Galvanising a generation

With only 10 per cent of Unite’s 1.4m membership aged under 30 the race is on to recruit young workers and get them active in the union.

Anthony Curley will be key to developments. Aged 27, he became Unite’s first ever national youth co-ordinator in January.

He brings to the post his successful union organising role during his time as a call centre worker at Lloyds in Speke on Merseyside. Unite has a national recognition agreement with the banking group but there was no site workplace representative and few members when Anthony began work there five years ago.

“I became the first Unite representative and helped develop a team of reps that boosted membership to 280, mainly young people, which was an 80 per cent density,” explains Anthony.

That was a considerable achievement as Anthony discovered the young workforce lacked ideas about what a union is for.

Fridge fight

“We were in a multi-billion pound industry. Yet we found that when we asked workers what they most wanted it was a fridge on site! We then did a petition. It was simple but it was the first time workers had been asked about their needs and we demonstrated we could deliver when Lloyds installed a fridge,” he says.

After that first success, Unite’s follow-up campaigns included tackling mental health and opposing bullying and harassment. Meanwhile, Anthony was elected onto the Unite North West region young members’ committee (YMC) before taking up a place on the national YMC.

The latter carried out the first ever survey of Unite young members in November 2014. This revealed that 92 per cent had no idea there was a YMC. Anthony was unsurprised. “We have a major challenge ahead ensuring young people know there are structures which enable them to get active and help build Unite in order to improve pay and conditions.”

The survey also revealed young members five major needs – a  wage you can live on, guaranteed hours, safe and secure work, clear training opportunities and a union voice.

These form the basis of Unite’s Decentwork4all national campaign. This was launched at the 2015 Young Members’ Conference and targets employers such as Sports Direct, McDonalds and GI where many young people are employed on zero hours contracts and paid the minimum wage. The campaign has recruited 15,000 new young Unite members.

Bryan Sanderson, the young members observer on Unite’s Executive Council, believes Anthony has been key to this growth.

“He has succeeded by helping make the regional young members committees start to become coordinating committees,” said Bryan.

“The galvanising of a new generation of militant young trade unionists has meant many more young people understand the benefits of being in Unite.”

Further progress on getting young people involved was also made at the Unite 2015 rules revision conference. Delegates there voted to allow each regional YMC to be send two delegates to biennial delegate conferences and agreed that the national YMC will have an Executive Council delegate.

“Those were positive moves. Increasingly older members understand that Unite must involve young people at every level. We have a difficult struggle ahead. I’d urge any interested young member to get active, older members can also help with our campaigns and can tell their children about the benefits of joining Unite,” said Anthony.

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