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Interpreting for Global Union Federations : a Beginners's Guide

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Interpreting for Global Union Federations : a Beginners's Guide Master Interpreting for Global Union Federations : A beginners's guide LAGUNA GONZALEZ, Ildefonso, SANTORO, Irène Abstract Global Union Federations are international organisations that group national or regional trade unions in specific industrial or professional domains. Global Union Federations play an active role within the international labour context, but they might be less well-known than other supranational organisations. This thesis aims to provide a general overview of Global Union Federations. As novice interpreters ourselves, we consider this environment as an interesting opportunity to acquire work experience after graduating. In light of that, this thesis is divided in two main parts. The first part presents a basic guide to Global Union Federations. In the second part, three of the GUFs based in Geneva are analysed through the eyes of their chief interpreter. Reference LAGUNA GONZALEZ, Ildefonso, SANTORO, Irène. Interpreting for Global Union Federations : A beginners's guide. Master : Univ. Genève, 2015 Available at: http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:81509 Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version. 1 / 1 ILDEFONSO LAGUNA GONZÁLEZ IRENE SANTORO Interpreting for Global Union Federations: A beginner’s guide Mémoire présentée à la Faculté de Traduction et d’Interprétation Pour l’obtention du MA en Interprétation de Conférence Directeur de mémoire: Kilian G. Seeber Juré: Kilian G. Seeber, Sophie Hengl Juin 2015 STUDENT INFORMATION: Ildefonso Laguna González Irene Santoro Faculté de Traduction et d'Interprétation University of Geneva 40, boulevard du Pont-d'Arve, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................................ 7 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 OBJECTIVES AND AIMS .............................................................................................................................................. 10 BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE ...................................................................................................................... 12 1. ON THE ORIGIN OF GLOBAL UNION FEDERATIONS .......................................................................................... 12 1.1. International Trade Secretariats………………………………………………………………………………..….12 1.2. The foundation of the ILO………………………………………………………………………………………...13 1.3. From the 20s to World War II…………………………………………………………………………………….15 1.4. The World Federation of Trade Unions and the Cold War era…………………………………………………...16 2. GLOBAL UNION FEDERATIONS TODAY ........................................................................................................... 19 2.1. Global Union Federations and their structure……………………………………………………………………..21 2.2. Global Union Federations…………………………………………………………………………………………23 2.2.1. International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF)………………………………………………………...24 2.2.2. Education International (EI)………………………………………………………………………………..27 2.2.3. Public Services International (PSI)…………………………………………………………………………29 2.2.4. Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI)………………………………………………………...31 2.2.5. UNI Global Union………………………………………………………………………………………….34 2.2.6. International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF)………………………………………………………………………………………………………..37 2.2.7. International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)………………………………………………………………..39 2.2.8. International Arts and Entertainment Alliance (IAEA)………………………………………………….....41 2.2.8. a) International Federation of Musicians (IFM)……………………………………………………..42 2.2.8. b) International Federation of Actors (FIA)………………………………………………………....44 2.2.8. c) Media, Entertainment and Art Division of UNI (UNI-MEI)………………………………….…..46 2.2.9. IndustriALL………………………………………………………………………………………………..47 2.2.10. Global Unions - Council of Global Unions (CGU)………………………………………………………49 2.2.11. GUFs languages…………………………………………………………………………………………..50 2.2.12. GUFs headquarters……………………………………………………………………………………….51 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ...................................................................................................................... 52 DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................................... 55 1. RECRUITMENT ........................................................................................................................................................... 56 1.1. Freelance interpreters or staff interpreters?.............................................................................................................56 1.2. AIIC, agencies or networking?................................................................................................................................56 1.3. Quality assessment………………………………………………………………………………………………...58 1.4. Main criteria for recruiting interpreters…………………………………………………………………………...58 3 1.5. Experienced or not experienced?.............................................................................................................................60 1.6. Manning strength………………………………………………………………………………………………….62 1.7. Man-days………………………………………………………………………………………………………….64 1.8. Replacing an interpreter…………………………………………………………………………………………...65 2. LANGUAGES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………66 3. INTERPRETATION…………………………………………………………………………………...……………...69 4. ORGANISATION OF INTERPRETING SERVICE AT MEETINGS……………………………………………….76 4.1. Facilities…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...76 4.2. Location…………………………………………………………………………………………...………………77 4.3. GUFs meetings……………………………………………………………………………………………………78 5. INTERPRETERS' PREPARATION FOR A MEETING……………………………………………………………..79 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 84 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................................. 88 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................................................. 90 APPENDIX 1: .................................................................................................................................................................... 90 APPENDIX 2: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………....... 95 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. List of Global Union Federations existing today……………………………………………………23 Table 2. ITF’s basic information……………………………………………………………………………...24 Table 3. EI’s basic information……………………………………………………………………………….27 Table 4. PSI’s basic information……………………………………………………………………………...29 Table 5. BWI’s basic information…………………………………………………………………………….31 Table 6. UNI’s basic information…………………………………………………………………………......34 Table 7. IUF’s basic information……………………………………………………………………………..37 Table 8. IFJ’s basic information………………………………………………………………………………39 Table 9. IAEA’s basic information…………………………………………………………………………...41 Table 10. FIM’s basic information……………………………………………………………………………42 Table 11. FIA’s basic information……………………………………………………………………………44 Table 12. UNI-MEI’s basic information……………………………………………………………………...46 Table 13. IndustriALL’s basic information…………………………………………………………………..47 Table 14. List of all GUFs’ official languges (Constitution and website)……………………………………50 Table 15. AIIC’s interpreters with language combination EN – PT (A-C) and FR – PT (A-C).…………….60 Table 16. AIIC’s interpreters with language combination EN – ES (A-C) and FR – ES (A-C).……...……..60 Table 17. AIIC’s recommendations on man-power depending on the interpretation services needed……….63 Table 18. Comparison between GUFs’ and DG Interpretation’s (European Commission) average estimated man-days……………………………………………………………………………………………………...65 5 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. GUFs headquarters…………………………………………………………………………………51 6 ABSTRACT Global Union Federations are international organisations that group national or regional trade unions in specific industrial or professional domains. Global Union Federations play an active role within the international labour context, but they might be less well-known to us- including novice interpreters- than other supranational organisations. The main aim of this MA thesis is to provide a general overview of Global Union Federations, both from a general and an interpreting-specific point of view. As novice interpreters ourselves, we consider this environment as an interesting opportunity to acquire work experience after graduating, and a possible platform to access the professional market. In light of that, this thesis is divided in two main parts. The first part presents a basic guide to the history, functions and structure of Global Union Federations, focusing on the most important background knowledge interpreters need before starting to work for these organisations. In the second part we will focus on three GUFs based in Geneva that we had the opportunity to look at in detail through the eyes of their chief interpreter. We will concentrate on the more job-specific aspects, such as hiring policies for interpreters, the structure of the interpreting services, the need for interpreters
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