Int'l Unions Gather in Chicago to Craft Strategy

FRom the New York Times:

By REUTERS
Published: August 20, 2005


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Union leaders from around the globe gather in Chicago next week to craft a joint strategy to boost unionization in the developing world, and especially to target the U.S.-based retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Skip to next paragraph Union Network International's annual convention will gather 1,500 delegates from some 150 countries in Chicago to share labor strategies and discuss ways unions can collaborate over international borders.

``We want more organizing initiatives on a global scale,'' UNI spokesman Noel Howell said. ``We want global rules and global standards for workers everywhere.''

The convention comes only a month after a schism in the American labor movement where three unions formally split from the umbrella American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations.

The AFL-CIO lost one-third of its membership, or 4.6 million members, with the disaffiliation of the Service Employees International Union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

All three disaffiliated unions will participate in the meeting of UNI, which is in its fifth year and represents 15 million workers, most from service industries.

Union leaders said their decision to leave the AFL-CIO was the culmination of years of complaints that too few resources were spent on organizing efforts to arrest a decades-long decline in U.S. union membership.


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