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T-shirts that are sold in Berlin or New York are made in Vietnam, Turkey and Colombia, under often terrible and inhuman working conditions. Ever since the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh in April 2013, that killed more than a thousand workers, the public has turned its attention to the garment industry and its ever complicated supply chain.

But not only fashion companies are international players – all major companies operate globally.

Cooperation and exchange between workers and their representatives is crucial, especially among the youngest who have less experience of international cooperation but are those who suffer more from precarious work and instable employment. To faciliate that, UNI Commerce organised a week-long international youth camp in the ver.di Jugendbildungsstätte Konradshöhe in Berlin. About thirty young leaders of the labour movement came from Asia, America and Europe for an intense seminar on the major trends in their industry such as online trading, concentration processes and rationalisation of supply chains.

‘It was a great opportunity to meet other young trade union leaders facing similar situations in the workplace,’ said Norika from Sri Lanka. In the capital Colombo, the young postal workers union organised training events for supermarket employees as volunteers in their spare time. ‘A meeting with such broad participation from so many different parts of the world – I have never seen that before,’ said Ryan, RWDSU Education organiser in New York. ‘We talk every day to precarious workers who have never had contact with trade unions, let alone enjoying collective agreements. Compared to that, we are doing great in Sweden,’ said Josefin, truck driver at a grocery wholesaler from Vasteras in Stockholm. ‘That’s a reminder that we mustn’t be complacent.’

Mathias Bolton, Head of UNI Global Union Commerce said: ‘The importance and power of international solidarity and cross-border cooperation can’t be valued highly enough – we organised this seminar to show the young union leaders that importance and to unite them in their fight for decent workers’ rights worldwide. UNI Global Union has that unique role: building bargaining power in companies on the one hand and helping its members connect and share best practices on the other.’

‘In view of the UNI Commerce conference that will take place again in Berlin in June 2017, we want to increase the participation of young people.  In order to do so, we will encourage UNI Commerce affiliates to include young trade union leaders in their delegation and we will make sure that the discussions at the conference will include topics that are close to young workers’ concerns in the retail industry,’ he added.