Helsinki (14.10.2013 – Heikki Jokinen) The development projects coordinated by the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland SASK reached 182,327 people in 2012. A total of 64 projects took place in 49 countries. The number of separate project actions was 2,271.
The main goal of SASK is to strengthen trade unions around the world in order to make them more capable of defending workers' rights especially in the fields of collective bargaining, labour rights and influencing decision making.
Two trade union confederations and 30 Finnish trade unions are members of SASK, representing 1.7 million individual members. The unions support the projects economically. Some 85 per cent of the SASK budget comes from the state development aid resources. The figures in regard to the above mentioned activities are from their recent report to the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The work of SASK is carried out in cooperation with local trade unions in the project countries. Also, global trade union organisations like IndustryALL and UNI Global Union are important partners for SASK.
One of the most concrete results to date occurred in Brazil. SASK worked together with the Building and Wood Workers' International BWI and local trade unions to advance workers' rights in connection with construction work for the football 2014 World Cup. Now there is the first national level collective agreement for building workers in Brazil.
Another example of SASK’s work is the project in Namibia to support security guards organising. With the support of SASK and the Finnish Service Union United PAM the Namibia Transport and Allied Workers Union NATAU has been clearly advancing their organising rate.
In August this year they were able to win recognition for a collective agreement in one company and have submitted another claim. The UNI Global Union is also a partner in the project.
Most of the SASK activities in 2012 were connected with recruiting and campaigning which involved 1,025 actions and 148,374 participants. A total of 811 actions were focused on training and education with 26,077 participants. The most popular themes were organising, recruiting and labour rights.
The number of different reports and studies carried out in SASK coordinated projects was 48.
Read also:
- SASK campaigns with Amnesty International for trade union rights