Read this article in:
English
8 July, 2025Since the adoption of the IndustriALL Global Union 2021-2025 Action Plan, the secretariat has been actively driving its transformative agenda, strengthening youth empowerment through enhanced structural arrangements.
The IndustriALL youth working groups for South East Asia, East Asia and the Pacific were established in 2022. Between 2023 and 2025, national youth committees were formed in Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. In 2024, the IndustriALL Philippines youth committee was revitalized.
The burgeoning national youth committees motivated unions in South East Asia to strengthen the capacity of youth leaders and create more federation and factory level youth committees. Three youth meetings have taken place in the region this year.
On 21-22 June, Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand (CILT) organized a youth unity camp in Chonburi. The youth plan to set up 10 youth committees at 10 unionized companies and increase the number of youth activists from 22 to 100 by the end of 2025.
On 1 June, young unionists from IndustriALL Malaysia council formed an interim national youth committee in Penang, after a national youth meeting. The Malaysian youth decided to organize online training handling domestic inquiry in July and leadership training in September.
On 21-22 May, Cambodian youth leaders reported during a youth committee leadership meeting that five union federations established youth committees, along with six factory-level youth committees. They also expressed their plans to form four more federation-level youth committees and to organize labour law study circles within the next year.
The youth meetings in Thailand and Cambodia are supported by Union to Union and IndustriALL Swedish affiliates.
Ramo Certeza, IndustriALL South East Asia regional secretary, said:
“The progress of youth work in South East Asia is truly encouraging. It is imperative to collaborate with our affiliates and realize the youth aspiration of the transformative agenda. We should continue to commit our labour and resources in youth empowerment works.”
Sarah Flores, IndustriALL youth and project officer, said:
“Setting up a youth structure is a proven useful instrument that has not only beneficial outcomes for young workers, but also for the trade unions as it ensures a meaningful participation of young members in their trade union and helps in building their capacity as future leader as well as systematic work on youth topics which can then be in the daily trade union work. In that sense, unions in SEA are demonstrating a strong commitment toward trade union's renewal and search for more representativity.”
Youth leaders from South East Asia and other IndustriALL regions will meet at the global youth conference on 2 November in Sydney.