At the ICFTU’s World Congress in Durban (3-7April 2000), the word “youth” rang out repeatedly.
General secretaries of the regional organisations, presidents of national centres, almost all had their word to say on the matter. “Modernising the image of the trade unions, attracting new members, defending the rights of the most exploited workers, facilitating young workers’ access to trade union structures and leadership posts” are today’s priorities for our leaders.

Some were clearly conscious of the fact, even if they didn’t really understand why, that getting the message across with “the establishment” was “still a very slow and complicated process”. It is very reassuring to see both the level of awareness among our elders and their ability to analyse the progress of their own action. Particularly as out of the 1,200 delegates attending the Congress plenary on April 6 – the session where we swept into the room singing to get ourselves noticed – only ten came to join us on the platform, because they were the only ones under 35.

We are pleased, however. Pleased that we got our demands heard – the Congress adopted the resolution on youth that our committee submitted – and pleased to have been able to share our concerns about developments in the labour world with the other delegates. Those developments include the informal sector. It concerns us first and foremost because the great majority of workers in this sector are young. But it is also a vital issue for the ICFTU because this sector, where there is little or no unionisation, combines every disadvantage: precarious employment, low wages, no social security, etc. A lot of reasons to make this the central theme of this fifth issue.

Pelle Johansson
Chairman of the ICFTU Youth Committee

More information: http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991212154&Language=EN

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