And so it begins...

Jyrki Raina writes about the project to create the first trans-Atlantic union
Trade Union News from Finland

Helsinki (18.06.2007 – Juhani Artto) Two months ago the United Steelworkers (USW) from the USA and two unions from the United Kingdom, Amicus and T&GWU, announced their intention to merge into the first trans-Atlantic trade union.

Certainly, the first reaction of numerous union activists around the world, when reading the news, was to think about how the merger project relates to the efforts to strengthen the global unions, such as IMF, UNI, ITF, PSI and a handful of others.

Recently Jyrki Raina, one of the most visible Finns in the international trade union movement, approached the same question in his column in Ahjo, the magazine of the Finnish Metalworkers’ union.

“The reasons (of the project), presented by Amicus and USW leaders, are interesting. They want to create an international trade union that really would be able to negotiate about working conditions, by force of their 3.4 million rank and file members, on equal footing with the multinationals.”

Continued...