What did we do?

Jan Willem Goudriaan, Deputy General Secretary of EPSU, opened the seminar by stating its objectives. Jean-Claude Le Douaron, Education Officer at ETUI Education introduced the programme and the practical technicalities of the seminar. The participants from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic presented themselves and their respective organisations (Se the summary in the table below.)

Name	Workplace/ areas of organisation	Recruitment
Slovak TU of Wood, Forestry, Water,	Forestry, Wood, Pulp Water provision	5000 – forestry/ water Employer Quality of employment –TU aims to set standards – and thus inform workers of benefits of union membership Shop stewards are responsible for organising Problem is
Slovak Fire fighters trade union	Fire fighters professional Membership is low 4300 only 500 in the trade union -25% 362 women, 50 are in trade union 117 places school for fighters ; all of them have trade unions Collective agreements salaries working time holidays	Fragmentation Fire fighters meet at 7 am When work is allocated 8 county administrations Kocise 120 -80 are member of the trade unions; member of TU present during recruitment (active participation needed) TU people can get time off for representing work force TU benefit – members better insured ? Network of fire-fighters Nr of women
Slovak	Culture, 2500, 58% organised 7400 libraries, theatres, museums in collective agreements with government remuneration holidays, working time (reduction of working hours), dismissals (sever age pay)	28% youth in the organisations; regular meetings (every month) bring a non member with you, them can get all information ; applications to be handed - chair persons conservative do not want to give up to young workers
Czech Republic OSPKOP	2500 members 81 organisations (national) museums. Zoos, planetariums; city and municipal level work is low paid. People not ready to retire 45% have higher education 30% lower salaries then at national level not many young workers collective agreement – salaries increased with 5%	Only 10% of young workers But a higher proportion of women Membership is going down Also nr of primary tu organisations is going down – workers retire Position of shop steward is not attractive What can we get from the trade union: bargaining; we provide information/ advice We often get criticism – should have bargained more; achieved more
Czech Wood Forestry Water	Primary organisations at company level (pulp, water supply, sewerage 56.000 overall now 16500 members	Nr Young members lower as we would like Not inclined to join. Declining membership Employers put pressure – workers afraid to loose their jobs; solidarity disappears Research of Minister – Information lacks on results Therefore more information on our collective bargaining results. Explain benefits of TU membership like in case of casualties; holiday service Website Membership solidarity fund
Czech Health care	70000 425 trade union group health and social services Medical colleges, faculties at universities, technical workers, teachers, drivers, rest houses, hospitals Public and private sector	Websites. Brochures, seminars Informing young people of the benefits of trade union membership Membership falling (495 local trade union organisation now 422)
Estonia Rotal	Municipal workers and state workers National level – minus teachers, culture workers, higher education (separate conf) Law and the interpretation of the employer (politicians) Law not amended Social guarantees are minimal (and proposed to be even more minimal) Every region own pay scale; pay is higher then in national level Not the right to conclude collective agreements	Falling membership from 30.000 to 3000 Why do you need trade union ? Difficult to find shop stewards If we have no right to strike ? difficult to put pressure – therefore we can not offer something in terms of collective agreements People can use Internet How can we reach workers 60% of membership is women Low salaries Agreement on social partnership to be concluded but minister refused
Estonia Health	Works in hospital 152 , 313 medical nurses, 125 auxiliary workers (laboratories) TU organisations 155 workers organised	Membership is going up Pay has to go up, memb
Estonia energy union	16 trade union organisations in branch union CFO, secretary branches only transfer only limited funds to national office 4 chair persons paid by 3550 members - two organisations with higher level then1000; like Narva - 90% is member Our energy system is public. No privatisation; new investments like in Narva, new boilers. We sell electricity. Baltic ring project	We had good partners in Nordic countries, Finnish colleagues/ German All collective agreements received each one/ two years Our difficulties if a shopsteward retires there is nobody to replace this leads then to TU organisations being dissolved; people can not cope 80 people left because of this. Collective agreement to bring all sacked workers received training, sewerage pay; Young people do not pay attention
Latvian Health and Social Workers	Health and social services Draws	New tool – tournament for most successful organisers
Lithuanian Energy Unions	34 % power stations, distribution, transmission heating networks privatisation of western distribution companies East of company (still public) All enterprises have collective agreements Dalkia	Membership is not increasing; 50% drop in membership last 2y. We lost many members here (closure of Ignalia 2) Young workers do not join the company Family sports events. Competition on professional qualifications and then reward.
Latvian energy trade union	7500 mebers, 23 organisations – 16 belong to Latvenergo Salaries to raise in accordance with inflation but they can not raise in connection with average wages	We managed to maintain membership % But 330 members were lost because of restructuring We improved image – referendum/ petition – against privatisation. We have to protect also existing membership Increase in membership if they feel they are otherwise not protected Workers that go to private sector remain under Latvenergo
Latvian LAKRS	16000 41 workplaces youth only 8% 57% female 34% are not member which we try to recruit	We have retained the number of members We have recruited new members: Seminars for company staff; go to work places; Competition go abroad to meet with others Greenfield sites – talk with employers Many court cases.
Lithuania PS TU	Gas, district heating , water, insurances 3500 members; low level of membership; 4 centres of trade unions – Lithuania gas trade union.	Overcoming rivalry between national centres Membership remains the same Mtgs we invite non- membership ; role of confederation – trade union days Local branches can not negotiate salaries
Lithuanian State workers	State and municipal 12% 3100 members 36 Big issue: renumeration as salaries not increased. Salaries are very different in civil services, between higher and lower levels.	We have new members joining Organisations will work closer together Stable membership Assessment of civil servants (TU presence)
Lithuania health care	30 organisations, 5000 members; medical nurses, technical workers (medical doctors have own union)	Fluctuation in membership with problems Strike threat – lowest salaries (50% promised), only 20% yet Young workers who have developed themselves a programme to recruit new members
Polish Health Care Workers	Medical workers, doctors, auxiliary staff, academics, ambulances, laboratories 60.000 professional unions are competitors	Reform of health care sector Outsourcing many workers outside of the influence of the trade unions We can not create inter-branch trade unions; like in same subsidiaries of same companies Regional approach Other sectors: Outsourcing 350.000 do not belong trade unions

Janina Matuizienė, General Secretary of the Lithuanian Confederation LPSK (Lietuvos Profesiniu Sajungu Konfederacija) presented the activities organised by her confederation in order to improve recruitment processes.

26 Sectors; some sectors are loosing members, while in others going up – overall membership is going up. (400)

2 other national confederations, LDF Lithuanian Labour Federation (Lietuvos Darbo Federacija) (Christian federation) and LPSS (LDS) Lithuanian Trade Union "Solidarumas" (Lietuvos Darbiniku Sajunga) organise alltogheter 15% of the national workforce.

LPSK identified the following problems:

Young workers do not want to join
Membership was decreasing
The image of trade union organisations needed to be improved

A campaign was designed on the basis of those objectives:

new organisations, more membership, image of the trade union
ensure trade union rights are observed
disseminate information on labour law/ the work of the trade unions (simple language)

Not all sectoral unions were happy because apart of the programme was to strengthen the regional trade union centres. Among the activities of the project trade union days were organised as well as regional conferences, publications in newspapers.

The UNISON experience of organising projects

Pam Johnson, Head of Learning and Organising Services Unison, presented the organising activities of her trade union. (Download her presentation from the “seminar materials”.

Mapping and developing a strategy for a workplace

Pam Johnson also introduced a working group activity aiming at mapping workplaces. On the basis of those situations the participants were asked to design organising strategies.

Next steps or what are we going to do at national level

The following steps were discussed and proposed by the participants from the represented countries:
Continue work of organising
Mapping
Seminar at regional level
Marketing of trade unions
Instruments to implement our ideas
Return to issue of training – young people
Similar as below
Use mapping of work place method
Annual seminar for representatives and with Irene teach colleagues
And the organise seminars and train representatives.
Use mapping of work place – teaching representatives of the union to find out where membership is low – to find out what the problems are.
Map on the working desk
As leader of local trade union mapping and then analysis why 20% are not members, how can be recruit then
Spread information on the seminar to the rest of the trade union
Approach the local union and every local union has a map
Responsibilities in our place of work
Obligations (What should we be doing – make this clear to local leadership)
March – national confederation – content of the work of our trade unions
And then all employees in the energy unions- increase visibility
Inform our shop stewards so they can work with
Survey- what does really bother them
Organise workshop for newly elected shop stewards – integrate mapping
Remember good friends
International project to recruit
Shop stewards in Tallinn; and then our Finnish colleagues; many plants; prepare shop stewards to go to plants that are not organises/ new – Owners from Nordic countries- learning what the are doing
Focus on reaching an agreement in our hospital as a precondition
Organise a seminar in three months on this as part of training programme
Involve all members of the councils so they do things in there work places
Autumn carry out analysis
Work places with no trade unions- map all these; and where there are trade unions where are gaps/ chance of recruiting new people
Use mapping of work places
Open door day (where we have potential
Use inspectors of safety at work (new people focused)
Will use mapping in meetings with shop stewards; event reps from regions
Work with young people
Analysis; strategy with members of committee; responsible and for what
Major organisations to be approached (companies with large numbers of employees)
Youth people
Discuss in EPSU office what an be done to make recruitment and organising more central
Website
Education materials -
Look for assistance when there are good organising plans
Send Unison branch development toolkit for EPSU to consider
Review materials we have used
Case studies on success stories
Train the trainers – can we adapt materials; materials available on home page

Evaluation of the seminar – suggestions for the future

The participants expressed their satisfaction with the seminar and made the following suggestions:

Define the target group for future training activities:– leadership- shop-stewards as participants?
More young workers involved (more practical methods to get them involved)
Instruments – how we can reach the objectives and how to implement the work place mapping
Keep exercises practical/ more practical information
Try a cycle of seminars – invite local shop stewards/ young people (Consider practical ways to recruit)
Tasks for mixed working groups – (we now worked in country groups)