TUC Young Workers Month and Young Workers Conference, March 2014

Update on TUC Young Workers Month and Young Workers Conference March 2014.


The end of March marks the end of the TUC's first national Young Workers Month, a month dedicated to issues affecting young workers and to mobilising young union members. There was a great take up from trade unions and many ran several events and activities for their young members throughout the month.

The TUC marked Young Members month with a new publication 'My Union, My Voice' which gives young union members an opportunity to share their stories on how they became involved in their union and their experience of union activity.

The TUC hosted a Youth Unemployment Summit in Liverpool. Colleagues from our sister confederations in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, were invited to discuss ways in which the youth networks can work together to tackle the problem of youth unemployment in Britain. The summit provided an opportunity for young activists from each country to exchange national realities and agree a Communiqué for working together.

Young Workers took part in the TUC's Fair Pay Fortnight campaign, giving their message to the government that they deserve fair pay too. Photos of young people holding up their messages were taken during TUC Young Workers conference and Britain Needs a Pay Rise Street stalls. There is also a short video clip of their responses.

We've had guest blogs from Daniel Goodwin, Unison young member, about his experience as a young public sector worker. Toni Pearce, NUS president, blogged about the situation facing young people when they leave education- their quest for decent employment and respect in the labour market. Penny Cook spoke about her experience of being underemployed and over qualified in the retail sector and Thomas Butler, Unite young member, on life on low pay in the service sector (blog available online soon).

Frances O’Grady took part in a twitter chat on 26^th March, during which young workers were able to tweet in questions for the general secretary using the hashtag #askfrances.  Frances then responded directly to as many people as possible. There were some great questions and responses, which you can view here.

TUC Young Workers Conference was held at Congress House on 22^nd /23^rd March. The conference was a great success with over 100 delegates in attendance. Conference decided the priority campaigns for the TUC Young Workers forum 2014-2015 will be Fair Pay and Political Education. The motion that was picked to go to TUC congress in September was Unite's motion on Young Workers Organising Strategy.

The first ever women’s reception took place at Young Workers conference this year. The TUCs Women's Officer, Scarlet Harris, ran a workshop in which the young women delegates were asked questions about the representation of women in their workplaces and unions and the barriers they face. The reception was a big success and is sure to be repeated next year.

This year was also the first introduction of online voting at conference. Delegates were given an electronic keypad and live voting took place on the conference floor. The delegates were asked to answer questions on: union activity, training and union experience, with some surprising results.

Whilst March might be over, we continue to work throughout the year with unions and young workers, to raise awareness of young workers issues and to run campaigning activity which seeks to encourage more young people into the trade union movement. We support the work of the young workers forum and the priority campaigns which promote and deliver joint union action.

The Stronger Unions team will soon be conducting regional visits to provide policy briefings and to support the activity of the regional TUC Young Workers Forums. We very much welcome the opportunity to work with all our affiliates and other TUC departments. If you think there could be a young workers angle to the work you are currently doing, please get in touch with Lauren Usher or Carl Roper.