Building bridges across borders
Strategy session in Detroit
Representing auto industry nations from Argentina to the United Kingdom, their geographic and cultural differences were overshadowed by what they all had in common: trade unions in search of a global organizing strategy to ensure their survival.
They dispensed with polite diplomacy and got down to business, discussing their challenges, relevance and destiny — all with a distinct sense of urgency.
“My biggest fear is that if we don’t do something to develop a global strategy, then workers around the world will become less and less relevant to the process,” said UAW Vice President Terry Thurman, who directs the union’s National Organizing Department and led the May 22-24 meeting.
“What do we hope to accomplish? It’s really quite simple. We must take direct action, finalize a joint strategy and understand that we cannot take care of our workers without bringing up the rest of the world. We have got to do this,” Thurman said.
Hosted by the UAW and the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, this historic meeting was the first time international trade unions from eight countries, including the United States, had gathered at Solidarity House, the union’s headquarters in Detroit, to focus on coordinated organizing strategies.
Unionists from Argentina, Brazil, France, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand and the United Kingdom participated. (Lekubu Herman Ntlatleng, auto coordinator for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, did not attend due to illness.)
The group’s common bonds were evident as each representative detailed organizing challenges faced by their own unions and workers:
• Outsourcing.
• Plant closings.
• Anti-union attacks by employers.
• The use of temporary workers.
• Threats to existing worker rights laws.
“There’s tremendous power around this table,” said Thurman, who assured the trade unionists they had the UAW’s commitment to assist them in global organizing.
Valter Sanches of Brazil’s CNM-CUT hoped there was some way they could “help each other to see if we have a common target.”
Somsak Sukyod, president of the Ford and Mazda Thailand Workers Union, “hoped to learn how to counter the offense” in his country.
Said the United Kingdom’s Des Quinn, regional industrial organizer with the Transport and General Workers Union: “The worst thing we can do is go away from here and do nothing. But a better approach is, ‘Who are we going to go after first?’”
Thurman said the group’s next step, with the help of the UAW, is to compile a list of international companies by country, disseminate it and go after them.
“We’re ready to assist workers from any company in a country that is represented here in this room,” Thurman said. “We’re going to take our destiny into our own hands.”
The visit by international guests included a tour of Ford Motor Co.’s Rouge factory, a trip to UAW local union hall and an outing at a Detroit Tigers baseball game.
Most important, delegates left Detroit with a common purpose: to build strong bridges across borders, and to assist workers in all countries in their efforts to win justice on the job.
