News

Subject: 100% Youth – 100% Youth Coordinator



Submitted by: ver.di Youth, Germany

Motion Text:

For forwarding to: UNI Youth World Congress in March 2009.



The coordinator of UNI Youth oversees the steering groups of UNI-Africa, UNI-Americas, UNI-APRO and UNI-Europa.



Over the course of the year, the UNI Youth coordinator is responsible for the preparation and running of meetings and conferences. Seminars and campaigns also need to be organised. In addition to these main duties, the coordinator has to see to the day-to-day business activities. Travel also eats into the youth’s coordinator’s time, and this cannot always be used productively.



The youth coordinator does not have a youth department to provide back-up for these activities, either at headquarters or in the regions. The planning and success of all the activities described above depend to a large extent on the time he or she can deploy – and given the amount of work that needs to be done, this requires a full-time position. At the moment the position of youth secretary is calculated at 50% of a full-time post. For the remaining 50% he/she is the personal aide to the General Secretary.



What we are asking for is that the youth coordinator be given a full-time position. It is time for us to lay the foundations now so that youth can prepare itself for the challenges of a globalised world. The amount of work that awaits youth will continue to grow over the next few years. We want to achieve more, create more possibilities so that we can exchange ideas at the international level about trade union work and put in place functioning networks. To do that, we need more than a part-time coordinator; we need someone who is available 100% of the time, i.e. a full-time position.



Adopted with changes