Six young Swedish trade union members from the large local government union Kommunal visited Tamil Nadu, India to learn about the importance of solidarity support and the vital role that Swedish union development cooperation plays in supporting unions in South Asia.  They shared information about their union structures and struggles with a particular focus on the lack of trade union rights for public service workers in India.  Young members from the Tamil Nadu Government Officers Union (TNGOU) met with the delegation and discussed the challenges facing young workers in the two countries and shared tactics on how to get young workers to join unions.

In a rural area 650 km from the capital city Chennai, the Swedish trade union members met with the local council and discussed the improvements they were making to public services, taking environmental issues into account, providing jobs for young workers and strengthening industrial relations.  At a well attended press conference following the meeting, the Swedish delegation appreciated the work that the local council was doing but also drew attention to the fact that good industrial relations was not possible without the trade union rights to organise, strike and bargain collectively.   This message was promoted widely by all parts of the media, giving a boost to the current trade union rights campaign being piloted in Tamil Nadu by PSI and the affiliates.

The General Secretary of NOGE, the union confederation that represents local government workers, explained how the Swedish project over the last three years had assisted them in organising 10 local government corporations and 148 municipal council unions, placing them in a strong position to support the campaign for trade union rights.  They expressed their heartfelt appreciation to SEKO, the Swedish union that supports the ongoing project to campaign for trade union rights for public service workers in India.

The mission was organised by Kristina Olsson, Kommunal International Secretary, and Kannan Raman, PSI Trade Union Rights Project Coordinator.  PSI thanks all the Swedish affiliates for the valuable support they have been giving the PSI development cooperation projects around the world.

Related Files

Report of Kommunals visit to India (PDF File)
Press cuttings (PDF File)

The Council of Global Unions, which includes Public Services International and ten other global union federations, plus the International Trade Union Confederation and the Trade Union Advisory Committee at the OECD, is organising the landmark conference “A Global Agenda for Quality Public Services” from 12-14 October 2010, in Geneva, Switzerland. The deadline is 9 June for pre-registration applications.

Registration for this conference will take place in two steps, pre-registration and then registration upon acceptance of your application by your Global Union Federation, please click here for the detail

if you are young workers, below 35 years, it will be priority of you but please contact your Global Union Federation. If you are member of PSI, please download the PSI pre-registration detail, and draft program here:  http://www.world-psi.org/qpsconference2010

For more detail, please take a look the website of this conference: http://www.qpsconference.org/

PSI joins its affiliates in Southern Africa and members of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign in expressing its outrage at the behaviour of the Swazi government and police force in disrupting the funeral service for Sipho Jele on 16th May. Sipho Jele, a young political activist and member of the Swaziland Agriculture and Plantation Workers’ Union, died in police custody on 4th May, under suspicious circumstances which have been strongly and unequivocally denounced by trade unions over the world. Click here to read PSI General Secretary message to the Barnabas Dlamini, Prime Minister of the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland

With the objective of reaching out to more youths and strengthening the East Asia family, the very first East Asia Youth Network was convened on 2 March 2010 in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia. At the meeting, subregional secretary of East Asia, Mr Koichi Ito, introduced the PSI youth policy and resolution 20 which had been adopted by the Executive Board on succession planning and on its main purpose and also on how the East Asia region will be  supporting PSI activities and goals for the benefit of the young workers.

Ms. V. Lakshmi, our newly appointed Regional Secretary also spoke to the young workers representatives in support of the PSI youth policy, its main aims, campaigns and activities. She said “by strengthening solidarity with other sub-regions and regions, we will be able to preserve, as well as nurture, the next generation by sharing experiences and knowledge.”

Ms. Tan Sze Wei, APYN coordinator then followed up with a presentation on the Asia Pacific Youth Network and its activities and goals. She shared what the Network had done, explained how the APYN began and described the impact the Network has had up till today. Without a doubt, the APYN had a formidable outreach and the participants were certainly impressed and all pledged to build it up further. None of us doubted that we as young workers have a very relevant and important role to play for the future of the labour movement.

Many new friendships were forged as young worker representatives from the East Asian affiliates: Japan, Mongolia,  South Korea and Taiwan shared issues relating to young workers from their countries and mingled among themselves freely. They sincerely hope that the meeting will continue to be held annually.

The new Network elected their new coordinators: Ms. Hong Soo Jung from KNEW, Korea and Ms. Tomohiro Hasegawa from JPSU, Japan. They will work together with other coordinators in this region. This above report was prepared by Tan Sze Wei participating on behalf of APYN. For more information, please contact Mr. Koichi Ito, EA Sub-regional Secretary: itok@psi-jc.jp

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is one of Canada’s largest unions. The union is representing 165,000 members across Canada.

PSAC belief that young people are important for the future of the union movement. More and more young people are joining the PSAC and the union has to address their needs and issues.  PSAC is working hard to welcome young workers into the union.

In June, Young workers from across Ontario gathered in Kingston to learn more about the labour movement and to envision ways that PSAC can be more responsive to and representative of young workers. Gathering at Queen’s University – the site of an ongoing campaign to unionize graduate teaching assistants – more than 20 young workers shared their vision of what PSAC could look like in 2015.

Read more about PSAC and young workers at their Union Update, July-August 2009, click here

The Asia-Pacific Knowledge Network on Youth Employment (APYouthNet) is an ILO-sponsored community of practice that brings together youth employment experts, practitioners and youth from across the Asia-Pacific region.  It serves as a gateway and platform to the region*s collective resources, experiences, ideas and solutions to the problems that youth face everyday

Become part of this network which currently consists of over 280 members who are dedicated to finding solutions to the youth employment challenge!  Current members include practitioners, experts, professions and youth themselves.  To register, please click here

As part of this initiative, we also regularly host online discussion forums - the next one will be begin on November 23rd and focus on the rights and conditions of employment of young workers.  More details on this will be posted online.

If you have any further questions/comments, please do not hesitate to contact apyouthnet@ilo.org.

More info about click here