Editor’s Note: At the world conference of the IndustriALL Materials Industries held in Bangkok November 12-13, International President Newton B. Jones delivered the keynote address, outlining why global unions are crucial to the future of working people. His remarks, as sector chairman, were heard by union leaders in attendance from six continents. The speech is reprinted below.
IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan, left, listens as IP Jones addresses the world conference of the Materials Industries.
President Jones urges solidarity in face of growing multinational power
BROTHERS AND SISTERS, we come from different countries and different cultures, with different laws that govern our workplace rights. But increasingly, our employers are the same, our issues are the same, our needs are the same and, fundamentally, as workers, our expectations and our dreams for a better life are the same.
All working men and women deserve a clean and safe workplace; respect and fair treatment from their employer; gainful compensation so they and their families can live with dignity and hope; and recognition of their contributions to our national economies, our national societies, as well as to the global economy and the world society that we have become.
For more than a century, in country after country, working men and women have joined hands, linked arms, stood together to build our unions.
And we have succeeded in developing — each in our own way — a labor movement that has helped to shape our societies and confront the unbridled power of our employers.
“These multinationals pit one local economy against another, one country against another, one unemployed worker against another.”
But even as we have progressed, our challenges have increased and become more complex. In our global economy, employers that yesterday operated within a single country today reach around the globe as multinational corporations, seeking cheaper labor markets to make their products.
These multinationals pit one local economy against another, one country against another, one unemployed worker against another. The practices of these corporations erode labor’s past gains, and we are often left to begin all over again our struggle for fair treatment and fair opportunity.
But it is not just corporations that repress or otherwise harm workers. Many governments have become ineffective due to extreme partisanship, the influence of powerful lobbyists, incompetence, or a combination of these problems. Weak government leadership and a lack of political cooperation can destroy economies. In Greece today, nearly 60 percent of young people are unemployed as a result of economic collapse and a severe austerity program. Low and middle-income citizens suffer the most.
Just a few weeks ago, former Greek Prime Minister Georges Papandreau spoke about the need to reinvent democracy so that it serves the needs of the electorate instead of the rich and powerful. He stated, and I quote: “The recent crisis gives reason to revisit the origins of democracy. In ancient Athens, democracy was an innovation to disrupt the concentration of power and maintain equality amongst citizens. We, too, need to use innovation to reclaim these principles.” End quote.
In far too many countries, the government gives more attention to corporations than to the workers whose labor earns those companies their profits. And labor unions are having a particularly hard time even in industrialized countries with a history of labor rights.
Brothers and Sisters, the time has long since passed when we could rely solely on our individual labor unions to advance our members’ interests. Today, by necessity, we commit to global unity. We join hands. We link arms. And we stand together with our newly formed federation of international labor unions as the IndustriALL Global Union.
Though IndustriALL was formed less than 16 months ago, it is deeply rooted in the hard work of those who built the International Metalworkers’ Federation; the Inter-national Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions; and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation. [The three global federations merged to form IndustriALL June 19, 2012.] Individually, these federations pursued their own global mission, but they all had the same purpose: to advance the cause of working men and women everywhere in a very diverse and complex world.
“Today we stand on a new threshold of world labor solidarity.”
Today we stand on a new threshold of world labor solidarity. More than 50 million members from 140 countries are allied through their affiliation in this global labor organization.
Through IndustriALL, we unite workers and their unions around the world in the most noble of human pursuits — to serve and protect our brothers and sisters against oppression and exploitation.
We unite to protect hard-won gains.
We unite to confront unfair multinational employers.
We unite to speak out against the injustices inflicted upon workers, from South Africa to South America, from Mexico to Bangladesh, from your country to my country, and all countries in between.
And though we, in the Materials Sector of IndustriALL Global Union, are assembled here today to discuss our industry challenges and strategies, all other IndustriALL sectors do the very same.
In closing, let me thank all of the IndustriALL officers and staff for their continued commitment to our cause and especially Secretary-General Jyrki Raina for his superb leadership and vision.
At our founding congress in April of 2012, Brother Raina laid out our path going forward, and he referred to our IndustriALL Global Union as “a family of heroes.”
Indeed, this is a fitting term for all of you here today and our affiliate representatives who could not attend this conference because of other commitments.
Let us all keep up the fight for global workers and offer them hope for a brighter and better future...
