Adrian Rowe, London Transport Regional Council delegate and National Chair of Young Members for 2009/2010 reviews the 2009 Young Members Conference in Birmingham.

Both the Young Members Advisory Committee and the Conference delegation would like to wish a speedy recovery to Ray Spy-Shute (Education Officer), and thank him for all his hard work in preparing for the 2009 conference. We would also like to thank Alastair Gittins from the RMT Policy Department for standing in for Ray as a secretary of our conference.

It’s a cold, February Saturday morning we are in the Comfort inn, in Birmingham; why?? Well…it’s the RMT Young Members Conference 2009.

It was really positive to see lots of new young enthusiastic faces and a row of observers at this years conference.

This years chairperson was Joanne Parry (TfL No1) and the Conference opened with Pat Collins, member of the Council of Executives for the West Midlands, and the Assistant General Secretary, Pat Sikorski.

Pat started by welcoming us and taking us back to 1976, when the country was in a similar financial situation. He talked about how a crisis on jobs affects young members, by companies drastically cutting benefits, terms and conditions, minimum wage and especially companies who use the last-in-first-out redundancy method. Pat talked about the People's Charter and that it was important to have a set of demands. It is designed to bring people together and create a movement. Pat’s main message was “We are a well-organised fighting union, we may not win all the fights but we will continue doing what we need to do to win”.

John Leach is our union's President, his main job is to look after the constitution. John made a point of how he had to leave his young children to join us at the conference. He recognised that he needed to be at the conference because without young members, everything in the union is on “borrowed time”.

John went on to say how important it is that all regions attend the conference; he mentioned that we need to change, have new ideas, fresh thinking, and move forward. Ten years ago the RMT was nearly defeated, but our people came forward and we grew and got stronger. The leadership of this union have a responsibility to provide support, it’s about the people we represent regardless of union position or hierarchy.

John finishes his speech with “We understand the world moves on, We are improving the website and forums to make the RMT a modern Union. Be PROUD to be in RMT, We are a fighting democratic union”.

We then received a report from EC member Nick Quirk. Nick mentioned how he is proud to still be a delegate to the Young Members' Conference, but is sad because he turns 30 soon and it means it is his last year as delegate.

He went on to say thanks to Alastair Gittins for filling in as Conference Secretary, and then to talk briefly about the People's Charter, the fact that our shipping members should be on the same terms and conditions, and how it is imperative to get into schools and teach students about trade unions

This year's guest speaker was Ommund Stokka our Norweigan Comrade, from Industri Energi.

Industri Energi has 55,000 members and ¼ of all Norwegians are in a union. Ommund was very proud to talk about his union, he is the full-time National Youth Officerand talked about youth organisation. This is when they go into schools and talk about students. OILIC also have recognised Youth Representatives in the workplace.

The Union (Industri Energi) runs courses where young members can learn to speak in front of audiences, learn how to present using Powerpoint and communication techniques. They also offer young members residential summer camps. Ommund’s main message was “Gather, Educate, Engage, Invite and Encourage people, over and over and over and over and over again.”

Next we invited Linda Wiles (Branch Secretary of TFL No1) to deliver a delegate training session.

We were split into two groups of eight, and then paired off to discuss key questions, like “what barriers do you face as a young member?” and our $64,000,000,000 question, “How can we get more young members active in the RMT?” Communication was the key message: you will find ways to communicate with the National Young Members Advisory Committee at the end of this article.

Day TWO,

After an AMAZING social, put on by the Midlands Regional Council, we elected this years National Young Members Advisory Committee.

They Are:

Chairperson – Adrian Rowe, Bakerloo Branch
Vice Chairperson – Joanne Parry, TfL No1 Branch

Committee Member – Emma Baldwin, Watford Branch
Committee Member – Becky Crocker, Camden No3 Branch
Committee Member – Gwyn Williams, Holyhead Shipping Branch

All the Committee Members can be contacted via RMTYOUNGCOMRADE@Googlemail.com and we also have a Facebook page, search for ‘RMT Young Members’

To be added to our Young Members distribution list, please email the address above and it will be done automatically.

The Organising Unit briefly spoke about RMTV – The new communication channel For RMT Members.

Our last speaker was Bob Sutton from Workers' Climate Action. Bob talked about solidarity of railway workers, CO2 Emissions, our relationship to nature in this throwaway society, we are rendering the planet unusable.

So what did people think??

We asked Ashley Farrant, a Service Delivery Assistant for First Great Western and a member of Plymouth No1 Branch, what he gained from his first conference?

“I know a lot more now than I did before I went to the conference about the Young Members' area. I know that the Young Members is all for helping the younger generation of Transport workers know more about their union and how they can get more involved in many different areas. I also found out a bit more about different unions and how they get there younger members involved, so it was a real eye opener for me.”

We asked Nick Quirk, Member of the Unions Council of Executives, What his main message to young members is?

Message to YM....Get Involved!!! You can be part of the future of this union. You can fight to change the terms and conditions in your workplace for the better with solidarity!! The past we inherit, the future we build!!!

We asked James Allum, a Booking Office Clerk for London Midland and a member of Watford Branch, How he found out about his first conference, what he gained from the conference and what his plans for the future are?

“I found out about the conference through going to branch meetings. The thing I gained most from the conference was more confidence in working as part of a group, and meeting new people. In the future I plan to recruit young members by showing them a DVD (Currently in production) of this year's conference and get them more interested with all the issues that we are fighting for.”

And finally, a message from me, the National Young Members Chair for 2009/2010.

Hello,
If you didn’t attend this years conference , you missed out!! it was one of the best conferences I’ve been on... and Next Year?? is going to be amazing!

Next Year the conference is going to be held in Liverpool, the National YM Committee (Chaired by myself) will be out and about all year, in between our day jobs, trying to visit as many young members as we can...

i believe we have a great Committee this year, we are focused on organising, recruiting and retaining..
It may amaze you that we currently have 11,750 Members under 30. At the 2008 conference we had 8 delegates, at the 2009 conference we had 16 delegates, but with that many young members, our main priority is to have at least 150 delegates to the 2010 conference. i think it a target than can be easily achieved.

if you know of anybody in your workplace who is under the age of 30, please encourage them to email us at RMTYOUNGCOMRADE@googlemail.com

If you have a high number of young RMT members in your workplace, or a high number of young workers who are not in the union or in another union and you think it would benefit a visit from the Advisory committee, please drop us a line at rmtyoungcomrade@googlemail.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

if you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact us on the email address above.

Have a fantastic year, and i hope to see all of your at next years conference.

In Solidarity

Adrian P Rowe
National YM Chair 2009/2010