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Unions: Cross Border Networks

WASHINGTON, D.C. — At the end of March, a meeting was held in which senior officials from 17 paper and graphical trade unions from 11 countries resolved to build global union networks at four multinational corporations.

The unprecedented meeting was jointly sponsored by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) and UNI Graphical, both global trade union federations. The union leaders came from Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden , the United Kingdom and the United States.

The companies involved were Finland-based Huhtamki, Ireland-based Jefferson Smurfit Group and its affiliated company Smurfit Stone Container Corp, Canada-based Quebecor Inc. and Sweden-based Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget. Those companies employ approximately 170,000 people in over 40 countries around the world.

The unions agreed to form global union networks for workers to share information and experiences, build international union solidarity and develop new tools for unions to contend with the challenges of globalization.