The UNI Commerce Youth Camp was held on the 11th
to 15th of September 2016 in Berlin, Germany. This event was
organized by UNI Global Union, based in Nyon. 30 participants from different
countries namely Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland,
Malaysia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, United States and Uruguay attended this
camp. Malaysia was represented by Sis Hannah Samuel from UNI MLC.
The opening speech was done by Sis Alke Boessiger,
the UNI Commerce Head of Department who will become the Head of Department for
ICTS starting 1st October 2016.
On the first day of the camp, the participants had
a discussion about working conditions in their countries, and also the
professional environment where topics like employer-employee relations, main
issues in the CBA, major issues in the commerce sector, comparisons between local
companies and multinational companies, career prospects and gender equality
were discussed.
Participants were to discuss in small groups and
then present their findings to the whole group.
On the second day, participants got the chance to
learn more about trade unions and organizing. Issues such as unionization in
the workplace, youth representation in the union, membership development, main
challenges in organizing in the commerce sector, union busting and so on were
discussed and a lot of ideas were exchanged between the participants.
Bro Mathias Bolton, the new UNI Commerce Head of Department
gave us a brief introduction on what UNI Global Union is all about.
The participants then proceeded to a high ropes
course in Heiligensee, Germany as part of the team building activity.
On the third day, the participants were divided
into two groups; multi-channel and e-commerce based on the example of IKEA, and
how sustainability can be ensured along the entire supply chain. Both groups
had fruitful discussions and then proceeded to present the results of the
discussions to the whole group.
On the fourth day, Bro Erkan Ersoy, Director of
Organizing (Europe) gave us a talk on “Organizing the Youth to Build a Better
Future”. We were then divided into small groups to apply what we learnt during Bro
Erkan’s session.
The participants then were taken on a field visit
to Ver.di national headquarters where Bro Simon Habermas gave us a brief
introduction to Ver.di Youth.
On the last day, the group continued to have
discussions about the strategies that could ensure a stronger role for youth in
the unions and the camp ended with a farewell party for all the
participants.
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