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Last week, the last sub-regional seminar on social dialogue and organising members in commerce sector took place in Sofia, Bulgaria. Trade unions from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Romania participated with more than 50% of women.



There was a good exchange between the participants who were representatives of national trade unions. They have faced difficulties to negotiate collective bargaining with multinationals and to keep members. They have looked for ideas to organise and change the tendency of the decline of trade union’s members.

Due to specific legislation for each country, they encountered problems at the time of establishing social dialogue with multinational companies and getting support of the government.



The other important issue was the precarious situation of young and women workers in the Commerce sector. The result of this discussion was the need to organise new members and consequently how trade unions can attract young people. All trade unions compromised to keep on exchanging information, experience and organising meeting between Eastern and Central countries.



Related to organise young people, Bulgaria had an interesting example. They participated in the Youth Forum in 2010, with the aim to strength the youth structure and encourage young workers. This forum was organised by all young associations (trade union, political parties, association, etc), as a network structure. The result of this forum was a monthly magazine in a volunteer basis. They also organised events like tournaments where they recruited more than 50 new members.



In response of these concerns, UNI Europa Commerce presented its action plan based on its five resolutions adopted in the UNI Europa Commerce Conference, in Madrid: working hours and work life balance; organising in Commerce; EWCs at the heart of the trade unions strategy; employment and quality services; inclusive labour market.



Experts from ILO gave also a concrete description of the economical, social issues and a description of the current labour market. ILO implemented three instruments: a Decent Work Agenda (http://www.ilo.org/jobspact/lang--en/index.htm), a Global Jobs Pack created during the crisis in 2009 (http://www.ilo.org/jobspact/lang--en/index.htm) and a tripartite system (analysis of national needs; identification priorities and elaboration of an action plan).



This seminar, part of the project implemented by UNI Europa Commerce and ITC-ILO (International Training Centre), had the objective to exchange information and experience with Eastern and Central countries. The aim is, in one hand to be aware of their expectations, their successes and their problems with the social dialogue and organising members. In the other hand UNI Europa Commerce and ICT-ILO had the opportunity to explain their work, their objectives and to answer questions or concerns from the participants