On 21 October 2022 at the Rail & Maritime Transport Union’s (RMTU) congress in New Zealand, delegates voted in favour of a resolution to have youth representation on the executive committee of all branch levels across the country by 2023. The measure passed with unanimous support from the floor.
“This a big win for young workers, youth delegates and our union as a whole,” said Jas Giri, a member of the RMTU’s National Management Committee (Auckland Rail Representative), who is also the youth representative for the Urban Transport Sector on the ITF’s global youth committee.
"Our next steps will be to build youth councils nationwide to support the ongoing recruitment and development of new youth representatives in order to have strong structures that can progress the views of young workers,” added Giri. “We are looking forward to adding a regular youth conference as part of our governance cycle.”
Baker Khundakji, ITF Young Transport Workers Officer today congratulated the RMTU on their commitment to meaningfully involve youth in every level of their union: “Opening spaces for young workers is exactly what we need to do as a first step in order to grow our unions and our collective power as a global labour movement.”
At the 2018 ITF Congress in Singapore, affiliates adopted Resolution 20, which calls on all unions to commit to creating and growing dedicated youth structures, among other measures to increase the participation of young workers.
“The RMTU is helping to make the vision of youth empowerment which is spelled out in Resolution 20 into a reality,” added Khundakji. “We look forward to more unions making significant commitments like this and supporting them through these processes.”
If you are interested in learning more about youth structures and how your union can build them, send an email to youth@itf.org.uk.
