SEE YOUTH MEETING: ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN TRADE UNIONS

12/2-3/2015

Caption 1. Participants on the meeting, representatives from Youth Sections from SEE countries

The meeting of young trade unionists from SEE “Role of communication in trade unions” was held on 2-3 December 2015 in Skopje, Macedonia. The meeting was attended by 20 young trade unionists from Albania, BiH, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia, Sweden, and Ukraine. Participants from Macedonia were M.Sc. Lidija Naskovska, President of the Youth Section of CCM and M.Sc. Irena Ivanovska, International Department of CCM. The meeting was organized within ITUC/ PERC – LO TCO Project for SEE.

Purpose of the meeting was to gather young trade union representatives from the region, exchange experiences about the relevance of communication in trade unions, adopt new skills and improve the existing ones, and establish the Network of SEE Youth for communication.

The examples of ways in communication in trade unions were presented during the meeting, the current trends in communication and what this communication should be with the members and potential members, which tools and channels are used for communication, and which are the priorities for communication in the region.

The meeting was opened by M.Sc. Lidija Naskovska, President of the Youth Section of CCM who presented the ways of communications of the union with its members as well as the new communication strategy of CCM.

Anton Leppik and Tim Noonan addressed the participants by Skype on behalf of ITUC/ PERC from Brussels. Participants had an opportunity to discuss the matters of communication, PERC priorities and ITUC campaigns with colleagues from Brussels.

Åsa Odin Ekman, TCO Sweden, presented interesting video examples in her presentation, examples how the young people are engaged in Swedish trade unions, why is it difficult for trade unions to reach young people, what is the Swedish model applied, and she pointed at ample other matters for discussions about communication.

Olesia Briazgunova, KVPU Ukraine, Vice President of PERC Youth Committee, spoke about PERC Youth Committee, its activities and priorities for newly elected Committee, and she introduced the brochure “Introducing Unions to Yung People”. Participants showed a great interest for the brochure and gave their positive comments.

The end of the first day was rounded with a fruitful discussion in which participants exchanged their experiences and best practices in the area of communications, as well as highlighting the shortcomings that should be overcome.

The second day of the workshop was devoted to group work where participants were divided into two groups. The first group worked in the area of improving communication in the unions, while the second group focused on improving communication with the members, and potential members.

Following the two-day meeting, the Network for Communication in SEE was established, with a wish for further activities and building trade union strategy for better communication, both at national and regional levels.