Youth Fight for Jobs: campaign moving forward

On Sunday 3 July Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) held an open steering committee where 30 young trade unionists, students and unemployed activists met to discuss the progress of the campaign.

The first session was a discussion on the Jarrow march for Jobs. People reported on how the plans were going in their areas to build for the march.

The second discussion was about building YFJ. This session focussed on the attacks on the rights and living standards of young people and practical steps for building the fightback. People raised the need to unionise young workers who are mostly in low-paid, insecure jobs.

We finished off with a report on the work of the campaign. We are now over half way to raising the funds for the Jarrow march. Since the last YFJ conference the TSSA rail union has affiliated to the campaign. We also talked about the motion at the last Trade Union Congress that commended YFJ for the work it had done and led on to the 29 January demonstration against youth unemployment and tuition fees in Manchester.

YFJ is now seen as an important campaign in the eyes of many trade unionists and youth.

YFJ campaigner