by James Parks, Dec 10, 2007

On the eve of the historic global summit on organizing, 350 workers at Dannon Yogurt and their international allies showed how cross-border organizing can work. The workers at the Dannon plant in Minster, Ohio, voted yesterday for a voice on the job with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM).

After employees at the Minster plant asked BCTGM for help in forming a union, they began organizing on two fronts. While workers in Ohio were forming committees and talking with co-workers about the benefits of forming a union, BCTGM contacted allies in Europe to plan joint strategies to urge Dannon’s parent, Paris-based Danone Corp., to support the workers’ desire for a union.

Enter the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations (IUF) and the IUF’s Danone Workers Group. The majority of Danone’s worldwide operations are unionized, and the IUF has a formal relationship with Groupe Danone dating back to 1986.

The IUF mobilized thousands of Danone workers and food worker union leaders around the world to send letters and e-mails of support to the Ohio workers. They received letters from Belgium, Russia, Germany and other countries.

IUF leaders also sponsored a face-to-face meeting with Danone CEO Franck Riboud and a joint meeting with French and U.S. management.

As BCTGM President Frank Hurt says:

Within this global economy, this was an overwhelming show of global solidarity.

AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff says this solidarity across borders is an important part of reviving the global union movement:

International solidarity was critical in this very important BCTGM victory. The global labor movement brought Dannon to the table. They supported the workers. Other unions pushed Dannon to honor the workers’ decision to form a union with BCTGM. This kind of global union organizing solidarity is part of the answer to the crisis facing workers around the world.

BCTGM International Representative John Price says the Dannon workers want what every worker wants:

…health and safety, retirement and job consistency and stability. But what it always comes down to is the dignity, justice and respect of workers.

Strategies such as the Dannon victory will be discussed at the first-ever global organizing summit. The AFL-CIO will host the historic conference Dec. 10–11 involving more than 200 global trade union leaders from the United States and 63 countries at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md.

The delegates will lay the groundwork for and discuss global strategies to help workers join unions. The summit opens on International Human Rights Day (Dec. 10), a time when U.S. unions traditionally mobilize to restore the freedom to join unions.

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