UNI GS at ILC: “We must have the right to organize without fear”

UNI Global Union’s members work in call centres, banks, post offices, fast fashion and grocery stores. They clean buildings and secure the airports. They are software engineers, care givers, filmmakers.

 

Too often, these workers get only the scraps from the table of wealth their work produces. The fast fashion workers are expected to survive on meagre weekly wages for 12 hours of work. The engineers are expected to accept that their work will be replaced by AI, as entry-level jobs gradually disappear. Those in the Amazon warehouses break their bodies to keep up with the pace set by the algorithm, while the company’s founder has become one of the richest men in the world.

 

The content moderators watch hours of traumatic videos every day in order to ensure that our social media is safer from egregious content. And meanwhile, the tech companies which have contracted out this critical function, wash their hands of responsibility.

 

Indeed, the work in services is increasingly fragmented, and workers are farther away from the profit centre for which they are the engine.

 

The workers represented by UNI unions are the lucky ones, with formal employment and a collective agreement. But they are a shrinking island in a rising sea. This vast ocean includes informal platform workers, who also perform critical work to label data in order to make AI possible, the many caregivers who are treated as volunteers and receive a stipend at best.

 

And most of all, the millions of workers who are denied the right to bargain or who are unable to organize at all.

 

We must have the right to organize without fear.

 

We want a world in which all workers, no matter their form of contract or relationship to the beneficiary are afforded basic rights and decent work. Those earning the profits must be held accountable.  We congratulate the efforts of the ILO to make progress on platforms and informality during this Conference. These are enormous issues and tough ones. But the status quo is unacceptable, and it is the responsibility of this house to move forward.

 

We must reinforce the right of workers to negotiate with social partners over technology in order to shape a future with dignity and shared gains. Digital management tools have already swept the world, with their associated surveillance and dehumanization. Generative AI now poses a threat to the jobs of millions of workers, and far too few of them have any voice whatsoever. Our industrial relations systems are ill-equipped to face this looming tsunami of changes wrought by technology and we must collectively commit to change this.

 

We encourage those governments who have taken steps towards mandatory due diligence laws to stay the course and for others to follow Yes, there will be pressure to turn backwards but these steps toward responsibility and a duty of care across the supply chain are critical for human progress.

 

We must also  send a strong message to Myanmar and to Belarus that we cannot tolerate their continuing abuse of fundamental rights and attacks on the trade union movement. This house has taken a significant action by endorsing Article 33 measures against Myanmar and we must now ensure full sanctions against both these governments.

 

And we again call for an immediate cease fire in Gaza, the destruction and death which unfolds before us every day must end. This house should be congratulated for taking a strong step today towards recognizing Palestinian sovereignty.  

 

Finally, with  multilateral institutions are under an unprecedented attack, lets recommit to stand together for a strong ILO as the bedrock of social progress and peace.