World Day for Decent Work

by Stuart Elliott

Although American unions are quite naturally  concentrating on electoral work and the important day-to-day activities, many are also taking part in today’s World Day for Decent Work organized by the International Trade Union Confederation.

The day will start with a gathering of young trade unionists in Fiji, following which rallies, demonstrations, educational, cultural and media events will be taking place in more than 500 cities, towns and villages across the planet, ending as the eastern-most activity of the day comes to a close in Alaska.

Live internet coverage of the activities around the world, including videos, photographs and messages from events in every continent, is being broadcast on the special website for the World Day for Decent Work. Union organizations from 115 countries have pre-registered their October 7 activities on the website, and these will be updated via a 24-hour live feed.

The ITUC has set up a special Youtube channel to host videos from the actions around the globe. To locate events around the world, consult this map.

The themes of the day: rights at the work, solidarity, and ending poverty and inequality.

In conjunction with the World Day for Decent Work, the ITUC has produced a number of striking and informative videos. Here’s one on forced labor

More about the day and more videos after the fold:

Here’s how the ITUC describes the day:

As every person should be able to have a job that enables them to live a good life in which their basic needs are met, decent work is the focus for World day for decent Work (WDDW). This is an opportunity for trade unions and organisations to join a broad global mobilisation involving a large number of people and a wide range of activities. The activities can be connected with three major themes: Rights at work, a theme dealing with the rights of working women and men; Solidarity, a theme focused on practical action involving cooperation between affiliates on a bilateral or multilateral basis; and Ending Poverty and Inequality, a theme emanating from the new globalisation.

You don’t necessarily have to invent a new campaign for October 7. Maybe you can highlight some of the work that is already being done in your organisation? All countries have issues with decent work ― maybe it’s more obvious if you are working in a developing country than in an industrialised one. Decent work issues can include migration; discrimination; equality; forced labour; human trafficking; child labour; and other core labour standards such as right to bargain collectively and the freedom to organise; freedom of expression; laws and agreements issues; informal economy; climate issues (green jobs); health and safety; social protection; poverty and food crisis; social dialogue… well the list can be even longer.

Stop Child Labor

Guy Ryder, Secretary General, ITUC