John WalshAs Chair of the TUC’s Young Members Forum, I’m very happy to be a guest blogger for today on Stronger Unions.
As a young trade union activist, I’m interested to know what the Government is doing for young people facing the worst of times in this current recession?
And, perhaps more importantly from our perspective, how unions are tackling the challenge of organising young workers concentrated in areas where we have little or no union presense?
How do we speak with young workers, wherever they work, in a language that is relevant?
If you have any further suggestions let the TUC know by emailing Matt Dykes, the TUC’s policy officer for Young People at mdykes@tuc.org.uk
But here are a few of my own thoughts on the matter:
It’s a tough world out there for our younger generation today. For too many young people choices are narrowing as unemployment runs rampant, jobs remain concentrated in low skilled, low paying sectors, unpaid volunteering the only route for many into the professions and competition for decent apprenticeships and university places intensifies with supply lagging well behind demand.
The awareness of the long term effects of the recession on young people’s aspirations and working lives has led to journalists, academics and politicians of all stripes to increasingly speak of a “lost generation”, a cliché perhaps but one with an ominous ring of truth about it for those of us out there facing the sharp end of the labour market in our teens and early twenties.
