UNI Apro Youth Breaking
Through
On the 22nd and 23rd
of August 2016, UNI APRO held the 12th 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 24th and 25th
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.
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