Best practices in organising young workers

Blaine Kilgallon

EFFAT Youth Committee Challenges for organising young members From current research and liaising with each other, the EFFAT Youth Committee has highlighted the most common problems and downfalls of the /labour movement in recruiting, organising and developing young members, such as: - 1) Lack of engagement with young people 2) Poor youth structures 3) The negative image and perception of trade unions 4) No young role models in the union 5) Bureaucracy 6) Membership Fees 7) Technology and media (lack of presence and moving with the times) 8) Communication Best Practices exchanged within the EFFAT Youth Committee to date

FINLAND – SEL (The Finnish Food Workers’ Union) - Minttu Sillanpää

Although union density is high in Finland (there is a union membership rate of around 70% and 90% of workers are covered by collective agreements), organising workers – and particularly young workers – in small companies is difficult. SEL has identified a number of key challenges:

• A survey by the Finnish confederation of trade unions showed that young people were not joining trade unions because they did not know they existed. • Precarious work/abnormal contracts (and particularly, zero-hour contracts) make it hard for young people to become active in their trade unions. • Young people often move sectors, making their ongoing engagement in a trade union difficult, eg. the SEL Youth Committee was established in 2012 and 3 out of 8 members are no longer involved as they do not work in the food industry anymore. POLAND - NSZZ Solidarność - Dariusz Okienica

Darius set up his own youth organisation on the shop floor in Philip Morris International. Having pushed for a bottom-up youth structure, Dariusz has gathered 30 participants and one representative from Philip Morris management. The organising strategies include regular communications through a monthly magazine disseminated during all shifts, as well as meetings with all new workers. His youth structure has tackled the issue of lower pay for young workers, which the structure considers to be discriminatory, despite being justified by management on the basis of lack of training or so-called poor performance in using machinery. DENMARK - Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) - Tanja Fynbo

Job Patrol is executed by the unions HK and 3F, and aims to inform young workers of their rights.

Every summer, the trade unions conduct thousands of visits to workplaces likely to employ young people, try to uncover any stories of exploitation, and disseminate brochures about minimum wages and other entitlements.

So well known is Job Patrol, that young activists like Tanja freely come forward to volunteer their services and help out. BELGIUM - ACV Voeding en Diensten - Inge Gielis

ACV Voeding en Diensten offers free membership for young unemployed people under 25 years, which is advertised in brochures distributed throughout Belgian cinemas.

The ACV Voeding en Diensten Youth Committee also aims to enhance communication to young members, and has presented proposals for a regular magazine and digital service point guaranteeing instant support.

Internal priorities within the Youth Committee include involving young people in Congress planning and presentations (especially considering that the theme of the upcoming Congress, “Democracy in the Workplace”, is so relevant to them), encouraging participation of young people in the 2016 social elections, and offering them communication training with a focus on public speaking and delivering clear messages and convincing strategies.

BELGIUM - ABVV HORVAL - Charlotte Hautekeur

ABVV HORVAL has had two recent and successful information campaigns targeted at young people:

Working Class Heroes offers a website and range of publications informing young workers and job seekers of their rights.

The Detox campaign aims to overcome negativity towards trade unions and counter common complaints such as the inconvenience caused by frequent transport strikes.

Like its counterpart Voeding en Diensten, ABVV HORVAL also offers free membership for students or unemployed and offers specific services for young workers in conflict with their employees. ITALY - Nuove Identita’ di Lavoro (NIdiL) (New Types of Work) CGIL - Laura di Martino

Nuove Identita’ di Lavoro focuses on the growing world of atypical work in which young workers are nowadays most concentrated, and has developed a range of online campaigns and videos aimed at raising awareness about the precarious conditions of workers. Of note is the recent CGIL campaign titled Giovani 'NON+' disposti a tutto (or, youth no longer willing to undergo everything), which made use of guerrilla advertising tactics and enjoyed widespread success in Italy. - Services Industrial Professional Technical Union (SIPTU) - Donatas Juraitis

SIPTU has established a Young Workers’ Network in Ireland.

The Young Workers’ Network is a youth structure’s which is an open invitation to any young worker, whether they are a SIPTU member or not. Young workers can network with each other on a range of workplace/ issues.

The Young Workers’ Network coupled with and a dedicated website are central to encouraging young workers to affiliate, as well as coordinating actions. UK and IRELAND - Unite the Union - Blaine Kilgallon

Unite has introduced several organising tools and structures to promote and encourage inclusivity of young members in the union:

• Subsidised membership rates for students, young people not in work, or working less than 10 hours a week

• Unite Youth Charter

• Unite Internships for young people (paid the living wage)

• Unite Schools Pack – resources and training to support members going into schools to educate young people about trade unions and the labour movement • Each of Unite’s 10 regions has an officer in charge of young members, normally the Regional Equality Officer • Each region has a youth committee • There is a national young members’ committee made up of representatives from each of the regions to develop and organise national youth issues, campaigns and strategies • A youth delegate can elected to sit on the regional committee • A youth observer is also elected on to the Executive Council from the national youth committee • There is a national young members’ course held annually to educate young members about Unite • Regional and National Youth Committees have established Regional and National Young Members’ Facebook and Twitter accounts • A national youth network has also been established (presently being fine- tuned) so all young members/activists can be in contact constantly. ENGAGE

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