In a well-received speech, Cotton said: “Everywhere, governments and international financial institutions try to strip away trade union rights. We say no! and we will grow stronger together.”
He praised ver.di as a key affiliate because it was “strong, diligent, committed to solidarity and extremely active internationally across all the ITF’s industrial transport sectors”.
The ITF and UNI global union family from 20 countries had strongly supported the 140,000 ver.di postal workers during their strike in Germany over Deutsche Post-DHL’s attempts to impose a massive pay cut on workers on short-term contracts.
Cotton said: “We invested in the DHL postal strike and were proud to celebrate ver.di’s victory on 5 July.
“The German fight is a global fight. Transport company ownership structures have been changing in Europe and across the globe. Gone are the days of negotiating with a national company – the companies we fight are now international so we have to take the fight to the international stage.
“DHL wants to pick and choose when and where it abides by trade union and labour rights. Well it doesn’t work like that. Whether it’s workers in Germany, India or Panama, companies like DHL must treat workers with the respect and dignity they deserve.
“They need to know we are serious. As a global family, we should be excited by the potential we have when we act together nationally and internationally to build worker-to-worker respect and strengthen workers’ power along supply chains. It’s up to us to respond in new ways, with intelligence, global research, a wider set of skills and greater understanding of the international dimension.”
