Global Solidarity

Workers Uniting

Workers Uniting, the global union created by the USW and Unite the Union, is made up of more than three million active and retired workers from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland who work in virtually every sector of the global economy, including oil.

The global union’s founding Constitution calls on its combined membership to build global union activism, recognizing that uniting as workers across international boundaries is the only way to challenge the injustices of globalization.

In 2015, a Workers Uniting delegation showed international solidarity with a rally outside the International Petroleum Week dinner in London where Shell CEO Ben van Beurden was a speaker.

Workers Uniting also passed a resolution supporting the 2015 strike.

IndustriALL Global Union

The USW, under the Workers Uniting umbrella, is an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union. IndustriALL, which represents 50 million workers in 140 countries from a wide range of sectors, challenges the power of multinational companies and negotiates with them on a global level. IndustriALL fights for another model of globalization and a new economic and social model that puts people first, based on democracy and social justice.

The USW and 60 union leaders from 21 countries make up IndustriALL's Shell Global Union Network. This group, in September 2017, developed a list of demands for the company, including the official recognition of the network as a counterpart for dialogue, that the company limit the use of precarious work and that Shell apply the same high-level health and safety standards at all their facilities.

The network organized a global day of action to stop precarious work – working people from Pakistan, Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana and Iraq participated.

Through industriALL, we have stood in solidarity with workers around the world. Recently, we had the backs of striking oil workers in Austriala who work for ExxonMobil's Australian subsidiary Esso. We protested outside Chevron shareholder meetings with Brazilian oil workers. And, in March 2016, we supported striking Unite the Union and RMT members who work on Shell Oil platforms in the North Sea. 

International Labour Organization

In January 2016, USW oil workers participated in a global discussion to develop an international directive for occupational health and safety for oil and gass workers in the arctic. 

Indsutri Energi

USW National Oil Bargaining Program Chair Kim Nibarger spoke at the union's conference in Norway. Delegates from Industri Energi attended the NOBP Conference and USW International Constitutional Convention in April 2017.