New York Times: Strong unions will help economy

The new Obama administration must not postpone new legislation to strengthen the position of unions, the New York Times (NYT) writes in an editorial today. The newspaper argues that the new Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will help do something about the ‘unjustifiable’ income disparity. Meanwhile, corporate complaints that the proposed legislation will worsen the economic crisis are unconvincing, writes the NYT:
“There is a strong argument that the slack labour market of a recession actually makes unions all the more important. Without a united front, workers will have even less bargaining power in the recession than they had during the growth years of this decade, when they largely failed to get raises even as productivity and profits soared. If pay continues to lag, it will only prolong the downturn by inhibiting spending”.
According to the newspaper, there is little doubt that new labour secretary Hilda Solis (photo) supports the EFCA, but the position of the new president is less certain. Most members of his economic team are veterans from the Clinton administration, and ‘in the Clinton era, financial issues routinely trumped labour concerns’.

‘Dutch confederations should merge’

It is high time Dutch union confederations FNV (with a mixed Catholic / Social-Democrat background) and CNV (Protestant) merged, argues editor Ed Groot of newspaper het Financieele Dagblad in an opinion article.
FNV-affiliated unions have close to 1.2 million members; CNV-affiliated unions about 334,000. Jointly, they gained some 9,000 members since last year, but not enough to keep up with rising employment, so union density is dropping. Over the coming two years, rising unemployment will ‘inevitably result in the loss of tens of thousands members’.
“It’s an iron law that structural shrinkage results in mergers”, argues Groot. He points out that many Christian organisations, including employers’ organisations, have disappeared since the 1980s. “Entrepreneurs are pragmatic people”.
Historically, the CNV used to be more consensus-oriented than the FNV, but according to Groot, the difference has largely disappeared. “What is stopping the unions?”
Photo FNV Bondgenoten

British union reps get training on economic crisis

British union confederation TUC will be offering union activists training on how to cope with the economic crisis. The one-day briefing and training session intends to “help equip union reps to meet the challenges posed by the downturn and will provide a unique opportunity for union reps from across a range of TUC unions to share ideas and experience”.
Besides providing background information on the crisis, the course will deal with issues including how to prevent and cope with redundancy and the importance of skills.

‘Unions should drop negative approach’

Some unionists try to promote dissatisfaction and anger among workers as a strategy to organise them. Wrong, says Peter Hall-Jones of New Unionism in an opinion article. Unions should not focus on what workers are against, but on what they are for.
The core of his argument consists in data on job satisfaction, which show that over eighty percent of workers in Western countries are fairly satisfied or very satisfied with their work. “[T]he overarching message for unions could not be clearer: an organising strategy which is centred around fear and anger will only resonate with a minority of potential members”.
In addition, a conflict-based organising strategy “allows right wing governments to paint unions as a destructive socio-economic force, and it allows HR managers to promote positive values (e.g. caring, trust etcetera) in the face of a perceived ‘external’ threat”.
Hall-Jones’ view seems at odds with the Anglo-Saxon organising approach, which tries to organise workers by focussing on issues they feel strongly about. However, in one respect the two approaches agree: in emphasising the importance for unions to have a strong workplace presence. Hall-Jones argues for “a new kind of presence – an on-site voice which can seriously address matters like workplace culture, inter-personal difficulties, stress, management styles and work-life balance”.
Do you think Hall-Jones is right? And does that mean that there is something wrong with the ‘organising approach’? Give your view in the comments.
Photo: George Kelly

Workers in Chicago occupy factory

[Contribution by Kees Hudig] – The Republic Windows & Doors factory has been occupied by its own workers. On 5 December, the last day the factory would be in operation, they refused to leave the factory. The occupiers have stated that they will continue their occupation until their severance pay and holiday pay has been paid. The owners decided to close down the factory after Bank of America – according to them the most important creditor – had decided not to issue new loans.
Many of the occupiers are Latinos and are organised in the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1110. The occupation draws a lot of attention because there have been very few factory occupations since the 1930s.
The factory's workers were given three day's notice of the factory closure. The occupiers and their union emphasise that Bank of America is one of the banks that have received billions in bailout money, but are now unwilling to issue new loans.
Meanwhile, occupiers are studying the company's administration, because their are rumours about funds having gone missing. Whether the workers will decide to restart the factory as their colleagues of a bicycle factory in Germany did, is as yet unknown.
Footage of the occupation

Victory - an update from Labornotes: The occupation lasted six days, until a unanimous December 10 vote among the 240 workers accepted a severance package worth about $7,000 per worker. The deal also includes two months of health care, a crucial gain for workers who discovered that their coverage had been unilaterally yanked

Teamsters support Dutch union: No public assistance for Aegon

American and Dutch dockworkers plan to launch a campaign against Aegon subsidiary Transamerica. According to Dutch union FNV Bondgenoten, Aegon is appropriating 1.7 billion euro in dockworkers’ and employers’ pension contributions.
“We are thinking of an information campaign in America in January”, Niek Stam of FNV Bondgenoten told newspaper AD. “No strikes, but picket lines in New York or San Francisco”.
Aegon is vulnerable, since it has requested financial support from the American government. Last week, Carin Zelenko of the Teamsters told TV show EenVandaag: “Companies that are engaging in anti-social behaviour should not receive public assistance”. She expected that the new government and Congress will be open to that suggestion.
AD, EenVandaag. Image: police trying to cross a Teamsters picket line in San Francisco, 1934 (source)

Spanish workers occupy bank

[Contribution by Kees Hudig] - In the city of Granada, Southern Spain, a vehement protest was organised on Wednesday 19 November, which ended in the simultaneous occupation of the offices of a local property developper and the headquarters of the BBVA bank.
The demonstration ‘against unemployment and precarity’ had been organised by the Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores, a small union that was founded in 2007 by people who were dissatisfied with the moderate course of the large unions. Workers of the farm workers’ union SOC joined the protest. Hundreds of activists further blocked roads in the city, while the occupation lasted.
The occupants had formulated a set of demands in response to the Spanish state’s support for banks. Among other things, they demanded a government guarantee that those who lose their job as a result of the crisis receive at least four months’ wages. The government is accused of “stealing from the poor in order to give to the rich”.
The occupation of the OSUNA property developer was no coincidence. Owner Nicolás Osuna is a symbol of the ‘old boys’ who have made a fortune from the construction boom, which is now being hit by the crisis. In addition to the construction company he owns the largest olive plantations in the province and is a member of the executive board of the Bank of Andalusia and is a major shareholder of a couple of other banks. Left-wing union leader Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo called him an ‘economic bandit’.
The Osuna offices were evicted by the police, but occupants joined the occupants of the bank elsewhere in the city. That occupation lasted the entire night and was ended the next day, after an agreement had been reached with the city government to discuss the crisis plans.
Meanwhile, the bank and the streets were covered with stickers and posters calling for an ‘unlimited general strike’.
When the meeting with the city government on 20 November failed to yield concrete promises, a group of protestors went to the Osuna offices once more, but police stopped them.
Originally published on Globalinfo (the original article contains additional links)

FNV launches leadership programme for ethnic minority women

Starting in February 2009, the FNV will train 25 ethnic minority ‘top women’ for executive positions on the boards of affiliated unions. During the ten month programme, the participants will do a work placement at one of the unions.
FNV President Agnes Jongerius: “In my view, the time is more than ripe for ethnic minority women to reach higher executive positions within the FNV [...] Therefore, I’m pleased that the FNV Women’s Union has launched a leadership programme for talented ethnic minority women”.
Jongerius says that the position of women has improved since the day when she started her career in the labour movement. “I was hired as a union official by the FNV Transportation Union, because it had become clear that something had to be done about the male-dominated culture and that innovation was needed. I have no problem whatsoever with being a product of the union’s positive action policy for women”. By now, it has become normal for women to be represented on the boards of the largest unions.
The programme for ethnic minority women is an initiative of the FNV Women’s Union in collaboration with other unions, the confederation, the Forum multicultural institute and training institute ROI.

Edify the labour movement!

[Contribution by Ruud Duvekot] - The world is changing fast. By now, employees and job seekers need to take the initiative and invest in themselves. Designing and - especially - maintaining your own career is more and more important. In short, you have to make sure to take your personal development into your own hands (again) and for this purpose, you can turn to the available institutions for (professional) education. Life long learning is crucial for all of us!
What could be better than for the labour movement to re-assume its traditional role of ‘edifying workers’? This will allow the labour movement to present itself as the organisation that defends the interests of its members and invests in the quality of society.
The target group (union members) and the goal (investing in our most important ‘commodity’: human capital) are clear. The intended results are manifold: strenghtening the competences of individual trade union members, raising the labour movement’s profile, and contributing to a social good. All that is lacking are a plan and funding.
For money, the labour movement could turn to sectoral education funds that provide opportunities, especially through provisions in collective agreements to fund career development. The main thing is to develop a good plan to reach out to the target group and stimulate people to invest in themselves.
So what needs to be done is to reach out to the target group and let people express their education needs. Regarding the first part, much can be won by linking to an initiative of FNV Bondgenoten to train union activists to become workplace career and education advisors.
For union members to express their specific education or career needs is a bit more complicated, though. However, here too an initiative the already exists may provide the solution. In the Netherlands, efforts are made to get a VPL method off the ground. VPL stands for Valuation of Prior Larning; this amounts to making an inventory of all you have ever learned somewhere. The first step consists in identifying your competences. Next, these ‘identified competences’ are used in step 2 to gain recognition for your learning achievements so far. In step 3, you can find out what competences you might want to develop or what you are missing in your personal development. And there you have your personal development plan! In order to obtain VPL - also referred to as the experience certificate - you can turn to many places (professional education institutes, staffing departments, education funds, etcetera).
It would be ideal if the union could help its members invest in themselves. The social context, goal, target group, union activists, intended results, funding and method are available. All that is lacking is to join all this and to make supporting personal development a misssion of the labour movement once again. Perhaps (re) founding the Union Academy might help?

Ruud Duvekot
Researcher, EVC Empowerment Centre

Study: Strong union able to cope with private equity

In July, unions around the world protested against private equity (PE) firms such as KKR, claiming that these firms make huge profits at the expense of workers. However, PE lobby groups have called the unions’ criticism ‘hysterical’.
A new academic study by Andrew Watt of the European Trade Union Institute finds that unions are largely right. While some criticism of PE may be exaggerated and one-sided, there is evidence suggesting that PE takeovers tend to result in job losses, lower pay, increased hostility towards trade unions and more ‘tax efficiency’ (which basically means that taxpayers subsidise PE profits).
Watt emphasises that PE firms are not intrinsically anti-union, but tend adopt a pragmatic approach. Strong unions will be in a better position to negotiate with the new owners. When a PE firm wants to buy a company, unions should try to organise more workers by addressing concerns these workers may have about the takeover.
Over the past years, there has been a huge increase in PE. The European leaders are Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK.
Andrew Watt (2008), The Impact of Private Equity on European Companies and Workers: Key Issues and a Review of the Evidence. Industrial Relations Journal 39(6): 548-68.

Employer pays union membership. Good idea?

New employees of the ING Bank receive a letter from their employer asking them to join a union of their choice. The employer will pick up the bill during the first year, newspaper de Volkskrant reports. While companies such as Shell and Unilever pay a percentage of their employees’ union membership fee [this is not entirely correct, an FNV Bondgenoten spokesperson indicated in a comment to the Dutch version of this article: employees at Shell can apply for a tax deduction], ING is reportedly unique in compensating the entire amount.
Ahmed Kansouh of the Christian union confederation CNV says that there is ‘substantial’ membership growth at ING.
“We highly value consultations with unions”, Chief Compensation, Benefits and Labour Relations Alex Verheijden explained the ING policy. Interestingly, ING also aims to change the composition of the unions’ membership, with the ultimate goal of changing their policies. “We find that youth and high-educated people are underrepresented in unions. That’s a pity, for they work with us too. The unions’ story often fails to reflect their opinion as much as it should. Of course, we’ll still hear from them within the company, but it’d be nice if the composition of the unions’ membership would be more balanced”.
Klaas Pieter Derks of the CNV youth wing more bluntly says that unions often do not represent young workers’ interests at all. “The unions’ views won’t change until more young people sign up. But why join an organisation you disagree with?”
The ING policy may raise the number of young union members. Should unions be concerned that they compromise their independence if they let employers pay their members’ fees? Kansouh says he is quite capable of ‘biting the hand that feeds him’. “Of course. We’re independent”. But ‘biting’ is not a metaphor that appeals to him. “Together we improve the company, in the interest of both the employer and the employees”.
Should unions let employers pay membership fees? Express your opinion in the comments below. Image: ING Headquarters (photo Niclas)

Obama on the right to organise

President to be Barack Obama has promised to introduce new legislation to prevent workers who organise being intimidated by employers. However, the legislation will meet with fierce resistance from business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce. Perhaps as a reminder, the SEIU has compiled a video containing some of Obama’s statements on the issue.

Barack Obama and the labour movement

[updated] - In January, the Wall Street Journal claimed that unions are “the single-strongest force in elections, outside of the presidential candidates and the national parties”. Hundreds of thousands of union volunteers have helped mobilise voters and have likely made a significant contribution to Barack Obama’s victory.
Today, confederation AFL-CIO quotes a survey indicating that unions have successfully reached out to their members, “with more than 80 percent receiving union mail, more than 80 percent receiving union publications, 59 percent getting live phone calls and 32 percent getting worksite fliers”. The SEIU also emphasised the crucial role unions have played in the election.
Unions seem to have been successful at gaining support for Obama among groups that would normally tend to vote Republican. Obama won among white men who are union members by 18 percentage points, while losing white male votes overall by 16 points. He won among union gun owners by a 12-point margin while losing to gun owners in the general population by 25 points.
Last Sunday, Politico reported on the role unions have played confronting racism among parts of the white electorate. “The older, largely industrial unions, members of the AFL-CIO, have emerged as key ambassadors for Obama to the parts of the country where he is weakest. Those unions have, in the recent past, been dismissed by Democrats as fading powers – good for turning up some burly, white ethnic workers at campaign rallies, but shrinking and demoralized, and without the energy or organization of growing unions like the Service Employees International Union. But for the first black nominee, white labour has proved a crucial bulwark of support”.
A month ago, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka took a strong stand against racism in a speech at the United Steelworkers’ national convention. “The discussion Trumka opened has taken place in conversations between shop stewards and rank and file members, and in large-scale internal union campaigns”, Politico wrote.
“Many voters have never voted for an African-American candidate for any position” AFL-CIO political director Karen Ackerman told Politico. “It's a proud moment in the labour moment in the last six months that there really has been discussion from the union presidents to local union officials to shop stewards on the floor”.
An important objective of the union movement was to create support in the Senate for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The EFCA is to protect workers who organise against employer intimidation, which should make it easier for unions to organise more workplaces. The aim was to obtain a 60/40 ‘filibuster proof’ Democratic majority in the Senate. While the Democrats have strengthened their position in the Senate, it seems unlikely that they will actually obtain a 60/40 majority.
The Associated Press predicts that ‘Obama’s reputation as a conciliator [...] will be sorely tested’ by the EFCA, which will meet with fierce opposition from business lobby groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce. The Wall Street Journal predicts a 'landmark battle with business' but also suggests that unions may settle for a compromise.
Meanwhile, unions are already planning to organise new sectors if the EFCA should pass; for example, hospitals in Chicago. Other targets may include FedEx and union-hostile retail giant Wal-Mart, Reuters suggests. Look here and scroll down to see what Obama himself says about his labour agenda.
Labourstart’s Eric Lee says that much will depend on whether Obama ‘will emulate Clinton's failure or Roosevelt's success’. President Clinton tried to reform health care and failed, and did close to nothing to strengthen the role of unions. President Roosevelt introduced new labour legislation, the National Labour Relations Act (NLRA). “The significance of the NLRA was that it lead to a massive growth of industrial unions. Those unions provided the foundation for the New Deal coalition that dominated American politics for nearly a half century”, Lee argues (through Stronger Unions).
Global Union UNI has been emphasising the international significance of the American election. In a statement, UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings today announces that it will ‘meet with representatives of the new Obama transition team to exchange ideas on how to build a new, more responsible globalization’. PSI General Secretary Peter Waldorff also stressed the international significance of the outcome: “Global warming, the breakdown of the financial system, the fight against poverty, wars and humanitarian disasters – all need to be dealt with by an American administration with a much broader vision than the current one”. British union Unite said that Obama's victory shows Europeans that there is an alternative to neoliberalism.
Photo Casie Yoder / AFL-CIO

Marketeers of all unions, your nemesis is here

[Contribution by Willem Dekker] - Took a refresher course in organising the other day. Four days in a varying group of ‘old’ and new organisers of ABVAKABO FNV and FNV Bondgenoten: transportation, health care, commerce and my own sector, cleaning. Nice group, good people, learned a lot. Try explaining in four sentences what a union is, good practice for anyone I’d say, harder than you think in any case. Organising, a new and hip word in the trade union movement, only people often have very different ideas of what it means. What is it about?
When I entered the trade union movement as a cashier, after a failed adventure as a left-wing student, I mainly got to know the trade union from the inside. The rooms in Utrecht and Amsterdam Sloterdijk, two days in the country and of course the various smoking rooms. Marketing people, policy advisors, clustered yellow post-its full of ideas, awkward team building activities and brainstorming, a lot of brainstorming: What kind of website do we need? Why aren’t young people signing up? How do we approach young people? The FNV as a brand to be marketed. An approach that I’d like to call the easy way out.
What I have learned as an organiser during the past three quarters of a year I spent with cleaners in Utrecht, The Hague, Leiden and Rotterdam, is that the issue is not how to approach non-members, but to approach them. More doing and less thinking - sorry, I meant brainstorming. In a distribution centre of the Super de Boer supermarket I saw how an activist was doing just that, resulting in twenty young members in one morning. Organising, marketing’s nemesis.
When I walked to Central Station this morning, I read that I can join FNV Bondgenoten for six months for 25 euro [as part of the ‘Power to..’ campaign - ed.]. Three steps ahead, I read that I can fly to Spain for less than twice that amount. Power is not in a poster announcing an introduction offer, it is in organising and organising starts with a conversation, face to face or one on one during a home visit, in organisers’ jargon.
Yes, we visit people’s homes and in so doing we put the union where it belongs, in people’s daily lives. I understand that writing papers and designing poster campaigns is a lot safer, easier as I wrote. But if we want to change something, we shouldn’t be recruiting members, we should be building a union, power to the workplace. That’s what organising is about. Hollow rhetoric? Let me explain what it is exactly what we’re doing.
An organiser reaches out to workers and promotes self-organisation. In short, organising is about going back to the roots of the trade union: the members and the ‘not-yet-members’. Organising is planned and structured, from how we map workplaces to the way in which we have conversations with workers that are almost scripted. A script that leads from an individualised problem to a collective perspective on change. Organising also means leaving the office: I’m supposed to spend 80 percent of my working time ‘in the field’.
The message is always the same, but packaged in the actuality of a collective agreement fight, compliance with a collective agreement, a petition or an action. The message is: I’m not the union, you are. Only if you and your co-workers organise and face your problems collectively, can you change something.
As a trade union movement, we have to make a serious choice for organising and during the refresher course I saw that we’re moving in the right direction. So marketeers of all unions, unite; you nemesis is here.

Willem Dekker is an organiser for FNV Bondgenoten in the cleaning sector. This article originally appeared in the new trade union magazine VERS.

Organising Academy ‘extremely successful’

The Organising Academy (OA) of the British confederation TUC has been ‘extremely successful’ as a catalyst for change and at spreading a new culture of union organising. This is the outcome of an evaluation conducted by Jane Holgate and Melanie Simms on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the institute.
While the conclusion is optimistic, the evaluation ‘isn’t all roses and sweetness and light’, as Paul Nowak of the TUC puts it at the OA blog. Some of the unions that have adopted the organising approach have shown impressive growth, but overall union density has remained ‘stubbornly stable’. Some of Holgate and Simms’ findings include:

• Seventy-one percent of OA graduates are still active in the union movement - half of them as organisers. Others have moved to politics, including one graduate who is now an MP. Some of the graduates who are active as organisers find they have to battle against a culture focused on servicing members rather than teaching them to self-organise. OA graduates maintain strong inter-union networks.
• Graduates value what they have learned at the OA, although they would have liked to learn a bit more about the broader strategic aspects of organising.
• Organising has remained a low-paid job with limited career options. Some may choose to move on to other positions, which may hamper the long-term perspective that is needed in organising work.
• TGWU (now merged into Unite) has developed a strategy informed by economic research that focuses on organising entire sectors rather than individual workplaces. It has trained 100 organisers and met its target of organising 10,000 new members per year.
• The GMB has chosen to integrate organising in the roles of all officers. To prevent this task ‘falling off the agenda’, all officers have to report on their organising activities as part of their evaluations. The union has decided that it is essential to consolidate its position in outsourced sectors such as catering and cleaning, after a period of rapid expansion.
• In the retail sector, USDAW offers lay activists a six-month training programme. During that period, the union pays their employer the equivalent of their wages, expecting activists to return to their original workplace after completion of the training. During the past four years, the union has grown from 310,000 to 340,000 members. This is impressive given the high turnover in the retail sector: the union has to recruit 80,000 new members per year just to keep its membership stable.
• There is an increasing awareness that unions need to be visible at the local level. Local councils are unable to do much organising work. “However, as the UK union movement consolidates into larger and more generalised unions, there may be greater potential and resource to establish union offices that can provide localised services to, as yet, non-unionised workers”. Holgate and Simms point to successful examples of local workers centres in the US.

Photo Rod Leon / Stronger Unions blog

The World Is Counting On Us

[Contribution by Stewart Acuff, AFL-CIO] - I am just returning to the United States from two days of meetings in London. The meetings were part of our work to globalize our organizing and our struggle for justice. For a couple of years now, we have increased our efforts to link up unions around the world to develop a global consensus or an analysis of the global economic race to the bottom and to better cooperate on ongoing and bargaining campaigns against multinational employers. These meetings, held in London on 13 and 14 October, were a key part of that work.
On Oct. 13, 30 organizers from Britain, Spain, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Ireland and the United States met to talk about our respective organizing programs and to further our dialogue about how we can collectively deal with multinational corporations, Neoliberalism and the global economic race to the bottom.
On Oct. 14, we joined 300 British organizers to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Britain’s Trades Union Congress’ (TUC’s) Organizing Academy, which had been modelled after the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute.
For the lone American there, two things were very striking—how hungry the world is for change in America and the election of Barack Obama and how eager international trade unionists and organizers are for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Philips Jennings, president of the powerful global union federation, UNI, said we must make certain the U.S. labour market is not available for export. He spoke of the global union federation’s commitment to the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, manifested when global labour leaders testified for the act at the Congress during the Global Organizing Summit on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2007. He spoke of the necessity for the world’s workers to restore the freedom to form union and bargain collectively in the United States and how detrimental it has been for workers all over the world to have workers’ rights crushed in the world’s biggest economy and the only super power.
Ron Oswald of IUF, a global union federation, said, “A union-free U.S. economy is a disaster for the whole world. The Employee Free Choice Act is key for everyone. We need an international plan to press for its passage,” including labour-friendly governments calling for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act as part of the global economic recovery plan.
The points are clear. How can workers in developing countries organize unions at companies owned in the United States or sell goods and services to U.S. companies when workers in the United States cannot organize and bargain collectively? And what does it do to workers in both the developed world and the developing world when U.S.-style union-busting is exported around the world as the Burke Group has done? That is why the AFL-CIO signed an important organizing protocol with the British TUC to cooperate to stop U.S.-style union-busting in Britain. Phil Jennings called for that protocol to be globalised.
On Oct. 14, 30 organizers from around the world joined 300 British organizers to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Organizing Academy. In Britain they have organized aggressively under the Labour government and labour-inspired new union organizing and recognition policies and stopped their decline in union density. The day was both a celebration and a recommitment to organizing and to more organizing of vulnerable workers—immigrants, temporary agency workers, workers in the informal economy.
I was privileged to speak on a panel with Philip Jennings of UNI and the BBC economics editor Paul Mason, whose brand-new book, 'Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global', is a history of working-class struggle. He speaks of worker struggle against corporate-fuelled globalization all over the world, from the United States to China to India to Nigeria to Bolivia and in every corner of the world.
And so we see our challenge to link up across borders and national boundaries, connecting with worker struggles around the world lending one another power and leverage, demanding a global economy that works for all of us, especially those of us who produce the wealth that powers the global economy.
My mates and colleagues from all over the world made it clear to me over and over again what our immediate role is—elect Barack Obama and pass the Employee Free Choice Act. People across the world wake up and check the polls online. They go to bed after going online to check the polls every night. Billions of average people and workers in every corner of this world are counting on us to make sure Barack Obama is elected. It is not exaggeration to say the world is counting on us.
Stewart Acuff is special assistant to the president of the AFL-CIO. This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post and on the AFL-CIO Now blog. More on this topic at the TUC Stronger Unions blog. Photo Rogue Valley IMC

‘We’re not going to pay for your crisis!’

[Contribution by Kees Hudig] - Last Friday, almost all of Italy was shut down by a strike (against the reform plans of the Berlusconi government) and students’ actions. Interestingly, the strike had not been called by the large trade unions, but by the sindicati di base, the grassroots unions (including cub and cobas).
At the same time, students and school children are running a ‘permanent mobilisation’ against the reform plans of the (strict Catholic) Education minister Gelmini. She is slashing the public education and research budgets and firing a large share of the part-time teachers.
The unions protest primarily against Brunetta’s reform plans, which will attack the public sector and lead to mass redundancies.
Friday’s strike was accompanied by large demonstrations (there were three in Rome, with a total of 300,000 participants). In Milano, 50,000 people hit the streets, mainly students and school children, and the Ministry of Education was raided, as well as the offices of the employers’ organisation.
A demonstration of 2,000 call centre workers ended in front of the stock exchange, where a new version of the theses of Luther was put up, with 95 theses on the economy and the crisis.
The most popular slogan among students and school children is "noi la crisi non la paghiamo!" ("we’re not going to pay for your crisis!").
Originally published at Globalinfo (in Dutch, more sources there)

Former MP: ‘I miss unions in climate struggle’

[Contribution by Wijnand Duyvendak] - With all the attention for the financial crisis, one might almost forget that there is also such a thing as a ‘climate crisis’. Dealing with this crisis also requires drastic measures. Here too it applies that the longer we wait, the more it will cost us.
Remarkably, the union movement is all but absent in the debate on the climate crisis. Apparently, it does not perceive the crisis as problematic, or at least not as a problem it should engage in.
The natural counterparts of the union movement, the employers’ organisations, have a very different view. VNO-NCW lobbies actively on this issue: whether it regards the introduction of a flight tax by the Balkenende IV government, or the EU measures to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses by twenty percent - its resistance is always broad and fierce. Further, VNO-NCW frequently wages very aggressive campaigns against environmental organisations, as it did recently against Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth).
I have always been in favour of a broad trade union movement. I thought it made sense for the union movement to actively participate in the fight against nuclear cruise missiles in the 1980s. The struggle against climate change is first and foremost a matter of international solidarity: people in developing countries are already the primary victims of climate change and they will be even harder hit in the future. The lives of millions of people are at stake. These people are not responsible for the droughts, the floods, the crop failures, and the lack of drinking water. Their climate is changing because we, the inhabitants of rich countries, are emitting too much carbon dioxide. But the struggle against climate change is also in our own best interest. The Netherlands is one large bathtub: if we fail to act, water will come to flood us from the see, from the large rivers and from the ground (seepage).
Doing nothing against climate change is not an option. It is also very unwise from an economic point of view. Experts have calculated that doing nothing will turn out to be three to five times more expensive than changing course now. If we fail to act, we will have to make ever larger expenses in order to adapt to the rising tide, and we will have to write down our investments in coal-fired power stations more rapidly if we change to renewable energy sources (too) late.
In the end, dealing with the climate crisis boils down to the question what kind of economy we want: one that is dependent on fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), or a green economy that uses energy very sparingly and that is dependent on renewable energy sources. In the Green4Sure plan of the environmental organisations - which the trade union movement fortunately did endorse! - it has been clearly demonstrated that such a sustainable economy is possible. However, this requires that we make choices. These choices will hurt in some sectors of the economy. Employees in those sectors have a right to a ‘warm reorganisation’ - that is also something the trade union movement will have to fight for.
So far, I have missed the unions in the climate struggle. Why do they not fight against the construction of coal-fired energy stations? Why do they not help turn climate conferences into a success? Why is there no network of green union members who advise and critically monitor the union leaders? Why is the union not an ally of the environmental organisations?

Wijnand Duyvendak is the author of ‘Klimaatactivist in de politiek’ (Climate Activist in Politics). He stepped down as Member of Parliament after a controversy over his activist past. Photo: Margot Scheerder

Fifty labour initiatives at ESF

There have been some fifty labour initiatives at the European Social Forum held in Malmö, Sweden last month, estimates Peter Waterman in a paper on the meeting. Only a minority of these initiatives were organised solely by unions. However, union confederation LO presented itself through a full-back-page advertisement in the programme and by handing out red water bottles bearing the slogan ‘Solidarity Works!’
Waterman himself used the ESF to argue for a Global Labour Charter Movement. He proposes a grassroots initiative to develop a charter that might include issues such as global labour rights, a global basic income and a re-invention of Mayday as a global labour and social movements solidarity day.
ESF paper

Union blogs

In his newsletter, Labourstart’s Eric Lee points to two interesting new union blogs. One is a blog launched by the British confederation TUC, at which staff write ‘about policy issues that are in the news, or ought to be’. The second is a miniblog for mobile phones launched by the South African confederation COSATU. “This is particularly important in a region of the world where the number of cellphone users is far greater than those who own or use computers”, Lee explains.
Meanwhile, in an article on his own website, Lee once more points out that unions should be careful not to become too dependent on free web services such as YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.

Swedish unions fight exploitation of illegal workers

In collaboration with an immigrants’ organisation, Swedish union confederations TCO and LO have created a centre for undocumented workers. “The criticism has focused on the fact that we did not act earlier”, explains Samuel Engblom, a lawyer with TCO.

Why was the initiative launched?
Over the past two years, the situation of undocumented migrants has received more and more attention. In Sweden, the majority of undocumented migrants are former asylum seekers who have been denied asylum in Sweden but stayed in the country. Most of them work to make a living and many are exploited by unscrupulous employers.
Under Swedish migration law, it is illegal for employers to hire persons who do not have a work permit, and illegal for the same persons to work. The two main trade union confederations (LO and TCO) are critical towards the latter stipulation. We would like the criminal sanctions against undocumented migrants who work to be abolished, while increasing the penalties on employers who take advantage of their situation.
Despite the fact that it is illegal for undocumented migrants to work, in principle Swedish labour law does apply to the relationship between undocumented migrants and their employers. Employers are thus not allowed to violate for example working time legislation or occupational health and safety rules just because the employee happens to be an undocumented migrant. Likewise, if an employer is bound by a collective agreement, he is bound towards all his employees regardless of trade union membership or migration status.

What kind of services do you offer to undocumented workers?
The centre offers information and advice on the Swedish labour market and on the rights of undocumented workers in the labour market. If an undocumented worker wants help in a conflict with an employer, the centre will serve as the bridge between the individual and the relevant trade union, which will then represent the migrant in his dealings with his employer.

What do you hope to achieve? 

The objective is to strengthen the position of undocumented migrants vis-à-vis their employers. Hopefully, the worst abuses will become less severe and less common when employers know that there is a credible threat of trade union involvement.

Do you collaborate with immigrants' organisations? 

Yes, the Swedish Trade Union Centre for Undocumented Migrants is a joint initiative of, on the one hand, the two confederations TCO and LO and a number of their affiliates and, on the other hand, Papperslösa Stockholm, which is an organisation representing undocumented migrants.

What kind of response did you get in the media and from politicians and members? Is the initiative controversial? 

The response from the media and in the political sphere has been overwhelmingly positive. The criticism has rather focused on the fact that we did not act earlier.

Have you had many undocumented workers visit the centre yet?
Yes, the centre has been open the past three Mondays and we have had between three and ten visitors each time. Most of the visitors are former asylum seekers. So far, most of the questions have been of a more general nature. Several visitors are seeking information on the new possibility for asylum seekers who have been denied asylum, but who have a job, to apply for work permits without leaving Sweden and receive residence permits as labour migrants. This is part of a larger reform of labour migration laws, which will take effect in December, if passed by the Swedish parliament in November.

Samuel Engblom contact info. Swedish Trade Union Centre for Undocumented Migrants

Some union members hesitant to support Obama

Some union members are hesitant to vote Barack Obama. They may not acknowledge explicitly that race is the issue: “The main reason you get is, ‘I don’t trust him because I don’t know him’,” local UAW leader Anthony Rainey told the New York Times.
Karen Ackerman, political director of the AFL-CIO confederation, said: “We’re very conscious of the fact that many voters have never voted for an African-American for any office. For some voters, including union voters, particularly older voters, there is a reluctance”.
However, for many voters economic issues are now decisive. “Abortion is an important subject, but with this election, I feel that abortion is not as big because of what happens with the war and the economy”, said Mike Roselle, a FedEx driver who supports Obama.
In the past, unions have demonstrated they have a substantial impact on the election outcome, especially as a result of their effectiveness at boosting voter turnout among low income and minority groups in swing states.
This year, the AFL-CIO plans to visit 10 million homes; make 70 million telephone calls; distribute 20 million leaflets and 25 million pieces of mail; and sending out more than four million e-mail messages.
Source: Steven Greenhouse / New York Times

‘Stronger union in exchange for bank bailouts’

If the taxpayers’ money is used to bail out banks, there should be a quid pro quo, argues British commentator Will Hutton. For example, these banks could require future corporate borrowers to recognise unions.
Meanwhile, Dutch union FNV Bondgenoten demands a place on the negotiating table where the future of the partly nationalised Fortis and ABN AMRO banks is decided. “It would be unacceptable if only the interests of investors and savers would be considered in a takeover”, union official Carla Kiburg said.

Candy as an organising tool

During a presentation in Amsterdam, labour researcher Professor Jeremy Waddington told the story of a union activist who managed to raise density at his workplace from 5 to 15%, ‘sitting on his chair’. He had put a jar on his desk filled with candy wrapped in paper with a union logo. As a result, he was constantly talking about the union with his co-workers.
The story illustrates Waddington’s central message: if unions want to grow, they need to be accessible at the workplace. According to Waddington, there are three conditions for a successful organising campaign:
1. Work systematically. Set targets, monitor results, discuss them and adapt the campaign. Make sure that adequate resources are available for the campaign.
2. Target your efforts. A campaign may target a certain profession, a sector, a company (e.g., a Sif campaign targeting workers at Volvo plants) or a geographic area (e.g., British union Unite targeting workers within the M25, that is, greater London). The most important thing is to make a choice. If the campaign targets workplaces where the union already has a presence, it is important to map the workplace. Find out who are union members and which issues are important to workers. Address these issues in your campaign literature.
3. The role of workplace activists is crucial. Make sure they are adequately trained before the campaign is launched.
Waddington is a project co-ordinator with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)’s research institute and teaches International Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations at Manchester University. His activities include an extensive international survey among union members. Unions who are members of ETUC-affiliated organisations can participate in the survey if they are willing to reproduce and distribute the questionnaires; the analysis and reporting costs will be met by the ETUC.
Jeremy Waddington contact information

Wal-Mart forces trade union chair out

[Contribution by Fons Tuinstra] - Gao Haitao, a trade union leader at Wal-Mart, has resigned from his position as chair of his branch over a conflict with the US retailer over collective contract negotiations, reports the China Labor News Translations. Disappointing news emerged on 17 September, that Gao Haitao – the only known Wal-Mart trade union leader to have actively stood up for his members’ interests, and the hero of Wal-Mart workers in the nation – has resigned from his position out of frustration over Wal-Mart’s refusal to enter into genuine collective bargaining.
Wal-Mart has been trying to use a meagre collective contract with the Chinese union ACFTU (meagre for the workers that is) as a template for all the other branches. Gao suggested changes in that template, but Wal-Mart claimed that the original contract was valid for all its branches, since it was approved by the ACFTU-leadership.

More here. See also here.

European Social Forum: Unions fight privatisation of water services

[Contribution by Jerry van den Berge, ABVAKABO FNV] - At the European Social Forum (ESF), twelve European unions that organise workers in water companies will meet to discuss how to prevent privatisation of water companies. Among them are ABVAKABO FNV (Netherlands), Ver.di (Germany), Fagforbundet (Norway) and CGIL (Italy). They will do this in a (union only) meeting at the Malmo Water company (VASYD), organised by Swedish union Kommunal and at a workshop together with several NGO's united in the "Reclaiming Pubic Water"-network.
This seminar focuses on how to strengthen the resistance to the intensifying push by EU institutions and governments for privatising and commercialising water supply in Europe. Activists, unionists and public water managers will present examples of successful progressive public management from across Europe as well as campaigns that promote such models as alternatives to privatisation.
A third seminar in which unions participate is aimed at influencing the World Water Forum to be held in Istanbul 2009 and a fourth one to build a European Water Network to join forces between all water activists to promote the right to water, participatory public water management and public-public-partnerships and to stop a further push for privatisation of water.

Union busters looking for new markets

Until recently, union busters have been mostly active in America, but since a couple of years, they also operate in the UK. Researcher John Logan did a study on this phenomenon for the British federation TUC. At the website of The Burke Group (TBG), the largest anti-union consultancy, he found that the firm has been hired in the UK by companies including T-Mobile, Amazon.co.uk, Virgin Atlantic, FlyBe and Kettle Chips. TBG has since password protected its client information.
Logan says that he has the impression that union busters are active mostly at the lower end of the labour market. It regards companies with low wages and deficient labour conditions, where workers are most in need of a union.
For now, he does not want to exaggerate the role of union busters in the UK. “If unions would show more ambition to organise new sectors, there would be a larger market for union busters. David Burke, CEO of TBG, recently said in an interview that he’s not sure yet that there is a substantial market in the UK”.
According to its website, TBG has staff in countries including France, Germany and Belgium. Whether the firm is actually active on the European mainland is difficult to say. In any case, labour relations are not the same. For example, employers in the Netherlands often pay wages in accordance with a collective agreement that applies to an entire sector. Under such circumstances, it does not make as much of a difference whether employees are members of a union or not and therefore, the employer has a weaker incentive to keep out the union.
However, one cannot entirely rule out that union busters are active here, Logan says. “These firms are very decentralised and their consultants are almost like freelancers. They are constantly looking for new markets and they adapt their services to local labour relations”.
Usually, union busters operate in secret. For years, unions in the UK did not have a clue that employers had hired a consultant.
Are there any signs to recognise the involvement of a union buster by? Logan: “Almost without exception, union officials I spoke to said that this was the most aggressive and sophisticated campaign they had ever encountered. These are not standard campaigns, but if you’ve seen a few, you’ll recognise the message”.
Various union officials in the Netherlands say that they have never heard of union consultants operating here. However, they do sometimes encounter aggressive suppression of union activities. An example is the German cleaning company Menke, which works for Center Parcs. Labour relations at Menke are ‘medieval’, says union official Ron Meyer. After months of protests, cleaners today reached an agreement with Center Parcs to deal with the abuses.
Source: Sociaal Europa Krant

AFL-CIO organises gun owners and churchgoers

‘Working America is one of the brightest new developments for a beleaguered labour movement’, writes David Moberg in an interesting article in the Nation. The organisation, created by labour federation AFL-CIO, has 2.5 million members, many from groups that are not traditionally likely to join a union.
The organisation may have an impact on the upcoming presidential elections. Volunteers are going to try to visit every member, asking them to vote for Barack Obama. In the past, a large majority of Working America members have voted for Democratic candidates. This is remarkable given their background: one in three are born-again Christians and as many are members of the National Rifle Association.
Working America signs up members through the Internet, telephone and direct mail, but mainly through door-to-door canvassing in targeted suburbs and inner cities. Membership is free, but members are asked to take action - for example, sign a petition, contact a politician or tell their story at a meeting. Of those who are contacted, two-thirds join and one in five pledge to take action.
Canvassers are trained both about political issues and about canvassing techniques ‘such as maintaining eye contact; keeping it short and simple; and using emotionally strong but friendly and optimistic language’.
Members are contacted to ask what their priorities are, they can participate in the ‘worst boss’ contest and they are offered legal and other services. Working America has a 32 million dollar budget per two years.
David Moberg article

Union versus Pink Floyd

Labourstart has launched the first Labour Photo of the Year Contest. Photos of union members in action can be submitted until 22 September. The initiative was inspired by the international success of the Labourstart group at the photo sharing website Flickr, which has sixty members.
Meanwhile, the New Unionism website announced that Get Up, Stand Up by Bob Marley and the Wailers won the poll for best workers’ song of the past fifty years. New Unionism still has a contest running for the creation of a new anthem for working people.
Not all songs are popular with the labour movement. In Sweden, the National Union of Teachers took offense when Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt sang ‘We don’t need no education, yeah’ - a line from a song by prize winner Pink Floyd - at the Polar Music Prize ceremony.
Photo: Ueli Frey / Wikipedia

Owner tells Center Parcs to negotiate with cleaners

A delegation of cleaners has urged Center Parcs owner Pierre & Vacances to interfere in the conflict with Menke, the German company hired by Center Parcs to clean one of its holiday parks. The cleaners - members of Dutch union FNV Bondgenoten and German IG Bau - received support from French union CFDT and Uni Global Union. The cleaners demand equal treatment of German and Dutch workers and an end to the intimidation of union activists.
“If you frustrate the right to organise, human rights are being trampled”, said Ron Meyer of FNV Bondgenoten. “We are pleased that Pierre & Vacances received us well and that they immediately promised to arrange a meeting. It is very important to us that they promised that the Center Parcs management will be present at that meeting. Center Parcs has to be involved in order to solve this conflict. We have no faith in Menke anymore after all the engagements they have broken, but our faith in Center Parcs has been restored to some extent now”.
Cleaners have been protesting for eight months against unequal treatment, underpayment and initimidation by Menke. They say Center Parcs must take responsibility for the abuses taking place at its holiday park.
Source: FNV Bondgenoten. Send a solidarity e-card here

‘Labour movement needs open debate’

The course of the influential American services union SEIU affects society as a whole. Therefore, “it’s not only fair that workers and labour activists in general discuss the questions highlighted by the internal conflict in SEIU, since they are affected by them, but their input may help find answers”, argue journalists David Bacon and and Warren Mar.
The SEIU may well be the most successful union in the world if it regards organising new groups of workers. Also, the union has invested heavily in building international collaboration. Across the world, it helps unions organise cleaners and security staff. Recently, it also launched an international campaign against private equity firms.
However, critics say that the SEIU is making ‘sweetheart deals’ with corporations, sacrificing internal democracy and worker empowerment. The SEIU, on its part, says that some of its critics are pursuing their own short-term interests at the expense of workers who are not yet part of a union.
In July, the Monthly Review published a balanced report on the conflict, as well as responses from Stephen Lerner, a leading SEIU strategist, as well as John Borsos, administrative vice-president of United Healthcare Workers-West, one of the critics of SEIU’s course.
Thank you Peter Waterman for bringing the article to our attention

Catering union: reach out to workers

Catering union FNV Horecabond has a phased approach to recruitment. The organisation actively strives to involve both members and non-members. For example, when setting the demands for the collective agreement negotiations, it uses input from surveys among members and non-members. Non-members can also comment on the draft agreement, although cannot vote of course. “They often have slightly different wishes than active union members. If you don’t take that into account, you’ll alienate yourself from a large part of the sector”, says president Ben Francooy.
Promotion teams are used to reach out to non-members. The promos systematically visit all companies - from small bars to large hotels - to inform workers about the sector and the union. Workers can fill in a form if they want to know more about their profession or participate in surveys. At the work place, there is often little time to give extensive information, so that is done at a later, more convenient moment. The first 180 actions have yielded 8,500 new contacts, which have subsequently been given further information by telephone or email.
The organisation does not present itself as a traditional trade union. “We want to present ourselves in a new and striking manner with young and enthusiastic people, fun gadgets and online links to games and a newsletter, in order to make people feel: that is an organisation that I want to be part of. The most important thing is to let people know that you understand what their work is about”, says project leader Bernard Klaassen.
FNV Horecabond has its own call centre to inform and recruit members and has recently started using an external call centre as well. “It’s important that people know the union through promotion teams, the media and newsletters. In the end, the websites and contact by telephone are decisive in making people join”, says Francooy.
In addition to this, the union is developing a new membership system that allows members to choose which services they want to use. This will offer an opportunity to meat the demands of various groups of (future) members. The intention is to launch a pilot in the recreation sector by early 2009.
Union density in the catering sector is about ten percent. FNV Horecabond has the ambition to increase density, but given the large number of small workplaces and the high turnover this is not easy. Some 340,000 people work in the sector, and some 80,000 of them leave the sector every year. Among the workforce there are also some 80,000 students, who work on average 2 to 3 years in the sector.
Low density is one of the reasons to involve non-members in discussions about collective negotiations, so as to prevent representativity becoming an issue. Quality and support are decisive, the union argues.
FNV Horecabond (contains links to sector-specific sites)

Wal-Mart gets its collective agreements in China

[Contribution by Fons Tuinstra] - When the largest retailer Wal-Mart and China's only trade union ACFTU started to sign this month - two years after the ACFTU started to organize its membership at one of the world's most notorious union bashers - their first collective
agreements, it was for more than one reason a symbolic moment.
Not only the pure fact that the ACFTU got its agreements had a high symbolic value, also the initial pay raises for the two-year contracts of eight percent annually, had a high symbolic value. The number eight is an
auspicious number in China, figuring luck. That is why the Beijing Olympics start in August at eight past eight o'clock in the evening, on the eight day of the eighth month in 2008. You did not have to be much of an old China-hand to suspect that symbolism was more important than economics to get this deal done.
Some lawyers who are typically hired by foreign companies in China had some misgivings about the financial paragraph, writes Forbes: “Dan Harris, a U.S. attorney who represents small businesses in foreign markets with his firm Harris & Moure and writes the widely respected China Law Blog, says an 8% pay increase this year made sense. But the same amount next year sounds ‘strange’, since there's no telling what inflation will be a year from now, he adds”.
Inflation in June was nationwide at 7.1 percent year-on-year, eating away almost all the advantage Wal-Mart employees might have had in the first year. On Monday 28 July the National Bureau of Statistics said that in the first six months of 2008 urban salaries had gone up 18 percent year-on-year. That suggests that Wal-Mart workers have been paying a high price for being represented by the ACFTU.
The economics in China might vary very much from place to place and in Shenzhen the contract delivered a whopping 9 percent. Still a bit more, but the ACFTU might need calculators more than symbolism. According to the People's Daily, the newspaper of the Communist Party, the negotiators had asked initially asked for 12 percent and some of the members voted against the agreement when that did not materialize. Wang Tongxin, leader of the city's trade union commented in the paper: "This is a win-win contract which has balanced the interests of
workers and management."

TUC launches organising course for activists

This fall, the British TUC will be launching a series of regional pilot training programmes for activists. Participants will learn to recruit new members and activists; work with community organisations and work on campaigns that are built around issues that workers care about.
According to the TUC, active union members can ‘make a key contribution towards building stornger unions in the workplace’.
The programme consists of three two-day sessions. In addition, participants are expected to work on an actual campaign. Those who complete the course can also enter the interview pool for the (paid) Trainee Programme of the Organising Academy.
The Activist Academy will be formally launched at the TUC Congress in September.
More info at the TUC organising weblog

American unions reconcile to support Obama

American unions are setting aside their differences in order to help get Barack Obama get elected. There is even speculation that some of the so-called ‘breakaway unions’ might rejoin the AFL-CIO federation after election day, reports Steven Greenhouse in the New York Times.
In 2005, a number of unions headed by services union SEIU quit the AFL-CIO because they thought the federation was not doing enough to organise new workers. Despite the split, they kept collaborating at the local level and on some political campaigns.
Currently, they are intensifying their political collaboration, especially in swing states where unions are strong: Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In addition, they have joined forces to mobilise one million workers for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier to organise workers.
According to some sources, the Laborers and the United Food and Commercial Workers are considering to rejoin the AFL-CIO, provided that the federation makes some changes. Other unions such as the SEIU, Unite Here and the Teamsters would be more critical.
There would be talk of trying to have the current president of the Laborers, Terence O’Sullivan, succeed John Sweeney as president of the AFL-CIO.
Source: New York Times

Protest against private equity

Yesterday, FNV Bondgenoten held a protest at Maxeda, a company owned by private equity Lion Capital. The action was part of a global day of action against abuses by private equity firms, with actions in 25 countries.These firms buy companies and sell them at a profit after stripping them and laying off employees, according to the FNV. Further, they would evade taxes. KKR owns companies including Toys R Us, Nielsen (VNU), Maxeda (V&D, Bijenkorf) and AVR Van Gansewinkel.Pension funds managed by unions and employers' organisations are important investors in private equity funds. The FNV says pension funds should require private equities to subscribe to basic principles such as abstaining from child labour and slavery, paying living wages and respecting the right to organise.
Source / photo: FNV Bondgenoten. More photos. International, background

‘Reach out to Chinese ACFTU’

The international trade union movement should reach out to the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), but establishing a formal relationship is a step too far, argues the Global Labor Strategies (GLS) website in a new post.
With one in four workers in the global economy being Chinese, unions cannot afford to ignore China, GLS argues. Yet while international employer interest groups lobby the Chinese government to weaken labour market regulations, unions have no position on the ground.
During the past months, GLS met with a number of labour experts and found ‘widespread support for global labor’s outreach to the ACFTU’. It argues that the time is ripe: “A huge wave of strikes and protests fueled by growing income inequality and corporate lawlessness has prompted reforms in China on several levels. The Labor Contract Law, came into effect in January, 2008, and support is needed to ensure that it is enforced against a corporate backlash; new laws are in the pipeline; the somnolent ACFTU is being prodded by elements in the Communist Party to more aggressively defend worker interests and reform elements are emerging within the union; experiments are being launched to extend collective bargaining rights in some regions; and a vigorous discourse is under way in China among reformers about how to promote further reforms in the industrial relations system”.
The American Change to Win federation, in which the services union SEIU is a key player, is said to be about to sign a protocol with the ACFTU, although apparently no-one knows what the contents will be. GLS sources tended to find that signing a protocol is premature and may result in a loss of leverage to promote reforms within the ACFTU.
The international federation ITUC takes a more cautious approach by engaging a ‘critical dialogue’ with the ACFTU, emphasising a ‘rights agenda’. In June, the ITUC hosted a conference for members of European Works Councils of companies that do business in China.

Web and work survey

If unions want to take full advantage of the Internet, they need to know how workers are using the Internet. James Richards of Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh is doing a survey on this topic. Fill out the questionnaire and forward the URL to your contacts.

‘World’s first global union created’

This week, Unite (UK and Ireland) and United Steelworkers (USA, Canada and Caribbean) signed an agreement to merge into Workers Uniting, a transatlantic union with over 3 million members. Unions in Australia, Eastern Europe and Latin America may join later.
The merger should make it easier to influence multinational corporations such as BP and ArcelorMittal, but also institutions such as the World Trade Organisation, the European Commission and ‘the increasing number of global forums on issues like climate change’.
The new union also plans to help protect Colombian union members from violence, aid rubber workers in Liberia and help impoverished ship workers in India.
At this stage, the unions do not really merge. They will remain largely autonomous, but they will create an umbrella leadership, probably headed by the current chairmen of the two unions. The new organisation will have ‘an initial budget of several million dollars’ and its staff will include research, international affairs and communications specialists.
Most commentators have applauded the decision to merge, although some have pointed to potential obstacles. For example, British Labour politician Denis MacShane warns that American protectionism may create tensions.
“American unions have fulminated against the decision of the Pentagon to award a contract for 130 refuelling tankers to a European consortium headed by Airbus. This was a boost to jobs of Unite members in Britain but there is now a ferocious battle in Washington to reverse this decision and award the contract to Boeing. It will be an important test case for the Unite-USWA alliance to see if the new transatlantic union can see off the protectionist attitudes of American labour”, he writes in the Guardian.
Workers Uniting. Sources: Time, New York Times, Guardian

‘British unions threaten Thatcher legacy’

Anxious not to appear to be pushing a traditional left-wing agenda, British unions are calling on the Labour party to embrace a proposal for environmental workplace reps to encourage ‘green workplaces’. They further argue for free school meals, flexible workplace leave and lifelong learning in the workplace.
According to the Guardian, unions have “deliberately decided to hold back from demanding traditional workers’ rights, and are instead pushing issues which they hope will have a broad appeal with core Labour voters [...] They fear that if they push an agenda focussing exclusively on improved rights for unions, the main beneficiaries will be the Tories”.
In fact, the Telegraph writes that unions are pushing for “more left-wing policies including increased rights to strike and higher taxes on middle earners”, pressurising a dependent Labour party to “reverse the key labour reforms put in place by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s”.
The Labour Party has difficulties raising funds from wealthy donors as a result of a scandal and doubts about party leader Gordon Brown. Unions are to save the party from bankruptcy, which puts them in a powerful position.
The unions seem to remain loyal to the Labour party. Unite’s Tony Woodley: “We may have words to say about this government about individual disputes, but let us be clear about one thing: the Tories would be an absolute disaster for working men and women”.
Source: the Guardian, the Telegraph

Organising immigrant construction workers in Zürich

Within ten years, the Zürich branch of construction workers’ union Unia saw its membership decrease from 5,800 to 3,750 members. It was feared the union would become irrelevant in the main economic metropolis of Switzerland. However, a new leadership changed the branche’s strategy. Now, the branch is winning about 400 new members per year.
The branch has made its staff spend less time participating in ‘endless’ committees and requires them to spend at least half their working time in the field. There is a tendency to hire higher-educated staff, and the branch claims that 70% of its staff are women and 75% immigrants (this includes second-generation immigrants).
The branch has adopted an assertive strategy, engaging conflicts that can be won. Many of these conflicts concern (early) retirement issues, but the branch also supports campaigns for the rights of undocumented workers.
Other efforts to involve immigrant workers include the provision of language courses and computer courses for new immigrants and the establishment of migrant activist groups.
Roman Burger, executive director of the branch, says that the innovations have met with some internal resistance and have caused small numbers of activists to leave. However, the gaps were easily filled by a new generation of activists attracted by the new campaigns.
Burger’s account is included in a new brochure on organising published by the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI). According to BWI’s vice-president in Europe, Vasco Pedrina, unions need to put more emphasis on organising if they want to be able to withstand neo-liberal attacks on the European social model.
The BWI brochure further includes papers on Dutch efforts to organise self-employed workers, on IG Bau’s new emphasis on organising and participatory trade unionism and on a migrant workers’ network.
Brochure. Photo: Alex.ch

Cleaners offer Center Parks new brain

After some pulling and pushing, cleaners yesterday presented a new brain to the director of Center Parks because of abuses at the German cleaning company Menke, which works for Center Parks (a company that operates recreation parks).
Menke has been causing serious unrest and problems for six months. A large number of workers are underpaid, receive inadequate allowances and no pension. Others are missing out on hundreds of euros in travel allowances. Menke further openly intimidates its cleaners. Two union members have even been fired.
In addition, the German cleaners are consciously treated worse than the Dutch. They receive lower wages, no holiday and travel allowances and no pension contributions are made for them.
“If you have allowed the abuses at Menke to go on for six months, then you can use a new brain and we’ll bring it to you”, cleaner Sonja Kippes commented on Center Parks’ attitude. The brain was offal from a slaughterhouse.
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