5th UNI World Congresstook place from 17June 2018 at ACC Liverpool was concluded successfully on 20 June 2018.Prominent personalities were invited as guest speakers such as Jeremy Corbin (Leader of Labour Party), Houcine Abassi (Tunisian Nobel Peace Prize Winner), Guy Ryder (Director General of the ILO) plus many more graced the opening of the Congress on 17 June 2018. The UNI World Congress witnessed the retirement of Brother Philip Jennings who served as the General Secretary of UNI Global Union for over 40 years, the election of Sister Christy Hoffman as the new General Secretary and election of Brother Ruben Cortina as the President.
The 5thUNI World Congress was held in the UK in 2018 coincided with many important milestones; such as 150th anniversary of the British TUC, The centenary of some women’s right to vote in the UK, The 100th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela, The 50th death anniversary of the of Martin Luther King, The 10th anniversary of Liverpool having won European Capital of Culture, and The 70th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In conjunction with the Congress, UNI World Women’s Conference was held from 14 to 15 June 2018 at the same venue.Both UNI World Women’s Conference and UNI World Congress celebrated the above milestones at the opening ceremony of the Congress.
A delegation of seven (07) from Sri Lanka representing affilaites, including the Presidents of NPTWU, CBEU, Media Protech, TOU and ACTSU took part in the conference. Sister Norika of NPTWU introduced the Motion on Mentoring at the UNI Women’s Conference on 14 June as the Women Representative of UNI APRO Youth Committee. She emphasized how APRO Youth and Women Committees empower their Young Women in the region and how mentoring should change their strategies to get in line with the differences and changing dynamics of the nature of the Women representation in Asia Pacific Region.
As the President of UNI APRO Youth, Sister Norika collaborated in Motion Introducing Youth Participation to the World Congresses on 20 June. She elaborated the involvement and contribution of Young Workers in APRO Region to the union activities. She demamded all affiliate unions to support the motion ensuring to reach the 10% of Youth participation to every congress and conferences.