Around
The World
July 2008
with Harry Knowles*
Workers Uniting: a new Global Union: In a global economy where multinational companies operate across borders, unions are developing global strategies to better represent their members. In the first week of July, the United Steelworkers (USW) and Unite, Britain’s largest union, formally combined to form the world’s first global union.
The new union, dubbed Workers Uniting: The Global Union, will draw on the energies of the two unions’ more than 3 million active and retired workers from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. The members work in virtually every sector of the global economy, including manufacturing, service, mining and transportation.
USW President Leo Gerard and Unite General Secretary Derek Simpson signed the agreement in a transatlantic ceremony earlier this month.
“This union is crucial for challenging the growing power of global capital,” says Gerard, “… Globalization has given financiers license to exploit workers in developing countries at the expense of our members in the developed world.
Only global solidarity among workers can overcome this sort of global exploitation wherever it occurs”.
While the two unions will remain largely autonomous, they will have a joint leadership to coordinate common policy and collective bargaining. The two unions represent workers at some of the same companies in both countries and will be able to coordinate bargaining.
(AFL-CIO website): http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/02/workers-uniting-the-first-global-union)
Denmark: Fighting back against ‘Yellow” Unionism: Shop stewards within the Danish Metalworkers’ Union have taken new initiatives in the protracted fight against so-called ‘yellow’ trade unions in an effort to curb their own membership decline.
For the first time ever, the trade union has signed a local agreement with companies, through which employers agree to pay their employees’ union membership fee.
Since the abolition of closed-shop agreements, which force some groups of employees to become members of company trade unions, the number of new members joining the so-called ‘yellow’ trade unions – unions that stress a harmony of interest between employees and employers – has increased significantly.
A local agreement was reached in the autumn of 2007 between the Danish Metalworkers’ Union (Dansk Metal) and a number of companies in the capital city region of Copenhagen and in the North Jutland region in the north of the country. According to the agreement, the employers involved will pay their employees’ union membership fee to Dansk Metal as a fringe benefit
(http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2007/12/articles/dk0712039i.htm)
The Report revealed some two million UK workers are ‘trapped in a continual round of low-paid and insecure work and that ‘employment practices attacked as exploitative in the 19th century are still common today’
United Kingdom: TUC urges action on behalf of vulnerable workers: In 2007, the British Trades Union Congress established the Commission on Vulnerable Employment. Its membership include academics and representatives of employer and civil society groups, as well as trade unionists.
The commission aimed to investigate the problems being faced by vulnerable workers – those who are in unsafe, insecure or low-paid employment - primarily temporary and agency workers, migrant workers, home workers, informal workers, young workers and unpaid family workers.
The commission’s recommendations include better provision of employment rights advice, the creation of a new Fair Employment Commission, targeted support for migrant workers and equal rights for temporary and agency workers. However, the Confederation of British Industry dismissed certain aspects of the report.
In May 2008, the Trades Union Congress published its final report, entitled Hard Work, Hidden Lives.
The Report revealed some two million UK workers are ‘trapped in a continual round of low-paid and insecure work where mistreatment is the norm’, and went on to state that ‘employment practices attacked as exploitative in the 19th century are still common today’.
The Report also identified that vulnerable workers suffer because they do not know their rights, cannot get their rights enforced, find it difficult to obtain alternative work or are insufficiently protected under employment law.
The Report recommended that the government should support a major awareness programme of employment rights, including more funding for advisory services, provide more resources for enforcement agencies and establish a new ‘Fair Employment Commission’ to coordinate the work of enforcement agencies, monitor awareness of employment rights and make recommendations to the government.
(http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2008/05/articles/uk0805019i.htm)
Italy: Moves to end ‘white resignations’: In March 2008, legislation came into effect which provides for a new procedure for resignations among all types of employees, including those on atypical employment contracts.
The new law aims to combat the widespread phenomenon of so-called ‘white resignations’ in Italy.
This practice occurs when an employer asks a worker to sign an undated letter of resignation at the moment of hiring. The employer can use this letter at a later stage to bypass legal restrictions regarding individual redundancies, transforming a dismissal into a resignation.
This illegal practice is frequently adopted for women, so that they can be conveniently dismissed when they become pregnant, or for legal protection in cases of accidents and injuries at the workplace. In the latter case, the letter is dated before the time of the accident.
The March legislation covers all types of standard and atypical employment contracts, including employer-coordinated freelance contracts, project or temporary work contracts and employment contracts of cooperatives.
(http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2008/06/articles/it0806019i.htm)
Harry Knowles, Work
and Organisational Studies, School of Business, University of Sydney.
Posted 4 July 2008
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