Why young workers need unions…and unions need them

On Tuesday 10th November I spoke at an event at Birmingham University Business School called “Do Young Workers Need Unions?” — this is what I said.

Firstly I’d like to thank Andy for the invitation to speak this evening and also for the contribution he’s made to what I believe is the key organising challenge facing the trade union movement today.

The answer to the question posed this evening is easy enough — yes, young workers do need unions — and I’ll say why I think that’s the case — but if you don’t mind, the majority of my contribution will concern what it is I think the trade union movement needs to do to reach out to young workers and organise them.

The challenges that face young people in our country are profound:

They face high levels of unemployment, and of those in work many are in jobs far below their skill level and are trapped in low paid or part time work.

Graduates face a double whammy of chasing non-graduate jobs and dealing with student debt

In the retail and hospitality sectors — where hundreds of thousands of young people get their first experience of the world of work — zero hours contracts and the minimum wage are the default terms and conditions.

All of this of course has an impact on life beyond the workplace — for most young people the idea of owning their own home either themselves or with a partner remains a distant dream, as increasingly is finding somewhere decent and affordable in the private rented sector.

And there’s an even more worrying aspect of real life for many young people.

In 2014 the Princes Trust released a survey that found 40 per cent of jobless young people have faced symptoms of mental illness — including panic attacks, suicidal thoughts and feelings of self-loathing — as a direct result of being unemployed

One in 10 young people (11 per cent) have been prescribed anti-depressants — 26 per cent of young people have felt suicidal — and one in five have self-harmed

So whatever way you look at it these are profoundly challenging times for young people and young workers.

My background

Before I get onto why unions are relevant to young workers and what I think unions and the TUC need to do to organise them more effectively — let me tell you something about myself and my background which probably informs the perspective and views I’ll talk about tonight

I first joined a trade union — the CPSA (now PCS) when I was 17 — when I was working in the civil service in Liverpool.

Now joining a union — whilst working in the public sector — in Liverpool — in the mid 80s — wasn’t exactly an exceptional thing to do.

I was lucky. I was asked to join the union on my first day at work; I joined a well-organised branch in a workplace that had over 80 per cent density.

I got active — firstly handing out the branch newsletter to colleagues on my floor — then becoming the floor rep before being elected to the branch committee.

After a bit I became the Branch Chair, then Branch Secretary and then after a bit more time I secured my grip on the whole work place(!) by becoming the Chair of the Trade Union Side.

It was a great place to learn about unions, organising and collective action.

We ran some great campaigns — we fought off an attempt to privatise our work — but I also learnt about the real meat and drink of workplace trade unionism — representing individual members.

After 14 years of workplace activism I was lucky enough to join the third intake of the TUC Organising Academy as a Trainee Organiser with the ISTC (now part of community). Back then the ISTC boasted one of the most hard core organising units around and it underpinned my belief in organising and that the route to union revitalisation is unions getting out and speaking to workers.

Now I tell you all this not because I think my story is particularly interesting — but to make two points.

Firstly that my story is typical of many trade unionists today and certainly many trade union leaders and senior activists — who work — or did work — in well organised workplaces; in companies with longstanding union agreements; perhaps in manufacturing, in engineering, in transport, the professions, or increasingly the public sector.

But, and this is the second point, it isn’t typical of many young workers today who overwhelmingly work in the private service sector where there is little or no trade union organisation.

In 2012 there were half a million young people employed in accommodation and food services, a sector in which union density was just 3.5 per cent. Almost one million young people worked in wholesale and retail where density was 12 per cent and almost a quarter of a million worked in manufacturing where less than one in five workers were in a union.

The organising challenge

It’s the picture created by stats such as these that sets out the organising challenge that faces unions when it comes to young workers.

The last Labour Force Survey reported that union density amongst workers aged 16 to 24 was just 8 per cent. That figure in my mind is bad enough but when you consider the bigger picture presented by the age profile of existing union members its then that things really start to get worrying

Trade union members are an ageing demographic. Approximately 38 per cent of trade union members were aged 50 and over in 2014. Since 1995 the proportion of union members aged below 50 has fallen whilst the proportion aged 50 and over has increased by one third. The number of union members aged between 25 and 34 has fallen by one quarter over the same period.

In 2014, density amongst workers aged 35 to 49 was 28.7 per cent and amongst workers aged 50 plus, was 32.3 per cent. Approximately 37 per cent of union members are aged 50 or over against 27 per cent of all employees being in this age group.

And alongside an ageing membership we have an ageing activist base

In 1991 the average age of a union activist was 40; by 2007 this had risen to 45. In 1991, one in five union activists were under 30 but by 2007 just one in ten were.

For senior union reps, defined as those that negotiate with employers, the average age was 49 — up from 42 in 1980. Just one per cent of senior reps were under 30, nine per cent were aged 30–40 and over half were aged 50 plus.

What is also of concern is the impact that low-density levels amongst younger workers will have on overall density in the future.

Research conducted by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research for the TUC this year found that the reason for higher density levels amongst older workers wasn’t a result of employees becoming more likely to join unions as they get older. Rather they represent the effect of successive cohorts moving through the labour market.

In the 1950s, 60s and 70 the proportion of younger workers who were members of unions was similar to the proportion of older workers — this is in contrast to the figures in the latest labour force survey where density amongst 25–34 year olds was 19 per cent — amongst 35–49 year olds 28 per cent and amongst workers aged 50 plus 32 per cent.

The message from these figures is that one of the most effective ways of ensuring higher union density in the future is to dramatically increase density amongst the present and future generations of younger workers.

If we don’t do this, there is a strong likelihood that density will continue to fall regardless of any other industrial and demographic factors and whatever other responses to the crisis of union membership that we as a movement come up with.

Our response

Now it’s easier to convene a council of despair than it is to come up with a constructive response to these huge challenges, but I’m going to have a go, not least because it’s my job.

Firstly let’s nail the myth that has too often been used to excuse a lack of focus on the urgent task of organising young workers.

This is the so-called ‘Thatcher’s generation’ effect which holds that it’s the lasting legacy of Thatcherism — the emphasis on individualism — that has caused such low levels of membership amongst young people.

As we know this is — and always was — rubbish. The suggestion that something entered the gene pool around May 1979 and made those born after this date genetically disinclined towards unions has always struck me as somewhat defeatist and pretty ridiculous.

That’s not to say we don’t have an image problem amongst young people — we do! Although it would be more accurate to say that amongst the vast majority of young people we have no image whatsoever — good or bad.

This highlights the real reason why so few working young people are union members. Quite simply, in the kinds of workplaces and sectors in which many young people work, or at least get their first job, there is no union to join.

The best rebuttal of the ‘Thatcher’s generation’ argument is to look at the performance of unions recruiting young people in workplaces where the union is well organised. Across a range of sectors — in teaching, amongst nurses, in the civil service, on the railway and even in parts of the retail sector where unions are present — unions have demonstrated that if the union is present and active in a workplace then it’s no more difficult to get young people join than their older colleagues.

But if you are a young worker doing cold calls in a call centre; if you work in a high street shop; or a hotel; the likelihood is that you will never ever come across a trade union; meet a trade unionist; never mind, join and become active in a union.

At the end of 2013 the TUC conducted focus group research with four groups of young people not in unions who work in the private sector.

They were an attempt for us to try and understand what working life is like for them — and what they think of when they think of unions, if indeed they ever do. What they told us was interesting.

On one level, people said they were relatively happy at work, but scratch the surface and the story was very different. People complained about bad bosses; about favouritism; about bullying and harassment; about being short-changed at payday; about not having a voice at work.

All stuff, you would imagine that is bread and butter to trade unions and all good reasons why people might want to join a union.

But by and large these were young workers who had never come across a union; had no idea what a union was or did beyond what they had seen in the media.

For many, getting a hard time at work was just seen as a fact of life; there was nothing that could be done to change it. They weren’t anti-union; they just didn’t see how a union could make any difference whatsoever.

These findings I think ought to act as a wake up call to the trade union movement and reinforce our efforts to think differently and innovatively about how we reach out to young workers — and I want to make three suggestions about what more we can do going forward.

Number one — organise harder and smarter

First priority for unions has to be organising young workers, particularly in those sectors where we know we have a foothold, where we already represent workers, but where we’ve failed to get out and engage people and bring them into the unions.

It can be done, and there are lots of examples of where unions have turned investment in organising into real membership gains.

As a TUC officer I’m always reluctant to single out individual unions for significant organising efforts because you always end up upsetting those unions you don’t mention — but lets just says there’s plenty going on — albeit not necessarily to the scale required — to demonstrate that even in sectors that are usually classified as ‘hard to organise’ that with the right amount of will, the right strategy and the appropriate resources we can make a difference.

I’ve spent my entire working life either as a member. Activists and official in the trade union movement so for me its an article of faith that young workers will always be stronger together — in a union, but it doesn’t happen by accident. We have to invest in new young activists and in encouraging new people to come forward and be the face of the union.

We have to be more imaginative in how we reach out and allow young workers to hear about unions — who we are, what we do and the way that they can be used to campaign on the issues that they care about.

The traditional response to ‘engaging young people’ in a range of organisations (not just unions) is to establish young members’ structures.

Whilst I have nothing against these, all too often they simply recreate the traditional ways of working (committees/conferences) that exist elsewhere in the organisation. The only real difference being that young people fill the positions usually held by the oldies.

The problem with this is that at its worst — and this has particularly been the case in political parties — this way of ‘engaging young people’ creates an almost professionalised ‘young activist’ who has about as much in common with the majority of their peers as people much older.

Fortunately there’s a flip side and union young members structures have done a lot more to freshen up the issues unions prioritise and crucially, the campaign tactics they use. As a result they’ve had a positive impact on the number of young existing members who get active in the union. But across the movement but they’ve perhaps been underused in reaching out to the majority of young workers who work where there is no union for them to join.

Number two — campaigning that’s involves organising as well as mobilising

One of the things we’ve done with the TUC Young Workers Forum that I’m most proud of is to start a process of turning it into a more campaign-focussed body. We’ve done this by opening up meetings and devoting them to specific issues such as pay, learning and skills and mental health. This work is supported by the two priority campaigns that are chosen each year by the TUC Young Workers Conference.

This supplements much of the good work carried out by unions engaging young workers on a whole range of issues from zero hours contacts, the living wage, unpaid internships and housing. Much of which has been done in partnership with a range of organisations from UK Uncut, 38 degrees and Intern Aware.

We have learnt from these organisations — as I hope they have learnt from us. They have shown us how to make it easier for young workers to get involved in campaign actions that are perhaps more targeted than some of the ways we’ve traditionally used — who could argue that occupying a shop is a more effective immediate action than proposing a motion to a union branch AGM or a conference.

But its here too that I would sound a note of caution:

Much of this activity as good as it is, seems to me to fall on the side of mobilisation. Indeed certainly since the financial crisis within and beyond the trade union movement there’s been an explosion of mobilising — we’ve even started to do it at the TUC!

Now I don’t want to sound as though I’m anti mobilising, if anything we need more of it — but if our campaigns are to have any sustainable benefit they have to be accompanied with deeper organising that ultimately achieves recognition and collective bargaining at the workplace.

The danger of this ‘mobilising model’ is that we can end up just organising those who already agree with us and not expanding our base or our reach. All too often it’s easy to rate success by likes on Facebook or re-tweets in the social media echo chamber. Put that measure of success against new recognition and collective bargaining agreements and you’ll see the point I’m making.

It’s not either or, but the first must surely be used in pursuance of the latter.

We can copy some of the tactics used by the likes of UK Uncut but we mustn’t be tempted to copy their entire organisational model.

To organise effectively and deeply we must get out and speak to young workers one on one — to have what the American Organiser Jane McAlevey calls ‘the hard conversations’ — and use these to develop consciousness about the causes of low pay and other forms of exploitation and to develop what Jane calls ‘organic leaders’.

Number three — develop a whole movement approach

Finally if we’re really to address these challenges, let alone overcome them, we have to develop a one-movement approach.

At its heart that means accepting that overcoming the crisis of membership, particularly amongst young workers, is beyond any individual TUC affiliate. There simply isn’t the capacity or time for individual unions to do this alongside the job of representing the members that they already have.

It’s this one movement approach that we’ve tried to pull together in the TUC’s Young Workers Organising Strategy that was itself a demand from young workers via the TUC Young Workers Conference.

Our intention, working with unions and other partner organisations is to develop a high-profile, outward facing campaign that:

1. Challenges stereotypes of trade unions and positions union as the champions of issues that affect young people

2. Builds the capacity of unions and their young activists

3. Supports & promotes union organising campaigns targeted at young workers

The campaign will exploit issues that are high profile enough to gain national attention and relevant to young workers. In summary, we want to help young workers to get in work; get on in work; and get on in life.

But at the heart of the campaign and the strategy will be looking at how we reach out and bring trade unions and trade union membership closer to young workers

The campaign will give us an opportunity to explore new models of union organisation for young workers.

One of these will be how the TUC and unions might work together to create a gateway to union membership for the hundreds of thousands of young people who work where there is no union to join.

A way to give people a chance to experience what being a union members is and for us to develop a relationship with an entirely new generation of workers, potential members and future leaders and activists.

Conclusion

Colleagues, I’ve left until last what I would do at the start of my remarks — and that’s to say why young people need unions.

Despite the challenges we’ve faced in the past, those we face now and will do in the future, there remains a compelling trade union offer for young workers.

It’s one where if you’re young and work where a union collectively bargains you’re likely to be paid over 35 per cent more than one of your peers who works where there is no union.

It’s one where what rights you have as a worker are accessible and enforceable and you union card acts as a barrier against exploitation and injustice.

And it’s one that provides young people with a voice in a society where they are increasingly marginalised and silent.

In short, it’s what trade unions have offered and secured for and with workers for almost two centuries. And it’s our historic challenge to do it with and for the next generation of workers

So yes — young workers need unions, we’ve always known that — but perhaps what’s only just occurring to us — is how much we need them