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Communicators from around the world came together this week to brainstorm ideas for building awareness and solidarity in global campaigns at UNI Global Union’s annual Communicators Forum.

The forum brings together communications staff from UNI affiliates and the global union movement to share their experiences, network and plan new ways to work together to support union rights. It was held this year in UNI’s head office in Nyon, Switzerland.

The forum has gained new importance under UNI’s “Breaking Through” plan, which is focused on organizing new union members and growing the power of unions around the world.

In a video greeting to the forum, UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings described the “Breaking Through” challenge.

“We have a brand new plan, a strategic plan. The goal is to grow unions and obtain 50 global framework agreements by November,” he said. “We want you to go for a win between now and Nagasaki. Whether it’s signing a global framework agreement or signing up more members to join your unions, we want to help.”

UNI will hold its World Congress in Nagasaki, Japan, this November and will announce the strides it has made with Breaking Through.



The forum participants rose to the challenge, suggesting new ways that UNI can reach out to its members and the public to provide support for its campaigns for global agreements and to ensure that workers everywhere have the right to join unions and bargain collectively.



Several forum members suggested increasing union presence online by creating more Facebook groups and linking union websites.



Drawing on successes from their own campaigns, other participants suggested collecting compelling worker stories, illustrating the injustices UNI is combating and providing affiliates with methods to motivate their members. These suggestions fit well with the “Person to Person” theme of the forum.



The theme was chosen to emphasise the importance of attaching a worker’s face to a union campaign so that it resonates with other workers and the public. It also refers to using communications tools and old-fashioned talking to reach union members one-on-one to motivate them to stand in solidarity with their fellow union members. By sharing personal stories, it is easy to show workers the importance of supporting their union and employers the importance of protecting workers’ rights.



Many communicators at the forum discussed not just their own unions’ campaigns but the importance of coming together and doing work on a global scale with UNI. The unionists said they were glad for the opportunity to come together and share their success and struggles while helping each other find solutions.



See photos of the forum on UNI’s flickr page.



For more information, please visit the UNI Communicators’ website.