Our mission is to build trade union power and to defend workers’ rights in our sectors. Strong democratic unions are essential to social equality and democracy. IndustriALL’s members are its strength. Through organizing, bargaining and campaigning we are united and strong as the global voice of workers in our industries. We commit to working together to transcend national borders and confront global capital.

IndustriALL works to achieve its purpose through five key goals:

Defend workers’ rights

Build union power

Confront global capital

Fight precarious work

Promote sustainable industrial policy.

To achieve these goals, we will draw up a strategy in a transparent strategic planning process with the participation of affiliates.

DEFEND WORKERS’ RIGHTS

IndustriALL is a fervent defender of workers’ rights and employs all possible means to exert pressure on the companies and governments that violate them.

When faced with attacks on workers and unions, we exert IndustriALL’s global strength in targeted actions by our affiliates and in strategic alliances with related organizations and other campaigners.

IndustriALL targets its support particularly towards unions that are confronting repressive governments. It joins with its affiliates in fighting for laws that support organizing and collective bargaining and against all restrictions on human rights, including trade union rights. We fight against impunity for violations of workers’ rights and trade union repression, including extra-judicial killings.

IndustriALL works to strengthen union capacity to respond to labour rights violations and builds networks of national, regional and international solidarity. When national union action is in need of broader support, we mount global campaigns that mobilize unions around the world.

Our goal is universal recognition of workers’ rights to freedom of association, collective bargaining and to strike, safe and healthy workplaces and an end to all

forms of workplace discrimination. We work together with other global unions at the ILO and institutions of global governance towards ratification and implementation of and respect for all international labour standards.

The right to a living wage is fundamental. We work with affiliates to develop and implement national action plans and build union capacity to fight for a living wage. IndustriALL actively supports union efforts to eradicate wage discrimination in our industries.

IndustriALL demands that all workers have access to collective bargaining at industry level as a vital tool to reduce inequality and achieve sustainable living wages. We fight to improve inadequate minimum wage mechanisms. We oppose the forces that seek to weaken union power by decentralizing collective bargaining and fight for enforceable, industry-wide wage agreements that guarantee all workers, including precarious workers, a fair share of the wealth that they generate.

IndustriALL will continue to promote industry-wide collective bargaining as a means of bringing living wages to workers in MNC supply chains. This builds on the work started with global brands in the garment industry to establish industry bargaining in sourcing countries that is supported by MNC purchasing practices.

We support coordinated campaigns by affiliates to increase national minimum wages to the level of a living wage and for the introduction of wage floors in countries where there is none.

Action will be taken to protect and defend the rights of women workers. The Women’s Committee will identify specific issues of concern to women workers and organize and advocate activities and campaigns in support of them. Meetings will be conducted at the regional level with the express purpose of fostering the development and leadership capacity of women and the implementation of specific measures to increase gender equality.

IndustriALL works consistently to achieve safe and healthy working conditions for all workers and pursues strong and comprehensive health and safety provisions in GFAs and other global agreements with MNCs. We insist on respect for workers’ rights to know about all of the hazards of their work and to receive the education and training to do it safely; to refuse or shut down unsafe work; and to be a full partner in the development and implementation of all health and safety measures.

We demand strong and enforceable regulatory frameworks that call for stricter OHS measures and stiffer penalties against OHS violations and call on governments to implement the ILO conventions and to monitor implementation by MNCs and to sanction violations. We call on the ILO to assist governments, employers and trade unions to improve knowledge and implementation of existing ILO Conventions and legislation on health and safety at work. IndustriALL continues to campaign against specific hazards including asbestos and denim sandblasting, and to demand ratification of ILO Convention 176 on Safety and Health in Mines.

BUILD UNION POWER

Organizing and retaining members is the number one priority in all our work.

Strong industrial unions are the basis of our bargaining power and legitimacy as the global voice of working people. Through organizational development, we build strong, united, democratic, independent, representative and self-sustaining trade unions throughout the world.

IndustriALL works to overcome divisions in the union movement and build unity. Union power at national level comes from a strong and united labour movement which can defend the rights and promote the political, social and economic interests of working people. Recognizing that small and divided unions weaken the movement as a whole, IndustriALL works to build unity among affiliates in the same country through mergers, alliances and creation of national councils. Unity must be founded on democratic principles. IndustriALL does not affiliate organizations that operate under the domination of employers or governments.

IndustriALL is democratic and transparent in its policies and practices throughout its structures at global, regional, sectoral and national levels.

We build global union power by organizing workers throughout global supply chains and promoting cross-border recruitment and solidarity campaigns.

Through IndustriALL, unions from the global north and south join forces in equal partnership to strengthen their organizations and increase their capacity to represent workers. This includes encouraging industry unionism, viable systems of dues collection, union training and changes to union structures and cultures to make sure that they function well and that all workers have a place in the union including women, workers in precarious employment, informal workers, migrant workers and non-manual workers. Union capacity to recruit and represent young workers is vital. IndustriALL promotes more active integration of young workers into unions and supports union efforts to organize them and address their specific concerns.

IndustriALL works with unions to welcome and include women workers in all our struggles, overcoming inequality and providing support, structures and encouragement for women’s leadership. Our collective goal is to organize more women workers and create opportunities and space for men and women workers to jointly fight for workers’ rights, promoting equal rights and opportunities as well as equal pay.

The main source of financing of IndustriALL and its activities comes from affiliation fees paid by its members and its spending is based on decisions of its governing bodies. Funds received for trade union cooperation projects are subject to the same strategic principles.

IndustriALL takes measures to ensure that its structures and actions encompass equitable representation of all workers, men and women, younger and older, and from the different regions.

Affiliates are fully engaged in establishing IndustriALL’s priorities. Every region and sector develops its own action plan in accordance with IndustriALL’s goals and in consultation with affiliates through open and democratic processes.

CONFRONT GLOBAL CAPITAL

IndustriALL makes the voice of workers heard globally. We build power to influence the global companies and institutions whose decisions and policies affect the lives of working people.

We organize throughout the global operations and supply chains of MNCs, and hold them accountable for the pay and working conditions of all the workers who create their profits, consistent with their responsibilities under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

We unite workers for solidarity and joint action and demand recognition from employers for the global union committees and networks we build. We link up worker representatives along transnational supply chains. We strengthen national unions to confront global corporations and target support towards cross-border organizing campaigns that seek to mobilize workers throughout an MNC. We encourage exchange of information on collective agreements, including coordinated bargaining strategies.

IndustriALL will defend the right of unions to take strike or other forms of direct action in support of international solidarity, especially within the same MNC, and its global trade union networks will be encouraged to discuss how this can be done.

IndustriALL engages in active dialogue with MNCs to build strong industrial relationships that enable union concerns to be raised at all levels of the company and its supply chain. This includes the establishment of world works councils to promote cross-border exchange and coordination of workers at locations worldwide.

IndustriALL will continue to sign strong and effective global agreements with MNCs, with a focus on achieving agreements that secure organizing, job security, and collective bargaining rights for all workers worldwide. We will work to improve the contents and implementation of existing Global Framework Agreements (GFAs) to make them more effective tools for organizing and collective bargaining. GFAs are owned by affiliates through IndustriALL’s global trade union networks.

The Bangladesh Accord for Fire and Building Safety opens up new possibilities for legally binding agreements with multiple MNCs to enforce compliance across an entire industry. IndustriALL holds signatory MNCs to their Accord commitments and pursues more such agreements to address systemic rights violations at industry level.

All actions towards MNCs are taken in accordance with the IndustriALL Charter of Solidarity and the Guidelines for GFAs.

We are strategic in our corporate campaigns and build our global actions from a base of strong action at national level to open up space for organizing.

We develop strategies to improve labour rights and working conditions in global supply chains, cooperating across industry sectors with other national and global unions to improve MNC purchasing practices and conducting necessary research.

We work to transform industry supply chains by targeting the most influential companies and pursuing agreements with multiple MNCs that set standards for global industries, building on the Bangladesh Accord, the Indonesia FoA Protocol and the garment industry MoU on living wages towards global supply chain industrial relations.

We use, and work to improve, all available tools and complaint mechanisms including those of the ILO and the OECD Guidelines.

We seek to organize and direct the power of trillions of dollars of workers’ capital away from speculative investments and towards investments that generate sustainable jobs. We hold all investors accountable for upholding workers’ rights in MNCs and their supply chains. IndustriALL develops strategies to mobilize workers’ capital in order to influence corporate governance and investment and enforce international labour standards. Through alliances with socially responsible investors we seek to stop investment in companies that violate workers’ rights.

We fight for regulative legal frameworks for MNCs that foresee sanctions for violating human and workers’ rights and give victims the right to remedy, including reinstatement and compensation.

We support union efforts to ensure that the introduction of new technologies and production processes be designed in such a way that they do not lead to an intensification of work, that respect for workers' rights is guaranteed and that the workers are not monitored and controlled inappropriately.

Work in IndustriALL’s sectors is guided by sectoral action plans developed by affiliates, and the sector committees and co-chairs.

IndustriALL works with the other global unions to influence the International Monetary Fund, OECD, World Bank, G20 and other institutions of global governance to abandon policies that are driving increasing inequality and instead promote secure employment, labour rights and living wages for all workers.

Bilateral and international trade agreements affect the environment for enterprises in our industries and the working conditions of their workers. The current system of world trade fails to protect their rights. IndustriALL works with the broader labour movement to demand that trade agreements promote equity and employment growth and do not undermine fundamental workers’ rights, environmental standards and human rights and democracy through provisions like ISDS as well as through inadequate labour standards and enforcement.

FIGHT PRECARIOUS WORK

IndustriALL reaffirms its commitment to fighting against precarious work in all its forms throughout the world and promoting direct contracts of unlimited duration. We take action to STOP Precarious Work globally, nationally and regionally, in companies and in industries.

IndustriALL campaigns to raise awareness among unions and the public of how precarious work undermines workers’ rights and impacts on the whole of society.

IndustriALL works directly with unions to develop action plans and campaigns to organize precarious workers into unions and to secure their rights. We work to reform union statutes and cultures where these stand in the way of union membership for precarious workers.

We demand collective agreements that limit the use of precarious work, that convert precarious work to regular employment, and that improve the working conditions of precarious workers and protect their rights.

We demand the same protections from global agreements with MNCs to regulate and restrict the use of precarious workers and to guarantee equal pay and conditions for equal work and the right to join a union to all workers, regardless of their employment status. We work through our industry structures to identify the extent of precarious work in each industry and implement joint strategies to tackle it.

We demand that governments eliminate policies and legislation that encourage precarious work, and remove all legislative and other barriers that deny precarious workers their rights to join a union of their choice and bargain collectively. We demand equal access to social protection for precarious workers. IndustriALL supports unions in their political struggles against legislation that allows employers to expand their use of precarious work.

We cooperate with other global unions to maintain pressure on the ILO to take action on precarious work, in particular to ensure that precarious workers are able to exercise their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. We pressure the institutions of global governance, including the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD, to stop promoting policies which allow precarious work to flourish.

We recognize agency work and other forms of triangular employment relationships as a specific threat to workers’ rights to join a union and to bargain collectively with their employer. We work to expose the violations of labour rights that these cause and to restrict their use.

We do not accept a future where young people face a lifetime of insecure jobs, without the protection of union membership – we demand that employers invest in young people through long term employment commitments, training and education, including collectively-bargained apprenticeship programs

We continue to campaign to STOP Precarious Work in all its forms.

We will not rest until all workers have access to a secure job with all their rights protected, including the right to trade union membership.

PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL POLICY

IndustriALL recognizes that industry is a key driver of jobs and development for national economies and the foundation of good living standards. We call for strong industrial policies that advance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

IndustriALL works to influence governments and business to ensure that national industries and their sectors are sustainable, using an approach in which the economy, the social dimension and the environment are placed on an equal footing with the rights and needs of workers. For IndustriALL, economic progress and productivity improvements only make sense if accompanied by social progress and environmental protection. Unions are encouraged to work at national level, in engagement with government and employer associations, to develop industrial policy that includes measures to safeguard and create well-paid and secure jobs and guarantees of sustainable employment.

IndustriALL affiliates and their members working in the extractive, processing and manufacturing industries have a critical role to play. Our members must have a say in the direction their industries take.

IndustriALL works with unions to develop a strategic approach to sustainability for each industrial sector and to look for synergies between the sectors. We need proactive energy policies which establish security and sustainability as the foundations of industrial production world-wide.

We seek to influence the shape and purpose of industrial policy development and implementation at global, regional and local level by taking action and engaging with government and employers on the union agenda.

We raise awareness of sustainability issues towards a shared view on union priorities and how to address them. We build affiliates’ capacity to develop and implement their own vision of sustainable industrial development and bring affiliates together to identify the key issues for their region, country or sector, and develop joint actions to promote them.

We support unions in developing countries in their demands for industrial policies which enable workers and citizens to benefit from the exploitation of their natural resources through value-added processing and manufacturing, and which promote transfers of skills and technologies, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

We work towards a fair, ambitious and binding global treaty on climate change that takes into account social impacts and promotes the creation of green jobs. We demand a Just Transition that respects and protects present-day workers, promotes efficient greener production and creates good, secure jobs in sustainable industries.

IndustriALL works with unions at national level to strengthen the role of government and take power back from MNCs in influencing the terms of industrial development.

We call on governments to take action to ensure that profits are reinvested in research and development, training and skills and to create industrial policies which

drive a more equitable distribution of the benefits of production towards workers and society. We demand that tax loopholes are closed so that companies are compelled to support the development of local industry and infrastructure from which they benefit.

We will not leave decisions about the future of our industries, our jobs and our planet to multinational companies and market forces. We will take action to promote our vision of sustainable industries and industrial jobs to governments and employers. Through IndustriALL we make the voice of industrial workers heard.

For the 2016-2020 Congress period, the IndustriALL Secretariat will define priority campaigns and programs to be undertaken, globally as well as in specific countries and sectors, with a plan that establishes a timeline, targets, staffing, budget, and periodic progress reviews and reporting. The plan will define the roles and responsibilities of the Secretariat and Regional offices and affiliates, and where relevant, external funders. The Executive Committee will constantly monitor and evaluate the implementation of this Action Plan.

IndustriALL Global Union will fight for its strategic goals, uniting workers and unions throughout the world in global solidarity.