IndustriALL Global Union
IndustriALL Global Union is a global union federation, founded in Copenhagen on 19 June 2012.
 | |
| Founded | 19 June 2012 |
|---|---|
| Members | 50 million |
| Affiliation | Council of Global Unions |
| Key people | Jörg Hofmann, president Valter Sanches, general secretary |
| Office location | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Country | International |
| Website | www |
IndustriALL Global Union represents more than 50 million working people in more than 140 countries, working across the supply chains in mining, energy and manufacturing sectors at the global level.
History
The IndustriALL Global Union is the result of a merger between three former global union federations:
- IMF, International Metalworkers' Federation
- ICEM, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions
- ITGLWF, International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation
Many IndustriALL Global Union affiliates are also members of the IndustriAll - European Trade Union. Although they are separate organisations, both cooperate on issues of common interest.
Strategy
IndustriALL is an international union confederation made up of approximately 600 unions in 140 countries. The organisation's goals are:
- Defend workers' rights
- Build union power
- Confront global capital
- Fight precarious work
- Promote sustainable industrial policy
A major part of the organisation's work is building international company networks, where union activists from different countries who work for the same company can meet and share strategies.
Bangladesh Accord
IndustriALL represents workers in the garment and textile sector. After the Rana Plaza industrial disaster, when a building collapse killed 1,134 people, IndustriALL and UNI Global Union negotiated the Bangladesh Accord. The Accord is a legally binding safety and inspection mechanism for garment and textile factories in Bangladesh. The Accord was signed by more than 200 brands who source from Bangladesh. The agreement was renewed in 2017.
Living wage campaign
Poverty wages have a devastating impact on workers; in Cambodia thousands of malnourished workers have fainted in the last 2 years and in Bangladesh workers are being forced to survive on a dollar a day.
From Africa to Asia and Latin America the Living Wage is a global issue and central to the Decent Work Agenda. IndustriALL is campaigning on this issue with its affiliates.
Global Framework Agreements
GFAs are negotiated on a global level between trade unions and a multinational company and serve to protect the interests of workers across a multinational company’s operations. They put in place the very best standards of trade union rights, health, safety and environmental practices, and quality of work principles across a company's global operations, regardless of whether those standards exist in an individual country.
IndustriALL prioritizes establishing, monitoring and improving GFAs with multinational companies, currently with Volkswagen, Inditex, Gamesa, Siemens and AngloGold, for example.
Leadership
General Secretaries
- 2012: Jyrki Raina
- 2016: Valter Sanches
Presidents
- 2012: Berthold Huber
- 2016: Jörg Hofmann
Other leaders
- Vice-Presidents: Issa Aremu, Tahar Berberi, Raul Enrique Mathiu, Anders Ferbe, Carol Landry, Yasunobu Aihara
- Assistants of General Secretary: Atle Høie, Kemal Özkan, Jenny Holdcroft