IndustriAll Global Union is stepping up its campaigning efforts targeting multinational companies. (here). A first meeting, attended by around 70 delegates of a new Global multinational committee (GMC) was held in Paris on April 27-28. According to an IndustriAll web post, participants
“agreed to focus on strategic campaigns targeting multinational companies in IndustriALL’s sectors to confront global capital and build trade union power. The work will include promoting global trade union networks, trade union rights, transnational solidarity, and collective action.”
Said IndustriALL assistant general secretary Christine Olivier: “As global capital continues to exploit vulnerable workers across the globe, especially in the producing countries, IndustriALL has a responsibility to respond to these onslaughts by reinforcing global solidarity, unity and build our capacity through the work of this committee.”
We wonder how many of the delegates in the photo have ever worked for a multinational company? Of course, there are incidents of multinational companies behaving badly, but for the most part they are good employers, generally providing better pay and working conditions than local enterprises. Why would any multinational want to engage with union federations that continually try to brand them as “exploiters” when that is simply not the case?
Meanwhile, IndustriAll Europe is concerned about the impact of AI in the workplace. In a recent article (here), officials from IndustriAll argue that “a good solution is early planning and consultation with workers and their unions … This should apply at all levels but especially at company level, where workers should be involved in co-designing the AI to be introduced. Workers understand the impact of AI upon them; their feedback adds much value and should therefore be taken into account.”
UNI Global general secretary, Christy Hoffman told the conference Data on Purpose 2023: Making Tech Work for Workers that “ … strong unions and collective bargaining are fundamental to protecting workers’ rights as new technologies change our jobs.”.
While the scope of data collection and invasiveness of workplace technologies – particularly algorithmic management systems – has changed rapidly over the past several years, Hoffman made the case that existing solutions can fundamentally address many of the challenges technology poses for workers.
“We know that unions have been negotiating over technology for decades, for example in manufacturing when robotics started to be introduced in the 1980s. Many of the key principles from that period – notice, assessment of risks and bargaining over implementation and impact – still apply today.”
