Organised by Union Network International-Asia & Pacific Regional Organisation (UNI-APRO)

5-11 March 2007, Lalitpur

Globalization process is seeking conceptual and structural adjustment of the state, society and workers. The growing primacy of symbolic economy over the real economy and issues such as competition, privatization, denationalization and deregulation are posing challenges to industrial relations and undermining the core rights of workers. Already, outsourcing, labor flexibility, rights to hire and fire, job layoffs, discrimination, hiring of contractual workers with low price, changing nature of jobs and violation of human rights including workers rights have weakened the historical social contract. This training/workshop has been designed to train the workers about many emerging challenges like these, enable them to play an influential role in promoting meaningful social dialogues with the stakeholders of society, improve the bargaining position of unions through the application of global standards and agreement and upgrading the skills and knowledge of union leaders affiliated to UNI-APRO.

Objectives of the Workshop

• Familiarize the union leaders with International Labor Standards and Framework Agreements as useful instruments for pursuing trade union objectives,
• Develop the skills and competencies of the participants in the use of such standards and framework agreements as a tool to protect and promote workers' interests, and
• Assist the unions in building campaigns and related activities to promote the use of international labor standards and monitor developments on matters pertaining to trade unions, workers and human rights.

Participation: A total of 18 participants from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka including two women were trained. Bangladeshi participants could not come due to uncertain political situation and general strike. Nearly half of the participants said that they have for the first time participated the regional training. Participants came from various unions, such as IT, banks, commercial sales union, insurance and medical sales union.

Resource Persons: The workshop was steered by five resource persons-two from UNI-APRO, one each from FES, ILO and South Asian Watch on Trade, Economy and Environment (SAWTEE).

Course of Discussion: The discussion focused on the training manual prepared by UNI-APRO on International Labor Standards and Framework Agreements including issues, such as communication and campaign, ILO Labor Standards, social dimension of globalization, international declarations, Global Compact, Code of Conduct for MNCs, WTO, regional integration in South Asia and social charter, role of trade unions in coping with their various levels of challenges, leadership development, etc. Country presentation was also made to understand each other's problems and identify common issues for cooperation at the union levels.

Methodology

The training utilized active learning principles and techniques. It followed lecture presentation, group discussion, role-play, group presentation, practical exercises, case studies on various sectors of unions and motivational exercises.

Outcome

All the participants found the training enriching, thanked the organizing institutions and expressed strong commitment to multiply the knowledge and skills they have gained in their unions and workplace. Participants argued that more countries and more participants should be included to have greater impact of the unions and make union movement effective and global. They also focused on inter-movement solidarity of unions, civil society, media, human rights groups, parliamentarians and international global union federations, ILO and labor-based research institutions at various levels-local, national, regional and global. They added that solidarity of the unions and their global role alone would shape global public institutions and greater public goods for the workers.
An Action Plan has been prepared by the participants and after considerable discussion and refinements they agreed to implement it in their respective countries and unions through both training and campaign. As a result of this training, solidarity among the South Asian unions have been strengthened. Participants, however, stated that more resource persons should be included and new technology should be introduced in the future follow-up course.