Youth have been at the centre of social justice movements throughout history. Young workers created many of our unions. Youth were key leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960s in the United States, the Tlatelolco student massacre in 1968 in Mexico, the Soweto uprisings in South Africa in the 1970s, the “Noche de Los Lapices” in Argentina in 1976, Tiananmen Square in 1989, Arab Spring in 2010, and the Chilean student protests from 2006 to 2019. The largest youth-led protest in history was the 2019 march for climate action when an estimated 1.6 million students in 300 cities united in protests and school walk-outs around the world.
Yet many of our unions and workplaces are dominated by older workers and leaders. Too often unions have used young workers to “brand” union publications and websites, rather than build space and representation within the union and involve young workers in decision-making and strategy.
Around the globe, young workers - defined by the ITUC as being between 18 and 35 years of age - are likely to face lower wages and conditions, non-union, temporary, subcontracted, precarious and informal work. Young workers are more likely to be falsely labelled as “self-employed” or “independent contractors”. Young workers face exploitation in the workplace through cash-in-hand arrangements, unpaid and underpaid internships and training schemes, two-tier wage systems, wage theft, bullying and harassment. As the India Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) explains, the ‘gig economy’ with its vast majority of young workers, “is far from the emancipatory road to self-actualization and freedom. It has the same, if not more aggressive vectors of worker exploitation.” Over the next decade, the World Bank estimates one billion young people will try to enter the job market, and less than half of them will find formal jobs.
Young workers are not pushing for protection for their niche in society, but for a bold reorganization of society and labour to benefit all working people. We need trade unions organised and led by young people. We all need to see unions addressing issues of importance to young workers, such as climate justice, racial equality, access to decent jobs, equal pay, training opportunities and decent working conditions.
Organising young workers means confronting multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. A large number of young workers face racial/ethnic discrimination at work, in unions and in broader society. Over 70% of all migrants internationally are under the age of 20. Many young workers are women. Worldwide, 21% of young people are not in employment, education, or training. Young workers are most likely to be impacted by climate change.
Union campaigns and programs that are designed to increase the involvement of young workers in the union are likely to also need to address issues of gender, migration, informal work, including digital platform work, and climate change.
When unions do not analyse and discuss with young workers why and how multiple forms of intersecting discrimination operate, we concede these conversations to neoliberal and far-right entities. Europe’s far-right parties are gearing their anti-migration, Eurosceptic message to the young. Young European voters are responding with a rightward shift sometimes faster and farther than their elders. In the United States, 45% of white youth voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
The Tool Box includes materials specific to Women and Gender Equity, Discrimination, Intersectionality and Implicit Bias, Anti-Racism and Decolonisation, Climate Justice and Informal Work
“I’ve been organising young people for 9 years in the Philippines. I have listened to our stories, I have heard them, seen them, lived with them. We don’t want flexible jobs: we don’t want that. What we want are secure jobs, decent jobs. We want guaranteed jobs, fair internships, green jobs. We want an industrial policy that is tailored to our education system and the needs of the economy. Youth employment is not just about us, young people. It is about all of us. It all concerns us. So come on, let us get our acts together to make secure and decent jobs for the youth a reality.”
ITUC Economic and Political Agenda for Young Workers. https://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/our_economic_and_political_agenda_for_young_workers_en.pdf
Young workers fully participating in unions increases the unions’ associational power, as it makes the union more able to act in the interest of its members as a democratic, engaged organisation. With young workers playing an active role in unions, social and public discourse with regard to the need to transform and create the world we want to live in focuses on the needs of our and future generations. This enhances the unions’ standing in society and likelihood of building coalitions and increasing societal power. When unions fight for policies and laws that benefit young workers, they build their institutional power. An increased capacity to take industrial action and withdraw their labour, and an increased focus on skills and training that enhance their marketplace bargaining expands young workers’ structural power.
These materials examine the many ways that unions can take action to remove barriers and increase young workers participation in our unions and industries. If you are ready to create a strategic plan for the union to increase the participation of young workers, first review the materials here on young workers, decide what issues you will focus on, and then go to the Tool Box materials on Strategic Planning.
All unions need to have up-to-date accurate information about the number of young workers in the union and the company/industry/sector and be familiar with the concerns of young workers.
Allocate time and resources to listen to young workers about their concerns, thoughts and ideas on how to campaign and organise. Gather feedback on workplace and industry policies and practices.
If the union does not already have a strong presence of young workers and leaders, a good way to begin is by reaching out to young workers directly. Ask current workplace leaders to identify young workers who have shown an interest in leadership, union and social justice organising and improving working conditions. Building alliances with youth-led and youth-driven social justice organisations can help unions connect with young working-class activists.
Most young workers are informal workers without regular workplaces or formal employer relationships. A 2020 survey of over 2,000 app-based drivers in India showed that the majority work for both of the two major companies, Uber and Ola, “switching between them based on the ‘surge pricing’ or daily incentives they are able to achieve on a particular day based on the business they can rake in.
The Tool Box materials onParticipatory Action Research (PAR) can help you organise one-to-one, in-person interviews with, and surveys of, young workers. The Tool Box materials on Workplace Maps, Arbolitos and the Campaigning and Organising materials can help you begin to build collective organisation with young workers in union or non-union workplaces. Additional materials on Informal Workers can be found at.
A number of unions do not keep membership data that is age disaggregated. Consequently, these unions cannot quantify the percentage of young people in their membership. More importantly, they cannot extrapolate data that would provide an indication as to which sectors these young people are primarily employed in and the type of employment they have.
https://www.etuc.org/en/publication/engaging-young-people-trade-unions
“In Johannesburg, we decided to celebrate International Women’s Day with “women to women dialogues”. We set up quick conversations reaching out to young women workers and students at the Wits University campus, women students who are either already engaged in part-time employment in the service sector or who are preparing to enter the labour market. We used the opportunity to speak about the significance of International Women’s Day and popularize our union work.
ITUC Decisions for Life Campaign. https://www.ituc-csi.org/decisions-for-life-campaign-guide
1 in 4 workers in Los Angeles is a young person. A 2015 survey of young workers by young workers found the following:
How many young workers are in the union? What companies, sectors or industries are they in?
How many young workers are women? Racialised workers? Informal workers? Migrant workers? Doing work for climate justice? Involved in other key issues?
What union events or activities do young workers participate in?
Are there union meetings, conferences, committees, events, education programmes for young workers?
What training, internships, apprenticeships, or career paths are open to young workers coming into the industry? How do young workers enter the industry?
Are there young workers who are leaders at the workplace or active in social justice issues?
What union leadership positions are held by young workers?
Review the Tool Box materials on Women and Gender Equity, Discrimination, Intersectionality and Implicit Bias, Anti-Racism and Decolonisation, Climate Justice, and Informal Work and discuss whether these issues are important to address as part of the union’s work to increase the involvement of young workers.
Campaigns can focus on industries and workplaces where there are large numbers of non-unionised young workers or on any issues that are of interest to young workers.
The Campaigning and Organising materials can be used with young workers in a workshop or study circle program. Young workers can use the materials to plan and lead campaigns together, developing their collective and individual leadership capacities.
Examples of youth-led and youth-focused union campaigns are described below.
In 2020, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) ran a campaign against wage-theft, a major issue for young workers. The unions found that in industries like hospitality and restaurants, retail, and some areas of construction that it is common for workers to not be paid properly, with one in five young people not being paid the minimum wage. Legal penalties were not being enforced. A senate enquiry reported that 79% of hospitality employers were not complying with national wage laws.
The unions focused on a number of celebrity chefs at high-end restaurants where they found wage underpayments ranging from $ 4 million to $ 10 million. The companies had to pay back wage payments to workers and fines.
In aviation, young workers predominate at low-cost carriers, which are usually non-union with worse conditions.
Wingspan is a non-union, low-cost airline subsidiary of Thai Airways, a national carrier with a union collective agreement. The Wingspan workers had not received a pay rise in three years.
Four young leaders in Wingspan reached out to their coworkers and built an extensive one to one communication network, educated workers and prepared for a strike. The young workers, including cabin crew, check-in and ground staff were able to negotiate their first collective agreement, increasing wages and benefits.
www.itfglobal.org/en/training-education/developing-strategic-campaigns
In Chile, young workers in their twenties formed a union and negotiated the first ever collective bargaining with Starbucks in the world. The union leaders are experienced leaders from the powerful Chilean student protest movements. They organised using company emails to schedule “leisure meetings” where they could discuss and plan the union strategies.
The Union of Starbucks Workers carried out three strikes in 2011 for 18 days, in 2013 for 11 days, with the final 2015 strike of three days ending in a written collective agreement. The success of the Starbucks Chile union has resulted in two other fast-food chains (Papa John’s and Johnny rockets) forming their first unions in 2016.
In 2009 the ITUC developed a program supporting the self-organisation of young women workers in unions.
In Indonesia, NIKUBA, the federation organising IT, financial services, banking and retail workers with the help of the ITUC, focused on young women doing precarious work. “We visit the shopping malls where many young women work. During a break we invite them to sit and talk over a cup of coffee to increase their awareness and tell them about their rights. They usually know nothing about their rights … We are working with a group of young working women who had no protection at all. They were mainly sales promotion girls, for example, trying to sell cell phones. They can be fired any time without prior notice, they work long hours, and they are never promoted. It’s a dead-end street. We try to bolster the courage of these young women and then we go for a collective agreement so that they can enjoy labour rights which are denied to the outsourced workers.”
In Belarus, the young women involved in the ITUC program successfully set up a union for indoor/outdoor vendors, a notoriously difficult sector to organise, where 90 percent of the workers are women, mainly young.
ITUC Decisions for Life Campaign. https://www.ituc-csi.org/decisions-for-life-campaign-guide
A 2020 survey by the Federation of App Based Transport Workers (IFAT) showed that 89% of the over 2,000 drivers surveyed are young adults, between 20 and 40 years of age.
The Sarvodaya Drivers Association, union app-based drivers across India and the ITF (International Transport Federation) Delhi Office began networking with various drivers in the shared platform economy, mobilising and meeting them, sharing stories of struggles and contacts with similar workers around the globe.
Drivers for Uber and OLA Cabs, members of the Sarvodaya Drivers Association, struck for five days in 2017 and were able to enforce a near-complete shutdown in Delhi and satellite towns. Uber and OLA Cabs together control 96% of the market.
The drivers had been pushed into unfavourable loans to purchase cars. With steep surcharges, reduced payment rates and frequent deductions due to arbitrary penalties, and long working hours, drivers said their income fell to a tenth of what it was in 2015, putting them under immense pressure to pay their next loan instalments. On average the drivers spend close to 16-20 hours in their cars a day.
After two years of hard work and a second larger and longer multi-city strike in 2018, the Indian Federation of App Based Transport Workers (IFAT) was formed in December 2019. It now has a membership of approximately 25,000 drivers from 15 Indian cities and IFAT is expanding their organising to include food delivery riders at companies like Swiggy, Zomato and Dunzo.
Sangam Tripathy, ITF Asia Pacific Region, Assistant Regional Secretary
What steps can the union take to organise campaigns that focus on organising youth and issues of concern to youth?
Who will be involved in planning and leading the organising campaign?
What skills, education programmes and activities are needed to ensure that young workers participate in and lead campaigning and organising?
What communication tools are necessary to reach and include young workers in the campaign?
Many young workers may not interact with unions during their entire working lives. A survey of Australian young workers in 2016 found that over half have never been asked to join a union.
“Trade unions in Europe face an existential crisis. Either we recruit young new members in considerable numbers, or within a matter of decades we will no longer exist as mass-membership organisations. The vast majority of European trade unions - 27 out of 31 countries - cannot stop membership decline and are experiencing a slow, but almost continuous loss of trade union density. If the current de-unionisation trend continues, unions in Europe will lose at least more than 11 million members, i.e. 26% of their current members, in the next 10 years.
The median age of union members has increased. Many members are in their mid- 40s to early 50s. The percentage of people under 25 joining a union has fallen significantly. This is worrying because there is a strong association between joining young and remaining a member – people who do not join a union relatively young are much less likely to join later. Recruitment of more young people is therefore crucial for the survival of the trade union movement.
www.etuc.org/sites/default/files/publication/file/2021-03/ETUC-Youth%20guide_EN.pdf
Personal contact and a sense of the collective are important to recruiting workers to join unions. In the words of one young worker, “I just want a union that has my back and where I can call them my friends. It should be as simple as … join this lot, they will have your back.” A visible presence of young union leaders is important to prevent young workers from viewing the union as “old, male and stale”.
With the majority of young workers in informal work, it is not enough for unions to wait for young workers to find secure work and hope that they will be more likely to join a union then.
As a young worker, if everyone around you is facing similar problems without resolution it can become common to accept bad conditions and even see the situation as “normal”. It may be easier to leave a job and find another one rather than confront the problems.
If workers are working at informal and temporary jobs or are misclassified as “self-employed”, it may not be clear which union they are to join or where or how to find a union.
With no clear personal access point to the union, workers do not tend to join. A combination of in-person relationship and an easily accessible and clear process to join the union are needed. Many young workers need a union presence on media platforms that they regularly access. Unions may need to update and upgrade their use of social media and be fully equipped to run online campaigns. At the same time, person-to-person relationships
In the Philippines, the Respect Fast Food Workers Alliance, a member of the trade union centre SENTRO, has been campaigning against wage theft. A 2013 survey conducted by the young fast-food workers found that McDonalds requires them to work an average of 41 minutes extra at the end of each shift, equivalent to approximately 10% of their wages. The workers rallied and protested, demanding that Ronald McDonald be arrested for wage theft. In response, the Golden Arches Development Corporation (GADC), which operates Macdonalds stores, said it “does not condone such practices” and “is looking into the points raised”. The young fast-food workers are continuing to organise against wage theft.
Unions might need easier joining methods, such as online application forms and simplified or reduced fee structures for young workers, students, interns, and apprenticeships. Unions need a combination of face-to-face personal contact and digital organising to be most effective.
Young workers in Iraq have put a plan in place for digital organising, where they can explore free apps and social medica platforms and conduct a pilot phase to see to what extent current and new union members are using the apps and social media platforms. The young workers are playing a major role in spreading the use of the social media and apps.
“We have a facebook group that has 140,000 members in it, all the union announcements are shared on it and there is a link to ‘files’ on this group, where all introductory documents about the union are uploaded,” explains Mohammed Sbeeh, member of the Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq (IFOU)
Unpublished interviews of young workers in Arab World transport unions
In a survey of new members of a Belgian union, no less than 41% said they would be willing to carry out at least one small task aimed at reaching out to potential members.
The follow-up with new members is adjusted to fit the worker’s situation and relationships are built. The outreach has been found to be more successful when tasks are part of a union campaign or articulated political vision.
The union recommends including a question on membership forms asking the new member to rate the extent to which they believe they can make a difference in the union, or if they would be willing to assist the union in small tasks and then following up with each new member who shows interest.
A 2003 survey of university age students in Australia found that 14% of respondents stated that if asked by a workmate who was in the union they would join. Were they to do so this would have more than doubled the density of this age group at the time.
In 2019, Australian unions held a series of discussion forums with 69 young workers aged 17 to 34. During the discussions about how to increase young worker participation in unions, every group mentioned creating and building community.
Damian Oliver. 2010. “Union membership among young graduate workers in Australia. Industrial Relations Journal.
Young workers may move from job to job and may not be classified as employees. In 1999, the Netherlands Trade Union Federation, FNV opened membership to self-employed workers. FNV now has 25,000 self-employed workers among its members, many of them young workers. As part of their membership package, self-employed workers can arrange health or disability insurance at better rates.
ITUC Economic and Political Agenda for Young Workers. https://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/our_economic_and_political_agenda_for_young_workers_en.pdf
In South Africa, SACCAWU, a trade union organising workers in the commercial and catering sector developed an organising drive for young women workers. They created two teams of young women in each of the SACCAWU regions. Union activists organised small meetings of six young women workers every fortnight. These six young women were then instructed on how to recruit new members. A target of each person recruiting four new members was discussed and decided on.
Two hundred recruiters got involved in this recruiting drive. From the new recruits, a core group of young women activists was formed.
One of the activists explained the importance of the recruiting work like this: “The campaign has helped me understand that we should not be afraid of men or anyone. Before I didn’t like speaking to other people, especially about things that really affect me. Before, I lived with the apprehension that as a woman, and even more so as a young woman, what I had to say would not have any impact … Now I want to change something in the lives of young people, something to ensure that their view are heard and acted on. I would like to reach out to as many young people as possible.”
ITUC Decisions for Life Campaign. https://www.ituc-csi.org/decisions-for-life-campaign-guide
Mohammad Sayed of the Egyptian General Union of Workers of the Public Transport Authority (GUWPTA) holds that “digital organising for communicating with members and unorganized workers is important. There is no routine and no need of committing to unnecessary periodic meetings. In fact, finding solutions and responding to issues can be immediate through social media. Many of the issues are related to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), so social media helps us respond to work accidents without having to completely follow the slower or more bureaucratic procedures."
Mohamound Atif, a member of the Suez Canal Authority Port Said Union (SCAPSU) and the head of the Youth Committee states that “[d]ue to the accessibility of social media network, things become chaos at the beginning. As a result, we set administrators to monitor the groups and regulate the posts. As some of the urgent posts would get lost amongst the other random posts. And this worked very well! We have also created a blog for all the union’s news and activities, which gives our work visibility and hopefully encourages other young workers to affiliate to the union.”
Unpublished interview of young workers in Arab World transport unions
How do young workers access the union?
Does the union have access to employer induction or training sessions for new workers?
What can be done to make the union more accessible for young workers?
How can you recruit and involve more young workers in the union?
Young workers need to participate in as well as lead union work. Trade union education is a critical element.
Unions need trade union education that systematically develops young workers´ leadership skills and capacity to drive campaigns and union work, including organising and collective bargaining.
For example, the materials on Collective Bargaining can be used to create a bargaining plan focused on issues of concern to youth and to increase the participation of youth in the bargaining process. Or the materials on Women and Gender can be used to increase the involvement of young women workers.
All workers, including young workers, need information about what unions are, the importance of the working class in the political economy, and their basic rights at work.
All workers, young and old, benefit from participatory learning that is tailored to workers´ direct experiences and desire to create a more just world. Most of us have not been exposed to education that prepares us to create the world we want to live in. Trade union education can fill this gap.
The UGT in Spain developed a curriculum that outlines basic labour rights for young workers. The materials open with the following introduction:
“We ask you to reflect on these questions:
The answer is simple: They have prepared us to produce in the most effective way possible, and for this, it is necessary that we do not question anything, that we do not have even minimum knowledge, and that we do not demand or claim anything.
This system does not seek the collective benefit for all; it only pursues the progress of those who control it.
For this reason, we offer you this small guide so that it can serve you as a
support to know your rights before accessing your first job or to assist you if you are already suffering in your job.
But above all, we want it to serve for you to reflect on these questions:
If they never taught you any of this, it is not a coincidence or an oversight; others want it that way.
We want you to commit to continue learning and collaborating with coworkers and
social partners to achieve a balance where we can produce in exchange for
fair compensation.
If you do not have a dignified life, a decent salary and conditions, if you can’t be free to develop as a person and build your life, do not wait for something, because it won’t come, you must take action and let your voice be heard.”
www.ugt.es/sites/default/files/la_garra_saca_tu_garra_defiende_tus_derechos_ugt_ruge.pdf
Unions can support young workers with more than memorable experiences of direct action and mobilisation. Trade union education can provide transferrable, tangible skills on how to speak out, organise and build power. Trade union education can help unions increase collective, cooperative, and participatory decision-making. A good trade union education programme can create a leadership pipeline into the union.
The following quote is from Shasha Rodriquez, a leader of Youth United for Change, an organisation of working-class, secondary-school-aged youth.
“We are not trained to ask questions about the society we live in, neither are we taught to question the policies a decision-maker comes up with. We learn together and from each other. We developed our leadership together and we were applying what we’ve learned and the skills we built to campaign actions. We got to test our new recruitment skills in order to get parents involved. Other members and I got to work on our speechwriting and delivery skills. I was a student who always had a hard time being the person to initiate a conversation or friendship in general. We developed a habit of debriefing and reflecting on meetings, events, and actions we participate in. There is political education and protesting and also there is personal growth, comradery, leadership development, a deeper understanding of the world we live in, new skills to take with you and a chance to make an impact on our education system and the community.”
Youth United for Change. www.youthunitedforchange.org/ytwon
Action planning needs to be built into trade union education. Study circles, discussion groups and workshops on any topic can include a section on planning how we will reach out to other workers and take action to improve workers lives. Reporting back on how these actions went builds the collective and brings a rigor and increased level of commitment.
Skill-building is important to young workers and can be done collectively. For example, to develop public speaking skills, a group of young workers can divide into pairs where they each prepare to give a short speech on a key topic, making one to three key points in the speech. They can first practice with each other in pairs, and then with the larger group, giving each other feedback and support. The same process can be used to practice and learn a number of other skills.
Trade union education is not limited to formal educational events. Soccer/football games and other sporting events, birthdays, sharing meals, coffee, tea or mate parties can be used to engage in one-on-one and collective conversations about work.
Young workers in Egypt are likely to join unions through activities and the most popular activity in the region is a football match where unorganised workers are welcomed to join the organised members of the union. Other young workers look at the progress the unions have made and join based on these wins.
Unpublished interview of young workers in Arab World transport unions
One-on-one union mentoring programmes are important. Mentoring supports the deep sharing of experience and knowledge. Mentors can be drawn from experienced union activists and leaders and retired union leaders (matching by interest, gender, race/ethnicity, skills, and experiences). Young working-class people sometimes do not have the networks that provide insight into certain industries where they would like to work, so matching them with mentors from their aspirational jobs, not necessarily their current job, may be of benefit.
Mentors and mentees should meet regularly and can benefit from creating a list of topics they agree to cover. Good mentors support workers in finding their own voice. Mentors learn much from working with young workers and vice versa. Mentors help workers practice skills and analyse and evaluate strategies. Mentors are guides who can work together with workers to analyse, test, and debrief organising plans.
UNI Global Union, the global trade union federation for the private service sectors, has developed a mentoring programme for young union women. The UNI manual provides a sample mentoring agreement, reporting forms and a recommended process
The programme supports an experienced generally older person (mentor) with a generally younger person (mentee) to meet regularly together over a long period of time. The tandems decide where they want to focus their union work together and provide regular written reports to the global UNI Mentoring Program Committee.
www.uniglobalunion.org/sites/default/files/imce/manual_for_uni_mentoring_program-en.pdf
What kind of trade union education would be most effective for young workers?
Does the union have a mentoring programme? If not, how could you build one?
How can you increase the participation of young workers in trade union education?
After important union events is there an opportunity to analyse and reflect on the event?
Self-organisation spaces for young workers help young workers to confront unequal power relations at work and in the union. Self-organisation space within the union might take the form of young workers’ committees, commissions, secretariats, conferences, house meetings, social events, educational sessions and trainings and networks.
It is important that youth departments or committees are not isolated or distanced from the central work of the union. Ensure that young workers are not operating as a “rent-a-crowd” mobilisation operation, but are full participants in the union, involved in decision-making and campaign planning and strategy development and with space and resources to do the work – “nothing for us, nothing without us”.
Approximately half of the members of the Argentina aviation union for ground staff (APA) are young workers. In 2012, the union created three new secretariats for youth, human rights, and gender equality. Lucrecia Castro Feijoó was the first Secretary of Youth. She also served as Secretary of Youth for the national center CTA in Buenos Aires (Central de los Trabajadores de Argentina). Under her leadership, thousands of young workers were trained to become political cadres, delegates, and elected leaders, transforming the concrete reality of workers and society. Lucrecia led a national plenary gathering of over 600 young union leaders in 2019. Lucrecia passed away in 2021, but she will continue to inspire similar work in other Argentinean unions, in the region and around the world.
“Young people have to occupy positions of power in the unions, participate in real decision-making, in collective bargaining, be union delegates, and be members of the Secretariat in all unions. For a real transformation, it is essential to train continuously. For that, we need a more effective communication strategy, without the old and conservative forms of the old unionism. We have to reach the youngest with empathy, making them understand that they are the union and that they have to participate. We must have a gender perspective and propose laws such as the national youth law in Argentina. Young people must empower ourselves; we must organize ourselves. Above all we must be united, create alliances with other young people from other unions, be organized, instill the value of solidarity, fight not to lose our rights and win more rights, and be protagonists of a new unionism. "
– Lucrecia Castro Feijoó, Argentine Aeronautical Personnel Association (APA)
FNV, the largest trade union in the Netherlands, created an organisation of young workers called FNV Young and United. Workers under 23 years of age can join FNV at a reduced rate. FNV Young and United helps young workers with paycheck checks, contracts, e-learning training courses, discussion groups on work issues and is a collective voice of young workers with employers and politicians.
Lydia Ferrad, Chair of the Youth Committee of the Fédération Nationale des Travailleurs des Transports (FNTT) in Algeria, explains how involving youth in different union responsibilities and holding them accountable for organising other young workers like themselves can be important.
“I was one of the those who never wanted to affiliate a union, as I never believed in them! Most of the union leaders were old men who do not want change and only work for their own interest. I did not want to be their token/icon for liberalism and equality. However, since the seafarers women committee was established, thanks to Seddiq Barrama (General Secretary of the FNTT), I have changed my mind completely! They were young women like me, and we had the freedom of expressing our thoughts and needs. Talking from woman to woman is easier, it helps us a lot in identifying the changes that we need, it also attracts other women to the union.”
Unpublished interview of young workers in Arab World transport unions
What spaces for self-organisation of young workers exist in the union? What ways do young workers work together and communicate? How effective are these spaces?
What is needed to build strong, cohesive, well-resourced structures and permanent self-organisation of young workers? What material and political support is needed?
Which union structures (assemblies, congresses, meetings, decision-making bodies) will you need to approach and what can they contribute to support youth self-organisation? How can you build alliances? What opposition might you encounter? What political space or mandates and resources need to be negotiated?
If young workers do not see young workers leading and participating in the union, they might feel like the union is not meant for them.
A first step to improving representation may be a thorough audit to determine how many young workers are in leadership positions or are actively participating in the union. An audit can help establish a baseline from which benchmarks and goals can be created. Quotas or specific goals can be set for youth participation at union events, education programmes and in decision-making structures.
In the last nine years, the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU) has developed youth campaigns and structures, and empowered the Union Board in mentoring young workers.
The ATGWU youth committee runs monthly meetings with an annual budget for its activities which include organising young workers into the union, education and training, campaigning, and organising, international youth day celebrations, and fighting discrimination against young workers. There are fully constituted youth committees at the different union levels, including from shops and associations, with both formal and informal workers involved.
The 2018 youth unemployment campaign demanded that young workers be mentored, trained, and equipped with knowledge to take on top leadership positions in the workplaces and in the union. The campaign included activities such as the cleaning of the taxi parks and distributing leaflets on why it is important to join the union. 87 new members were recruited into the union and social media platforms such as facebook and twitter were strengthened.
The 2019 ‘Youth Camp’ involved 125 young workers from a variety of different unions both locally and internationally in training and activities.
After 30 years of no active youth involvement structures, the ATGWU has now incorporated young workers in top leadership positions and the number of young workers in the union has increased.
Adapted from “ATGWU Uganda Case Study and Successful Stories on Organising Young Workers”
The Mongolian Transport, Communications and Petroleum Workers Union has a youth committee consisting of nine board members representing aviation, urban transport, petroleum, and communications workers. The union has 2800 young members out of a total of 3765, with young workers representing 74% of the membership.
“Young workers should be involved on unions’ executive boards. This is not easy because some people think very traditionally. But it’s important that we are not a department that is apart from the union.” Fatima Auado Queipo, CC.OO, Spain
The Belgian railway union (Algemene Centrale der Openbare Diensten) has created three places on its national executive board for young workers, along with regional-level youth committees and active outreach to young workers supporting them to become active on the shop floor in defence of workers’ rights.
ITF Resource Pack. Making Unions Work for Young People. https://www.itfglobal.org/sites/default/files/node/resources/files/Youth%20pack_0.pdf
In 2014, the Bakers, Food and Allied workers union in the UK targeted fast-food workers, with a high proportion of young workers.
A special branch of the union was set up and led by young fast-food workers.
The union changed the rules for the annual union congress to allow extra delegates under the age of 27, expanding the usual allocated delegations. At the first congress after the rule change, there were between 60 and 70 young members attending out of 209 delegates. In the past there had only been one or two young delegates.
How many young workers are in leadership positions in the union?
What is the nomination and election process for elected leadership positions in the union?
How are young workers recruited to leadership positions in the union?
What support is and can be given to young workers standing for union election?
What obstacles do young workers face when becoming leaders in unions? How can these be overcome?
How many young workers participate in union activities compared with workers over 35?
What are the key union meetings and events?
Can young workers participate in them easily?
Can the format of meetings be improved?
How are women, racialised and migrant workers, and informal workers well-represented within the young workers who are participating in and leading the union?
What steps can be taken to improve the representation of key groups?
Is there an equality and equity policy developed with and focused on the effective participation of young workers?
How effective is it?
Are benchmarks, goals or quotas needed?
How do gender, racialised and migrant workers, and informal workers intersect with the benchmark, goals and/or quotas for young workers?
Unions have a strong role to play in ensuring that young people everywhere have access to training programmes and a path to decent work.
Unions can connect with young people at secondary schools, universities and through internships and apprenticeships. In this way, new young workers coming into work can be educated from the beginning about the importance of unions.
Some unions have encouraged school-aged young people to visit their parent’s workplaces to learn more about where their parents work and how the union functions.
Unions have created union internships and union summer schools for young workers to learn about and assist with campaigning and organising. Secondary school and university professors can help identify students who show an interest in social justice issues. Unions can give classroom presentations and then schedule time to meet individually with students who are interested in union campaigning and organising.
The Australia Council of Trade Unions has a website and curriculum specifically designed for years 9 and 10 of secondary school with union-positive information about rights at work, youth rates of pay, causal work, apprenticeships and internships and information on how to find your first job. They work with teachers to meet curriculum requirements and to promote the programme within the secondary schools.
Work-based learning such as union apprenticeship programmes can help young workers gain life-changing skills and get decent jobs – including in industries prioritised by climate change.
Unions in the UK have developed lifelong learning workplace representatives who help workers access additional education and training throughout their work lives. Union learning representatives are members of their union, elected by their fellow workers and recognised by the employer. They are entitled by law to reasonable paid and unpaid time off.
Unions can use apprenticeship programmes to bring in women, migrants, and racialised workers and other underrepresented groups into the union and workforce. A union apprenticeship program can take up to six years of classroom and on-the-job training and may include work with an experienced worker as a mentor. Good apprenticeship working conditions and wages are key to recruiting young workers and creating the skilled workforce that we need for the future. In spite of the efforts of unions, unpaid and poorly paid internships are becoming more common in some countries.
The Ironworkers Union in California recruits Latino, Black, formally incarcerated, and paroled workers to their four-year apprenticeship programme. By 2017, Latinos represented more than half of all new Ironworker apprentices. This is a historic shift from the past, when the union was majority White workers and apprenticeships were primarily given to relatives of White members.
The Maritime Union in Argentina has created a school where they train aspiring seafarers. Once the training is completed, the union awards the trainees a certificate that allows them to work on board, and then places them in a job. This gives the union power over the recruitment, job training and placement of the workforce. Workers benefit from representation and participation in the union from the beginning of their training until they retire.
The German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB)’s youth section publishes a regular report on apprenticeship conditions. The DGB and its member unions use the results of the report to support workplace campaigns and to advocate for better working conditions for apprenticeships with employers and government representatives and through revisions of the vocational training act.
The union of chemical workers in Germany has an agreement with employers called “Future for Work Through Training”. In order to facilitate employment of trained young workers, a type of employment fund was established, financed through contributions by all companies of the industry.
ITUC Economic and Political Agenda for Young Workers. https://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/our_economic_and_political_agenda_for_young_workers_en.pdf
How can young employed and unemployed workers be involved in the fight for decent work?
What kind of apprenticeships and internships exist in your union and industry? What can be done to improve them?
Can interns and apprenticeships be recruited to become more involved in other union activities and programmes?
Does the union have an interest in accessing students at secondary schools or universities? If so, what kind of programme would be most effective?
ITUC Economic and Political Agenda for Young Workers
https://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/our_economic_and_political_agenda_for_young_workers_en.pdf
ITUC Decisions for Life Campaign Guide
https://www.ituc-csi.org/decisions-for-life-campaign-guide
Employment Studies Center. 2000. “Young People’s Attitudes to Trade Unions: A Study Prepared for the Newcastle Trades Hall Council”
ETUC. 2021. Engaging Young People in Trade Unions
https://www.etuc.org/en/publication/engaging-young-people-trade-unions
Youth United for Change.
https://www.youthunitedforchange.org/ytwon
UNI. Manual for Mentoring Program
https://www.uniglobalunion.org/sites/default/files/imce/manual_for_uni_mentoring_program-en.pdf
ETUC Recommendations for Engaging Young People in Trade Unions
https://www.etuc.org/sites/default/files/publication/file/2021-03/ETUC-Youth%20guide_EN.pdf