Both the UCU lecturers’ union and Unite, Britain’s biggest trade union, unanimously agreed to back the Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) campaign at their annual conferences.
Ben Robinson, YFJ national chair
Tens of thousands of young people will be excluded from university because of cuts in the increase in the number of student places made by New Labour and continued by the Con-Dem coalition. Thousands of departments, courses, resources and jobs across the country are under threat.
The higher education funding review will undoubtedly call for higher fees. YFJ aims to use the links with UCU and Unite, which also has members in the education sector, to build campaigns against attacks on young people’s future.
Unite commended YFJ for its march through Barking, which demanded jobs, homes and services, not the racism of the British National Party.
The on-going struggle of BA cabin crew in Unite provides an example of the determination that will be needed, a struggle that YFJ fully backs.
The CWU, PCS, Bectu and RMT unions also back YFJ.
Unite passed this composite motion:
Composite 7 (including Motions 40 & 41)
2. The Economy
(xii) Youth Fight for Jobs
This Conference notes the high leveis of youth unemployment in the present recession with over 1 million unemployed young people aged 16-24.
There is a real danger that this generation could become a lost generation with poor access to skills and training or even a recruiting ground for far right and anti-trade union parties and groups.
This Conference commends the ‘Youth Fight for Jobs’ campaign for seeking to organise amongst youth on a socialist and trade union platform including by organising a march through Barking, East London, on the slogan ‘Jobs and Homes, Not Racism.’
This Conference therefore calls for Unite branches, Area Activist Committees, Regional Industrial Sector Committees and Regional Committees to support Youth Fight for Jobs where they can and support their work of steering working class youth towards a positive campaign for a better future.
This conference supports the aims and objectives of Youth Fight for Jobs, which are:
- The right to a decent job for all, with a living wage of at least £8 hour
- No to cheap labour apprenticeships! All apprenticeships to pay at least the minimum wage, with a job guaranteed at the end.
- No to university fees.
This conference notes that:
- There are around one million young people who are looking for a job and cannot find one, and more than two and a half million ail together.
- These figures have increased hugely since the onset of the crisis, growing around 30% over the course of 2009.
- Figures of job vacancies are consistently under half a million.
- The government’s main solution is the Future Jobs Fund, which forces into temporary work those unemployed for over six months.
- A board has been set up to discuss increasing universities fees, comprised of many who have previously called for large increases.
- Further Education has seen £400million cuts announced.
- Other Unions have already affiliated to Youth Fight for Jobs, including the RMT and CWU.
This conference believes
- Young people and the working class are being asked to pay the price for the bosses crisis.
- The Future Jobs Fund program, in increasing the number of temporary workers, opens the door to attacks on union-won working conditions, and to a loss of permanent jobs on offer.
- That the best way to tackle unemployment is to create permanent jobs to fulfil essential services
- Cutting education budgets, and charging more for universities, will also reduce young people’s opportunities to make full use of their abilities, whether that is school, college or university level.
