Global labor movement: history and impact

¶ … Global Labor Movement

According to its website, the UNI Global Union, founded in January of 2000, is an international network that was created "in response to the huge changes going on in the global economy" and because of "the impact of technology on increasingly overlapping industries." In addition, this grouping of individual trade unions from around the globe aims to "reinforce the importance and effectiveness of unions in developing countries" and wants to help these unions "to organize and get online to make their distinctive voices heard" (2005, Internet). Obviously, the overall intention of this entity is to bring together all of the unions into one global community in order to help low-wage workers and the dispossessed to work together toward a common goal, being to survive and prosper in an ever-growing global economy.

As to the advantages of this global union, it appears that because of the rapid expansion of democratic governments worldwide, one global union entity would be able to address the various problems of mostly low-wage workers in nations like India, Malaysia and Russia and within the continent of Africa. One of these problems, if not the most important, is the continuing violation of human and trade union rights, especially in nations without a democratic system and where dictatorial regimes have the upper hand. Thus, in these regions of the world, the UNI "must be in the forefront of the campaigns to right these wrongs" in order to bring some type of stability to those workers who are often treated as mere cattle and are paid very low wages for long hours of labor, often under very dangerous conditions ("UNI Global Union," 2005, Internet). As to disadvantages, it is possible that organized unions which already exist in many nations will see the UNI as an intrusion into their sovereignty and power. However, the UNI fully realizes the consequences of such a situation, for it has already addressed it by stating that the UNI "adds to the power of national unions" and will develop specific programs and activities "which these unions on their own cannot do" (2005, Internet).

In regards to the on-going projects hosted by the UFE (United for a Fair Economy), two current campaigns include preserving the U.S. Federal Estate Tax and global economic justice. With the Federal Estate Tax, the UFE sees this as crucial to defending a progressive taxation system and wishes to "continue the fight to keep a reformed estate tax" ("UFE Programs and Projects," 2007, Internet) in order to assist Americans who live mostly in the middle classes as compared to the wealthy who would greatly benefit from the elimination of the estate tax. As to global economic justice, the UFE sees this as mandatory in order to help low-wage workers in all parts of the world and considers this as part of the Racial Wealth Divide program which addresses the racial disparities of wealth. Clearly, these projects, if successfully implemented, will greatly assist low-wage and dispossessed workers and laborers by providing equal pay for equal work and by giving such workers a voice in a world dominated by the affluent and the wealthy. This is also linked to the UFE's Responsible Wealth Program, "a national network of business people, investors and affluent Americans who are concerned about the deepening economic inequality" in the United States ("UFE Programs and Projects,' 2007, Internet).