4th UNI World Congress in Cape Town, 7-10 December 2014

4th UNI World Congress

Cape Town

7-10 December 2014

More than 2,000 trade unionists, representing some of the most powerful unions in the world, arrived in Cape Town for  the official opening of the UNI Global Union 4th World Congress on Sunday, 7 December 2014.

The Congress was the largest global gathering of trade unions ever to take place in Africa and was held in South Africa to mark the 20th anniversary of the end of apartheid. UNI is the global union for the services sector and is made up of 900 unions with 20 million members.

The opening ceremony, which began at 15:30 on Sunday 7th December, included speeches by: Ebrahim Patel, Minister of Economic Development, South Africa Ahmed Kathrada, political leader, Rivonia trialist, Robben Island prisoner and human rights activist Bones Skulu, President of UNI Africa andGeneral Secretary of SACCAWU

The congress took place for over three days from Monday to Wednesday, 8-10 December.

The theme of the Congress was “Including You” which aimed to challenge economic exclusion, and income inequality, with the call to action, “The World Needs a Pay Rise”.

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings, said, “We are delighted to bring our World Congress to Cape Town at a time when the whole world is once again  remembering the legacy of Nelson Mandela, on the first anniversary of his passing.  Mandela’s selfless leadership and his commitment to the labour movement cannot be underestimated at a time when the world is struggling against record levels of economic injustice.”