La Strada Documentation Center

ITUC Guide. Never work alone. Trade Unions and NGOs joining forces to combat forced labour and trafficking in Europe

Document number
2698
Date
2011
Title
ITUC Guide. Never work alone. Trade Unions and NGOs joining forces to combat forced labour and trafficking in Europe
Author/publisher
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Guidelines/Recommendations,
Keywords
Prevention, Awareness Raising, Media, Information Campaigns, Empowerment, Advocacy, Civil society, NGO, Human Rights approach, Activism, Education, Training;
Summary
This booklet is the project publication which reflects the lessons learned from the project and offers some answers to questions raised by trade unions and NGOs in the course of this work. It is the first joint trade union-NGO attempt to bridge the gaps, dispelling some of the myths about the functions of both bodies and bring concrete examples of how NGOs and trade unions have, and can join forces, to deal with trafficking and forced labour across Europe. By no means will the text provide a ready template for NGO-trade union cooperation. Generalisations needed to be made and not all arguments will apply to all political or local organisational contexts. Rather, this report seeks to provide an overview of different possibilities for cooperation. The project and therefore this booklet focuses exclusively on cooperation between trade unions and NGOs in fighting labour trafficking and does not do justice to all the hard work done by many organisations to combat forced labour and trafficking outside this narrow framework, alongside external partnerships or in partnership with other stakeholders. Practices have been grouped in four areas of activities. This division is neither exhaustive, nor can all practices be categorised in one of these areas. Where there is cooperation between unions and NGOs, the work usually covers several of the subdivided areas. Especially when a certain level of mutual understanding, trust, respect and support for each other's work has grown between partners, there can be effective cooperation.
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