Uni communicators united against austerity
22nd June 2012
The Uni global union's forum for trade union communicators ends today.
The forum has brought together communicators from trade unions
in 25 countries.
The forum has focused on multi-national campaigning with
discussions centered on how to tackle the complex challenges unions
face in a global economy. Union communicators have looked at
combining messages to tackle the austerity programmes being pursued
by many governments across the globe.
Unions looked at many different modern approaches to
communicating, aimed at increasing engagement and participation in
campaigns in all countries.
The conference was hosted by Uni at their offices in Nyon,
Switzerland. CWU were represented by head of communications,
Kevin Slocombe and campaigns and communications
manager, John Colbert.
Kevin Slocombe said: "It's always inspiring to
see the successful campaigns and tactics used by unions around the
world, often in circumstances very different to our own. In Brazil
for example, the banking unions have led a strike involving 400 000
people and a combined website for unions in Sao Paulo has had 4
million hits in its first year."
Commenting on other specific events at the conference, Kevin
added: "We have also looked at how we can support the growth
of independent unions in egypt and this work is crucial for trade
unionists everywhere."
Having presented "A battle for narrative" on the first day of the forum, Kevin explained: "Drawing from the TUC's recently launched campaign 'Employee rights, stop employee wrongs' we focused on the need to build a narrative to support the argument that there is an alternative to the Government's agenda of cuts and looked at ways to gather support through effective communication."
Download the full presentation here:
'A battle for narrative'.
With reference to the social movements of 2011 - from the Arab
Spring to the Occupy Movement - the forum provided a dynamic
platform for experienced UNI-affiliated campaigners to exchange
ideas and strengthen campaigning activity to build support for the
argument that there is an alternative to austerity.
The communicators forum closes today with a workshop looking at honing international trade union messages.
For more information visit Uni
Global Union.
