From 24-26 September, more than 90 trade unionists from over 20 countries participated in the Second Hypermarket Trade Union Alliance Meeting of UNI Commerce in Milan. The meeting participants shared experiences and strategies to grow worker power in the hypermarket sector globally.
The meeting started with the opening remarks of hosting Italian commerce unions and Mathias Bolton, Head of UNI Commerce. In the first day the recent trends in commerce sector, Amazon and its effects on conventional retailers, new alliance structure and mapping strategy of UNI Commerce, draft document on responsible restructuring and future targets of the alliance were covered by presentations and discussions.
In the second and third day of the meeting, sessions were devoted to global dialogue with global hypermarket employers Metro, Carrefour, and Auchan. Following presentations of the company representatives; UNI Commerce and its affiliates discussed the current issues for each company with the top human resources managers.
The Alliance Meeting ended with Lidl Working Group Meeting which underlined UNI Commerce’s and its affiliates’ determination in organizing all different types of hypermarkets including Lidl.
The participants of the meeting gave statements of solidarity with fellow Colombian trade unionists who are fighting for workers’ rights despite accelerating death threats and with the Chilean commerce union that launched a campaign to reduce weekly working hours from 45 to 40.
Last year, UNI Commerce changed its company-based alliance structure and formed two sub-sectoral level global alliances one of which covers food groceries and hypermarkets and the fast fashion companies is covered by the other.
