| Dear friends,
Welcome to our summer edition of the FIA e-newsletter. We will start with news from our EuroFIA group, which was welcomed to Hamburg in June by its four German affiliates: GDBA; VdO; BFFS; and ver.di. This regional event also included a one-day meeting between EuroFIA unions and collecting societies representing audiovisual performers.
Next up we have a number of articles about workshops held in Rabat, Bogota and Copenhagen this past spring. I invite you to read these event reports to keep up-to-date with FIA’s recent capacity building work worldwide.
Finally, I will conclude our summer e-newsletter with some exiting news about the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention on Violence and Harassment, which was adopted on June 21st. FIA welcomes this new Convention, which, for the first time, provides the unique right globally for everyone to work in an environment free from violence and harassment.
In solidarity,
Ferne Downey,
FIA President |
The EuroFIA group was received in Hamburg by its four German affiliates: GDBA; VdO; BFFS and ver.di who extended a warm welcome to delegates and took the opportunity over the course of the meeting to share some interesting examples and recent practice from Germany. The meeting was opened by keynote speaker Helga Trüpel, long-time Green MEP, active in the European Parliament’s CULT committee and known in FIA for her strong defense of performers in the context of the recent European Copyright Reform
Over forty people attended the workshop organized by the Moroccan performers’ union (SMPAD – Syndicat Marocain des Professionnels des Arts Dramatiques) and FIA in Rabat from 24 to 26 April 2019, in the framework of FIA projects funded by Union to Union in Africa
From 25 to 28 of May, FIA, UNI MEI and UNI Americas carried out a joint workshop in Bogota to provide targeted capacity building training for leaders of Colombian audiovisual trade unions. Following previous workshops which FIA and UNI MEI organised in Colombia in 2015 and 2018, the focus of this years’ capacity building training was to consolidate the achievements made so far by the young trade union movement in the audiovisual sector.
The first study visit of the EU project “Building Social Dialogue in a Changing Labour Market: Peer-learning and Capacity building for Central and Eastern European Workers’ Organisations Representing Performers” took place in Denmark, on the 27th and 28th of June 2019.
Following up on Motion 11 of the 21st FIA Congress about circus performers, approved in São Paulo, in 2016, the FIA Secretariat has decided to conduct an international survey of its affiliates to collect data on working conditions in the circus industry, whether traditional or contemporary, itinerant or permanent.This 51 questions survey, drafted with the support of FIA working group on circus, covers many issues (…)
The Centenary Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) ended on June 21st with the adoption of a widely-welcomed Convention and accompanying Recommendation to combat violence and harassment in the world of work. These instruments – the first of the ILO’s second century – also reaffirm the ILO’s crucial standard-setting role.