The Secretary-General of International Relations of CNM / CUT, João Cayres  was one of the debate mediators.

Leaders of CNM / CUT and CNQ discuss the strategy of organising unions in multinational networks.

Starting on Monday 3 September, the seminar “Social Dialogue and Trade Union Networks in Multinational Chemical companies: Internationalize and Expand Rights”, was organised by IndustriAll and the German foundation FES, with the support of the CNQ-CUT at EZ Hotel in São Paulo. The meeting was attended by more than 50 workers, trade unionists and representatives of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Peru, representing the networks of multinational companies BASF, Bayer, Lanxess, St. Gobain, Solvay and Akzo-Nobel.

The purpose of the meeting is to identify the current stage of organization of networks and their union workers in South America and Europe, discussing the strategy of internationalization of these networks, with the view on the integration of South America and the situation of the European Business Councils, exchange experiences and plan the future of union networks and develop proposals to increase the participation of women and youth networks.

The seminar, which follows a conference held in 2009, is scheduled to go on until Wednesday and has a schedule full of activities that aim to enhance the training of union leaders and strengthen the organization of networks on a global scale.

After a lunch, came the opening of the seminar, presenting the objectives, participants and programming. The opening panel, coordinated by Sergio Novais (CNQ and IndustriAll), with the presence of Kemal Ozkan, deputy general secretary of IndustriAll, Tina Hennecken, Deputy Director of Friederich Ebert Foundation in Brazil and Lucineide Varjão Dantas, General Coordinator of CNQ .

Lucineide stressed the importance of opening space for youth and women to contribute to the networks and the importance of the meeting to strengthen such openings. “This activity is a crucial milestone in the struggle for globalization of labour rights.” Kemal Ozkan reinforced this view: “We stand together against precarious work that is the greatest threat to the union movement in the world. We want to organise, organise and organise: to improve democracy and rights for all women to occupy a place in working life, social and within the union they deserve. ”

Hennecken emphasized that FES is “happy with the meeting because the consolidation of networks is a decisive strategy to give a strong voice to workers in the face of anti-union practices in business and demand better working conditions with social dialogue” .

Following, the debate was “Strategy organization of trade union networks in multinationals”, in which Fabio Lins, from the international relations office of CNQ, gave the contribution of CNQ’s experience in building networks of workers, along with Kemal Ozkan, who spoke about IndustriAll’s strategies to strengthen the union networks around the world. João Evangelista, of National Confederation of Metalworkers, brought the experience of building and operation of the ZF network to the meeting.

Seminar on internationalization of trade union networks of the Chemical Industry began in Sao Paulo

Lins said that in Brazil, ”the union structure fragment us and divides, a trade union is created per day. Then, networks foster a process unit, is a decisive action to transform society.” For him, networks are an evolution towards a more dynamic labour movement: ”We have to practice the union action and not only the union reaction” added Fabio.

After the debate, the participants began to bring together the”Fair of Networks”, where representatives and coordinators of each Network will show their materials, documents and tell a bit of their history, and learn from the experience of others. To end the day, a dinner party and preparation for the second day of activities.