Philip Jennings – the global warrior for workers’ rights, democracy and peace
Philip J. Jennings is General Secretary of UNI Global Union, the global trade union for the services sector, with 900 unions in 150 countries. His mission is to Break Throughfor workers to allow them to unionise and collectively bargain with the conviction that their rights are an essential part of human rights.
Philip is a global union pioneer, recognized as the ‘global warrior’ for workers’ rights. UNI Global Union has spearheaded a coordinated union organising push in all continents, with over 150 initiatives in 50 countries. His dedication and ingenuity have led to a transformation of global union work from supplychain justice, notably the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety,through global agreements with multinationals, to union solidarity. Philip was a mover for the Bangladesh Accord, which was a response to the Rana Plaza garment factory disaster in April 2013 that claimed more than 1000 lives. The Accord is to be extended a further three years, a testament to its success in improving factory safety and saving workers’ lives.
With more than 50 global agreements with multinationals, many of which have substantial markets in the U.S., UNI Global Union has been able to influence the spread of workers’ rights in the country, despite the anti-union environment. The G20 last year recognised the values of such global agreements, as furthering the case for business to respect human rights and in addition to the global agreements we have built global union alliances in key global companies.
Philip wasappointed to the ILO Commission on the Future World of Work.The initiative marks the 2019 centenary of the ILO with its Future World of Work report scheduled to be published in July 2019 Under his leadership UNI Global Union has become a thought-leader on the digital revolution. Philip is committed to ensuring that workers have a voice in this ‘Brave New World’ where Big Tech threatens democracy. His message to the ILO Commission is that we are not prepared and the levers are not in place to deal with this seismic digital shift.
Philip recognises that poverty anywhere is a danger to society everywhere, and is a committed supporter of the peace movement. He took the UNI World Congress and its 2000 delegates to Nagasaki in 2010 to better understand the horrors of nuclear war, and supporting the launch of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) five years ago, the organisation which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. Under the title, “Unions for Peace”, Philip delivered the prestigious Remembrance Day Speech for the Movement Against War at the Imperial War Museum in November 2017 where he outlined the inter-connectivity between the union and peace movements over the 150 year history since the TUC was founded in the UK in 1886. UNI will celebrate the formation of the TUC and its strong ties to peace at the UNI World Congress in Liverpool in June 2018.
Philip is the de facto spokesperson for the labour movement at Davos where he ensures that the workers’ voice is heard loud and clear by the government heads and business leaders who gather there each year.
Last year, the University of Cardiff recognized Philip’s contribution to the international labour movement and global democracy with an Honorary Fellowship.
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