Trade unions are not confined to salary issues but deal with various underlying issues that contribute to healthy working environments for workers, Trade Union Congress of Namibia (TUCNA) secretary general Mahongora Kavihuha has said.
“There is a perception among the youth that trade unions only talk about issues to do with salaries, but this is not the case. Trade unions are one of the broad organisations that talk about all aspects including macro-economic issues, health and informal employment, among others,” he noted.
Kavihuha made these remarks in an interview with the media on the sidelines of a workshop on youth awareness and mobilisation around labour standards and trade union rights in southern Africa here on Wednesday.
He added that trade unions are member-based organisations which can play a major role in social dialogue structures and therefore must be included in these events.
The workshop, organised by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in collaboration with the Southern Africa Trade Union Coordination Council and TUCNA, is attended by youth from different sectors.
It aims to implement the resolutions of the ITUC congress which took place in Abuja, Nigeria in 2019.
At this congress, trade unions agreed to intensify their campaign by involving young workers, by capacitating them in all aspects that are of importance to trade unions.
“We are always talking about good policies, but how do you know it is good if it has never been implemented? So during this workshop, we will interrogate policies, their importance and how to implement them. One such policy is the employment policy, seeing as we have a very high number of youth unemployment in southern Africa, so it is very important that we intensify such issues,” Kavihuha stated.
He further said he hopes that during the workshop a pool of young workers is assembled that can be assigned by TUCNA in various organisations in their respective sectors to propose policies on issues affecting youth and workers in general, as well as influence implementation and monitoring of such policies.
The workshop is being attended by youth from 13 countries both physically and online and will end on Friday.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
