We're In A Huge Union- Do You Feel Better?
United Steelworkers, Amicus Agree to Form Global Union
by James Parks, Apr 18, 2007
In a global economy where multinational companies operate across borders, union leaders have explored strategies for better representing their workers and sustaining the middle class.
Today, the United Steelworkers (USW), Amicus, the largest manufacturing union in the United Kingdom, and UK’s Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G) took the first step toward forming a truly global union.
At a signing ceremony in Ottawa, Canada, this morning, representatives of the three unions signed an agreement to move toward merger. Amicus and the T&G will join together as one union with 2.1 million members after May 1, 2007, that will be based in London and called Unite.
The unions agreed to set up joint committees to set timetables, identify hurdles to merger and build a structure for the new union. USW President Leo Gerard said he hopes the merger can be completed in a year.
Workers need to build a global counterforce to deal with the globalization of capital, the creation of the World Trade Organization and bad regional trade agreements, Gerard said during a telephone press conference following today’s ceremony.
As global corporations try to force their will on workers, they are pushing on the same issues: job security, health care and deindustrialization. Unless we form a global response, they will have the playing field to themselves.
Amicus General Secretary Derek Simpson said, “The problems and aspirations of workers [in U.S. and Canada] aren’t any different from those of working people in the United Kingdom.
One of our tasks as trade unions is to advance conditions for working people. That is becoming increasingly difficult when we work within national boundaries. We can no longer confront global companies unless we are organized globally.
T&G General Secretary Tony Woodley said the agreement is “an historic step for global trade unionism, and will help working people to look even the biggest employer in the eye.”
Closer working and agreement with North American trade unionists forms a crucial part of our global organizing agenda, designed to stop bosses playing off workers in one country against those in another.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney hailed the agreement as “a bold and innovative approach to addressing the crushing effect of corporate-driven globalization on workers and their communities.”
These unions clearly understand that workers’ organizations must forge new paths to ensure that all working people can earn decent wages, provide for themselves and their families and work under safe, healthy conditions.
Together, these unions have put multinational companies on notice: Pushing down wages and working conditions for your employees by pitting one country’s workforce against another will not work forever. By exploring what it would take to build the world’s first trans-Atlantic union, these unions have proven themselves to be on the cutting edge of not only the global union movement, but the future of the global workforce.
Both Gerard and Simpson said building global unions could lead to the kind of political power workers need to change anti-worker labor laws in the United States and other countries around the world. For more information on today’s announcement and the agreement between USW and Amicus, click here.
Last week, the Independent Steelworkers Union, which represents 1,250 workers at Mittal Steel’s mill in Weirton, W. Va., merged with USW.
Info Source: aflcio.org
by James Parks, Apr 18, 2007
In a global economy where multinational companies operate across borders, union leaders have explored strategies for better representing their workers and sustaining the middle class.
Today, the United Steelworkers (USW), Amicus, the largest manufacturing union in the United Kingdom, and UK’s Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G) took the first step toward forming a truly global union.
At a signing ceremony in Ottawa, Canada, this morning, representatives of the three unions signed an agreement to move toward merger. Amicus and the T&G will join together as one union with 2.1 million members after May 1, 2007, that will be based in London and called Unite.
The unions agreed to set up joint committees to set timetables, identify hurdles to merger and build a structure for the new union. USW President Leo Gerard said he hopes the merger can be completed in a year.
Workers need to build a global counterforce to deal with the globalization of capital, the creation of the World Trade Organization and bad regional trade agreements, Gerard said during a telephone press conference following today’s ceremony.
As global corporations try to force their will on workers, they are pushing on the same issues: job security, health care and deindustrialization. Unless we form a global response, they will have the playing field to themselves.
Amicus General Secretary Derek Simpson said, “The problems and aspirations of workers [in U.S. and Canada] aren’t any different from those of working people in the United Kingdom.
One of our tasks as trade unions is to advance conditions for working people. That is becoming increasingly difficult when we work within national boundaries. We can no longer confront global companies unless we are organized globally.
T&G General Secretary Tony Woodley said the agreement is “an historic step for global trade unionism, and will help working people to look even the biggest employer in the eye.”
Closer working and agreement with North American trade unionists forms a crucial part of our global organizing agenda, designed to stop bosses playing off workers in one country against those in another.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney hailed the agreement as “a bold and innovative approach to addressing the crushing effect of corporate-driven globalization on workers and their communities.”
These unions clearly understand that workers’ organizations must forge new paths to ensure that all working people can earn decent wages, provide for themselves and their families and work under safe, healthy conditions.
Together, these unions have put multinational companies on notice: Pushing down wages and working conditions for your employees by pitting one country’s workforce against another will not work forever. By exploring what it would take to build the world’s first trans-Atlantic union, these unions have proven themselves to be on the cutting edge of not only the global union movement, but the future of the global workforce.
Both Gerard and Simpson said building global unions could lead to the kind of political power workers need to change anti-worker labor laws in the United States and other countries around the world. For more information on today’s announcement and the agreement between USW and Amicus, click here.
Last week, the Independent Steelworkers Union, which represents 1,250 workers at Mittal Steel’s mill in Weirton, W. Va., merged with USW.
Info Source: aflcio.org
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