The WFTU International Meeting titled “Multinational Corporations, EU policies and the role of Trade Unions” on June 27th and ended on June 28th in Brussels.
The meeting took place inside the European Parliament in Belgium. 25 Trade Unionists from 11 countries took place. The WFTU Secretariat was represented by Ahmed Ibrahim, Financial Secretary of WFTU.
The resolution of the meeting:
RESOLUTION OF WFTU INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFERENCE ON “MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS
Trade union leaders from 11 countries have gathered in Brussels – Belgium to discuss and coordinate our activities in our countries and regions in order to face the activities and policies of transnational corporations that are adversely affecting the livelihood and rights of the workers in our countries and regions.
Transnational corporations, international monopolies are stealing the natural resources of our countries, are dislocating poor farmers and the indigenous people from their land; they destroy the environment, are trying to take over our nations’ public services and the attainment of basic rights of the population. This way, they manage to take financial and political control of many countries. In certain countries they finance and collaborate with paramilitary mechanisms in order to strike against trade union activity by persecuting, threatening and assassinating trade union activists and labor leaders.
We express our solidarity with all the workers in the world who are facing exploitation, cruelty, persecution and anti labor policies. We stress our solidarity with the workers of France who are giving a great fight against the new antilabor “labor law” promoted by the Hollande government. We will continue supporting the activities and struggles of the class oriented trade union movement in France. We also express our solidarity with the workers and people of Colombia and their fight for peace with social justice. We will be vigilant for the implementation of the final agreements and we demand the immediate end of paramilitarism, so all union activists can freely practice their activities.
The character of the activity of transnational corporations provide us with great potentials for action, struggle and with our international trade-union co-ordination we can safeguard the rights of the workers we represent and the population of our countries. While transnational corporations from Colombia to France and from Turkey to Bangladesh are promoting exploitation and misery for the workers, we coordinate our action and demand DIGNITY: in our wages, in our working relations, in trade union rights, in occupational health and safety.
We are making a call to the international community and the international labor movement to strengthen our coordination, communication and international solidarity in what has to do with facing the activity of transnational corporations. We join our voices in support of the call of the 17th World Trade Union Congress of the WFTU (to be held in Durban – South Africa on October 5-8 2016) for stronger, more dynamic, more mass based, more class-oriented, trade union movement, Trade unions with deep and stable roots within the industries, within the multinationals and within all sectors. For the defense of the rights of the international working class.
Resolutions also adopted regarding the workers in Nestle-Turkey and the Sosyal-Is in its collective bargaining with Metro.
