Developing and Straightening The Trade Union Movement in Commerce Sector in Tuzla Region

PROJECT PROPOSAL

INTRODUCTION

 

Commerce Trade Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CTUBIH) organizes employees in commerce and service sector in the larger entity of the BiH, namely Federation of BIH. Since the reanimation of its activities after the last war in 1996 it organ-ized more then 8000 workers. This number due to the transition and privatization process decreased to the present number of 6350 members. The organizing how-ever remains the on-going priority for CTUBIH.

The union cannot act independently since the membership fee income is insuffi-cient to cover the every day work of the union and its activities. Therefore, CTU-BIH depends still on the support and solidarity offered by the international trade union movement. The international solidarity has been the main driving force for the union since its beginning in 1996. The cooperation with Handel og kontor i Norge has made possible for CTUBIH to plan, implement and develop its services to the members, to organize the activities aiming on straightening the union infra-structure and the general development of the trade union movement in commerce sector in the all Bosnia and Herzegovina as modern and democratic movement ca-pable of representing the rights and interests of its membership.

CTUBIH based its structure on the cantonal activities. The present membership development shows that more then 80% of the total membership comes from the two biggest cantons, Sarajevo and Tuzla. The same situation is when it comes to the incomes of the union. The Sarajevo canton as the capital of the state as well as the canton and the city where union has its headquarter, and therefore is as movement very present in the every day life, brought 55,59% of the total income of the union in 2005 and 64,17% in 2006.

Canton Tuzla brought 30, 83% of the total income in 2005 and 26, 23% in 2006. This canton placed in the middle Bosnia region is on the crossroad between the north and south of the country. Before the war it based its economy on heavy me-tallurgy and chemical industry. Due to the war destruction and the transition of the economy the main industry in the all region become commerce. All unem-ployed working force found its existence in the trade, in the small shops and bou-tiques, large supermarkets that are being opened almost daily but also in the opened markets and as street vendors.

In 2005 CTUBIH launched the big campaign to organize and recruit the workers in the opened markets and street vendors in order to support them in protecting their right to work. The main aim of this campaign was to draw the attention of the society and the all relevant institutions to the increasement of the informal employment. The campaign was launched in Tuzla and spread to the all FBIH af-terwards. CTUBIH today is looking for the possibility to keep these workers in its membership and to offer them the activities and services that will promote the re-cruitment in the informal commerce sector. At same time, CTUBIH will work in co-operation with its partners in the government and in the relevant ministries to put the work of its members in the legal framework and to decrease the gap between the workers in the formal commerce companies and those in the opened markets.

The main aim of the CTUBIH in the near future is therefore to prove itself as the capable representative of the workers in the all commerce and service sector re-gardless to the type of the employment. This will ask for the solidarity again, both from the membership of CTUBIH, the Confederation of the Trade Unions, the col-leagues in the trade union movement in Republika Srpska as well as the support and solidarity by the international trade union family and friends that CTUBIH has in the Nordic Unions.

 

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

 

Developing of the modern, democratic trade union movement in the commerce sector in BIH, capable of meeting the demands of today’s labor market as well as of its members with the special focus to the two main population groups – women and youth.

 

PROJECT GOALS

 

Besides the general development of the image and straight of CTUBIH as the movement, the project aims of developing and straightening the union presence and its activities in Tuzla region, focusing on the workers in the large commerce chain, informal workers and especially to the two most active population groups – women and youth.

The project is also aimed on providing the CTUBIH local representatives with knowledge, skills and competences to organize and represent their members in their every day working life.

It will also promote the cooperation between the trade union structures in both entities, as well as the solidarity and the international engagement of CTUBIH.

 

Therefore, the project has the following goals:

  • Planning and implementing the organizing campaign in the region of Tuzla fo-cusing on the young commerce workers
  • Development of the positive image of CTUBIH by effective and wide informa-tion activities
  • Effective and well organized training activity for the elected representatives in the large commerce chain
  • Promoting of the joint approach to the problems and challenges in the com-merce sector in BIH
  • Straightening of the women’s network in the region and in general
  • Continuation of the international cooperation and solidarity with the special fo-cus on initiating and developing the regional cooperation between the unions of HK Stavanger and CTUBIH Tuzla

EXPECTED RESULTS

 

If the above mentioned goals are achieved CTUBIH expects to:

  • Increase the number of the members in canton Tuzla
  • Recruit more young and active members
  • Train a group of elected trade union representatives working in the number of the stores of the large commerce chain
  • Produce the information material that will promote the values and principles of the CTUBIH as the modern and democratic trade union movement
  • Implement successfully the organizing campaign with the aim to recruit the new members and collect and gather the necessary documentation that will be used in the future training and educational activities
  • Increase the number of the active women in its network and improve their skills and knowledge trough the training
  • Implement the Joint Conference on organizing in commerce and service sector together with the Commerce Trade Union of RS
  • Establish the permanent cooperation with the colleagues in HK Stavanger re-gion that will benefit the membership of the both unions and will promote the solidarity and friendship as one of the main tools and values of the interna-tional trade union movement

ACTIVITIES

 

In order to achieve the above mentioned project goals that will promote the general ob-jective of the project, the project office in cooperation with CTUBIH leadership and the elected trade union representatives in the canton Tuzla and with the support of its friends and colleagues from HK Stavanger will implement the following activities:

  • Organizing campaign in the wide Tuzla Region

The project office plans to produce the information material containing the basic princi-ples and values of CTUBIH, to distribute it on the streets and in the stores in the region. The material would contain the information of the services that CTUBIH offers to its po-tential members, it would at the same time be used as the advertising tool that will first attract the attention of the workers in the shops and then would raise their interest for the union. This would at the same time send the message to the employers that CTUBIH plans to be a partner not an enemy, with the same aim, better working force for the bet-ter commerce sector. For this campaign Project office would use its own human recourses but would also rely on the existing basis of the young active members.

This campaign, besides recruiting the new members, also has an aim to produce the documentation and material for the joint conference on organizing. This material would be the starting point for the drafting and discussing the future joint effective approach to the organizing in the commerce and service sector.

  • Joint Conference on Organizing in Commerce and Service sector

On the results brought up by the organizing campaign The Project office would draft the program for the Joint Conference on organizing aiming on adopting the joint effective ap-proach to the challenge of organizing in commerce and service sector in BIH. The confer-ence would gather the elected representatives of the CTUBIH and CTURS as well as the representative of the women’s and youth sections. The conference would warmly wel-comed the experiences and support from the friends in HK Stavanger and it would be or-ganized so that the present work on organizing, experience from Norway and results of the campaign would be a working material for two days workshop that suppose to result with joint effective and structural approach to this growing challenge of the global trade union movement.

  • Training Program for representatives of newly organized commerce chain

CTUBIH has to produce the concrete service to the organized members in order to keep them on board and to put them in use as active and effective recourse base. Therefore, the project would support the CTUBIH with the concrete training program for a group of representatives aiming on providing them with the knowledge, skills and competences that will help them, to represent and protect the rights and interests of their colleagues on the working place. The program would be implemented by the project office on the basis of the complete training program produced as a part of the LMTU program in 2006 in cooperation with HUMAK, Finland.

  • Women’s Seminar on The Effective Measures and Instruments for the promotion of the women’s participation in the Trade Union Movement

The present achievements in the women’s networking in BIH and the region will be in fo-cus of the seminar planned for autumn in Tuzla. The seminar would also draw the atten-tion of the new ILO Convention on Protection of the Motherhood and the activities done as the part of the campaign for 8th March aiming on ratifying the Convention by the au-thorities of BIH. The seminar would also aim on establishing the effective cooperation be-tween Women’s Section of CTUBIH and the women’s structure of HK Stavanger.

  • Publishing of annual issue of trade union magazine SuGlas

The information has been always one of the top priorities for CTUBIH. Due to the lack of the recourses the magazine of the trade union could not find its way to the members. Therefore, the project would support CTUBIH with annual issue of the magazine contain-ing the most important information about the work of CTUBIH, its activities and priorities as well as the information of the project activities and their implementation

STBiH © 2015.