TRADE unions have a significant part to play in protecting workers’ rights and ensuring fair treatment in the workplace because, not only they are a vehicle for uniting the working class in the fight for better pay and terms and conditions, but more importantly, they are essential not only for improving our working conditions but to fundamentally change the wider society that we live in and challenge the exploitative and unjust system that is capitalism. 

This is especially important for young workers, who face a variety of unique challenges today. These include precarious work, stagnant wages, and little opportunity to progress at work. Furthermore, few young workers are in a trade union, with only one in 20 trade union members being aged 16-24. 

Young workers bear the worst consequences of the cost-of-living crisis and the worsening job market which offers increasingly worse material conditions. The ruling class take advantage of the youth in the fact that they are not organised enough to fight against their own exploitation. 

This trend of declining trade union membership in young people as their material conditions worsens may seem paradoxical, but it is not. Young workers’ material conditions are worsening precisely because they are not unionised and thus not organising to defend their material interests against the ruling class. 

Consequently, the recruitment of young people into trade unions must be a priority for the labour movement to lift young workers out of poverty and precarity. It is vital for us to be active in our unions to not only to build a militant trade union movement but to ensure the sustainability of the trade union movement. It is essential then, that we focus on recruiting, training and educating young workers into the movement.

There are a variety of barriers to young workers joining trade unions, but one that I come across quite often in the hospitality sector is that young people, especially teenagers, do not even know what a trade union is. This highlights the catastrophe that is our education system; a catastrophe that intentionally obscures class politics. The education system spits out young workers that do not know what collective bargaining is so that exploitation goes unchallenged. 

After all, the ruling class is not going to facilitate the training of skills that will cut into profits. 

The rise of the gig economy and zero-hours contracts also makes organising young workers harder than normal. The ruling class’s drive for super-profits mean that many do not earn enough to cover essentials and the haphazardness or infrequency of getting gigs or shifts means that pinning a coworker down to have a conversation about joining a trade union can be difficult, too. 

Equipping young trade union members with the skills and resources to address these issues will give them the confidence to recruit more members and develop the trade union consciousness of youth in Britain.

Furthermore, the labour movement needs to develop a strategy that reaches young workers to ensure that the next generation of trade unionists are trained and experienced to tackle exploitation and discrimination head on. 

A line of thinking on this issue could be addressing what is galvanising thousands of young people across Britain today — the genocide in Gaza. In their droves, young people are attending demonstrations, public meetings and fundraisers for Palestine, as well as many other activities that trade unions are organising and participating in. This is a major opportunity to reach young workers, who otherwise would have little or no contact with the labour movement.

Additionally, creating trade union campaigns that are relevant to young workers will make those recruitment conversations easier as members can point out that trade unions care about young workers’ interests. 

One issue that is particularly relevant to young workers is the enshrinement of age discrimination into law. Currently, 16-year-olds can legally be paid as little as £5.18 an hour for labour of equal value to that of older workers. That will only rise to £6.40 in April. Employers use this fully legal age discrimination to squeeze every drop of profit out of young workers and to drive down costs. By creating a campaign centred on this egregious issue, the labour movement can demonstrate to young workers why they should join a trade union.

With the backdrop of an enduring cost-of-living crisis, trade unions are what the youth need to fight against poverty and discrimination. Recruiting young workers may seem like an arduous task but it will benefit all workers. Better pay and terms and conditions for young workers puts a stop to the undermining of other workers’ wages with trade union membership uniting us all in the fight for better material conditions. To do this, the labour movement has got to prioritise young members to ensure that the next generation of workers carries on the struggle. 

Georgina Andrews is general secretary of the Young Communist League.