The 26th IUF Congress, held in Geneva from May 15-18 around the slogan "Organize, fight and win!", was the largest and most representative Congress in the organization's history, marked by a great spirit of participation, militant commitment and solidarity.
Taking part in the Congress were 393 delegates (up from 2007), with all regions and sectors strongly represented.
The work of the Congress was organized around 4 major themes, each concluding with a concretely defined set of objectives around which members can organize, fight and win to strengthen themselves and the IUF. The session on "Organizing and winning our fight against precarious work" showed the extent to which IUF affiliates view combating the expansion of all forms of precarious employment as one of the central, if not the central area of struggle for their organizations and for the broader labour movement. Congress enthusiastically endorsed proposals to strengthen the IUF's work within companies to systematically attack the growth of precarious jobs by fighting to organize precarious workers into union membership and coverage under collective bargaining agreements. Unions at all levels would also have to unite to more effectively fight politically against legislative efforts to promote the expansion of precarious employment and remove existing protections. Interventions and presentations from the secretariat but principally from delegates showed that unions have succeeded in organizing to reverse membership losses and rebuild bargaining power by converting precarious jobs to direct, permanent employment. Faced with the onslaught of disposable jobs and the growth of non-union workplaces, the IUF and member unions would have to coordinate more effectively and concentrate their efforts.
Organizing to reverse the spread of precarious work, as with all the tasks facing the IUF and its affiliates, means organizing the IUF as an effective international force, in the first instance as an effective force for challenging the major transnational companies where so many IUF members are present or need to be organized. Organizing in both TNCs and in sectors required fully functional, integrated and militant organizations capable of responding rapidly and effectively in order to defend members and organize new ones. Winning recognition and engagement with more companies was a vital element in this work, as was strengthening women's representation.
Commitment to the IUF's transnational company work and culture of solidarity was highlighted by the enthusiastic reception for the launch of the "We are the 53!" campaign in defense of dismissed union members at the Nestlé factory in Panjang, Indonesia, and the associated campaign fund. The Panjang dispute was settled with all the union demands being met less than 7 days after the Congress. Congress also voted support for new or ongoing organizing and solidarity campaigns in a number of other companies and sectors around the world.
Organizing within companies and sectors does not take place in a political vacuum, and some of the key challenges facing the IUF and labour generally are thoroughly political in nature. Many, if not most, of the labour movement's traditional allies had been absorbed into the neo-liberal consensus, had been key agents in implementing the deregulatory agenda and were incapable of defending workers' interests against the massive assault on living standards and public goods and welfare which were the core of the new austerity drive. Politics has become increasingly privatized, with the space for democratic participation and democratic alternatives rapidly diminishing as parties, left and right, simply implement decisions taken outside the political process. Winning politically had to be a key part of any serious program of struggle, and meant actively fighting for the maintenance and extension of public services and building new alliances, for example with the grassroots movements challenging austerity and the dominance of finance which had emerged outside traditional union and political frameworks. A special panel on the 'Arab Spring' with unionists from Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria emphasized labour's central role as a catalyst and guarantor of democratic struggle, and the many challenges still facing workers and democrats in both Africa and the Middle East, as of course elsewhere.
In a world of hunger where many of the world's hungry and malnourished are food producers, and widespread environmental devastation and an accelerating corporate grab for resources put the entire food system in peril, organizing and winning the fight for food rights and a sustainable food system has to remain a central task for the IUF and its members. Decent work and living wages are fundamental to a sustainable food system. Unions had a key contribution to make by, among other measures, organizing and fighting for living wages for food workers, strengthening agricultural workers' unions, building union capacity to negotiate for sustainable food systems at all levels, defending the right to food and universal access to potable water, and fighting for regulatory and policy changes to strengthen food security at all levels.
The entire congress was marked by a high degree of delegate participation and intervention. Women's representation, and particularly women delegates with voting rights - was up from 28% at the 2007 Congress to 39.9% at this congress, in part a result of the 2007 rules changes mandating at least 40% women's representation.
Elections to the IUF governing bodies brought in new representation while retaining continuity with the past. Ron Oswald and Hans-Olof Nilsson were unanimously re-elected as general secretary and president of the IUF, respectively.
For more from the Congress click here [1].