Unite & USW Sign ‘Super Union’ Document

On July 2 Unite, the UK’s biggest union and the USW, the largest private sector union in the USA and Canada, signed an agreement creating the first global union. The document was signed at the USW’s Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 2nd 2008.

The union, to be called Workers Uniting, will represent three million people from every industrial sector in Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada and the Caribbean. The agreement to form a global union, said Unite in a press statement, was initiated by the leaders of the two unions in response to the challenges of globalisation, particularly the casualisation of employment and reductions in pay experienced by many in North America and Europe.

The presence of a global union will facilitate collective bargaining in companies with operations on both sides of the Atlantic and enable joint political campaigning. Unite comments that it is the Labour Party’s largest affiliate and donor and the USW is a major contributor to and supporter of the Democrats in America and the New Democrats in Canada.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite said, “The political and economic power of multinational companies is formidable. They are able to play one nation’s workers off against another to maximise profits. They do the same with governments hence the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us. With this agreement we can finally begin the process of closing that gap.” The other joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, added: “This agreement will enable us to use our considerable resources to organise workers from new and growing sectors at home and in developing counties. There will be no more no go areas for trade unions.”

Leo W Gerard, USW president said, “This union is crucial for challenging the growing power of global capital. Globalisation 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.”