The ITUC is relaunching its youth blog and is launching the campaign’s brochure. The Youth blog comes with a redesign, new functionalities such as Facebook and Twitter sharing as well as a special campaign section.

The brochure is a best practice guide on organising young people and is aimed at informing young people in trade unions about the wide range of work covered by trade unions at the international, regional and national level. The brochure is available for download on the campaign section of the blog. If you would like to receive printed copies for your union members, please contact us.

On the campaign section of the blog, you will also find various others links and tools such as Joe’s pictures for your websites and publications as well as Joe’s ringtones for mobile phones. Don’t forget to say thank you to Joe by becoming a fan on Facebook or by watching his video

 by Philippe Gousenbourger, ITUC Youth Officer

This new ITUC report shows that the Burmese military junta currently in power has no intention of showing any more interest in the population than their predecessors have over the last 47 years of military dictatorship and highlights the link between the abuse of human rights, including trade union rights, and the catastrophic situation of Burmese children. Crushing all forms of opposition the Burmese military junta spends at least 40% of the State budget on the army, even though the country is not facing any external military threat, and leaves only crumbs for such important sectors as education and health care.

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Young people, migrant and women workers are the most vulnerable to the current downturn and are all faced with considerable difficulties in integrating in today’s labour market. This trend stands to be exacerbated by the global crisis and if viable solutions are not found, personal development and future employment prospects are threatened for millions of young people. Read more article of  Helle Damgaard Nielsen, ITUC Policy Research Officer at ITUC Youth Community Blog

To protect our future and the future of our generation, we should say NO to nuclear weapons!. The ITUC launches Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons! need you and your organisations to support to end nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Please sign the petition and get as much people as possible to sign it. Please click here for more information

Million children are at work instead of school. The global financial crisis could push an increasing number of children, particulary girls, into child labour. Today is the World Day Against Child Labour. Most child labour is rooted in poverty, often associated with multiple disadvantage. Socio-economic inequalities based on language, race, disability and rural-urban differences remain deeply entrenched. Girls can face particular disadvantages due to discrimination and practices which allocate certain forms of work to girls. Many girls take on unpaid household work for their families, usually more so than boys.

Around the world, an estimated 100 million girls are involved in child labour. Many of these girls undertake similar types of work as boys, but often also endure additional hardships and face extra risks. Moreover, girls are all too often exposed to some of the worst forms of child labour, often in hidden work situations. More, click here

The ITUC has launched a new video spot to highlight the problem and press governments to tackle the exploitation of children more effectively, both through funding quality education and enforcing labour law.