The title of this project is ‘State Sector Development’, which is a project initiated by the Swedish union ST and the State Employees Union of Ukraine. Linked to the SDGs 8,
Description
Despite the fact that formal forums for social dialogue exist in Ukraine, the mechanism is not effective as the balance of power between trade unions and employer are uneven. This since the unions in the public sector lack the right to strike and the necessary knowledge to drive a meaningful social dialogue. To fix this, the project focused on the ratification of ILO Convention 151 on the organization and strike rights of public sector employees and on raising the level of competence of union representatives in economic and social councils. Timeframe for this part of the project was 2017.
The main vision of the project was that it should contribute to better salaries and working conditions for SEUU members in Ukraine as well as trade union rights thanks to better trained SEUU representatives. A part of the vision was also that the Ukrainian Parliament would ratify the ILO convention 151 as a result of a joint trade union campaign initiated by SEUU. Thanks to this ratification, there would also be a stronger protection of trade union rights for public servants in Ukraine. The vision also included improved salaries, working conditions and that protection of trade union rights would contribute to lower turnovers among staff in the public sector, which enables civil servants to deliver quality public services.<br />
The main project objective, which was generated from the overall vision, was that SEUU’s representatives should become more competent and skilled to carry out union work and defend trade union members’ rights. Desirable outputs from this would then involve raised level of skills among representatives from the unions, increased membership, and that a network of trainers would have more skills and had carried out local activities throughout the year. <br />
Trade union member’s rights is obviously linked to promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and decent work for all, which is what SDG 8 is all about. It is also linked to target 8.5 and 8.8, which is about decent work for all and the protection of labour rights and promoting safe and secure working environments for all workers.<br />
However, stronger unions and their possibility to engage in collective bargaining may also reduce inequalities, why this project is also linked to SDG 10. Real wage increases and social protection expansions can increase consumption and strengthen aggregate demand, whilst reducing inequality.<br />
Finally, SDG 16.7 talks about ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels. Trough democratic unions that have the knowledge and capacity to engage in social dialogue, they also promote responsive, participatory and representative decision-making at the labour market.
ST and SEUU had a joint responsibility for the implementation of this project. The project was also managed by a steering committee. The members of the committee were the project manager, the project coordinator, and the chief accountant of SEUU, the International Secretary and the project coordinator of the Swedish trade union ST.
Part of the activities included to take participants from a number of regions in Ukraine, and carry out mini basic course seminars. The goal was to give them tools that would help them improve their competences and consequently, in the longer term contribute to their organizations and the work in the region as a whole. The project activities included seminars, trainings, informational work. As a consequence of the training the participants held 27 seminars and 121 meetings with their primary organizations. The topics that participants were trained in 2017 were: • collectively bargaining work • statutory activity • internal and external communication • public control over wages • motivation of people joining the trade union • human rights, labour rights, and financial work The project also involved visits by the primary organizations to the Central Committee at the head office. The project saw that assistance directly in the primary union organization was more effective rather than directing most efforts to the regional level, because it led to a more practical approach with a stronger direct impact. In addition, it makes it possible to meet local staff, union’s members and the employer directly, which can also positively influence the further development of social dialogue. SEUU has also worked for social and economic protection of public services, in particularly focusing on raising salaries. The union had an active social dialogue with the national government in 2017. The union sent individually addressed letters to every deputy of the national parliament and the government about the regulation of salaries for public services at the national and local government authorities. The salaries of civil servants have been very low (at the level of 42 euro/month) during the last years. SEUU campaigned intensively on the issue to increase the salaries for civil servants and as of 1 January 2017 the salaries for civil servants were raised by an average of 50 % compared with the previous year. It is obviously crucial to reach decent wages in order for the public sector to function.Project activities were monitored on the ground by the coordinator and the head of communications at SEUU. They informed members about the knowledge gained in the project, new working methods and approaches to union work. Verification of project activities came from the following sources: • Monitoring of activities on social networks such as Facebook. • A survey to the project participants (questionnaires).• Reports from trainers about their work in 2017.• Discussions during coordination meeting for trainers. • Measuring followers on social media (plus 300%) and visitors at union website (plus 50%) from beginning and at the end of 2017.• Member register.The questionnaire answered by seminar participants has also been an effective way to get a more in depth understanding of the results of the further work that participants of the project has done. Finally the member register has been a good source of verification of the increased membership number in regions with project participants.
SEUU has also continued its advocacy towards the state to adjust wages, negotiate pension conditions and work out the national legislation for ILO Convention 151 (the right to organize in the public sector). At the local level, SEUU has been successful in concluding collective agreements, which in Ukraine also can be seen as a mechanism for anti-corruption since collective agreements make salaries and terms of employment visible. SEUU also continued its involvement in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which are disputed territories with an ongoing armed conflict and also managed to organize there. Internally, SEUU has reorganized to facilitate the international project work and renewed its communication with the members. It is important to note that SEUU's internal renewal processes are linked to a major decentralization reform that is ongoing in Ukraine and a total reorganization of the entire public sector.
Union to Union shares ST's and SEUU's conclusion that the project shows its great relevance since there is a verified link between the local trade union activists who participated in the project's activities and the fact that their local trade unions have shown important progress in increased membership, new collective agreements and increased capacity to defend the rights of members (such as pensions, benefits, and wages). All of the above is clear contribution to the progress toward SDG 8, as well as SDG 10.
When it comes to membership, there was a membership increase in the primary organizations of Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Luhansk, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv regions, where the members of the primary organizations participated in the project. Membership was increased by 3.5 % in the Kiev region and in other regions involved in the project membership was increased by 1 % to 7 %. When comparing with membership development to other regional organizations of SEUU it is a very good result, since the memberships levels decreased or stayed the same in most other regions. The work with recruitment and union trainings is obviously linked to SDG 16.7, which is about ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.
Improved communication, cooperation and new communication methods introduced:
The improved communication work has contributed to member recruitment and it lead to a strengthened authority of the primary union organization at several workplaces. The project can also see that training many people from one region can lead to higher probability that they help each other to continue developing and implementing the new methods. Often, participants of the project had discussions in social networks about problematic issues of the development of the trade union organizations and the forms and methods of work of the union.
Information about the activities were published on the union's website and on the Facebook page of the unions. So both union members, public organizations, the public, as well as potential members could read about the implementation of the project.
Information about the project implementation was also shared with regional units of the State Employees Union of Ukraine. New communication platforms were created in social networks by primary organizations that participated in the training and seminars of the project.
A platform for communication was created through the mobile application Viber on the coordination meetings of the trainers of the union. In the future, the Viber platform will be used for communication and discussions about the union’s activities, sharing experience, counselling, interviewing, and announcement of meetings.
Follow up results and more interactivity:
SEUU has constantly stayed in touch with participants to follow up on the implementation of the project. SEUU has used questionnaires of participants, reports of trainers about their work done over the past year, which they submit before each coordination meeting. The participants were given a homework, which required further communication with the trainers.
Communication was carried out by telephone, social networks and interactive communication with the use of telecommunication technologies. As an example of interactive communications, the project introduced a new way of carrying out meetings and started to have Skype conferences. On these Skype-meetings participants discussed topic such as the pedagogic of training, youth activities, and social dialogue.
Engaging the regional heads with new working methods:
An additional component in the strategy, in order to create changes, was to make sure that the project participants from primary level informed their regional heads about new working methods of the union. By giving the participants homework the project hope to see involvement both from a local level but also with involvement from the top leaders of the region of the union in the future.
Finally, a good cooperation between all the involved stakeholders, was crucial for the achievements.
The participants of the project from the Youth Network of the State Employees Union of Ukraine held environmental actions in all regions of Ukraine, as well as a flash mob for the preservation of the environment in the Botanical Garden of Kiev. An informational flash mob for the protection of forests was organized through the official page of the State Employees Union of Ukraine in the social network of Facebook. More than 2000 people participated in this online action. They shared information and discussed the necessity to protect forests.
During the implementation of the project the participants were also informed about the struggle for clean environment, climate change, CO2 emissions, and on the pollution of the world oceans. The project participants and members of the Youth Network of the union also informed about environmental issues and solidarity actions with the global trade unions in solving these issues. Skype meetings were also used at some occasions, as a way of cutting costs and transportation related emissions.
Further, the involved partners have several ideas on how the achieved results will be sustained and how the target group will continue to work with the results/achievements. These are:
1. Further improvement of the educational program.
2. New educational modules will be developed on topics such as good governance, communication and member recruitment.
3. Continue to work with homework for the participants to assure that the skills learned in project training is implemented in local activities.
4. Systematic communication with project participants through e-mail, social media, promoting digital networking between participants and thus assuring better opportunities for participants to learn from each other and extending their union network.
5. Further involving regional staff in the project alongside heads of primary organizations, so that they can become a part of a larger network of trainers with wider geographical reach.
6. Further involvement of young workers.
This project is a strong example of the importance of trade union development cooperation and its contribution to several of the SDGs, not least SDG 8. The admirable results is shown through the link between the local trade union activists who participated in the project's activities and the fact that their local trade unions have shown progressive results in memberships, new collective agreements and increased capacity to defend the rights of members ( involving pensions, benefits, wages, etc.).
https://st.org/english
The Swedish trade union ST has informed its members actively about the project throughout the period through social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and the ST blog. Below is one example of the latter, from a communication training in Kiev (in Swedish):
http://stbloggen.se/facklig-samhorighet-under-ockupation-och-sjalvstand…
The member magazine of ST also wrote about the project (in Swedish):
http://www.publikt.se/artikel/tufft-jobb-och-uselt-betalt-19702
http://www.publikt.se/artikel/flera-nya-lagar-ska-motverka-korruptionen…
http://www.publikt.se/artikel/battre-lon-en-nyckel-i-kampen-mot-korrupt…
The website of the organisation Union to Union:
https://www.uniontounion.org/en/about
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Ruben Wågman, Policyofficer