Young people have been joining trade unions in decreasing numbers for many years. Eighteen percent of employees aged eighteen to 29 are union members, compared to 44 percent in 1983. The average age of a trade unionist is 47, from a workforce that is rapidly culling workers over 50. So why is the ageing of the trade union movement happening?
The last twenty years have brought about profound social, economic and cultural changes. In the economy, there has been a shift from unionised manufacturing to the service sector. Our society is more individualistic than the one that emerged from the second world war, placing individual choice and freedom as fundamental tenets of our citizenship.
Young people exemplify this in the ever increasing diversity of their lifestyles and careers and in their choices as consumers. More young people wait longer to leave education, to take their first job or make their first career move. Marriage and mortgages now take place much later in life. It is these new conditions that the trade union movement must come to terms with, as it reinvents itself to attract young people.
Traditionally, unions have prospered in industries where an almost captive workforce exists and have addressed members grievances through collective action. In the more fluid and flexible economy of today, these conditions are less common and young people s attitudes towards employment are profoundly different.
Many young workers pursue their individual advancement through further education and career plans. The young can be quick to leave bad employers in favour of ones that support their ambitions. For example, recent research by recruitment website Topjobs found that 50 percent of people under 24 have left their job because they did not like the working environment. Without the ties of a mortgage or family life, this remains a realistic option for many of today s under- 30s and it is far removed from the notion of collective action to address the worker s desire for social progression.
Much of this suggests that trade unions have to change their approach to young people and indeed they are doing so. In recent years, the TUC has pioneered the Organising Academy , which creates the opportunity for young people to become highly skilled trade union officers who can help to organise trade unions in new ways that attract young people and break into new areas of the economy.
The creation of learning representatives is a recognition that people want to strengthen their career options in the workplace as an alternative to direct action. These representatives are responsible for supporting workers in the pursuit of learning opportunities and in gaining support from employers. There are now thousands of learning representatives in the country and the introduction of legislation to support their role in the workplace should see numbers grow.
My own union created UNI-Active to encourage more young members to become active in the union. A series of projects to identify and develop what trade unions can offer to young workers have been embarked upon. Recent projects include introductory courses for young members, recruitment campaigns and the development of a UNIFI Active website.
There has also been excellent work from unions to promote knowledge of employment rights amongst the young. The NUS ran the Are you getting enough? campaign to raise awareness of the minimum wage and other employment rights. The GMB has campaigned for employers to sign up to the massive respect pledge in Manchester, which encompasses all employment legislation designed to protect young workers.
Unions have always existed to deliver what people want out of their working lives. The challenge for unions today is to find new ways to address the expectations of young workers who place their career and working environment at the top of their agenda.