Increasing the involvement of young people in the unions is absolutely central to any recovery of the union movement. Current levels of membership are dangerously low, as shown by the table below.
Table 6:: Percentage of workers who are Trade Union members, 1995. Men Women Of ages All 20-29 30-39 40-49 Source: Labour Market Trends September 1993.
The concentration of membership among older workers is apparent. However, it is also noticeable that among younger workers women are as likely to be union members as men.
More significant perhaps than the level of membership, though harder to pin down specifically, is a growing disengagement of many young people, even those who are politically radical, from trade unions. Unions may be seen by young people as worthy in intention, but dull, ineffective and ultimately irrelevant. If this trend continues and increases, the unions are bound to become marginalised. This is not to deny that in some unions, and at certain times, the energy and commitment of young people is still an important factor. One example here is the Dunnes Stores strike in Ireland in 1995. This involved mainly part-time teenage women workers, many of whom were on so-called 'zero hours' contracts; with no guarantees of work, or of specified working hours, from day to day. The strike, over flat-rate working on Sundays, closed all 62 stores within days and the Irish Distributive and Allied Trades Union
(IDATU) doubled its membership in Dunnes. Indeed, it is because of the role which such examples show young people can play in the movement that it is so important to increase their involvement.
The issues raised in increasing the involvement of young people in trade unions parallel those mentioned above for women. It is important that unions address issues which are of concern to the young, for example the minimum wage, and that opportunities for young people to participate in union structures are maximised. However, there is also the issue of organising the unemployed. The failure of trade unions effectively to take up the rights of the unemployed, and to provide a framework where the unemployed see themselves as part of the union morement, is a big problem, particularly at a time of massive youth unemployment. It is one of the reasons why unions are seen as unimportant by many young people. This situation has to be reversed. A starting point in doing this is the campaign against the Job Seekers Allowance and for union rights for those young people on government training schemes. The struggle against the JSA has united claimants with young activists within the CPSA. However, more is needed. Unions have to find a way of relating to a substantial number of young people whose current relationship to waged work is tenuous. For such people the pull of an individualistic way of looking at the world is very strong. The French group AC! (Agir ensemble contre le chomage - 'Together Against Unemployment') was formed after the national marches against unemployment in 1994 in France. It involves equal participation by unemployed and employed activists, with a strong trade union input, particularly from independent unions such as SUD. It has moved on from the original national focus to call for Europe-wide marches against unemployment.
In addition to the organisation of the unemployed, unions also have to take on the issue of the increasingly large number of students, and school students, undertaking large amounts of generally poorly paid and often non-unionised parttime work. For example, Labour Research in its July 1996 issue reported that, of the 2.1 million people aged under 25 in full-time education in Britain today, 740,000 or 367 were also undertaking paid employment. Of these, 667c of 18year-old, 657 of 19-year-old and 647; of 20-year-old students were earning less than £4 an hour. A GMB survey of students working (reported in Labour Research July 1996) found that 80% working in term time received no sick pay or holiday pay, that 407 got no meal breaks or tea breaks and that 20% reported health and safety problems in the workplace. Of those surveyed 20% reported recognised trade unions present in the workplace, but of the 185 who could have joined a union only 24 had done so.
This situation extends to school students. In 1990 the Low Pay Unit surveyed 1,827 children in 16 Birmingham schools. Their findings, published in the report Hidden Army, were that 576 had part-time jobs, and that 747 of these
were in illegal employment. In a recent survey the London Borough of Greenwich found 656 children doing 1,086 different jobs between them. The council had issued work permits to less than 250 children. Many children were in prohibited jobs: 30 in factories, 29 in street markets, 28 in redecorating houses, 20 selling door to door, 14 on building sites, 13 in furniture removal and 10 in fairgrounds. The rise of this kind of employment is directly linked to the cuts in welfare spending and growth of inequality in recent years, and the consequent crisis of the family. Protection of students and school students at work is inseparable from campaigning for proper grants and education spending, and in defence of the welfare state.