European Commerce Unions Elect Leadership and Set Priorities
22. November 2023European Commerce Unions Set Priorities For The Next Years
From 14 to 15 November, representatives of commerce unions in 23 European countries gathered for the UNI Europa Commerce Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to set priorities and elect new leadership for the next four years.
Conference participants took stock of what had been achieved during the last four years, and it charted the way forward. The conference also heard from experiences of victories and challenges, threats and opportunities of affiliates in Europe.
Organisers held solidarity actions with affiliates’ struggles at national level, an action idon support of the Make Amazon Pay campaign and a protest outside an Albert Heijn store against Ahold’s plans to franchise Delhaize stores in Belgium. To get a sense of the proceedings and discussions, read the following thread on X, formerly Twitter.
The conference also adopted a new ambitious action plan under three pillars with the aim to promote collective bargaining as the tool to address and overcome the precariousness that commerce workers face, to strengthen the voice of workers and to improve working conditions in the commerce sector.
- Commerce – A sector in transition: digital and green transition, promote direct and long-term employment and fight against the misuse of franchising, unstable employment contracts, subcontracting and, in particular, the use of involuntary part time.
- UNI Europa Commerce and EU: European Social Dialogue, European Works Councils and the Large Skills Partnership.
- Building Union Power: building union power through organising, collective bargaining and holding multinational companies accountable
Jeff Nonato, FILCAMS-CGIL, Italy, was reelected as the UNI Europa Commerce President together with 5 vice-presidents, the members, and substitutes of the Steering Committee. The vice-presidents are Linda Palmetzhofer (Handels, Sweden), Angeles Rodriguez Bonillo (Servicios CCOO, Spain), Fatma Bugdayci-Karatas (FNV, The Netherlands), Silke Zimmer (Ver.di, Germany) and Alfred Bujara (NSZZ Solidarność, Poland).