ICFTU OnLine…
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| Youth week - the future of the trade union movement (6) |  |
Brussels, November 06, 1998 (ICFTU OnLine): "The two major problems for young people in the region are insufficient education and training, and the difficulty of finding a job. Employers are becoming more and more demanding. The negative effects of globalisation and the international financial crisis are obvious. Increased mechanisation means the suppression of existing jobs, and fewer new ones. This crisis has led to an increase in child labour, a burgeoning informal sector, and precarious employment conditions. For example, salaries are very low because people want to work at any price and are ready to accept any conditions whatsoever," says Monica De O-Lourenço Veloso, who rose through the ranks of the Brazilian trade union confederation Força Sindical after her initial experience on the health committee of a metal company, a sector in which work accidents are particularly frequent.
"Until recently, the up-and-coming generation found better jobs than their parents in terms of quality and life-style, but this has now changed," Marcio Pochmann, Director of the Center for Union Studies and Labor Economics (CESIT), Rio de Janeiro, confirmed recently to the IPS Press Agency. Unemployment among young people under the age of 24 is at least twice as high as the adult unemployment rate. 62% of the 2.5 million or so workers dismissed between 1989 and 1997 were less than 24 years old. Furthermore, more experienced workers are now in competition with younger people for low paid jobs. The number of young workers on regular salaries has decreased by 23.8% from 1986 to 1996, whereas employment among young people has increased by over 59%. These figures imply a significant slide of young workers towards the informal sector.
In order to benefit from the production potential created by its increased population, Brazil would need to create 1.7 million jobs a year in order to absorb the young people arriving on the labour market and to reduce its present 8% unemployment rate. But to achieve this, the ILO estimates growth would need to be 5% per annum in Brazil. Hopes for this have been dashed by the recent financial crisis. Since the beginning of the year, as a result of the Asiatic and then Russian financial crises, Brazil has entered a phase of stagnation, and a recession is expected for 1999.
Herienilton Brito Dilva, 28 years, is an alternate member of the executive committee of Força Sindical in which he has been an active member for the last six years. His initial motivation was to improve working conditions in his sector, that of garment manufacturing. "Lack of education", he tells us, "prevents young people from getting a job in good conditions. Education is the main problem. This is why we are running a major campaign on this point." "This campaign to heighten public awareness, backed by several publications, is having considerable impact on the Brazilian media," adds Ronald Suarez, 21 years, the new ORIT Youth Co-ordinator.
"In Brazil, pupils attend school for an average of six years. Our priority is to increase this period and to improve the quality of the education received. The Brazilian trade unions have created schools and these give basic educational as well as vocational training. These schools receive grants from public funding, and have been functioning for 2 years now. Their aim is to train 240,000 young people aged between 15 and 29 years, the most vulnerable age sector. " Anselmo Bianco, a hospital administration employee, joined the health sector trade union of the Brazilian CGT (General Labour Conferederation) in 1987. He has been working since the age of 14, and had already been active in the Young Christian Workers’ movement (JOC) when he was approached by the trade union. "The aims of the JOC and the trade union were very similar. But I joined the trade union because it seemed to me that the trade union structures were more appropriate for the defence of workers." "The three Brazilian organizations affiliated to the ICFTU (CGT, Força Sindical and CUT) have concentrated on the service sector in which many young people are employed, and have organised a series of seminars on subjects young people are really interested in, such as sexuality, drugs, employment and ecology. In Northern Brazil, debates have been organized with the young people in the student organisations. We have succeeded in organising joint activities and, since then, we have observed a direct impact on recruiting," Anselmo continued.
Monica explains: "We are forced to observe that until recently the Brazilian trade unions attracted no young people at all. However, thanks to the action undertaken by young trade unionists, the unions are beginning to manage to reverse this tendency. We have created a demand, and now it is no longer possible to ignore us. On this basis, we are working on our superiors to get them to commit themselves even more to programmes for young people. The key priority is to help us to improve trade union training for this sector of the population. We need to prepare them not only to discuss questions which are of concern to young people but also questions that are important for trade union work in general, in both the economic and the political domains, for example, in order to gain a better understanding of globalisation. We also want to work with society as a whole, with NGOs, with social movements, etc. We want to be fully integrated into society, and not to be a separate movement. It is vital to increase the social role of the trade unions!" Monica concludes: "We have tons of super ideas, but we are terribly short of resources. It is very important for us that the ICFTU encourage its affiliated members to support the projects and activities we are running".
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