Graphic Communicator photo by Susan Zachem

Adriana Rosenzvaig, who heads the UNI Graphical Department, urges strong global union action programs to win workers' rights. At right is GCIU Vice Pres. Duncan Brown.

"If we are able to create strong and democratic unions in every place in the world, companies will have to respect union and human rights everywhere."

That is part of the mission of the Union Network International (UNI), said Adriana Rosenzvaig, who heads UNI's Graphical Department. Rosenzvaig was a guest speaker at the Canadian National Conference in Halifax.

UNI was created nearly three years ago through the merger of union federations representing workers in the communications, graphical, clerical, retail, services, postal, media and entertainment industries. UNI represents some 15.5 million workers in 900 unions in more than 140 nations around the world.

Despite its size–it is the largest federation of trade unions in the world–UNI "works and it works in a very positive way," Rosenzvaig said.

She said the merger of several union federations, including the International Graphical Federation, was "the result of the recognition of the changes that have affected workers in every place in the world–changes related to the globalization of the economy, increasingly powerful multinationals, the international financial network, and the development of new technologies."

UNI is structured into global, regional, and sectoral dimensions. The graphical department of UNI is one of 13 sectoral divisions. Rosenzvaig said the graphical department has full autonomy over its development, decisions, and finances.

Rosenzvaig, who works out of UNI headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, campaigned successfully for equal representation of women in unions in her native country, Argentina. In 1994, she was elected full-time regional secretary for the Latin American Graphical Federation. In 1998, she was elected general secretary of the International Graphical Federation–the first woman and non-European to hold that office.

At its first international conference in October 2002, UNI Graphical adopted "a very ambitious and at the same time a very concrete work program," Rosenzvaig said.

The work program is based "on the concept of the new world solidarity," which she said "is much more than an ethical or a moral dimension. We have concrete and practical issues to discuss at the international level that are strongly related to the daily life of the union."

Rosenzvaig cited the examples of UNI Graphical members' actions which helped settle an International Paper strike in New Jersey that included GCIU members and helped restore jobs for 250 union members at a Lima, Peru, newspaper.

Another example and a key issue for UNI Graphical is Quebecor, which has the largest printing operation in the world. Rosenzvaig said UNI Graphical has organized a global Quebecor committee, which is led by GCIU Vice Pres. Duncan K. Brown. Rosenzvaig said the committee now is in touch with every union that represents Quebecor workers around the world.

The Quebecor group already has worked to help Chilean workers at a Quebecor facility get a contract to improve their working conditions and wages. The group also is working to help workers in Effingham, Ill., to win a fair contract from the media giant.

In December, UNI Graphical's Quebecor group will hold an historic international meeting in Memphis, Tenn., Rosenzvaig said. The meeting will include representatives from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Sweden, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and other nations who will discuss a common global strategy. The eventual goal is to reach a global agreement with Quebecor on basic issues, such as the right to organize and bargain collectively.

Brown noted that the meeting will coincide with the United Nation's International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, with special events planned for participants at the meeting.

UNI Graphical also is aiming during a meeting in New Delhi, India, in October for a global agreement with Amcor, an Australian-based multinational packaging company with some 238 plants in 42 countries, including the United States and Canada.

In other areas, UNI Europa Graphical is very active in the fight to preserve European workers' hard-won social and economic rights during the process of integration that is occurring with the European Union. The group "is fighting every day to take practical actions against the conservative governments that want to see a process of integration ruled only by financial interests." The campaigns include hours of work, productivity, wages, equality, training, and health and safety, she said.

UNI also is campaigning against the Free Trade Area of the Americas trade pact "because we are against any commercial agreement that aims to destroy our jobs and the future of all working families," Rosenzvaig said.

Another way to stop the exploitation of workers in poorer countries that underlies most so-called free trade agreements today, Rosenzvaig said, is: "by creating unions in the poor countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and eastern and central Europe, we are not just defending the workers of those countries but also the interests of workers from rich countries. . . . Globalization allows companies to move production from one place to another. If we are able to create strong and democratic unions in every place in the world, companies will have to respect union and human rights everywhere."

On other fronts, UNI is working to meet the challenge to organize workers in the new digital technologies and develop ways to promote equality for women and minorities in both the workplace and in unions.

Women face all kinds of obstacles and difficulties in accessing vocational training to obtain better jobs, Rosenzvaig said. In the graphical industry, discrimination and job insecurity are particular problems for women, she said. She cited the example of a Quebecor plant in Chile where women's wages are 50 percent of those of men working in the same operation. The women are segregated into a separate facility that has none of the amenities included in the men's facility and they are not allowed access to the men's facility, she said.

Stressing the importance of global union action, Rosenzvaig said: "It is not possible to challenge global corporations from the national and even from the regional levels. We must give a global response to the global voice of multinational companies, which in most cases aim to destroy the influence of trade unions."