New ETF project to empower young transport workers takes off

29 Mar 2013

Around 30 participants from 16 countries gathered from 12 to 14 March in Turin, Italy, for the Transunion youth workshop.

It was the first event of the EU-funded project entitled:  “Transunion Youth – Training and empowerment of European young transport trade unionists for addressing youth employment and social policy challenges in Europe”.
The International Training Centre of the ILO hosted the workshop; experts of the ITC-ILO and ITUC trained the young activists.

A pre-workshop on-line orientation conference started three weeks before the event.  It was an opportunity for the participants to get to know each other before the workshop started and to get a clear idea about its specific content and goals.

The workshop opened with a presentation of the project objectives and activities, followed by a presentation and debate of amendments to the ETF Constitution by Fátima Aguado. ETF General Secretary, Eduardo Chagas, continued with a presentation on the main ETF 2013 Congress theme “From global crisis to global justice – European Transport Workers fighting back” and the ETF work priorities.

Three communication sessions on public speaking practice, impromptu presentations and how to build up an argumentation were led by expert Patti Janega.

The second and third day were dedicated to the ETF Youth programme. Divided into three working groups, the participants discussed and further developed the key elements of the ETF Youth Work Programme 2013-2017: the European economic crisis, gender equality and climate change.

ILO employment expert Maria Prieto drafted a picture of the employment situation of young workers and how the ILO analyses the current situation of the global youth employment crisis.

Another major issue of the Transunion Youth workshop was how to campaign effectively to attract young people to trade unions.  ITUC expert Vittorio Longhi shared his experiences in online campaigns directed to the youth and gave feedback on the ideas proposed by the working groups.

The last session’s topic was a discussion on how to continue the work and to prepare the upcoming Transunion youth events. The next project activity is the Transunion Youth Training Session, taking place on 27 to 29 May 2013 in Berlin. Sixty young trade unionists are expected this time.