- Conference
- 2002 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 26 February 2002
- Decision
- Carried
Conference acknowledges that young members are the future of UNISON and that it is vitally important they are supported and encouraged to be active.
Conference welcomes the commitment being shown to young members by the national Union through the prioritising of organising and recruiting work with young members, including the young members organising and recruitment pilot schemes being run in conjunction with two regions.
Conference also applauds those branches who support and encourage young members to become more active in the Union, but recognises there is still a long way to go in ensuring young members are fully involved in organising at all levels of UNISON.
It is noted that although we have many enthusiastic and keen young activists we very rarely see any in key branch/regional or national positions. If this Union is to survive we must help young members take up positions at all levels of the organisation.
Conference calls upon branches and regions to:
1)Encourage young members to stand for elected positions at all levels of UNISON, including National Executive Council and National Service Group Executive seats;
2)Look into the possibility of rotating branch/regional positions to enable young members to gain experience and to bring fresh ideas forward;
3)Include in their development plans/organising plans and prioritisation processes, properly resourced proposals for recruiting and involving young members;
4)Organise active young members into recruitment teams to help target workplaces with substantial numbers of non-unionised young employees.
Conference calls on the National Executive Council to:
a)Ensure that effective examples of organising and recruiting young members are fully publicised within UNISON as part of sharing good practice, and are adapted for use in training course case studies;
b)Recognise the continuing importance of giving young members a high profile in UNISON’s media work as part of the process of making UNISON more appealing to a younger audience;
c)Publish regular reports in UNISON Focus on the progress of the young members regional recruitment and organising pilots;
d)Continue to work with the National Young Members’ Forum on developing the role and participation of young members within UNISON.