The Victorian Young Unionists' Network (YUN) is a network of young workers who are union members. The network was established to bring together young unionists from different industries to organise collectively to fight for our rights. The network is under the auspice of the Victorian Trades Hall Council.

 

In essence the network has been established to bring together young unionists from all different industries to organise collectively in campaigns that directly address issues faced by young people at work. As a part of this, we develop and coordinate projects that seek to address young people's involvement in the union movement. The YUN aims to ensure that the Trade Union movement in Victoria has the appropriate resources to organise young workers and that young workers issues are a top priority to the union movement as a whole.

The YUN recognises that young people are over-represented in casual and precarious employment. The YUN has set about to address the key concern that young workers are often misinformed or do not have access to reliable information about their rights at work and the role of unions in society. Over 70% of students now have to work while they are studying. This is mainly due to the ever-increasing costs of getting an education. For example, the unfair charging of GST on text books. As workers, students are mostly employed in casual or part-time employment. They are typically non-unionised and as a result are not as aware as they could be of their rights at work.

The YUN has an e-group that is continuing to grow and includes young union members, union organisers and student and community activists.

The principles of YUN are to:

• Promote unionism to young people.
• Engage young activists in campaigns and issues.
• Focus on industrial and other issues of importance to young workers.
• Build alliances with community/student organisations with a focus on young people.

The YUN is governed by the Administrative Group. This group meets monthly and is open to all members of YUN. Membership of YUN is free, all you have to do is sign up!

People who come to these meetings are young people who work for unions, young workers, student activists and those with an interest in unions and young workers rights. The meetings are structured, but still relatively informal with opportunities to talk about an idea you may have or debrief about an issue you may have at work. Contact us if you would like to get involved in this.

Projects and Campaigns are developed by the Admin group and then taken on by a Working Group structure and convened by members of the network. These Working Groups are also open to all members of the network and are a way that new members can become involved.

The VTHC is the central state organisation for communicating with the public about trade union issues. It is responsible for implementing ACTU policy within Victoria and represents unionists in lobbying State Parliament for social and industrial reforms. It is the body which most people contact if they have any query about trade unions.

The major role of the VTHC is the co-ordination of union activities and campaigns. When a union requires assistance and support for an issue which has broad consequences for more than one union, the VTHC may become involved in a co-ordinating role. It also provides assistance to its affiliated unions with research, negotiations and advocacy.

YUN is a project funded by the VTHC.