Americas

ACTRAV actively supports capacity building and the strengthening of trade unions, in cooperation with the Regional Office for Latin America located in Lima, Peru, and the four sub-regional offices (San Jose, Costa Rica; Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago; Santiago, Chile; and Lima, Peru), the three national offices (Buenos Aires, Argentina; Brasilia, Brazil; and Mexico DF, Mexico) as well as the American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training (CINTERFOR Montevideo, Uruguay).

ACTRAV’s work relates to the strategic priorities in the region:

1) Since 2006, following the Hemispheric Agenda for Decent Work 2006-2008, for the development of Decent Work Country Programs (DWCP);

2) From 2008, following the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, developed through the "Strategic Policy Framework for 2010 2015" including essential elements for the future direction of regional and national priorities; and

3) Following the recently adopted resolution “Recovering from the Crisis: A Global Jobs Pact” from the 99th International Labour Conference 2009.

ACTRAV focuses on strengthening the technical capacity of trade unions to ensure their direct involvement at national level in the development and implementation of Decent Work Country Programs, ensuring the incorporation of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work in these same programmes and achieving sustainable development for countries in the region. In the current scenario, support for unions, as key actors in the main forums for dialogue and collective bargaining, at the national, subregional, regional and international levels is also essential to install the Decent Work Agenda as a solution to the global crisis.

More information: ACTRAV in Latin America and the Caribbean

Other priorities

• Trade unions self-reform;
• Campaign on Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
• Campaign for the extension of Social Security and the ratification of C.102;
• Gender mainstreaming;
• Youth;
• Campaign against child labour;
• Social dialogue;
• Interactive database on the experiences of independent workers’ organizations; database-related legislation; and the implementation of Conventions including outsourcing;
• International diploma in labour law and labour relations for trade union leaders and advisors;
• Virtual office to strengthen the participation of workers' organizations in the ILO standards system.
  

Projects

• Project execution: "Strengthening trade unions to meet the new challenges of integration in Latin America” project FSAL/ACTRAV/ILO (RLA/03/06/SPA).
• Project completed: "Social Security Trade Unions (SSOS).
• Project completed: “Freedom of association in the public sector”.
• Project completed: RLA/01/M10/SPA "Unions and decent work in the era of globalization in Latin America".

Training

At the regional level training is prioritized in the following activities:

• Campaign for freedom of association and collective bargaining;
• Effective public policies, especially on social protection to address the crisis;
• Trade Union self-reform;
• Migrant workers` rights
• Communication and negotiation skills;
• Domestic workers;
• South-South cooperation
• Gender;
• The Global Jobs Pact; and
• International Labour Standards.