Twenty union leaders and young journalists from the Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM), the Journalists’ Union of Serbia (SINOS) and the Trade Union Media of Montenegro (TUMM) came together on October 20 and 21 in Skopje, North Macedonia, as part of a regional union building project supported by Union to Union (UTU).
Participants backed a call to create a global youth group to enhance the labour rights of young journalists and launch global campaigns to improve low wages, lack of contracts, stressful work environments and campaign against highly politicised media, among others.
Young workers shared insights on how to better engage their peers in unions, highlighting the lack of labour rights and a widely-held negative perception of unions, as the main obstacles when recruiting young workers. Listening and giving voice to young people, identifying common issues to be addressed collectively and raising awareness on union and labour rights were identified as key steps to be taken by unions to better engage young people and ensure that young members are active.
Unions pledged to organise campaigns and training workshops to develop the capacity of young union leaders and tackle the precarious working conditions faced by younger journalists.
Representatives from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Federation of Citizen's Services of Comisiones Obreras (FSC-CCOO) in Spain and International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) shared insights from the international labour movement with participants.