DWU President and National Secretary attend the 25th global Congress of the IUF

Internationalist response from unionists to corporate offensives

The IUF (International Union of Food Workers) held its 25th Global Congress in Geneva from March 19-22. The Congress is held once every five years and the NZDWU was represented by its President, Sinclair Watson and National Secretary, James Ritchie.
484 delegates plus observers attended from 388 affiliated unions.
The Congress debated resolutions, discussed the work programme and had a number of panel sessions and presentations on the challenges we all face.
The Congress began with the adoption of a remit which mandates unions to deliver equal numbers of men and women to attend the next IUF Congress.
There were plenty of discussions and resolutions on a range of issues and I comment on those of particular note.
There is strong support for organising on a global basis within trans national companies (TNC's) and for sharing information on best practice clauses in Agreements.
Trade Union membership has been proved to be the only sure way for workers to protect their interests but this is a right increasingly denied to workers around the world. Congress reasserted its belief that the IUF can play a key role in supporting workers' rights by negotiating International Framework Agreements like the one between Fonterra, the NZDWU and the IUF with a view to establishing relationships at the global level.
Framework agreements are not a panacea to the problems facing workers but, if done properly, can provide a positive outcome in protecting workers rights and more importantly developing strong solidarity between IUF affiliates with members in the same multinational companies.

There was universal concern at the increased use of precarious employment practices by employers in all IUF sectors involving:

• outsourcing, contracting out or subcontracting;

• casualisation and fixed term contracts;

• use of labour agencies or labour-only hiring;

• hiring of temporary workers;

• abuse of seasonal and probationary employment and traineeships;

• falsely designating workers as 'self employed' or 'independent' contractors.

IUF staff members Peter Rossman and Hidayat Greenfield gave an excellent presentation on private equity takeovers of many companies and their drive to increase short term gains to shareholders at any cost - including destroying jobs and productive capacity.
The trend is known as 'financialisation' and it has already begun to wreck havoc in the food industry. Fonterra, Tatua and Westland as farmer cooperatives, are protected from such takeovers at present but there are plenty of international vultures gathering in case part of Fonterra is opened to investors to raise capital.

The answer lies largely in political action. The IUF Paper comments:

"The last quarter-century of deregulation involved the introduction of a vast array of new legal mechanisms and regulations by national governments to protect the interests of investors and shareholders. This must be dismantled; and new legal mechanisms and regulations must be introduced nationally to subordinate investment capital to democratic requirements established in international human rights standards."

In other words - get laws passed that stop workers rights being trampled on.

Hidayat Greenfield was one of the guest speakers at the NZDWU Congress in June this year at Rotorua.

During one of the lunch adjournments the DWU helped convene a dairy sector meeting which was attended by affiliates from Japan, Argentina, Sweden, the USA and Holland.
Major employers were identified and a commitment made to exchange information through the IUF network.

The Congress reinforced the growing power and influence of the IUF, not only in the international trade union movement but also within the industries where it represents workers and within the wider coalition of global interests fighting for a better world based on democracy and human rights.

The DWU representatives got much out of the Congress and met with many delegates who have extraordinary stories to tell of the struggles they have had on behalf of their members.