LAHORE : The young global labour leader Chaudhary Saad Muhammad had been nominated by the international trade union confederation to represent them in the ILO HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON “SOCIAL DIALOGUE WITH AND FOR YOUTH” to be held in the last week of November 2022. The various panels of the meeting will feature ILO constituents,youth representatives, International Organisations,ITUC and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) as well as ILO experts.
The overall objective of the meeting is to launch a debate on the question of social dialogue with and for youth. Based on an forthcoming in-depth ILO research report on this topic, the meeting will offer a platform for: (i) debating on key findings emerging from the report; (ii) exploring policy options for improved inclusion of youth issues on the agenda of social dialogue mechanisms; (iii) identifying good practices of youth organising and representation efforts by workers’ and employers’ organisations; and (iv) highlighting possible action governments and public authorities may wish to consider in order to create an enabling environment for improved inclusiveness and effectiveness of social dialogue in relation to youth matters.
PWF started the young leadership capacity-building campaign in 2012 which was the initiative of the general secretary at the time M Zahoor Awan who is a member of the ILO Governing body. We have seen in past normally that there was a gap in young educated leadership but it seems PWF had been successful in bridging this gap as the current regional general sectary of PWF Chaudhary saad is seen representing the Pakistan trade union movement in many high-level forums.
PWF had also promoted young female leadership which can be witnessed in the shape of many of their women young leaders who had organised the informal sector women on a massive level. Arooma Shahzad who is the general secretary of the DWU was also trained as part of this campaign, Dure Shawar the current chair of the women’s committee is also one of the dynamic and well-trained women leaders of the PWF and trade union as a whole.
PWF had almost developed its second line in all the provinces of Pakistan in Sindh PWF’s young General secretary of the region Asad Memon is leading the organisation in the province and had organised workers in the agriculture and fisheries sector, Peer Muhammad another Young General secretary of PWF in Balochistan was also trained by the PWF to strengthen its regional structure in Balochistan and he had been successful in its task to strengthen the region and last but not the least Ihsanullah Khan and Sadat Shah in KPK are also seen actively engaging and raising issues of the workers with the provincial government and the private employers.
The trade union movement’s future looks bright in Pakistan being in the hands of these young educated leaders the trade unions in Pakistan and globally need to invest in the development of the trained second line which will help the trade unions to meet the challenges of the digit world, rise in the gig economy and telework platforms the future of the work may be mostly informal work. Stronger Unions in the hand of educated sensitized leadership will help Pakistan similar to the stronger union movements in the developed countries.
