Swiss trade union says Sunday leave is out of the question
Switzerland's trade union Unia today reiterated its opposition to the extension of Sunday working, which it considers harmful to the health of sales staff.
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Unia, on the last day of its congress in Brig, canton Valais, denounced plans to expand the number of Sunday openings, a statement said. The latter points out that sales workers ‘already suffer irregular working hours, low wages and high stress’.
The delegates call on parliament to maintain Sunday as a day of rest and promise to oppose this deterioration of protective provisions with all the means at their disposal, ‘if necessary even by launching a referendum’.
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Pierre-Yves Maillard, President of the Swiss Trade Union Union (SSU), reaffirmed the essential role of trade unions:
“An economy that makes people work more and more intensively and leaves less and less money in their pockets has no future,” he pointed out. The trade unions, he emphasised, “provide a concrete remedy with the thirteenth month’s salary from the AHV, improvements in collective labour agreements such as in the case of [supermarket chain] Coop.”
Guest of honour at the congress, Pakistani trade unionist Zehra Khan highlighted the global dimension of social struggles. Founder of Pakistan’s first female homeworkers’ union, she emphasised that ‘workers’ solidarity can change laws and systems’.
Her fight for the recognition of informal work has inspired pioneering legislation to make multinationals accountable for conditions in their supply chains: a message the Swiss trade unions intend to convey.
Unia also passed a new resolution for the recognition of the State of Palestine and the creation of a two-state solution, again criticising the “persistent passivity” of the government and parliament on this conflict.
For three days, some 400 Unia delegates from all over Switzerland gathered in Brig to decide on common goals for the coming years. On this occasion, they renewed the governing bodies of the union for the construction, trades, industry and services sectors for four years.
Vania Alleva was successfully re-elected as president. Vice-President Véronique Polito and President Martin Tanner complete the management. Newcomer Silvia Locatelli and Timur Öztürk were elected to the board for the first time. Together with Bruna Campanello and Nico Lutz, who were re-elected, they complete the national board.
Translated from Italian by DeepL/ds
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