PAM’s solidarity projects
Updated: 28.12.2021
PAM has its own solidarity projects around the world, which are managed by the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland SASK. The objective of the projects is to strengthen free and democratic trade unions in developing countries so that they can become self-sufficient and negotiate living wages and decent working conditions for their members.
Project activities are mostly funded from development aid financing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. PAM makes a 15% contribution to the projects. Members can monitor the progress and results of the project activities on SASK’s website and on PAM’s Solidarity Facebook group.
Ongoing solidarity projects
Service sectors in Indonesia
Hospitality sector in Mozambique
Working life research project in Mozambique
Private security and guarding sector in Columbia
Retail sector in Columbia
Service sectors in Indonesia
PAM and the Indonesian service sectors union ASPEK have been working together for a long time. The main objective of the solidarity project is to strengthen ASPEK’s organising work and involve especially young people and women in union activities. The union also needs assistance to develop negotiating skills and a membership fee payment system.
The project partners include PAM and SASK from Finland, ASPEK in Indonesia and the global service sector union UNI Global.
Hospitality sector in Mozambique
The hospitality trade union in Mozambique SINTIHOTS negotiates collective agreements on a company-by-company basis. This is laborious because there are around 6000 jobs in the sector in the country. The objective of the joint solidarity project is to train SINTIHOTS activists in negotiating skills and to strengthen the union’s organising capability to make it an effective negotiating partner for the employers’ association in the tourism sector. The long-term objective of SINTIHOTS is to achieve a national sectoral collective agreement.
The project partners include PAM and SASK from Finland and SINTIHOTS in Mozambique.
Working life research project in Mozambique
The trade unions in Mozambique need analysed data on the country’s labour market, for example as a basis for collective bargaining. SASK, PAM, SAK, STTK, the Union of Professional Engineers in Finland, JHL, the Industrial Union, Pro, the Paper Workers’ Union Paperiliitto, the Finnish Construction Trade Union and SEL support the Mozambique trade confederation OTM-CS, which is conducting the research. They are examining, for example, indicators measuring the quality of negotiating activities, development of the country’s pensions system and the impact of infrastructure projects on the labour market.
Private security and guarding sector in Columbia
There is a low organisation level in the security and guarding sector in Columbia. The country is known for its opposition to trade unions, and there are many challenges in the sector, including low pay, work safety risks, working alone and increased use of temporary labour.
The objective of the solidarity project is to strengthen the ability of unions in the private security and guarding sector to defend their interests and thereby to improve the working conditions of workers in the sector.
The project partners include PAM and SASK from Finland, various company-level unions in the Columbian security and guarding sector such as SINTRAPROSEGUR and UNTRAG4S and the global service sector union UNI Global.
Retail sector in Columbia
PAM has supported retail sector trade unions in Latin America for a long time, and in recent years especially Columbian trade unions. There is strong opposition to trade unions and the sector is dominated by large international retail chains. Workers’ rights are continually violated.
The unions’ ability to organise and defend their interests has been strengthened by the solidarity project. The objective is also to increase cooperation and cohesion among company-level unions and to improve working conditions for workers in the retail sector.
The project partners include PAM and SASK from Finland, Unión and SINTRASODIMAC in Columbia and global service sector union UNI Global.