International Trade Union

Confederation
Presented To: Dr. Nandita Mondal
Presented By : Mayur Soni and Rashi Singh
(M2017GL001) (M2017GL011)

www.ituc-csi.org
www.ituc-csi.org
 What is ITUC ?
• International Trade Union Confederation
• Founded on 1 November 2006, out of the merger of
the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
(ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour
(WCL).
• The Founding Congress of the ITUC was held
in Vienna and was preceded by the dissolution
congresses of both the ICFTU and the WCL.
• Represents 176 million workers in 162 countries and
territories and has 355 national affiliates.
• Main principles: TU Democracy & Independence.

www.ituc-csi.org
 Current Key Positions
• Sharan Burrow (General Secretary)
• João Antonio Felicio (President)
• Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson (Deputy President)

Office : Brussel,Belgium.

www.ituc-csi.org
 ITUC
The ITUC’s primary mission is promotion and
defense of workers’ rights and interests, through:
- international cooperation between TUs,
- global campaigning and
- advocacy within the major global institutions.

Main areas of activity:

- trade union and human rights
- economy, society and the workplace
- equality and non-discrimination
- international solidarity

www.ituc-csi.org
 ITUC Bodies
CONGRESS

General Council

Executive Bureau

General Secretary
Secretariat

YOUTH Committee WOMEN Committee

www.ituc-csi.org
 ITUC regional organizations:

• Asia-Pacific Regional Organization (ITUC-AP)

• African Regional Organization (ITUC-AF)
• American Regional Organization (TUCA)
+
• Pan-European Regional Council (PERC)

www.ituc-csi.org
 ITUC Campaigns:
• Organising Young people “You can make
a difference!”
• Decisions for life
• World Day for Decent Work
• Play Fair
• 7 Horrors of the World
• Decent Work Decent Life for Women
• World Trade Union Body to Press
Deutsche Telekom/ T-mobile on Employee
Rights

www.ituc-csi.org
ABOUT CURRENT
INITIATIVES

www.ituc-csi.org
World Day for Decent Work - 7 October

Day of mobilization all over the world: one day when all the trade
unions in the world are united and stand up for decent work.

www.ituc-csi.org
 ITUC Youth Campaign on
Organising Young People

”You can make a difference!”

www.ituc-csi.org
 What is the aim?
To connect global trade union work to
the recruitment and organizing of young people.

www.ituc-csi.org
Next: Decisions for Life Campaign

Part of the ITUC Decent Work Decent Life for Women

Campaign and designed within the framework of
Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG3) to ”Promote
Gender Equality and Empower Women”

www.ituc-csi.org
 Aims of the campaign
• Raising awareness about the obstacles/problems faced by
young women at the workplace and empowering young
women by giving them the information they need, and showing
them that they have choices concerning their career, family
planning and work/life balance.
• The campaign seeks to:
- organize young women;
- develop their leadership and negotiating skills;
- get more women into decision-making posts;
- help women negotiate more gender-specific causes in
collective agreements;
- help women press for changes in their country`s legislation,
such as the ratification and application of ILO Conventions,
including №183, the Maternity Protection Convention]
- give women the confidence to seek better opportunities at work

www.ituc-csi.org
 Target groups
Young women (aged 15-29), working or looking for work
in 8 large occupational groups in the service sector.

Why young women in the service sector? – it`s one of

the faster growing sector internationally where millions of
young women are employed, working on a-typical contracts
with all the accompanying problems of job security, bad
working conditions, long hours, often vulnerable to abuses
such as sexual harassment.

www.ituc-csi.org
 How?
A two way approach approach:

Grass root trade union

campaigns

Special websites for

women &
Research
www.ituc-csi.org
 Next : ITUC INITIATIVE
DEVELOPMENT EFFECTIVENESS

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 Context (1)
Development effectiveness is linked to the strategy of the ITUC since its
Founding Congress in 2006, when calling for new trade union
internationalism:

 Development cooperation and capacity building

ranked among the ITUC political priorities;

 To mobilise increased resources for

development cooperation.

 Improved political strategy and operational

management

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www.ituc-csi.org
 Principles & Guidelines: process

 Working group created within TUDCN;

 Regional consultations in the South, including

national centres, realised;

 Approval of Principles and Guidelines by the

TUDCN General Meeting (November 2010)

 Endorsement of Principles and Guidelines by the

ITUC General Council (February 2011)

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 Principles

• Democratic Ownership
• Autonomy
• Partnership
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Coherence
• Inclusiveness & Equality
• Sustainability

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www.ituc-csi.org
NEXT:

ITUC INITIATIVE
Global Campaign
for Decent Work,
Decent Life for
Women
 Global Campaign for
Decent Work, Decent Life for Women

Objectives:

• Decent work for

women

• Gender equality in
trade union
structures, policies
and activities
 Decent Work:
Access to productive work in conditions of
freedom, equality, security, and dignity.

The four pillars of Decent Work:

1. Standards and rights at work,
2. Employment creation
3. Social protection
4. Social dialogue.
 Background of the Campaign

1.2 billion women are

working today (40%) –
yet women:
• Earn 12 to 60% less and do
not have the same level of
social protection as their
male counterparts;
• Account for an increasing
proportion (60% - 70%) of the
world’s poor and working
poor;
 Background of the Campaign

• Face a higher level of unemployment

than ever before (81.8 million women in
2006);
• Are concentrated in low-paid,
unprotected, temporary or casual work;
• Lack maternity protection rights and
face violence and sexual harassment at
or near the workplace;
Why Campaigns targeting women work
Desk studies and surveys of previous
campaigns show e.g.:
• Increase in women membership rates up to 150%;
• Increase of women in elected positions;
• Unions pushed to prioritise advocacy work on
gender equality at work e.g. maternity protection,
child care, pay equity and protection from sexual
harassment.
 Campaign actions 1

Calling for a review of national labour

legislation and urging governments to
ratify and implement ILO Conventions e.g. :
• C. 183, Maternity protection
• C. 156, Workers with Family responsibilities
• C. 100, Equal Remuneration
• C. 111, Discrimination
 Campaign Actions 2

• CEDAW (United Nations Convention on the

Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women), international statement of women’s
rights signed by 185 countries
• The Beijing Global Platform for Action which
commits governments to “ensuring that
gender perspective is reflected in all our
policies and programmes” and the Beijing
Declaration which includes ‘Section F’ on
Women and the Economy.
• The UN Millennium Development Goals
 Campaign Actions 3

Gender Equality in trade unions:

• Policy coherence of affiliated national
centres with the ITUC Constitution
• Encouraging women to stand for
elections
• Organizing women workers
• Inclusion of gender equality issues on
the collective bargaining agenda and
social dialogue
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