International solidarity is at the heart of the creation of Workers Uniting.  In today’s globalised world it has become ever more important that working people stand together to fight back for our rights around the world.

The creation of Workers Uniting in itself has recognised that to truly defend the interests of working people trade unions must step beyond the traditional boundaries of the nation state.  The slogan ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’ is one that guides Worker’s Uniting’s international agenda.


Solidarity with the brave garment workers of Bangladesh
Workers Uniting Ad has major impact supporting Bangladesh wage demands:

A Workers Uniting full page ad, supporting the 3.5 million mostly young women garment workers in their demand for a 35-cent-an-hour minimum wage--was published on July 21 in The Daily Ittefaq.

This is what the union leaders told Rafiq:
"This kind of solidarity support for the garment workers in their campaign to raise the minimum wage from the Western world via the media is unprecidented. Most of the trade union leaders told me that an ad of this type is the first in the labor history of Bangladesh, and it has helped to build confidence both of the workers and the union leaders. They realized that they are not alone and that the working class across the globe are with the garment workers of Bangladesh."

Mr. Abul Hossain, president of the Textile Garment Workers Federation, immediately printed 20,000 copies of the ad, which are being distributed at rallies and worksites across Dhaka and Chittagong.

The day after the ad appeared, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the media: "The wage the workers are paid, I will say, is not only insufficient, but also inhumane. The workers cannot even stay in Dhaka with the peanuts they get in wages."

Another popular newspaper, The Prothon Alo, carried a news story on the Workers Uniting campaign to support Bangladesh's garment workers' wage demands.

In the Workers Uniting delegation meeting with the Bangladeshi Minister of Labour, the Minister directly accused the giant multinational retailers--like Wal-Mart and Tesco--of constantly driving down production costs and wages, leaving the workers trapped in misery. The multinationals have to be controlled, he told us, as they have no interest or regard for the Bangladeshi people.

USW, Los Mineros Announce Cross-border Unification Commission
Both unions condemn Mexican government’s attacks on striking Cananea copper miners
Toronto (Jun. 21, 2010) -- The United Steelworkers (USW) and the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Related Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSSRM) – known as Los Mineros – announced a joint declaration to create a cross-border commission to explore unification of  a potential union representing one-million industrial workers in Mexico, Canada, U.S. and the Caribbean.

In signing the declaration over the weekend, USW President Leo W. Gerard and Napoleon Gomez, general secretary for Los Mineros, jointly renewed the two unions “common commitment to democracy, equality, and solidarity for working men and women throughout North America and throughout the world.”

Citing a global strategic alliance signed in 2005, Gerard and Gomez said the declaration establishes a joint commission of five members from each of the two unions’ executive boards to propose “immediate measures to increase strategic cooperation between our organizations as well as the steps required to form a unified organization.”

The USW represents 850,000 workers in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, while Los Mineros represents about 180,000 in Mexico.

Both the USW and Los Mineros members have been under assault in lengthy mining strikes. The USW is in the 11th month of a strike in Canada against Vale Inco – a Brazilian mining giant with 3,500 nickel miners in Sudbury; and 1,100 Los Mineros copper miners are nearing three years on strike against Grupo Mexico in a small desert mining town called Cananea in northern Mexico.

The two unions condemned the “cowardly and brutal attack by Mexican federal police on the striking mineworkers and their families at Cananea, and on the family members of mineworkers at Pasta de Conchos.”

On Jun. 6, an estimated 2,000 federal and state police garbed in riot gear – backed by armed helicopters, armored personnel carriers and tear gas – forcefully evicted the striking miners while beating and injuring at least three Los Mineros leaders.

Simultaneously during the same day, 20 car loads of state police stormed a small group of miners and widows occupying the entrance to the Pasta de Conchos coal mine owned by Grupo Mexico in Coahuila state – where 65 miners where killed in a February 2006 explosion. Five widows and two mothers of the dead miners were arrested. The mine was sealed from further entry to block any effort for retrieval of the entombed miners.

Los Mineros General Secretary Gomez has been leading his union in exile from Canada for the past four years, battling legal efforts by the Mexican authorities to have him extradited on trumped up charges alleging misappropriation of union funds and for calling the 65 coal miners’ deaths “industrial homicide.”

Multiple court decisions by Mexican judges have cleared the Los Mineros leader of any such government claims – yet he cannot return to Mexico without risking imprisonment by the conservative government that seeks his ouster for demanding workplace safety and better wages.

The declaration was released while the USW and Los Mineros leaders were participating in an assembly of two global union federations representing 45 million workers from 132 countries at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.

If the USW and Los Mineros are successful in their exploration of a merger to consolidate North American industrial worker strength against trans-national mining and metal corporations, it could  build upon the more than three-million-member global union called ‘Workers Uniting’ > http://www.workersuniting.org created by the 2008 trans-Atlantic merger between Unite in the UK and the USW in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.

The declaration by the USW and the SNTMMSSRM, or Los Mineros, can be accessed by clicking here

Fighting for rights in Colombia
Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists.  2008 saw an increase in assassinations compared to the previous year..  Trade union members continue to be forced into exile, threatened, ‘disappeared’ and imprisoned for long periods without trial.

Workers Uniting activities on this issue will provide both safety and support to those who, in the most extreme and dangerous conditions, are at the forefront of the struggle against global capital.

1. Challenging Free Trade Agreements with Colombia
Without strong and enforceable clauses on human and labour rights, Free trade Agreements (FTAs) harm working people.  The Colombian regime is extremely keen to secure FTAs; Workers Uniting will campaign to make it clear that no government anywhere in the world should engage in free trade with Colombia until their behaviour in relation to labour rights improves substantially.

2. Challenging the Criminalisation of the Opposition
The Colombian regime is attempting to silence its critics by criminalising them.  The trade union movement, which has seen hundreds of its key activists jailed without charge over the years, has been hit hard by this. 

Workers Uniting will play a prominent role in the international campaign to prevent the criminalisation of the opposition in Colombia; politically in challenging our own governments to take a much firmer line on the despicable Colombian regime; and directly in support to those that have been targeted.

3. Ending Military Aid to Colombia
Scandalously the UK and US are the only countries in the world to acknowledge they supply military aid to Colombia.  This aid continues to be provided despite clear evidence to show that it is benefiting units of the Colombian security forces that are involved in assassinating trade unionists and other severe abuses against civilians.

Workers Uniting will develop a co-ordinated campaign aimed at policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic showing the human rights consequences and immorality of continuing to provide the Colombian military with aid.

4. Partnership Agreements with Colombian Unions
Workers Uniting will develop bi-lateral partnership agreements with sister Colombian trade unions.  It is felt that a formal agreement will be a groundbreaking way of providing protection to Colombian union leaders and activists.  Such an agreement would provide the Colombian union with such a profile as to make it more unlikely that the Colombian security forces and their paramilitary allies would want to risk the political backlash of killing individuals so closely linked to Workers Uniting.

Such partnership agreements will also enable Workers Uniting to support organising campaigns in Colombia, support their human rights activities and defend trade union members under threat.

5. Urgent Action Network.
Workers Uniting’s strength is built on its 3 million members on both sides of the Atlantic.  In order to raise awareness among members of the severity of the situation, provide rapid support for those in danger and discourage those responsible from carrying out such attacks in the first place, Workers Uniting will create an urgent action network. 

Solidarity with the Mexican trade union movement
The Mexican trade union movement is facing a sustained and vicious attack from the country’s government and its allies in big business, which is putting the very existence of a strong, independent trade union movement in Mexico at risk.

It is vital for the wellbeing of all working people that a rapidly developing economy such as Mexico continues to have a strong and progressive trade union movement.

Supporting the Mexican trade union movement to resist the vicious attacks of the Mexican government will therefore be a clear focus of Workers Uniting.  Priority will also be given to working with sister unions in Mexico to develop organising strategies for the outsourced industries that have relocated to Mexico as a result of NAFTA.

Challenging the Impact of China
China continues to have a crucial impact on the European and North American manufacturing industries.  As part of the work of Workers Uniting in defending manufacturing, emphasis will be given to improving the knowledge and understanding of manufacturing in China, particularly the activities of multinationals and investigating potential for improving worker organisation in this sector.

Support for the Miami 5 and their Families
The Miami 5 are five Cuban citizens accused and jailed accused and jailed by the US government of committing espionage against the United States.  Scandalously the US government has consistently denied the families of the 5 visitation rights. Human rights organisations have condemned the trial and the treatment of the families. Amnesty International has described the treatment of the Five as ‘contrary both to the standards for the humane treatment of prisoners and to a states’ obligation to protect family life.”
Workers Uniting have already been supporting the families of the Miami 5 and this will continue to be an important part of the international activities this year. 

Union Development in Africa
Africa is the only one of the world’s continents whose population has grown poorer over the last twenty years.  Africa’s unions are not only fighting against the exploitation of multinational companies, and working to reduce poverty but also dealing with the scourge of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has devastated entire communities.

The founders of Workers Uniting have built close working relationships with unions across Africa and developed important union building activities in countries such as Liberia, Nigeria, Swaziland and Zambia.  Workers Uniting will seek to build on these initiatives and use the power of Workers Uniting to identify and support union building projects with key sister unions in the region, strengthening the African trade union movement.
 
Challenging Exploitation with the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
Abuses of working people continue to be an ugly stain on the global economy.  The National Labour Committee (NLC) is currently a US based organisation with a strong record in tackling labour rights abuses by major multinational companies around the world.

It is proposed that the NLC will form the nucleus of a new Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights.  This institute will provide Workers Uniting with allied staff on the ground across the world to “challenge exploitation anywhere in the global economy, since it is fundamentally unjust and is destructive of living standards everywhere.”