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International Cooperation
International Cooperation
The UFCW is a member of Union Network International (UNI), a global union founded on January 1, 2000 as a worldwide trade union response to the new realities of the global economy. Today, UNI represents 15.5 million members, in 900 affiliated unions, from more than 140 countries around the world. It is the world's largest assembly of individual trade unions. Joe Hansen, UFCW International President, was elected to serve as president of UNI at the organization's first World Congress in Berlin in 2001. UNI has successfully developed several global "framework agreements" that commit companies to adhere to higher standards for working conditions and environmental protection in all countries in which they operate. These standards include respecting workers' freedom to form a union and refraining from the use of child labor. In particular, the UFCW has worked closely with unions in Brazil and Argentina in the fight against Wal-Mart’s far-reaching negative global impact.
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| Ricardo Patah, John Fernandez and Nilton Souza da Silva, Brazil at the June 2006 UNI conference on Wal-Mart in Berlin |
Working Together Against Wal-Mart
We all know about the devastating effects that Wal-Mart’s practices have had on American workers. Nevertheless, the damage extends beyond the U.S. and has had a visible impact on Latin America. Many Latin Americans concerned about economic development see little benefit from the Wal-Mart model of maximizing profits by paying poverty wages and forcing their employees to work grueling hours in deplorable conditions. However, Latin American governments are grappling with weak economies and need all the jobs they can get—and Wal-Mart offers a lot of them. The retail chain is now Mexico's largest private employer, with 663 stores and 100,000 employees. The chain generates $11 billion a year there--more than the country's entire tourism sector, or about 2% of Mexico's GDP. Puerto Rico has 53 Wal-Mart stores with 11,600 workers. Brazil has 25 stores and 6,600 employees; Argentina 11 stores and 4,200 employees.
Across Latin America, supermarket chains partly or wholly owned by global corporate goliaths like Ahold, Wal-Mart and Carrefour have revolutionized food distribution in the short span of a decade and have now begun to transform food growing, too. The stark danger is that increasing numbers of small farmers in Latin America will go bust and join streams of desperate migrants to America and the urban slums of their own countries. Their declining fortunes, economists and agronomists fear, could worsen inequality in a region where the gap between rich and poor already yawns cavernously and the concentration of land in the hands of an elite has historically fueled cycles of rebellion and violent repression.
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| Yvon Bellemare of UFCW, Canada tells participants about Wal-Mart's abusive behavior against its workers in his home country at the June 2006 UNI conference on Wal-Mart. |
The UFCW and Brazil
In Argentina and Brazil, the UNI Commerce affiliates FAECYS and SEPROSCOS are well represented among the Wal-Mart's workforce. They are organizing actively, and they have negotiated collective agreements on behalf of their members. The president of SEPROSCOS Ricardo Patah and consultant John Fernandes recently visited the UFCW offices in Washington, DC to discuss communications strategies and increase coordination on the global Wal-Mart initiative. In Brazil there is a trade union presence and social dialogue in Wal-Mart through SEPROSCOS. Rather than a company policy, this reflects the strength of the unions themselves, as well as national legislation and practices in the countries where the retail multinational is present. However, this example still shows that it is indeed possible to get Wal-Mart to engage in social dialogue.
