Source: FEDUSA

The video titled “FEDUSA – Let Your Voice Be Heard” educates viewers on the history of trade unions, their significance in South Africa, and the ideals of FEDUSA as the alternative voice of labour. Furthermore the video specifically looks at the challenges of rising youth unemployment and the interventions proposed by the Federation to ensure we do not lose an entire generation of South African workers.

On 1 May 2013 the Federation celebrated Worker’s Day with four provincial work sessions focused on the theme “Investing in our Future: Empowering our Youth” which included panel discussions with Department of Labour, the CCMA, and various political parties and civil society organisations. Outcomes from the engaging discussions with FEDUSA members will be collated into a resolution on youth employment that the Federation will adopt before Youth Day 2013.

The video is part of a broader strategy to use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to engage young people in an open conversation, along with FEDUSA’s members and affiliate unions, to better understand the challenges faced by the youth, and the opportunities that can be found in the current labour market context. By sharing this video, the Federation hopes to bring the voice of the youth into the National dialogue on what interventions will assist them in overcoming the barriers of access they face on a daily basis, both in the education system and the labour market.

FEDUSA believes it plays a major role in the social dialogue process that determines the interventions to be used to improve employment opportunities for young people. Having signed the Youth Employment Accord on 18 April 2013, FEDUSA is committed to holding partners accountable for implementing the actions agreed to within it. FEDUSA still strongly believes that a training-based youth wage subsidy must be implemented to incentivise business and public sector agencies to employ young people and equip them with training and the relevant skills to proceed further in the labour market.

The video is FRDUSA’s effort to speak directly to younger workers and job-seekers through a more visceral and accessible medium in our digital world. FEDUSA encourages viewers to share the video on Facebook and Twitter to broaden the conversation in search of innovative solutions to the crisis of youth unemployment.

See FEDUSA’s Resolution on Combating Youth Unemployment, adopted on 2 July 2013,.