International Framework Agreements

Proposed by the Syndicat national des journalistes CGT (SNJ-CGT)

The World Congress of the International Federation of Journalists, meeting in Angers from June 7th – 10th 2016,

having in mind that information is not just a commodity, that it is essential for citizens to form their own opinions against the background of a changing economy;

considering that digital technologies enable a flow of information without borders;

aware that information supports are being concentrated in a handful of multinational corporations in a large number of countries extending increasingly their control over them;

conscious that the shareholders of media companies are often hedge funds whose only rationale is to boost their capital to the detriment of the quality of information and most fundamental social rights (low wages and absence of social rules defined by ILO);

further considering that processing quality information is unthinkable without free journalists, independent from all authorities and lobbies, from the shareholders;

Congress resolves to:

  1. develop a campaign for the signing of international framework agreements with multinational corporations to fight against the commodification of the information and to guarantee equal rights to all journalists working in a same corporation against the background of the “Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR”;
  2. study with the member unions the list of corporations in which such agreements should be urgently negotiated including national IFJ unions;
  3. draw up a model list of clauses to be negotiated as part of such agreements (minimum wage, hours of work, working conditions mindful of the journalists’ health and safety, labour contract, vocational training, right to union membership and of strike, etc.) allowing similar social standards in all the countries where the corporation has its operations;
  4. establish a list of subsidiaries of a same corporation in which the terms and conditions provided for in the agreement must be enforced as well as the information mechanism of possible subcontractors;
  5. ensure the inclusion of a monitoring mechanism of the agreement enforcement in all the corporate components.

Carried unanimously