GCTU discusses draft Concept for Educational and Awareness-Raising Activities
On 13 October, the GCTU Commission on Trade Union Development and International Cooperation met in Moscow.
The hybrid meeting was chaired by Alexei Zharkov, Secretary of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia for International Cooperation and Chair of the GCTU Commission. Taking part were GCTU Deputy General Secretary Margarita Usova, FNPR Deputy Chair Alexander Shershukov, Irkin Umarakhunov, Rector of the Trade Union Federation of Uzbekistan's Institute for Advanced Training, and representatives of national trade union centres and international trade union federations.
One item on the agenda was the draft GCTU Concept for Educational and Awareness-Raising Activities, presented by Margarita Usova.
"Our concept for educational activities is based on the needs of GCTU member organisations. What we are talking about is the demand for joint training of trade union activists in an international format. We have proposed an approach that makes it possible to meet this demand by pooling the capacity of member organisations' training centres," she noted.
Participants pointed out that the GCTU is already doing practical work in this area. Over the past academic year, two international training cycles were held for technical labour inspectors and specialists in socio-economic matters, bringing together 392 representatives of GCTU member organisations from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Particular attention was given to international internships run by the GCTU Youth Council. In 2026, the programme ran in two stages and included participation in events of the Youth Parliament under the State Duma of the Russian Federation and the Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS Member Nations.
The meeting also discussed ways to further develop joint educational work, make better use of member organisations' training centres and prepare new international formats for trade union activists.
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