This example is a program named ‘Towards Innovative Unionism’ and was carried out by the global union ‘Building and Wood Workers’ International’- BWI, its affiliates and with support from the organization Union to Union, in 2017.
Description
This program is part of an ongoing cooperation between the BWI, several of its affiliates and Union to Union. It was a response to two main challenges. The first one was the exploitation of working people and the lack of rights. The labour market is unfortunately full of exploitation. That’s why it is so important that trade unions exist. The second challenge was the issue of building strong and fully democratic trade unions, which obviously is important for the possibility to negotiate and for truly sustainable and representative organizations.This part of the program was taking place during 2017.
The overall program objective was to contribute in creating strong, independent, gender-fair and democratic trade unions that fight for universal respect for trade union and human rights as well as for stable employment and humane working and living conditions.<br />
From this overall objective, three desired results was formulated;<br />
• Representation roles of participating unions are strengthened as a result of increased union density and better organizational capacity. <br />
• Union members and workers in the BWI sectors have improved terms of employment, labour rights and standards through collective bargaining, policy influencing, and campaigning. <br />
• Global and regional strategies on organizational and project work – especially in the areas of organizing-recruitment in strategic sub-sectors, integration of women and youth, and membership maintenance - are defined through participatory processes.<br />
This main objective is clearly linked to the SDG 8, which partly is about promoting decent work for all. The main objective and the desired results are also more specifically linked to target 8.5, which handles decent work for both women and men, and target 8.8, which is about promoting safe and secure working environments. Target 8.8 also involves the protection of labour rights, and a precondition for this is strong and democratic trade unions. The program has also covered those with informal employment and migrant workers, which also is linked to target 8.8.<br />
This example is also linked specifically to SDG target 16.7, which is about ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels. The objective to create democratic and gender-fair unions is an example on how to ensure that decision is participatory and inclusive. <br />
There are obviously also interlinkages to the SDG 10. Part of the main objective was to work for humane working conditions, which also is about decent wages. Today, working poverty remains a major challenge across the globe. Considering that the working poor account for more than 700 million people, reducing inequalities by 2030 will be impossible if issues around wages are left unaddressed.<br />
There were of course challenges within this program. One major challenge for the BWI affiliates is the violation of workers’ rights. Another major challenge was the lack of strong Health and Safety regulations at many work sites. Also, economic problems faced by some countries has impacted the unions in reduction of membership, in some cases more than 50 %. This is a major challenge for the unions, since a low rate of unionization results in workers without a strong voice that may engage in social dialogue, which could have resulted in better working conditions. It is also important that the unions really are representative at the work sites.<br />
To tackle these challenges the program had a strong focus on negotiations, since collective bargaining is the primary instrument that working people and trade unions can use in order to influence working conditions. The program also had a focus on deployment of union organizers, workplace meetings and mobilizations, and to build capacity to influence and making the case of the working people towards employers and governments.
The program followed a full chain of cooperation from the Swedish affiliates to BWI HQ in Geneva, then to the regional office and then to the sub-regional or country coordinators, who all took responsibility in evaluations. Both the Swedish affiliates and Union to Union also visited the program to observe the implementation of activities.
The strategy of the program implementation was based on the BWI Strategy Plan 2014-2017 with its three main pillars of Organizing, Negotiating, and Influencing.Within the pillar of organizing, activities involved deployment of union organizers, workplace meetings, regular mobilizations, skills development, and distribution of awareness materials. Within the strategy of negotiating, it meant collective bargaining as the main activity, since it is the primary industrial relation mechanism that institutionalize the representation role of the trade unions. It is the way that workers are able to influence their working conditions. In building and forestry, there is little direct employment, and there are large numbers of informal workers, “self-employed” workers, and labour-only subcontracting as well as long chains of sub-contractors. This fragmentation of employment has increased the need for collective means to shape employment policies and regulate labour practices. Within the strategy of influencing, activities was linked to strengthen institutional capacity and tripartite structures, since they are essential in achieving good governance and the trade unions rightful place at the table. The program used a number of different methods and activities that was implemented in various target unions and countries. These include workplace-company level activities, local seminars, workplace meetings, OSH activities, trainings, thematic and issue-based meetings, advocacy meetings, sub-regional activities, global unions and UN-ILO events, thematic conferences, General Assembly, campaigns, media materials, migrant workers organizing and outreach activities, studies, planning meetings at national and sub-regional level, and evaluations. The BWI project monitoring system follows the full chain of cooperation from the Swedish affiliates to BWI Geneva, then to the regional office and then to the sub-regional or country coordinators. The Swedish affiliates participated in the monitoring through regular project visits where they could observe the implementation of activities and get feedback from project trade unions. The annual regional meeting of the Project Advisory Committee, which consist of partners within the program, was also an opportunity to systematically monitor the project. BWI Geneva was the final quality control stage of the whole project and program implementation. The Education Secretary and his deputy monitored the implementation (covering contents, applicability to the project strategies and goals, timeframe, and budget/disbursement plan approval). The regional offices had both the technical and political oversight of the project. They supervised directly the sub-regional and country project coordinators and monitored procurement and contracts from providers, and oversaw the technical and substantial elements of activities and other measures. For the activities that were proposed and implemented at field level, the steps were the following: the regional representative start a conversation with the union to review its strategies to achieve the objectives; if it is in accordance of the objectives of program they had to sign a project agreements in which the objectives, the rules of the financial and narrative report were stipulated; and, after the activity with the support and assistance of the regional office staff, the reports were developed and submitted to BWI.Also Union to Union monitored the program through regular reports and by visit.
Within the lobbying and advocacy work that the unions work with, successes at national level have been seen during the year. In Namibia, the guidelines for public procurement have been rewritten and now contain a labour rights clause. The state there has also signed the ILO conventions C167 and C94. Zimbabwe and South Africa have ratified the SADC Employment and Labor Protocol. Strong pressure from the unions has also led to an increase in the minimum wage by 12 % in Nigeria, 20 % in Malaysia and 10 % in Thailand. Further, The Turkish Federation YOL-IS has, together with the ILO office in the country, started a project to improve working conditions for Syrian refugees.
All this work contributes strongly to the progress towards SDG 8, and to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and decent work for all.
Further, during the year the unions within the program managed to recruit 71,021 new members. Seven new local branches joined BWI during the year and 5,407 people completed union training, thanks to work within this program. The proportion of women in leading positions has increased in 2017 as well as the proportion of young people (under 30 years). The work of creating strong global and regional networks is also progressing. For example, in Brazil, eight local federations have joined forces to begin work on a global network for workers on constructing ponds.
The work with recruitment, sharing of information, and union trainings is obviously linked to SDG 16.7, which is about ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.
Good communication was a major key success factor in this program. The communication between the Education Secretaries, regional education officers, project coordinator, finance staff and the participating unions was done both by distance measures and by face to face workshops. BWI also published information on its website and social media platforms regularly. Giving stakeholders access to information was a vital part of this program communication strategy.
The level of partnership with the various affiliates obviously differed, but their involvement was clearly still a precondition for the achievements of the objectives of the program. The added value of the partnership with the Swedish unions has generally been excellent with strong cooperation, follow-up and sharing of experiences with unions organized in the same sector. For example, for the unions in Turkey the Swedish trade union partnership was a very crucial element of solidarity to empower and motivate the participating unions in their organizing efforts under increasing pressure from government. Under the BWI Solidarity Mission, the BWI President, coming from the Swedish union GS, joined a visit to the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. The visit was absolutely a profound sign of BWI and Swedish Trade Union support to, and solidarity with, Turkish affiliates.
Partnership with other institutions, alliances and organisations was also essential to the success. Depending on the issue or theme as well as on the possibilities within the country or the region, BWI undertook operational partnership with these groups. For 2017, two regions within the program noted direct/formal partnerships with internal (Trade Union-based groups) or external groups. For example, the program in Asia had a project agreement with the local initiative ‘OSH Network Indonesia’, an OSH network assisting the unions including the BWI affiliate SERBUK in drafting OSH policy for construction sector and a ban asbestos policy in Indonesia.
The financial support from the organization Union to Union, as well as technical support, has also been very important for the program.
Sharing experiences and information among unions has raised awareness on common challenges and struggles that unions were not aware of, and consequently aided in reaching productive solutions in a faster manner. The networks that have been formed and those that have been in existence include Construction Network, Multi-National Companies Network, Youth, Women, and many others are helping unions share and learn from one another. This provides opportunity for continuance and further developing.
During this year, trade unions in sub-Saharan Africa contributed through awareness campaigns about environmental issues like using Forest Certification as tool for organizing, work place greening campaigns, climate change and sustainable forest management processes in the wood and forestry industry.
In South Asia, the program contributed to raise the awareness about environmental issues and climate change in the discussion of sustainable forest management but contextualized it in the due diligence of companies to ensure the protection of workers’ rights.
Environmental issues were also raised during the program at the meeting on Workers’ Rights in Dam Projects, where the impact of the accident in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, was described and the importance of safety regulation for dam works was highlighted.
On another occasion, environmental issues were raised during the discussions on the forestry certification system and its benefits. The issue of Just Transition remains a big area for discussion and awareness for trade unionists and there is a need to generate advocacy policies for trade unions which they may pursue nationally and internationally.
For example, in Ukraine, the issue of climate change as a program strategy element was discussed in the course of activities in regard to the problem of old buildings’ insulation and the need to decrease green gas emissions to improve energy management in communal facilities. The participants and union leaders were pushing afterwards for a national program on public houses insulation that should also help to create new formal employment jobs with decent working conditions. The issue was also discussed at the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for Construction with participation of trade union PROFBUD’s president.
When it comes to cost efficiency has the use of resources in the program during 2017 been cost-efficient in order to achieve the set objectives. Thus, as seen in the results, the activities of the program deliver. There is a high percentage of success for the program.
Sustainable results can be seen from particular examples of follow up activities resulting in self organized trainings and workshops by target groups. Trade unions also provided own contributions to program activities. Participating unions increased level of sub regional collaboration and had regular consultation and partly self-paid coordination meetings to exchange information and experiences on the trade union work. Participating trade unions also started to implement knowledge on organizing campaigns, and also organized strategic campaigns, which is an experience that can be used in the future.
Globally, workers’ rights remain under attack in various forms. From legislative reforms to push back of regulations, from human resource management attacks to imprisonment and even murder, the trade union movement is continued to be threatened in a myriad of ways. <br />
Within this context has this program manage do achieve tremendous results, and pushing for decent work, protection of labour rights and the promotion of safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers and those in precarious employment.<br />
The key message is that unions play a broad role in society, by helping strengthen democracy – locally, nationally, and globally, and are crucial actors in the progress to achieve ‘decent work for all’ and ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making in the world of work. Trade unions push for better social, health, and economic and environmental policies. Through trade unions, working people have a collective voice and a road to equality and fair treatment, through their collective response to the power of management in the workplace.<br />
The impact from this program is outstanding. During the year, 115 collective agreements were signed, which means improved working conditions for entire 1, 118, 343 workers (!). Some of the positive examples in this result are the trade union CMWEU-Mauritius who managed to negotiate a 22 % wage increase for 40,000 construction workers, and that the union SITRAFAPESA has negotiated a 20 % increase in for their members in Peru. Another example is that the trade union KBCTFIEU in Kenya signed an agreement with the China Communication Construction Company (CCCC) where the maximum number of working hours was regulated.<br />
Trade union all over the world have also achieved success during the year in their negotiations for parental leave (in East Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines, in Peru also for fathers) and the work environment, health and safety (in Philippines, Kazakhstan, West Africa, Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) and received enter clauses around this in their contracts. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, there has also been a lot of focus on comprehensive agreements. That is, even those with informal employment and migrant workers have received gains.<br />
Within the advocacy work that the trade unions work with, successes at national level have been seen during the year. In Namibia, the guidelines for public procurement have been rewritten and now contain a labour rights clause. The state there has also signed the ILO conventions C167 and C94. Zimbabwe and South Africa have ratified the SADC Employment and Labor Protocol. Strong pressure from the trade unions has also led to an increase in the minimum wage by 12 % in Nigeria, 20 % in Malaysia and 10 % in Thailand.<br />
Among the lessons learnt from this program is that the success is a result of the cooperation that has been there between all the involved partners within the program, not least between the affiliates and the BWI secretariat. This cooperation occupies a very prominent role and contribution to the goals of this program.
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Ruben Wågman, Policyofficer