Decent work for everyone

Trade union activity can be dange­rous. Accor­ding to the global trade union movement organi­sa­tion ITUC, union activists were murdered in 13 count­ries in 2022. All kinds of harass­ment is commonplace, too, like battery, arrest and baseless dismissal.

The Industrial Union supports many trade union and working life projects around the world. These are financed from the Union budget.

The Trade Union Solida­rity Centre of Finland SASK is the solida­rity and develop­ment coope­ra­tion organi­sa­tion of Finnish trade unions, with a focus on labour rights. The Industrial Union is also a member of SASK, and run several projects together with it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs usually supports these projects, too, multiplying the original financial input of the Union.

Trade unions are doing very practical work in many places. They are instru­mental in impro­ving the situa­tion of working peoples’ lives. For this reason, the local partners of the Industrial Union projects are usually trade unions. Sometimes the coope­ra­tion also covers the Global Unions like IndustriALL.

The Industrial Union supports many trade union and working life projects around the world.

The Industrial Union projects are of a very practical nature. They can for instance aim at impro­ving occupa­tional health in certain working places or advancing collec­tive bargai­ning. All this benefits the Industrial Union members, too. We can learn many things from the other unions.

In Malawi, SASK heard about the situa­tion of women in the coal mines. They worked long days and slippers were deemed good enough as safe shoes. SASK had supported local unions and trained their repre­sen­ta­tive, who took to action.

Result: women no longer do night shifts. They got the same protec­tive gear as men and their own locker room and toilet.

Now, the Industrial Union is working on a project to make Brazi­lian industrial unions stronger. The goal is that unions can be a strong voice in working life issues and in a just green transition.

Real results in Mozambique

The answer is yes. In March, three Finnish researc­hers published a three-year study of a SASK project in Mozam­bique. SASK supported five local trade unions to organise training for emplo­yees and their repre­sen­ta­tives. These unions also covered industrial work.

The researc­hers compared working places where the training was given with those without it. The results of the study were clear. Even two short days of training did help to improve terms of work.

The study indicates that the group that partici­pated in training on labour matters had a slight increase in salaries, while those without training had a loss in salaries. Further­more, the trained workers had an increase in the number of paid hours worked as they worked less non-paid hours.

Their pay also rose. This did not happen at the workplaces without training.

At the workplaces with training, the unions were able to keep their members. At the workplaces without training, union membership dropped.

Union training focused on labour rights and negotia­tion skills. Better knowledge of these gave self-confi­dence and had a positive influence on the terms of work.