Big Labor Goes Global
According to Time.com:
Think of mergers and you typically imagine captains of industry egged on by big bankers. But this week's most significant consolidation is happening on the other side of the working world: between labor unions. The United Steelworkers (USW), America's largest private-sector union, is joining up with Unite, Britain's largest national union, to form the world's first transatlantic union. The deal, set to be inked on Wednesday at the Steelworkers' International Convention in Las Vegas, will create the grandiosely named Workers Uniting: The Global Union. Says USW President Leo W. Gerard: "We're creating a new union here, with a constitution, a mission and staff."
Both parties to the fusion have grown big through mergers at home. Steelworkers currently only make up a fifth of USW's 1.2 million members, who work in such disparate sectors as mining, oil, paper, healthcare and security. Unite is the result of the consolidation last year of two other big unions, and its 2 million members also toil in a wide range of industries including aerospace, steel, brewing and transportation.
The Steelworkers and Unite will remain largely autonomous, national entities, but they'll be guided by an Anglo-American umbrella leadership that will coordinate common policy. Gerard and Unite General Secretary Derek Simpson will likely serve as co-chairmen...click to continue.
