the establishment of Euro-pean works councils has played a major part inthe Europeanisation of industrial relations ac-cording to the ETUC. After many discussionsand against the opposition of Great Britain, inparticular, the EU-Council of Ministers adopteddirectives concerning the establishment of Eu-ropean works councils in 1994 and decided tointroduce this institution across the board asfrom 1999. The ETUC used the transitional pe-riod to prepare the affiliated trade unions forthe procedures and opportunities available asa result.

The European works councils which haveaccordingly been set up are, however, relativelyrestricted in their rights of information andparticipation. The ETUC is therefore calling fora new EU-directive containing more extensiverights of information and consultation in everycompany with cross-border operations, irre-spective of its size and number of staff. Theremust also be the opportunity to impose sanctionsin the event of non-compliance by companies.

Not every European enterprise concerned hasas yet set up the appropriate works councils, whileothers have attempted to establish forms ofworkers’ representation tailored to the specificconditions in their operations. The ETUC is thusfaced with the mammoth task of having to provideguidance and advice and to offer support inhundreds of enterprises.

The ETUC-network of lawyers, which hadbeen set up as early as 1993, has been given anew organisational structure under the nameNETLEX in the last few years. NETLEX is an

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information network consisting of more than90 legal experts from 56 member unions in 27countries. These experts function as a link be-tween NETLEX and the legal protection officersof individual organisations. This system of re-source persons ensures easy access to legalinformation and advice in the “jungle” of Euro-pean legislation whenever required, and at thesame time supplies the ETUC continuously withinformation about respective developments inindividual countries. NETLEX is closely coop-erating with the ETUI in this process.

The ETUC-Forum for Cooperation and Inte-gration offers trade union organisations fromEastern and Central Europe an informal frame-work for contacts, exchanges of information andexperience and for the development of joint pro-jects. In addition to the 9 national Centers whichhold observer status with the ETUC, another 18organisations from Central and Eastern Europeare cooperating in this framework.


The ETUC publishes a weekly informationbulletin “Report” and a monthly press review.There is also the bulletin “Forum Facts”. TheETUC has been linked to the data highways viaelectronic mail since 1997.


The ETUC regards the establishment of Eu-ropean works councils as a major condition forthe Europeanisation of industrial relations be-tween workers and employers. However, theEuropean Directive on the establishment ofEuropean works councils means an enormous

challenge. There are some 1,300 enterpriseswith roughly 25,000 works council memberswho will be involved. Not much more than onethird of potential European works councils haveso far been set up. This task can only be shoul-dered in a joint effort with the ETUC setting thegeneral direction and offering assistance.

As regards the forthcoming revision of theMaastricht Treaty, the ETUC will have to bringto bear the full weight of the organisation in theface of the present anti-social climate in orderto ensure that social concerns and workers’ in-terests are not neglected in the process. As inte-gration towards European economic areas andlabour markets progresses, efforts must bemade in time to create structures for collectivenegotiations at a European level.

The ETUC calls for the inclusion of social,democratic and environmental clauses in all tradeand economic cooperation agreements in linewith the Univeral Declaration of Human Rightsand the ILO-Declarations on Fundamental Rightsand Principles of 1998. The 9th ETUC-Congressdecided to form an alliance with the other inter-national trade union organisations with the aimof controlling the activities of TNEs and banks bymeans of binding multilateral agreements.

This task will not become easier when manyof the European enterprises are at the same timeoperating worldwide, as is often the case. Thereare as yet few universally operating workscouncils and there is a danger of confusion inrespect of both national practices and regional,and thus ultimately universal, regulations. TheETUC could be useful in bringing to bear its weightat the international level as well, yet must avoidthe impression that Europe takes care of itsworkers at the expense of the rest of the world.

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The TUAC is the trade union advisory com-mittee to the OECD. It was established as earlyas 1948 in connection with the Marshall-Plan. Itis a non-governmental organisation which wasgranted consultative status with the OECD in1962. Since 1971, the TUAC has been composedof national trade union Centers which operate inOECD-member countries. These union confed-erations are either affiliated to the ICFTU or theWCL or to neither of the two international organ-izations. The TUAC-membership is at presentsome 70 million organised workers in 56 affili-ated federations from 30 OECD-member countries.

In addition to national trade union Centers,TUAC is cooperating with the international tradeunion organisations (such as the ICFTU, WCL,ETUC) and the Global Union Federations. It ispart of the “Global Unions” partnership.

Organisational Structure

The Plenary Session convenes twice a year.It consists of all affiliated organisations and ofrepresentatives from the international tradeunion organisations. The Plenary Session takesmajor policy decisions in all areas of TUAC-activities, sets the budget and affiliation fees.

The Administrative Committee of the TUACprepares the Plenary Session and at the sametime oversees the TUAC-administration. It con-sists of the following organisations: DGB (Ger-many), TUC (Great Britain), AFL-CIO (USA), CLC

(Canada), FO and CFDT (France), CISL (Italy),JTUCRENGO (Japan), ÖGB (Austria), STTK(Finland), LO (Denmark), CSC (Belgium,) and theSecretary General ex officio.

TUAC-Working Groups exist on economicpolicy; global trade, investment and multinatio-nal companies; education, training and labourmarket policy; and jointly with the Global Unionson health, safety and the environment, and onworkers’ capital. Working Groups are open to allaffiliates, the international organisations and toTUAC-partner organisations in Central and Eas-tern Europe. Ad-hoc meetings are held when-ever other subjects require a statement by theTUAC vis-a-vis the OECD. TUAC-bodies general-ly work on the consensus principle.

The TUAC is funded primarily through affili-ation fees. Since 2000 some additional work onMultinational Enrerprises and on Corporate Go-vernance had been partly donor funded. TheTUAC-office in Paris has a limited staff of fulltimeofficers who are not delegated by affiliated unions.

Tasks and Activities

FOCUS, the PSI-publication, once called TUACwith slight exaggeration “the watchdog of tradeunions in the OECD”. Yet little is actually knownabout the activities of TUAC in trade union circles.This is probably due to the fact that TUAC is pri-marily involved in trying to influence the policydebate amongst governments in the economicand social field.

The TUAC is the Interface of the Internatio-nal Trade Union Movement with the OECD,

Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD

(TUAC)

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while the OECD in turn holds a key position indrawing up guidelines on economic policy forthe industrial countries. It also acts as a “thinktank” for trade unions. The TUAC draws up state-ments and proposals of the trade unions in re-spect of key issues of international policy whichare discussed and adopted at OECD-meetings.The main input fromTUAC is delivered beforethe final decisions are taken.

TUAC coordinates and disseminates the viewsof the Trade Union Movement in the industrialcountries in general, while the views of the Glob-al Union Federations are largely taken into ac-count in the sectoral activities of the OECD.

In fact, the most recent OECD-decisions re-flect an extension of activities towards becominga forum of inter-governmental policy discussionsin respect of globalisation-related issues. In thiscontext, the TUAC regards it as its main task toinsist on a policy that adds an effective socialdimension to global markets and creates a morebalanced situation in the process.

The main TUAC-activities within the OECDdeal with general economic policy (including pre-paration of the trade union statement for theannual global economic summit of the G-8),structural adjustment and labour market policy,the impact of globalisation on employment,education and training as well as multinationalenterprises, corporate governance, the growingrelationship of the OECD with non-members,and science and technology policy.

The TUAC has made a number of statementsat OECD-governmental conferences, for examplefor the Council of Environmental Ministers, Min-isters for Social and Labour Affairs, Ministersfor Science and Technology etc. It draws updiscussion papers for internal union decisions,makes proposals for codes of conduct as part ofthe OECD-code, organises conferences and meet-ings with ministerial circles and arranges thejoint meetings with OECD-bodies.

The TUAC is also involved in the OECD-Labour/Management Programs partially financed by theOECD, which serves as a forum for preliminaryconsultations between trade unions and man-agement experts on matters that will eventuallybecome part of the OECD’s program of work. This

program includes subjects such as world tradeand workers’ rights or the role of trade unionsin the development of corporate structures andstrategies.

Present priorities adopted by the TUAC-Ple-nary Session are globalisation, economic, socialand employment policies, problems of educationand training, multinational companies as wellas trade and development. Increasingly, moreattention is being attached to OECD-environ-mental policy and OECD-relationships with non-members, in particular in Central and EasternEurope and in Asia.

Special Achievements

In the latter part of the 1990‘s TUAC hassucceeded in focussing attention once again onthe subject of unemployment as the main topicof international economic policy by the OECDand the G-8 – after a decade of neglect. The TUACwas able to exert a positive influence on manyparts of the positions formulated by govern-ments, even though satisfactory answers remainwanting. It was again due to pressure by theTUAC that the topic “workers’ rights in worldtrade and in multilateral investment agree-ments” was put on the OECD-agenda. It was inpart because of this that the OECD governmentsfailed to adopt the draft of the Multilateral Agree-ment for Investments (MAI).

Following 1997, the TUAC was invited to takepart in the G-8 conferences on employment. Thisenables the organisation to present directly thetrade unions’ views to the conference and thusto influence the decisions taken by its participants.

In addition, TUAC’s efforts in the last fewyears to present the unions’ position concerningthe dangers of globalisation has had someimpact. The OECD-Ministerial meeting in June2000 took place under the motto: “ShapingGlobalisation”. The seven areas of discussiondemonstrated the growing importance attachedto the concerns of the TUAC, and thus to thoseof the International Trade Union Movement.

Debates about trade liberalisation reflectedthe impact of the Seattle protests. The Final Do-cument of the Ministerial meeting listed a great

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many unresolved problems, recognised the ne-cessity of more intensive cooperation with theILO and other international institutions, consid-ered consultations with organisations of the civilsociety and referred to human rights – a termwhich had practically been a taboo so far in thiscontext. It spelled out clearly that the OECD-Council of Ministers did not regard globalisationto be a matter in which markets dominatepolitics, but that it was first and foremost thetask of governments to enhance and use theadvantages of globalisation, while controlling itscosts.

The TUAC has always attempted to add asocial and labour-related dimension to theOECD-working program with the “dynamicAsian economies” and to draw attention to theeffects created by the globalisation of the worldeconomy. This is why the TUAC, together withthe ICFTU-APRO, conducted a seminar in Seoulin 1995, when the Republic of Korea appliedfor accession to the OECD, on the subject “TheSocial Dimension of Economic Integration inAsia”. The meeting focussed, in particular, onthe global economy and social integration,pluralist democracy and economic development,the union response to globalisation as well aslabour market and social policy. The TUAC haddrawn up a comprehensive background paperas a basis for discussion. These documents high-

lighted a number of economic and social impli-cations which had not yet been discussed in Ko-rea in this manner. The hitherto unknown aspectof an “open market economy” as part of opencivil societies in which workers’ rights are res-pected, attracted a great deal of attention. At theend of the seminar, all participants agreed thatthe topics concerned had to be taken into ac-count in the final negotiations. In the case ofKorea, the TUAC thus succeeded for the firsttime in making trade union rights an essentialpart of negotiations for accession to the OECD.


The neo-liberal ideology which had domi-nated the OECD agenda for many years greatlyrestricted the unions’ room for manoeuvre inthe political arena. At the dawn of the new cen-tury, however, there are some initial signs of achange for the better. The TUAC therefore de-serves the support of every national affiliate.

The TUAC is undoubtedly a body which isrepresenting trade union interests effectively. Itsconsultative status enables it to exert consider-able influence on OECD-strategies for economicpolicies by means of lobbying. Since the OECDplays an important part in the shaping of worldeconomic policy, the effect of TUAC-activities inthis respect should not be underestimated.

The outcome of the OECD-Ministerial Con-ference in June 2000 was again proof ofTUAC’s effective powers of influence.TheOECD-guide-line on MNEs, which had beenin force for 25 years, was replaced by a newregulation covering a number of additionalsocial aspects which had not been consideredunder the previous system; it has visibly be-come a global instrument for worldwide ap-plication now. The guidelines, signed by 30

OECD-member States as well as Argentina,Brazil, Chile and the Slovak Republic, alsorefer to the responsibility of TNEs in respectof the conduct of their suppliers and other sub-contractors. The preparation and adoption ofthese guidelines have been a first step. It isnow up to the respective trade unions to en-sure their implementation in every memberState. The TUAC has produced Users Guide fortrade unionists on the Guidelines.

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FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNGTHE GUF AT A GLANCE

111GLOBAL UNIONS


International Labour Organisation(ILO)4, route des MorillonsCH -1211 Geneva 22Switzerlandphone: +41 22 799 6111fax: +41 22 799e-mail: [email protected]: www.ilo.org

Education International (EI)5, Boulevard du Roi Albert IIB - 1210 BrusselsBelgiumphone: +32 2 224 06 11fax: +32 2 224 06 06e-mail: [email protected]: www.ei-ie.org

European Trade UnionConfederation (ETUC)5, Boulevard du Roi Albert IIB - 1210 BrusselsBelgiumphone: + 32 2 224 0411fax: + 32 2 224 0454/55e-mail: [email protected]: www.etuc.org

International Federation of Buildingand Woodworkers (IFBWW)54, Route des AcaciasCH - 1227 GenevaSwitzerlandphone: +41 22 827 3777fax: +41 22 827 3770e-mail: [email protected]: www.ifbww.org

International Confederation ofFree Trade Unions (ICFTU)5, Boulevard du Roi Albert IIB - 1210 BrusselsBelgiumphone: +32 2 224 02 11fax: +32 2 201 58 15e-mail: [email protected]: www.icftu.org

International Federation ofChemical, Energy, Mine & GeneralWorkers’ Unions (ICEM)Avenue Emile de Béco 109B - 1050 BrusselsBelgiumphone: +32 2 626 20 20fax: +32 2 648 43 16e-mail: [email protected]: www.icem.org

International Federation ofJournalists (IFJ)266, Rue Royale,B - 1210 BrusselsBelgiumphone: +32 2 223 2265fax: +32 2 219 2976e-mail: [email protected]: www.ifj.org

International Metalworkers’Federation (IMF)54 bis, Route des AcaciasCase Postale 1516CH - 1227 GenevaSwitzerlandphone: +41 22 308 50 50fax: +41 22 308 50 55e-mail: [email protected]: www.imfmetal.org

Public Service International (PSI)45, Avenue Voltaire. B. P. 9F - 01211 Ferney-Voltaire CedexFrancephone: +33 450 406 464fax: +33 450 407 320e-mail: [email protected]: www.world-psi.org

International Textile, Garment& Leather Workers’ Federation(ITGLWF)Rue Joseph Stevens 8B - 1000 BrusselsBelgiumphone: +32 2 512 26 06fax: +32 2 511 09 04e-mail: [email protected]: www.itglwf.org

International TransportWorkers’ Federation (ITF)49-60 Borough RoadLondon, SE1 1DSGreat Britainphone: +44 2074 03 2733fax: +44 2073 57 7871e-mail: [email protected]: www.itf.org.uk

International Union of Food,Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,Catering, Tobacco and AlliedWorkers’ Associations (IUF)Rampe du Pont-Rouge 8CH - 1213 Petit-Lancy (Geneva)Switzerlandphone +41 22 793 22 33fax: +41 22 793 22 38e-mail: [email protected]: www.iuf.org

Trade Union Advisory Council(TUAC)26, avenue de la Grande Armée75017 ParisFrancephone: +33 1 47 63 42 63fax: +33 1 47 54 98 28e-mail: [email protected]: www.tuac.org

Union Network International(UNI)Avenue Reverdil 8 - 10, BoxCH- 1260 Nyon 2Switzerlandphone: +41 22 365 2100fax: +41 22 365 2121e-mail: [email protected]: www.union-network.org

All Global Unions, together withthe ICFTU and ETUC, also publishcurrent and elementary informationon their Web site:www.global-unions.org.

Adresses

ADRESSESFRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG

GLOBAL UNIONS

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AFETT European Federation for the Education and Training of Workers in theNew Technologies

AFL-CIO American Federation of Labour – Congress of Industrial Organisations(top-level confederation of US-American unions)

EI Education InternationalCEEP European Centre of the Public Economy

ECOSOC Economic and Social Council of the UNETUA European Trade Union AcademyETUC European Trade Union ConfederationETUI European Trade Union Institute

EU European UnionFAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UNFES Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeGUF Global Union FederationsILO International Labour Organisation

IFBWW International Federation of Building and Wood WorkersICFTU International Confederation of Free Trade Unions

ICFTU-AFRO African Regional Organisation of the ICFTUICFTU-APRO Asian/Pacific Regional Organisation of the ICFTUICFTU-ORIT Inter-American Regional Organisation of the ICFTU

ITS International Trade SecretariatICEM International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General

Workers’ UnionsIFJ International Federation of Journalists

IMF International Metalworkers’ FederationPSI Public Service International

ITGLWF International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers’ FederationITF International Transport Workers’ FederationIUF International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering,

Tobacco and Allied Workers’ AssociationsIMF International Monetary FundMAI Multilateral Agreement on Investments

NAFTA North American Free Trade AgreementOATUU Organisation for African Trade Union Unity

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentTTUB Technical Trade Union Bureau for Health and SafetyTILS Task Force International Labour Standards – of the ICFTUTNE Transnational Enterprise

TUAC Trade Union Advisory Committee (OECD)UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

UNICE Union of National Industrial Employers in EuropeUNI Union Network InternationalWB World Bank

WFTU World Federation of Trade UnionsWHO World Health OrganisationWTO World Trade OrganisationWCL World Confederation of Labour

List of Abbreviations

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

FES Bendt 2004library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/02281.pdf · 2004-09-27 · Catering, Tobacco and Luxury...

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Transcript of FES Bendt 2004library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/02281.pdf · 2004-09-27 · Catering, Tobacco and Luxury...