Union network hopes to halt 'Walmart-ization' of global economy

Social justice news
September 2005

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UNI hopes to halt 'Walmart-ization' of global economy

"Opening union doors at Wal-mart": A special video report on the Union Network International Congress, August 27, 2005 in Chicago.

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Halting the global economic and cultural juggernaut that is Wal-mart was at the top of the agenda for international union organizers meeting in Chicago in August. Descending on arguably the historical capital of trade unionism in America, more than 1,500 trade unionists from six continents, 140 countries, and 900 unions met as part of Union Network International (UNI), a federation of unions from across the globe. In one of the largest gatherings of trade unions in history, UNI's 2nd World Congress convened August 22 - 28.

Wal-mart—and its ability to determine wage and working conditions vertically through supply chains from manufacturing through retail—was part of the discussion throughout the congress. UNI leadership was able to "open a channel" with Walmart while they were in the United States, holding historic meetings with Walmart brass to discuss the retailer's notoriously energetic resistance to unionizing efforts in North America.

Union leaders argue that the Wal-mart's reach extends far beyond its 1.4 million U.S. retail workers. They point out that workers for Wal-Mart's Chinese suppliers endure brutal working conditions and earn barely subsistence wages, often less than $1 a day, "the UN's definition of absolute poverty."

UNI plans a stronger international campaign to force Wal-mart "to change its anti-union policies in North America and its low wage, low road approach that threatens to become a dismal model for globalization."

As UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings put it: "We don't think [American labor practices] are for export."

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