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Young unionists from all over the world came together from 22 to 29 July 2016 at Downtown East Singapore for the Youth Leadership Course.
The course is an initiative by the International Trade Union Confederation-Asia Pacific in collaboration with Young NTUC, the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute and the Japan International Labour Foundation.
With a theme of ‘Organising, Unity – The Way Forward, Building Workers’ Power’, the course gave 60 young unionists from 22 nations in the Asia Pacific region an opportunity to learn the different issues impacting their respective countries.
Country-Specific Issues
Among the international unionists were Moses Napuat Sou from Vanuatu and Dania Ehab Ahmad Rassas from Jordan.
Moses, a member of the Vanuatu Council of Trade Unions, first began fighting for his fellow workers when he faced salary issues with his employer.
“In our country, the unions and the government do not work together, because unions are not yet recognised.
“This results in the management not following through with collective agreements, even after they are signed. We are currently trying to get the minimum wage of workers up to living wage standards and it is my hope that the government can recognise us soon,” said Moses.
In Jordan, fresh graduates are finding it difficult to secure jobs after finishing school. Successfully finding a job is not on merit, but through having connections, Dania explained. The country also faces issues of basic rights for refugees that have fled from war-torn Syria.
“Many employers hire these refugees, which keeps the Jordanians out of a job. Apart from this, we are also trying to fight for basic rights for these refugees. Many of them are being paid as low as a quarter of what Jordanians would get, working 16 to 20 hours a day, with no health insurance or medical benefits,” said Dania, who is a member of the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions.
Learning from Each Other
Hearing these issues has helped to widen perspectives, said Young NTUC Chairman Seah Keng Tia, who was one of Singapore’s two representatives at the Youth Leadership Course.
“I’ve attended quite a few international programmes before, but this one was different. This one allowed us to examine the problems many countries face on different levels and seeing the different approaches they took helped us to learn as well,” he elaborated.
Singapore Airlines Staff Union Silkair Branch Vice-Chairman Lakshmi Rai, who was Singapore’s other representative, agreed: “A lot of what I learnt can be applied to my workplace. It is very inspiring to see unionists as young as 21 or 22 so passionately fighting for issues dear to them. In retrospect, it also made me realise how lucky we are to have tripartism in place and how hard we, too, had to fight to get to where we are today.”
Source: NTUC This Week
