Unions must co-ordinate in global fashion

A LEADING American trade union leader yesterday warned that unions had to act in a co-ordinated global fashion if workers’ rights are to be successfully protected.

In a stark warning to SIPTU’s biennial conference in Cork, Services Employees Industrial Union (SEIU) vice-president Tom Woodruff said unions had to adapt to the reality of globalisation and the free market. “Companies which didn’t much exist 20 years ago now have over a million workers and are cutting wages and benefits. We can’t fight that if we don’t organise those workers and we can’t do it alone,” he said. “If we don’t change our labour movement it is not one that will work and survive and progress in the new economy. We can’t build our movements that are effective in one country alone anymore.”

Mr Woodruff said at present unions were simply not reacting to the development of a globalised world and as a result did not have enough strength and power to act effectively for workers.