News

Asunción. With the aim of reporting on UNI americas development plans, Regional Secretary Raul Requena visited Asunción, Paraguay, on July 1^st and 2^nd , and talked to representatives from the local affiliates FETRABAN, SETWAPY, SINTRAPOP, SITRAMIS and SOGP, and also with Raul Monguelos Schneider, Vice-Minister of Labour and Social Security, and Deputy Aida Robles, President of the National Congress Labour Commission.



The meeting held on July 1^st at FETRABAN headquarters, enabled to obtain important information from the affiliates, to inform on the objectives and priorities of the Breaking Through plan and on the III UNI World Congress; and also to reactivate UNI-Paraguay Liaison Committee.



The labour situation in Paraguay continues to reveal a clear lack of unity and absence of new ideas as regards the workers’ problems. There are 7 Union Centrals and more than 2,700 Unions. UNI americas 5 affiliated organisations belong to different centrals.



An increasing labour precarity which affects the 3 million Paraguayan workers constituting the economically active population (EAP), the growth of unemployment reaching at present more than a 27% of the EAP, the reduction in unionisation rates and the devaluation of the process of collective bargaining are the main threats affecting this country The philosophy of tripartism is weakened and so is social dialogue, as well as trust among social actors and decent work.



All the local affiliates suffer several difficulties, and they all agree in the necessity of increasing the management capacity of the union leaders. A National Programme of Organisation and Training is urgently required. Leonardo Barreto (President of SITRAMIS) was nominated Coordinator of the new Liaison Committee and Angel Fleitas (SOGP General Secretary) was designated Minutes Secretary. The Liaison Committee will join together on the first Tuesday of every month. The one-year coordination will start working on July 1^st, 2010. One of its first duties will be to prepare next UNI mission to Paraguay and to develop a proposal for a Training Project.



The meetings with the Vice-Minister of Labour and social Security (The Ministry of Justice and Labour in Paraguay appoints two Vice-Ministers, one for the Labour office and one for Justice), and with the Deputy for the Popular Party Tekojoja (Guaraní expression related to Democracy and Justice) enabled to promote UNI’s objectives and priorities and especially to present the demands of the local affiliates before the Vice-Minister. In the same way, during this visit, an official mission of UNI to Paraguay was notified.



In short: however the visit was short and the distraction generated by the world’s best sport (even more when Paraguay had to go all out for a place on the semi-finals) important advances were made:



· Update of the local background.

· Information on UNI americas development plans

· Reactivation of the Liaison Committee

· Definition of the date for the Mission: September 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd, 2010.

· Renewal of the mission and image of UNI americas.



Contact: raul.requena@uniglobalunion.org