
4th Regional Conference of the ITUC - Asia Pacific
Friday, 01 November 2019
“Building
Workers’ Rights: Change the Rules, Unity - the Way Forward for an Inclusive,
Sustainable Asia-Pacific” – Theme of
the recently concluded ITUC-AP 4th Regional Conference that was held
over 3 days from 7 - 9 October 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.
The 4th
Regional Conference was attended by 261 participants and out of the 170 delegates registered, 48.8%
were women and 18.8% were youth.
Following the
plenary discussion on the Future of Work with keynote speakers from the ILO
Global Commission, namely Ms. Reema Nanavaty, former General Secretary of the Self Employed Women’s Association
(SEWA), and Mr. Philip Jennings, founding General Secretary of the UNI Global
Union, Shoya Yoshida, General Secretary of the ITUC-AP, proposed the Conference Thematic Paper. Shoya Yoshida said, “As committed by the 4th ITUC World
Congress, we need to build and deliver a new social contract to give democracy better control over
the market and improve its influence on public policies.”
“The social
contract can be rebuilt only by making social dialogue work. We must therefore first create a stable political
climate for social partners to operate without fear of reprisal on the basis of
the
full recognition of trade
unions in compliance with the ILO Core Conventions. Also, trade
unions must play a central role as
communities of workers and their families and must represent their voice more
effectively. To this end, they
must meet their fundamental requirements of being representative, democratic, independent and united,” Shoya Yoshida added.
The Conference Thematic Paper was adopted as the
ITUC-AP Action Programme for the next four years after addresses by the conference delegates.
Shoya
Yoshida was elected uncontested as General Secretary of the
ITUC-AP for the conference period 2019 - 2023. The Regional Conference also
elected Members of the Regional General Council and Auditors for the same
period.
A target of 40% women's representation in each group
of Regional General Council Members, i.e. Titular, First Substitute and Second
Substitute, was set at the 17th Meeting of the ITUC-AP Regional
General Council. The overall women’s representation in the ITUC-AP Regional
General Council for the conference period 2019 - 2023 is 50%.
The 4th Regional Conference also adopted the following
resolutions:
- Democratic Future of Hong Kong
- Republic of Korea: Effective Implementation of Supreme Court Decision on Employee Status of Tollgate Fee Collectors
- Condemnation of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 - Australia
- Solidarity with Indian Workers’ Struggle against Anti-Labour Policies of Government
- Support to the National Union of Afghanistan Workers’ Employees (NUAWE)
The
next Regional Conference
of the ITUC-AP will be held in 2023.