35 young trade unionists from Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine participated in the first workshop of the Young Social Dialogue Champions Academy in Sarajevo last week.
The event, part of the EU-funded project that industriAll Europe is carrying out with the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ITCILO ACTRAV) taught participants how to use the latest available digital communication and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to develop digital strategies and ensure decent work and good quality jobs for young industrial workers.
Good industrial jobs for young workers and apprentices depend on good collective agreements negotiated by strong trade unions in a constructive social dialogue with employers. Unfortunately, social dialogue and collective bargaining have been under attack over the past decades from both governments (with legislation weakening bargaining structures) and employers (walking away from the bargaining table). Two ILO experts, Niall O’Higgins and Konstantinos Papadakis, explained that today’s young generation is the first generation to be worse off than their parents, due to an increase in insecure and precarious jobs leading to mental health and housing crises that particularly affect young people.
The ILO recommendations to tackle these problems are to:
Isabelle Barthès, industriAll Europe Deputy General Secretary, said: “We take good note of the ILO’s recommendations to increase youth involvement in social dialogue to improve the quality of jobs for young workers and apprentices. Trade unions need to get young people on board in the movement by giving them space and the rights to express their voice at all relevant levels.
“Youth involvement also brings many opportunities for our movement, as young members are more inclined to make the best use of the latest innovative tools to modernise our organisations and increase its attractiveness. I’m glad that in Sarajevo our young members have experimented with the latest digital tools to develop digital strategies to increase their union’s organising capacity and campaign better for good quality jobs!”
The workshop included training sessions dedicated to improving trade unions’ online presence: the key to attracting more young people to the movement through new communication means that speak to this audience.
With the expertise of Stiofán Ó Nualláin from Trademark Belfast and Danny Scott from Jarrow Insights, young participants improved their understanding of today’s digital landscape, focusing on the rise of the internet and social media, and its influence on the creation and spread of ideas, values, and beliefs. One cannot ignore the influence of the Far Right on the online world and its success in using social media to spread hateful narrative and lure sympathisers with fake news. Trade unions need to reconquer this space and push forward their own values based on solidarity.
The two experts explained how new digital and AI tools, like social listening and audience analysis, can be used ethically to support the development of targeted campaigns and help workers and their unions in their fight for good quality jobs. By looking at good examples from the UK, Germany and US, participants understood how digital organising and online campaigning can increase the impact of traditional union organising. It’s not about replacing one with the other, but about complementing the old strategy with a digital approach. The participants left the training with new digital and AI tools to develop the digital strategies of their own union to better push for quality jobs and increase their youth membership.
Isabelle Barthès, Deputy General Secretary said: “Digital technologies and AI tools have the potential to boost our trade union power to an unprecedented level. Our young members are the best placed to start experimenting with these new approaches, and their enthusiasm needs to be supported at all levels. We are at a turning point with the new technological revolution transforming not only the way we communicate, but also the way we work and the way we live and operate as a society. Trade unions need to be at the forefront of this transformation and to master the new tools.”