Unions in Britain and the USA

Speaking note for TUC President JEANNIE DRAKE

TUC Sororal Address

AFL-CIO Convention July 2005

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I am delighted to bring you greetings from the Trades Union Congress in Great Britain. And to thank you for all the marvellous hospitality over the least few days.

At a time like this, we are more united than ever.

Four years ago, the TUC suspended its annual Congress in September out of respect for the terrible tragedy in New York, a tragedy whose echoes continue to reverberate around the world.

Earlier this month, London was also the scene of a terrorist atrocity, and we had a very lucky escape just last Thursday.

We were touched by the expressions of sympathy and solidarity from around the world, and of course especially by the messages of support from the USA. The first phone call the TUC General Secretary received was from John Sweeney. We did not lose as many lives in London as you did in New York, but every life lost, every injury sustained, was a tragic event.

Just like in New York, the London bombings were a terrible atrocity which claimed as its victims not political leaders, not military targets but ordinary working men and women going about their daily business.

Just like in New York, the real heroes of the day were the workers - the emergency services: fire fighters, police and ambulance staff; the transport workers on buses and subways; the health care workers and others who did what they could and often did it without thought for their own safety or convenience.

And just as in New York, our response has been to demonstrate our spirit and our commitment to continue fighting for justice and for solidarity. London is a multiracial city, liberal in its attitudes, welcoming in its approach.

London is a city fighting to deal with its own anxiety but is determined to maintain our free and multicultural city, characteristics of which we are proud and which make it such a vibrant place.

We will not let the terrorists divide us. We will not let them destroy our freedoms. We will not let them win.

Because, colleagues, solidarity is stronger than that. We know that you will stand in solidarity with us, and we will stand in solidarity with you, as we have done for over a hundred years.

The AFL-CIO occupies a special place in the hearts of the British trade union movement, and I hope to welcome your fraternal delegate back to Brighton later this year for the Congress that I will chair - I will be picking up tips about how to do that from John Sweeney and Richard Trumka.

I have also been enjoying your fringe, as we would call the events outside the convention hall. In particular, I am glad to have taken part in the events on women workers, because as you would expect, they have a special meaning for me.

One of the reasons I am proud to be a trade unionist is because of the way that the trade union movement has responded over the years to the demands of women workers. I'm not saying we've got it right, that would be complacent. But we have got it more right than most, because we have had to.

And we have learnt the lessons in terms of catering for other discriminated and disadvantaged groups, too. Unity in diversity is what we are aiming for - a union movement that reflects the diverse workforce that we must recruit from.

In Britain today, there are more women trade unionists than male trade unionists, and if we haven't yet managed to reflect that in our leaderships, we have begun to reflect it in our bargaining agenda.

That is why the work-life balance is so important to us, why the campaign for decent childcare is a priority, and why we are still fighting for equal pay.

In unionised workplaces, equal pay is more prevalent and while there has always been a union premium in wages - with unionised workers earning more than their non-union colleague - the union premium for women is that much greater because we deliver equality as well as wage rises.

And the other area in which unions are concentrating their efforts, in Britain as in the USA, is pensions.

It is the hallmark of a civilised society that it looks after its older people - an argument I hold with deep conviction.

But everywhere we see attempts to take away our rights to decent social security and pensions - employers going back on their word and closing their pension schemes or cutting benefits - and governments seeking to evade their responsibilities to avoid pensioner poverty.

Across the world Governments and employers are increasingly shifting the investment and increasing life expectancy risks onto the workers themselves.

We will be with you in your fight to defend pensions, not just out of solidarity, but because we are fighting the same fight, albeit with a government that is more sympathetic and more willing to listen to reason.

Unfortunately, around the world, there are few governments who are on our side, and even fewer employers.

That is why we need to unite together, globally as well as locally.

Like the TUC, the AFL-CIO is a key member of the global trade union community, and I pay tribute to the way that you have more than shouldered your share of the burden.

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions that we both belong to is now deep in discussions with our trade union organisations about the creation of a new, global union body that we very much hope will be established next year.

The trade union movement, as a mass movement, has a special responsibility to fight for and articulate the case for freedom against racism, against oppression and against poverty.

With fifty years of division in world trade unionism about to end, the TUC hopes that we will be able to shift resources into campaigning, into organising, into having a real impact on the way workers around the world live, work and organise.

I know that the AFL-CIO has taken its own steps along that road, and we share the challenges that have led you to the decisions you are making this week.

In solidarity, of course, I do not want to interfere in your own decision-making. But I hope that you will be able to find a way to stay united, because we want, we need, the American labour movement to carry on punching its weight nationally and internationally.

Finally, colleagues, can I say a little more about the organising agenda from the perspective of my own union, the Communication Workers Union? My union has close links to the Communication Workers of America, and I am so pleased that Larry is the President of UNI-Telecom, the international federation of telecommunications workers.

We need to recognise, as Larry always has, that when companies go global, so must trade unionism. We need to tackle the trans-national corporations and build our unity sectorally as well as nationally.

Nowhere is that more true, as you know well, than in the case of retail and in the specific case of Wal-mart. In Britain, Wal-mart has taken over ASDA, a supermarket chain with a history of union organisation.

We know that Wal-mart is a particular target for the AFL-CIO, and we know that we need to work together to tackle what is rightly seen around the world as a symbol of what is wrong with the newly globalised economy.

There's nothing wrong - indeed there's a great deal right - with world trade, and we want to see more of it to help continents like Africa make poverty history.

But world trade must be fair trade, and it must be based on the ILO concept of decent work rather than a race to the bottom.

Wal-mart has been a major contributor to that race, and we need to be able to show that unions can stop that race and seize the high ground of decent work, fair wages and better jobs.

In that context, I am pleased to introduce my fellow British trade unionist Giovanna Holt from the GMB union. Giovanna is a senior organiser in the GMB food and leisure section, but before she joined the union's staff she was a shop steward at ASDA for ten years, and her store had the highest union membership in ASDA.

Thank you for listening to me this morning, good luck with the rest of your convention, and please welcome Giovanna Holt.