UNI Apro Youth Breaking Through

UNI Apro Youth Breaking Through

 

 

 

 

On the 22^nd and 23^rd of August 2016, UNI APRO held the 12^th UNI APRO Youth Committee Meeting in Federal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. More than 40 young activists from various countries such as Japan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Sri Lanka and also Malaysia attended the said meeting.

Bro Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal, the President of UNI MLC, did the opening for the meeting and gave a brief talk on organizing for the future; the Malaysian way, where the concept of “Smart Partnership” is incorporated between the management, the employees and the union.

Bro Christopher, UNI APRO Regional Secretary spoke on the trade union growth in the Asia & Pacific Region. Sis Alice Chang, the Director of UNI APRO Youth and UNI APRO Commerce then took over as the chairperson of the meeting temporarily before appointing Sis Karen from UNI PLC to take over as the acting president of UNI APRO Youth. Bro Satoshi Tamai, the Director of UNI APRO Organizing and Campaigns, gave a very informational talk on organizing.

Sis Karen May Liwanag (UNI PLC) was elected as the new acting President of UNI APRO Youth and the Vice Presidents are Bro Ryohei Sasaki, (JPGU Japan), Sis Norika Warnasuriya (NPTWU, UNI SLAC, Sri Lanka) and Sis Stephanie Purton (SDA, Australia).

A brief report on UNI APRO & UNI PLC Payatas Project and SDA Australia’s Welcome to Work Project were given by Sis Karen and Sis Stephanie respectively.

Each union from the various countries then proceeded to share about their unions – the activities they have done, the challenges or issues in their unions and future plans of activities and campaigns. The main focus for all unions would be on organizing.

On the 24^th and 25^th of August 2016, the UNI APRO Youth Workshop was held. All the participants from the UNI APRO Youth Committee Meeting attended this workshop except the participants from Japan. The participants were assigned to groups and were required to contribute constructive and actively to the group activities which included conducting a survey on the relevance of trade unions, preparing the presentation and also presenting the results of the research.

All the groups managed to come up with a successful tabulation of results and shared it with the rest of the participants on the second day of the workshop. The workshop ended with the Solidarity Dinner where participants from each country came together as a group and performed.