Implementation of the Youth pledges signed at the 4th EFFAT Congress

State of play, October 2015

Country / Trade union / Actions to organise more young workers / Actions to employ more young staff, attract more young trade union delegates, and allow them to actively participate in decision-making roles and bodies
Commitments taken at the 4th EFFAT Congress / State of play: October 2015 / Commitments taken at the 4th EFFAT Congress / State of play: October 2015
Austria / PRO-GE /
  • Continue to support and develop the great activities that have been carried out so far
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  • We have received support at all trade union levels
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  • The youth organisation will continue to occupy an important position within PRO-GE
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  • We are fortunate enough to have a very sound, integrated youth structure within PRO-GE. This means that we canparticipate inallthe committees inPRO-GE

VIDA /
  • Raise awareness of trade union activities within vocational training colleges and in companies
  • Form youth councils in the hospitality sector
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  • Successful visits to vocational training colleges to inform young workers about what trade unions actually do. Also youth assemblies in companies which have a works council, to foster ties between young workers and the union
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  • More youth committees or regional youth committees within VIDA
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  • Youth consultative councilsare actively involved in the union through basic courses, continuing training courses and conferences. Furthermore, they can occupy a seat on the regional youth board, the body representing young people's interests at federal state level. The precondition for this is that they also work in the Austrian federal state in question

Belgium / ACV-CSC /
  • Extra education for young workers
  • Positive message to/from young people
Create goodwill among older workers to contact young workers for the union /
  • Create a body for young members, let them participate in boards
  • Organise attractive actions for young people
  • Use social media

FGTB-HORVAL /
  • Move towards better representation of our young members in our bodies, with a compulsory quota as a target
  • Develop more modern (communication) tools to attract young people
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  • Organise a youth committee which will work to boost integration within companies

SETCA /
  • Include young unionists in our decision-making bodies (executive committee)
  • Promote cross-sectoral meetings between young representatives and young unionists
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  • Have a trade union structure with which young people can identify (young people in key positions)

ACLVB-CGSLB / •Have a presence at music festivals, student job fairs and job days in order to meet young people and explain to them how trade unions operate
•Organise information sessions at schools to inform pupils about the initial steps to take when they arrive on the labour market: What should happen? What do they need to pay attention to when signing an employment contract? How should they apply for a job? The aim is to make young people aware of the importance of unions before they reach the labour market
•Organise meetings in order to demand more attention for topics relevant to young people / •Create local/zonal centres for young people and appoint a young person to be in charge. These centres will be used when launching and taking action targeting young representatives or young people in general
•Establish a quota for young representatives to take part in the national committee
Bulgaria / FNSZ/FITUA /
  • Take specific measures under the Youth Guarantee and launch a wide-reaching campaign on this issue among the organisations and key players
  • Add youth sections to the EFFAT member organisations
  • Create action plans for developing the youth trade union movement in each country
  • FNSZ website – gives a special place to the work of the youth section; use social media to spread information
  • Allow youth networking in EFFAT
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  • Invest in capacity-building for young trade union activists across a wide range of themes
  • Enable youth activists to follow the agenda of the organisation by inviting and including them in the management committee meetings
  • Include youth volunteers in all the main activities of the organisations

NFZGS/PODKREPA /
  • Specific seminars and round tables in which our unions’ activities can be represented
  • Trade union training activities in every company in the field of forestry and agriculture, especially for young people
  • Carry out cooperative work with employers in the field of forestry and agriculture and sign agreements to create attractive jobs with decent pay in both sectors to make them attractive to young people
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  • Elect young people to the executive council of the federation NFZGS
  • Elect young people to the executive boards of the trade union structures in individual companies

Croatia / PPDIV /
  • Establish a youth committee
  • Work with our youth network
  • Promote the trade union in high schools and colleges
  • Involve young people in the existing action plan for organising young people
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  • Advise shop stewards to involve young people in decision-making
  • Quota for young people’s involvement in trade union bodies
  • Recommend involving young people in congress as delegates

STUH /
  • Inform students about the union’s work
  • Inform pupils about the union in school and during work experience
  • Organise workshops and seminars for young members
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  • The Youth Section has started to cooperate with USRED (the association of Croatian high school students). We are working on establishing common ground in terms of goals and problems and finding ways to deal with them together. We are preparinga joint project to enter high schools and provide students with information about the labour market and about thesignificance and importance of trade unions, trade union structures and their role in workers’ lives
  • STUH organises workshops for Youth Section members on issues such as the role of the union, union structures and mobbing
  • We cooperate with other trade unions from the sector at regional level regarding issues such as organising new members, precarious work, communication tools and skills
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  • Educate youth members on how to participate actively in union decision-making bodies
  • Invite representatives of the youth section to all meetings and activities
  • Give youth a space (not offices)
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  • Through education at regional level as well as through the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia (UATUC), young members get involved in workshops on works councils, collective bargaining and social dialogue; in this way, young members acquire the knowledge and skills to participate in the union's decision-making process
  • We hold meetings bringing together shop stewards at regional level to which members of the Youth Section Executive Board are invited and in which they play a very active role, putting forward new ideas and suggestions
  • The president of the Youth Section participates in STUH Executive Committee meetings and has the right to actively suggest and discuss all issues, except financial ones
  • The STUH Youth Section has its own financial resources for the second year in a row now

Czech Republic / OSPZV-ASO CZ /
  • Involve young workers in actions to improve trade union activities
  • Lectures in vocational training colleges
  • Make use of young people’s experience when developing new communication methods
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  • Recruit interns; get involved in EU projects on boosting employment
  • Web presentations about trade union activities and achievements

Denmark / 3F /
  • Focus on workplaces where young people work, such as McDonald’s, Burger King, bars and amusement parks
  • Host training sessions targeted towards young members so they understand the benefits of memberships of the union
  • Work with the political parties to make sure schools educate young people about labour rights
  • Organise a Nordic conference on organising and young members
  • Facilitate the establishment of youth trade committees at VET schools
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  • Invite young members to participate in all activities held by the union
  • Support ideas and activities suggested by our young members

Finland / PRO /
  • Trade Union Pro has organised a Youth Forum and a specific intranet for young members
  • Regional activities to organise and activate young members
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  • Web forums and website for young members to communicate directly youth to youth,raise questions and subjects find solutions and examples and resolve problems

SEL /
  • New employees to be made aware of the union’s activities from day one (of the employment contract)
  • Inform young workers about the activities of the local branch (of the union)
  • The local branch could (also) arrange targeted activities exclusively for young workers
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  • The youth committee of the union (i.e. SEL) pledges to work out a proposal to be submitted to the union executive committee/board about ways of involving young workers

France / FGTA-FO /
  • Organise young people
  • Communicate about all the assistance available to young people
  • Fight precarious employment, which affects young people especially severely
  • Consolidate the role of the federation’s youth committee
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  • The FGTA-FO website has developed its communications targeting young people by creating a network based on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, tools that young people use every day
  • We cover our events in video reports uploaded to the website, which young people are more likely to look at than paper circulars
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  • Offer young people positions with responsibilities
  • Offer young people training courses that will enable them to develop their sector
  • Tailor our communication tools to young people – especially our website
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  • Trade union development will entail the regional secondment of workers. This system enables us to entrust these positions to young people and to test them out
  • We have also bolstered trade union training focusing on young people and set up distance training using the WOONOZ system. This is very much appreciated by our young activists

CFTC /
  • Provide website/Facebook page, film
  • We organised a national campaign for young workers (under 35) and young people in training, and also to help to find a job
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  • Confederal document for apprentices
  • Lower membership fees
  • Youth pack (August 2015)
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  • This national campaign included a social protection specialist, a legal expert and a human resources expert

Germany / IG BAU /
  • Use modern social media, develop a modern approach, take a sector-specific approach
  • Intensify works council activities so that trainees have direct contact with us
  • Stress the benefits and importance of trade unions, using the motto “We are only strong together”
  • Active bargaining policy for young workers
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  • Integration of young people
  • More permanent positions on decision-making bodies and at the trade union congress

NGG /
  • Active bargaining policy for young workers (e.g. hiring rate of trainees upon completion of their traineeship, initiatives for more trainees)
  • Involvement in the ‘demographics’ campaign
  • Activities in vocational training colleges
  • More attractive youth activities (e.g. seminars)
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  • Plan for a generation shift of principal office holders
  • Involve young people aged over 27 (process for developing the organisation)
  • More young works councils
  • Positions on collective bargaining committees + other bodies

Hungary / VISZ /
  • Provide training and education specifically for young workers
  • Free membership for those aged under 21
  • Improve organising methods for young workers to make them familiar with the work of the trade union’s board
  • Our aim: young people to account for 30% of the total membership
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  • More nominated delegates for the next EFFAT congress
  • Make young members familiar with the work of the trade union’s board
  • Invite non-unionised young workers to our next congress (2015) to see the work of a trade union
  • A forum dedicated to young members/non-members to see what young people want from a trade union

Iceland / SGS /
  • Organise an awareness campaign via Facebook
  • Urge the ministry of education to integrate education about labour rights and the role of trade unions into the secondary school curriculum
  • Visit schools and inform 15- and 16-year-olds about their rights on the labour market and the role of the unions
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  • Raise the issue at our next conference, inspire our unions to appoint young people to their committees and boards

Ireland / SIPTU /
  • Youth apprenticeships in the food industry as a campaign
  • Campaign with the government for greater efforts to increase employment
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  • Liaise with the SIPTU youth network
  • Carry out presentations to secondary schools
  • Involve more youth

Italy / Confederdia /
  • Implement a scholarship to foster professional growth connected to the agricultural world
  • Contact young people during the professional year that they carry out towards the end of secondary school
  • Implement an education module dedicated to the study of collective bargaining negotiations at various levels
  • Introduce free membership for the under-30s in trade union organisations
/ What is needed is a process of experimentation and innovation to involve the younger generation and to make ‘visible’issues that are often marginalised and combat the excessive power of the pensionergroups. There should be some kind of monitoring exercise by the union, examining three key issues: "democracy and participation", "territory and structures", and "profile and union training". To acquire a close affiliation with the union, young workers must somehow feel that it is ‘similar’ to them. From this point of view, communication, both direct and indirect, including the messages that are used and even the profile of the type of union, is one of the keys to understanding our difficulties,and so this is the first barrier to be eliminated. We have to put "trade unionese" aside; our union today must convey a few, clear, meaningful and challenging messages /
  • Implement youth coordination within the trade union
  • Establish a permanent seat for at least one young worker in the executive bodies
/ Some of the priorities of the union for the future are to encourage the development of corporate culture and the transition from producer to entrepreneur; to develop joint national projects in tandem with other economic sectors (especially industry and crafts) to provide an organic strategy for typical workers; to promote aggregation across business networks; and finally, to support entrepreneurs in the difficult process of internationalisation as they strive to win over new markets. We must strongly emphasise our role synthesising and representing of agricultural interests and act increasingly as aninterface between business, politicians and the public authorities
FAI CISL /
  • Provide trade union education on the founding principles of the trade union
  • Provide tools to young workers to familiarise them with trade union actions related to protection and assistance
  • Use new communication tools and improve connections and relationships with schools
  • Develop trade unionists not just as leaders but also as managers

FILCAMS CGIL /
  • Involve students in professional training and assist them in entering the labour market
  • Extend the rights to precarious workers by including agreements
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  • Support the handover of decision-making roles from older people to younger people
  • Open the unions up to young people’s different viewpoints about work, society, politics, and so on

UILA-UIL /
  • Consider measures to help young people join a trade union
  • Develop local education for executives to enhance the connection between them and workers
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  • Offer trade union education to university students
  • Recruit young public servants through education
  • Allow young trade union delegates and public servants speak in meetings

UILTUCS UIL /
  • Provide an online forum
  • Social network activities (training, contest)
  • Organise an annual youth forum
  • Training course on public speaking
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  • Have a youth delegation

Latvia / LAKRS /
  • Create and organise a campaign for youth/young workers
  • Create a LAKRS Youth Committee
  • Underline youth problems
  • Organise educational/informative events
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  • Include a youth representative in the union council
  • Prepare a report of young people’s main problems, interests and expectations
  • Involve youth representatives in the union’s work
  • Employ young staff

Netherlands / FNV BG /
  • Education on unions in schools
  • Free membership to get to know the unions (1 year for free)
  • A special department, FNV Youth, with attractive membership conditions
  • Important issue: youth unemployment
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  • Representation in the FNV Parliament (the members’ parliament, which is responsible for decision-making)
  • We have hired a lot of young people in recent years

Norway / Fellesforbundet /
  • Visit schools, workplaces and other forums to organise and activate young members
  • Arrange courses and conferences for young members
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  • Elect youth representatives into Fellesforbundet’s decision-making bodies in our Congress in 2015

NNN /
  • A recruiting week organised every year
  • Have a youth work patrol for seasonal workers
  • Organise a youth conference
  • Have a youth committee in every country
  • Organise courses for young members
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  • We organise a national Youth conference for young members at NNN each year. This is a popular event and young people join the union to participate
  • The youth conference elects NNN's standing National Youth Committee. This committee has its own budget and plansits activities itself. It reports to the NNN Executive Committee
  • The National Youth Committee in cooperation with local unions works to establish youth committees locally. Four counties have established local youth committees this year
  • Members of the youth committees both locally and nationally visit workplaces and schools to organise more young workers
  • A total of 29 young trade unionists from NNN participated in the ‘summer patrol’ which is organised every summer by LO (the Confederation of Trade Unions in Norway). The summer patrol visits workplaces which employ young workers during the summertime and checks that the working conditions comply with the prevailing rules and regulations. They also offer membership of the union
  • The National Youth Committee has arranged a national training course on how to recruit new members
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  • Work for a strong youth committee to help young workers and young shop-stewards
  • Information about the union in high school
  • Working for a youth representative in all democratic organs
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  • Our experience is that young people who get involved in union work also take on greater responsibilities in their local unions and as local representatives on the shop floor. Thist brings them into decision-making roles and bodies at a young age
  • We don`t have provisions in our Statutes that give young trade unionists a special place in the executive committee or any other role just because of their young age
  • Whether the next Congress finds it necessary to change the Statutes on this point or not, is too early to say