You don't have to be 30 to be a rep

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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"If you feel ready then stand for election," was the message from Dave Ward to young members of the CWU, after a thought-provoking speech to the postal executive from the union's new youth leader Chris Hand today (Tuesday).

Chris, who is a unit rep at Stretford Delivery Office in Greater Manchester, was elected as national chair of the CWU youth advisory committee last year and is determined to bring a strong industrial focus to the role.

Speaking to the executive, Chris set out some of the difficulties facing young workers in today's workplaces and the need for specific recruitment strategies aimed at them when they start work.

"Many younger people have no knowledge of the union movement, either what it's for or what it can do for them," he said and added that, as well as explaining the advantages of union membership in the here and now, "we also need to give a short history of the union movement to people."

This current period was a good time to be recruiting, he continued, pointing to the "groundbreaking deal" that Dave and the national negotiating team have achieved, and adding that there is a CWU Youth Day planned for April 28th.

CWU members are eligible to serve on the youth advisory committee and participate in the union's youth structures and activities up to the age of 30, but unfortunately, Chris continued: "Some activists lose interest when they reach 30 and drop out of active involvement."

This theme was taken up during the debate following Chris's speech, with several executive members pointing out that they themselves had served as unit reps and branch secretaries and on other positions when they had still been in their 20s and that keen young activists in their 20s should be encouraged to follow Chris's example and participate fully in the union's mainstream activities.

Specific mention was made of the new workplace committees, that are being set up by members at delivery offices under the Meeting The Challenge initiative, as an example of mainstream CWU activity that would be particularly suitable for new, young members.

In response to the recruitment ideas that Chris had put forward, it was suggested that the postal executive's recruitment and organising sub-committee could give a presentation on its work to the CWU youth advisory committee.

Summing up the debate, Dave Ward thanked Chris for his "excellent and very honest presentation" and added that the purpose of the youth advisory committee, as with the other advisory committees, was to attract and develop new young activists in order to channel them into the mainstream of the union and strengthen the union as a whole.

"So they're a means to an end rather than an end in themselves," he pointed out.

And he urged Chris to encourage other young members to follow his own positive example as a unit rep and to become actively involved in the front line industrial organisation of the union.

"We need to strengthen our engagement and re-energise our structures - we've got to get people to believe that their strength comes from having solid organisation at local workplace level."

[Lincox]

Backed up by an executive that does not pay lip service to consultative ballots.