- Conference
- 2025 Energy Service Group Conference
- Date
- 14 February 2025
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes that 11.6% of members in the Energy Service Group were young members according to data from RMS in January 2025.
Conference notes the specific barriers to young members in becoming active and involved in UNISON. Young members are more likely to experience low pay and precarious employment. They are less likely to be familiar with the ways that trade unions work and their structures, and to feel intimidated or anxious about attending meetings. Young members who are Black, LGBT+, disabled or women may experience multiple barriers to becoming active.
Many employers across the Energy Service Group may offer apprenticeship programmes. Conference notes that although not all apprentices are young workers, many may be, and addressing the terms and conditions of apprentices and the quality of apprenticeships offered in the Energy sector may be a way to recruit and organise young workers across the service group.
Conference believes that the full participation of young members is vital to the success of the union in developing a sustainable Energy sector activist base for the future and making sure that the voices of young workers are heard across the sector.
Conference asks the Energy Service Group Executive to:
1)Work with the National Young Members Forum (NYMF) to develop a strategy to increase the numbers of young members and activists across the Energy sector;
2)Map the employment of apprentices across the Energy Service Group and work with Energy branches to develop recruitment initiatives aimed at encouraging apprentices in the Energy sector to join UNISON;
3)Promote UNISON’s apprenticeship charter to branches where there are significant numbers of apprentice workers, and support branches in bargaining for improved terms and conditions for apprentices;
4)Ask branches across the Energy sector to identify and share challenges and success stories in recruiting and developing young activists;
5)Encourage branches across the service group to promote the LGBT+ Young Members Network and the Young Black Members Network to young members in Energy;
6)Encourage and support branches in the Energy Service Group to develop mentoring and buddying schemes to support new young branch and regional activists, including promoting UNISON’s Learning and Organising Service’s (LAOS) resources on mentoring and buddying.