UAW Brings Together Unions from Eight Nations to Plan Joint Organizing Strategies

The UAW spearheaded an unprecedented meeting of auto unions from eight nations to meet the challenges of globalization by developing shared strategies for moving toward the future and Amy Masciola from the AFL-CIO Organizing Department sends us this report.

Last week, representatives of auto unions from eight countries agreed to form an ad hoc global auto sector organizing working group to gather and share information, develop strategic organizing targets and coordinate solidarity among participants.

The UAW convened the meeting at its headquarters in Detroit. Participants included trade unionists from Argentina, Brazil, France, Thailand, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom, as well as representatives of the International Metalworkers’ Federation, the AFL-CIO Organizing Department and the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.

In welcoming participants, UAW Vice President and National Organizing Director Terry Thurman summarized the goals of the meeting:

We understand that in order to maintain the high standards we have fought long and hard for in the United States, we must work together to raise labor standards around the world. We must have a global strategy to unite workers in a struggle against the ill effects of the global economy.

Thurman, who chaired the three-day meeting, said that in gathering trade unionists from across the globe, the UAW sought to share information and develop an action plan to address the global assault on workers’ rights.

The same employers operate auto and truck assembly and parts factories around the world. With the big auto companies operating internationally, it is incumbent on auto unions to do the same.

Des Quinn attended the meeting on behalf of Unite, a new union formed this month from the merger of two of Britain’s largest unions, the Transport & General Workers Union and Amicus.

We know that the companies’ top priority is profits, not people. Executives will ruthlessly shift production without regard for the economies, communities, and workers they leave behind. If we work together to raise labor standards around the world and to show the bosses that they cannot pit worker against worker in a competition for the cheapest jobs, then we will build real power for workers.

According to Hyewon Chong of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union:

Workers in South Korea face a lot of repression from employers when they try to organize and our labor law does not protect their rights. Workers are threatened, fired, and even endure physical attacks for their union activities. We are excited to have the chance to share our experiences and develop strategies that help us build workers’ power in South Korea and around the world.

Valter Sanches of the Brazilian metalworkers’ union CNM-CUT described campaigns his union waged to organize workers at DaimlerChrysler’s suppliers in Brazil and the effort required to ensure the parts companies respected their employees’ rights to organize.

These are the kinds of coordinated efforts that we as trade unionists should engage in on a global scale. When we work together we can challenge companies that oppose workers’ attempts to organize a union.

Representatives from each union described the legal frameworks for forming and joining unions in their respective countries in order to shed light on the variety of tactics used by companies to avoid or weaken unions. Many participants said that the issues they face in helping workers form unions in their own countries are strikingly similar to those faced by activists in the United States. Participants shared information about the multinational companies doing business in their countries, their unions’ density and bargaining coverage and their organizing priorities.

In concluding the meeting, Terry Thurman reiterated that the UAW is committed to supporting auto workers’ struggles around the world, whether they are in bargaining or organizing or defying trade union repression.

We are committed to the global struggle for workers’ rights and we are prepared to step up in support of our brothers and sisters around the world,” he said. We are eager to move beyond symbolic gestures of solidarity and develop joint strategies to combat the global assault on workers’ rights.

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