Youth annual report 2015

Communications Workers’ Union Youth Committee

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2016

Thursday 14th April, 9.30am

William Norton House

MISSION STATEMENT The CWU Youth Committee was established to encourage and assist new and specifically younger members who join the Union to learn about the Union and the benefits of participation for themselves and their colleagues. To assist young members in obtaining the confidence and skillsets necessary to participate at any level they wish in the activities of the Union and to give them the opportunity to meet and link up with other young members outside of the more traditional Branch meetings.

YOUTH COMMITTEE ACTION PLAN

The aims of the Youth Committee are:

1. To influence Union policy from the grassroots upward to reflect the particular needs and viewpoints of young members of the CWU

2. To encourage the greater involvement of young members across all Branches and sectors of the Union

3. To support the effort to recruit young members into the Union and to encourage the building of activists within the Union through training and hands‐on experience

4. To drive campaigns that affect young people both within and without the trade union movement

5. To communicate effectively and provide regular updates to younger members of developments within the Union

6. To engage with youth groups in other trade unions and political movements to educate activists in broader political issues

7. To work towards a seat on the NEC for a member of the Youth Committee

8. To continue and increase their involvement in global youth committees

9. To contribute to a “youth section” of the Union’s website

10. To produce a recurring article(s) in the Union’s journal to report on the achievements of the Youth Committee

11. To establish a political education programme for young members

TERMS OF REFERENCE

1. Name of Committee: The Committee will be known as the Youth Committee of the Communications Workers’ Union.

2. Aims a) The aim of the Committee shall be to promote and protect the interests and conditions of all young members of the CWU. b) To secure a seat on the National Executive Council of the CWU. c)

The Committee shall consist of a Chairperson, Vice‐Chair and Committee members. The Committee shall normally meet once a month or more often, if required.

d) The term of the Officers (Chairperson and Vice‐Chair) will be for one year, elected annually at the AGM.

3. Elections a) The Committee shall elect officers by Ballot at the AGM. This will be done by way of an overall vote of all members present. Members who are scheduled for duty during the actual period of the AGM, on Annual Leave or out on long‐term sick absence or otherwise legitimately unable to attend may vote via text message to the Facilitator. b) Nominations for Officers’ positions must be submitted no later than the date decided by the Committee prior to the AGM. c)

All nominations must have the signature of the Proposer and Seconder, and must have the written consent of the nominee.

d) In the event of there being insufficient nominations, nominations may be accepted from the floor of the AGM. e) Any decision reached democratically by a vote of the Committee shall be binding on all Committee members.

4. Meetings: a) The AGM shall be held biennially in January or February. b) Special General Meetings shall be held whenever it is considered necessary by the Committee or whenever the NEC so orders. c)

Any other requests for a Special General Meeting must be submitted to the Chairperson stating the purpose of the meeting. No other business will discussed be at such meetings.

d) Seven days’ notice shall normally be given for all General Meetings. e) There is no Quorum for an Annual General Meeting.

f)

The Agenda for the AGM and General Meeting shall be prepared by the Chairperson and Vice‐Chair in consultation with the members and these members will be furnished with a copy prior to the AGM.

5. Duties: Chairperson:

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To preside over all Committee and General Meetings of the Committee.

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To ensure that business is carried out in an orderly and efficient manner.

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To conduct correspondence, keep records and generally administer the affairs of the Committee in accordance with its decisions.

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To call and arrange General Meetings and AGM in conjunction with the Head Office Facilitator.

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With Vice‐Chair, to agree and produce Agenda for meetings.

Vice‐Chair:

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To liaise between Chair and Committee members/Head Office.

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To take and produce minutes of General Meetings and AGMs.

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To facilitate on‐going Campaigns and activities as decided by Committee.

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With Chair, to agree and produce Agenda for meetings.

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To ensure that meetings are conducted in accordance with Standing Orders.

It is noted that the unique nature of the Youth Committee requires continued support and assistance from Head Office and both the Chair and Vice‐Chair will work in cooperation with the Facilitator to ensure the Committee works smoothly and efficiently.

6. Voting: Voting on all matters at Committee meetings shall be by a show of hands, except where a secret ballot is specified by these standing Orders or by the NEC or where the Chairperson deems a secret ballot is necessary.

7. General: a) These Terms of Reference, in conjunction with the rules of the CWU, shall be binding on all members of the Youth Committee of the Communications Workers’ Union. b) Membership of the Youth Committee shall be open to members up to 35 years of age. Members elected to Chair or Vice‐Chair positions who reach this age limit during their term may hold their elected position until the next election. c)

The NEC shall be the final authority on the interpretation of these Terms of Reference.

CHAIRPERSON’S ADDRESS

Colleagues,

It has been an honour to serve as Chairperson of the CWU Youth Committee over the past 12 months. Unfortunately, I am sorry to say it has been a very underwhelming year for our Youth Committee, although there were a few bright spots through it.

In previous years, our Committee has been front and centre in various campaigns and groups, be it ScamBridge, Work Must Pay or We’re Not Leaving. We have authored reports, some of which were used by political parties in their manifesto for government. We held positions on the ICTU Youth Committee, including the Chairperson’s position. We were the first active trade union youth committee in Ireland in generations. So what went wrong?

There’s a number of reasons for the drop in activity from our Youth Committee over the past 12 months. The campaigns and groups mentioned above have finished, be it through a lack of activists. And while these have ended, other campaigns have begun, including the hugely successful Right2Water/Right2Change campaign, of which the CWU is a pivotal part. While many Youth Committee members attended the R2W/R2C protests throughout the year, the Youth Committee itself did not do anything to get involved, failing to take advantage of CWU’s position within the movement. This is something I accept full responsibility for as Chair, and I hope that the future Committee takes a more active stance in this campaign as it goes forward.

One of the biggest issues the Youth Committee has faced over the past year has been keeping active. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main ones have been a lack of new members, and that members already there have their own personal commitments. While personal commitments are unavoidable and completely understandable, the lack of new members is something that the Youth Committee has failed to address in the past year, and is something that demands immediate attention from us, and from Head Office, especially as the many of the Committee members are entering their final years on the Committee. The Committee needs to engage with young members across the Union, or it risks becoming obsolete, and this is something I wish to be addressed in the coming year.

There have been a few bright spots in the year though. At our AGM last February, the Youth Committee agreed to support the Trade Union Campaign to Repeal the 8th, and I am extremely pleased to say that we have managed to get a motion put forward at the upcoming CWU Conference, calling for the National Executive Committee to support this campaign. This is something I am extremely proud of and I’d like to thank the Youth Committee, especially Fiona Dunkin and Dave Morris, for all their hard work on this. Now, we need to make sure that this motion is passed at

Conference and I’m asking all members here to go back to your Branches and call on them to support this motion.

The Youth Committee has also been active across the European trade union movement, with both myself and Eric Partridge holding positions on the UNI Europa Youth Committee; myself as Area Coordinator and Eric as Vice‐President. We have also been liaising with the youth committee of our sister union, CWU UK, and I’m pleased to welcome some of their members here today. I hope that we can continue this relationship and work more closely together in the future.

It has been a bad year for the Youth Committee, no denying. But I am hoping that it is just a blip, and that our Committee can get back to form in the coming year.

Notwithstanding, it has been an honour to Chair the Youth Committee over the past year and I would like to thank Head Office, the General Secretary and the National Executive for all their support and encouragement, and a special thanks to the Committee for all their hard work and enthusiasm. I wish the incoming Oofficers all the best in the coming 12 months, and I look forward to giving them my full support and assistance in any way I can in their future endeavours.

In Solidarity,

Barry Gorman Chairperson, CWU Youth Committee

REPORT ON YOUTH COMMITTEE AGM

William Norton House, Thursday 26th February 2015

Present: Derek Keenan (Outgoing Chair), Barry Gorman (Outgoing Vice‐ Chair/Incoming Chair), Dave Sheehy (Incoming Vice‐Chair), James Moore, Dave Morris, Eric Partridge, James O’Sullivan, Fiona Dunkin, Aaron Kennedy, Ray O’Brien, Siobhán Creed, Shane Davoren, John Hanratty, Pat Lynch, Neil Mooney, Anthony Larkin, Shay Nolan, Laura McKenna (Head Office), Fionnuala Ni Bhrógáin (Head Office)

Apologies: Emily Olohan, Brian Heffernan

1. AGM Report 2014 The minutes for last year’s AGM were agreed as read.

Proposed: James Moore Seconded: Eric Partridge

2. Chairperson’s Address/Annual Report It was agreed by the members present that the Chairperson’s Address and Annual Report would be merged into one, as they both covered overlapping subject matter.

Derek discussed the reasons the Committee was quiet in the final months of 2014, mostly due to the prior personal commitments of Committee members. Even so, 2014 was a productive year for the Youth Committee.

We continued the great work we had done in 2013, campaigning against JobBridge and other exploitative work schemes by joining with Scambridge, along with other unions like Mandate and Unite. Joining youth groups like the Union of Students in Ireland and We’re Not Leaving to hold a No To Forced Labour Protest in April 2014.

This was well attended, with roughly 200 people there and had then MEP hopefuls Paul Murphy and Lynn Boylan speaking at it. It was also well covered by the media, as seen by The Journal article below:

http://www.thejournal.ie/jobbridge‐protest‐1411910‐Apr2014/

This great work was continued by joining forces with Unite Youth, Connelly Youth, Sinn Féin Republican Youth and other groups to form the Work Must Pay coalition. (http://workmustpay.com/).

Work Must Pay give businesses deemed to be exploitative warning that, unless they remove their JobBridge advertisements, they will picket the business in question.

This has resulted in moderate success as a number of the businesses picketed have since removed their advertisements; unfortunately, while it is still important to

campaign, the only way to change the scheme is through legislation. Derek informed the Committee that there is a possibility of a protest in March and as the CWU Youth Committee delegate to Work Must Pay, he will find out and inform the Committee.

To date, Work Must Pay has been driven largely by Unite Youth, but it is important that the Youth Committee get back on board and become more active within the group.

Derek also talked about how the trade union movement is not just restricted to the workplace, but should also be used for social change and representation; an example being the current water charge protests and the Right2Water group, of which CWU is a part. It was pointed out that the Committee also showed great solidarity with the Greyhound Workers when they were locked out during the year, with James Moore in particular deserving praise for his near constant presence on the picket line there.

The Chair, on behalf of the Committee, also took the opportunity to thank Fionnuala Ní Bhrógáin for her sterling work and help with the Youth Committee over the past few years. She has been an invaluable source of support, information and encouragement, and her presence as Youth Committee Liaison will be sorely missed.

The Committee also took this opportunity to welcome its new Liaison, Laura McKenna, on board. Although Laura has big shoes to fill, it will undoubtedly be no problem to her, and the Committee looks forward to working with her in the future.

3. Standing Orders There was one change to Standing Orders.

Section 4a) “The AGM shall be held biennially in January or February”…

the word “biennially” is to be changed to “annually” and the amended sentence to read:

“The AGM shall be held annually in January or February.”

Proposed: Barry Gorman Seconded: James Moore

Otherwise, standing orders were agreed.

4. Election of Officers As there were no nominations prior to the AGM, nominations were then taken from the floor, as per agreement with the Standing Orders.

Chairperson:  Barry Gorman

Proposed: Derek Keenan Seconded: James O’Sullivan

 Eric Partridge

Proposed: James Moore Seconded: Anthony Larkin Vice‐Chairperson:  James Moore

Proposed: Eric Partridge Seconded: Dave Sheehy

 Dave Sheehy

Proposed: James Moore Seconded: Derek Keenan

The elections were held by closed ballot and after results were counted, Barry Gorman and Dave Sheehy were deemed elected to the positions of Chair and Vice‐ Chair respectively.

After a short break, the AGM resumed and the incumbent Officers took over the AGM.

5. Guest Speakers CWU Organiser Ruairí Creaney spoke briefly to the Youth Committee about Trade Union Friends of Palestine and passed out a flyer to an upcoming event, which the Youth Committee was invited and encouraged to attend. A link to the upcoming event, on the 12th March at 6:30, is attached below:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1589937627909850/

David Gibney, from the Right2Water campaign and Mandate Trade Union, then spoke about the recent water protests, the creation of the Right2Water movement, and the actions taken by the group. These included marches through Dublin with numbers in the tens of thousands on both occasions, as well as many well‐attended national marches throughout the country. In his discussion about the creation of Irish Water, David also briefly touched on the ongoing top secret TTIP negotiations in the European Parliament, and the effect that the passing of TTIP wold have in all but ensuring the privatisation of Irish Water, which is believed to be the governments long‐term goal anyway. He spoke about the importance for a publically owned water company, and used Detroit as an example of what may happen if Irish Water is privatised in the future. For more information on TTIP, visit:

http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/trade‐justice/ttip

CWU General Secretary, Steve Fitzpatrick, then addressed the AGM. He congratulated the Committee on its work over the past few years and said it was extremely encouraging to see young people take an active role in the Youth Committee, and in turn bring what they’ve learned there back to their own respective Branches. He also congratulated Derek on the great work he has done as Chair of the ICTU Youth Committee, and encouraged ICTU Youth to look for an observer’s seat on the ICTU National Executive. Steve finished by wishing the incumbent Officers and Committee all the best in the coming year, and said he was looking forward to working with the Youth Committee.

6. Year Ahead/AOB The Work Must Pay campaign was discussed again and it was agreed by the Committee that Derek would stay as Youth Committee delegate for Work Must Pay in the interim period. Derek then, in his role as ICTU Youth Chair, addressed the Committee and told us about any recent developments by ICTU Youth. This included the launch of The Rights Campaign (https://www.facebook.com/fiverightsforyoungpeople) in the Twisted Pepper on October 29th 2014. The Campaign has been well received and there are a number of actions being discussed for the future. Barry Gorman then announced that due to commitment issues, he would not be able to continue in his position on the ICTU Youth Committee and opened the floor to nominations to take his place. None were forthcoming from the floor at the time, but it was agreed that Barry would stay on until such a time as someone put themselves forward for the position.

There was a discussion from the group regarding the upcoming rules regarding first‐ time homebuyers needing a 20% deposit to be able to buy a house. It was mentioned that this would affect many of Ireland’s young people, especially those in precarious part time work. The Committee was asked if they had planned to do anything about this. The Chair mentioned that an organisation called Uplift had recently been doing work in this regard, and he would contact them for more information and revisit this issue at the next meeting.

An Post’s Collection & Delivery (C&D) agreements were also a point of contention among the Committee. It is felt by many on the Committee that the different scales created by the C&D agreements breeds inequality amongst workers, and especially effects younger members, who are predominantly on C&D contracts. The Committee agreed that this is something to be looked into, and to contact the National Executive for further information.

Another issue raised was that An Post is looking for Good Friday to become a shutdown day for employees. It was agreed that the Committee would also contact the National Executive regarding this issue.

The Committee was also informed that in certain An Post District Offices (DO), young workers were being overlooked when training was taking place for the C and C1 (Truck) Licences. The Committee feels this is an important issue as, not only are younger employees being denied the opportunity to upskill within the Company, but the fact that existing C licence holders are being hired in lieu of training is denying these workers the opportunity to acquire a duty and stifling a potential career path within the company. The Committee agreed that it would contact the National Executive regarding this issue.

It was pointed out by the Chairperson that even though the AGM was almost completely attended by An Post employees, the Youth Committee, and CWU as a whole, also represents many other companies in the telecommunications sector. The lack of Youth Committee members from the telecoms sector is seen as a serious issue for the Committee, as this is an area where some of our youngest, and most vulnerable members would work. Some suggestions from the AGM to help the Youth Committee engage with the telecoms sector included visiting businesses and talking to members in person. It was agreed that the Committee members would think of other suggestions in the meantime and bring them to the Committee when possible.

It was agreed that the Committee should set up a survey of young members, in all sectors, asking them about the biggest issues within their workplace, and within their Branch. It was agreed that the collected answers would be able to help focus the Youth Committee in future campaigns.

The Committee also unanimously agreed to support the Trade Union Repeal the 8th Campaign. Any future actions regarding this will be discussed at the next meeting.

The Committee also proposed that The Chairperson and Vice‐Chair be allowed ask the National Executive for union release for future meetings. The Committee also proposed that the Chairperson and Vice‐Chair ask to be entitled to phone expenses during their year as Officers. Both these issues will be sent to Head Office for clarification.

The Committee also looked into the possibility of changing the current Youth Committee logo. The feasibility of this is being looked into by Head Office.

7. Next Meeting It was decided that the next Youth Committee meeting would be held in CWU Head Office on Thursday, 19th March 2015 at 6:30pm. The agenda for the meeting will be sent out to members by email no later than a week beforehand. Anyone interested in joining the CWU Youth Committee WhatsApp group chat, contact Barry Gorman.

ACTION POINTS:

 Create film/book club list by suggesting various films and books related to Trade Unionism/Activism [Committee]

 Create sample survey questions for distribution [Committee]  Produce articles for Connect magazine (due date 13th March) [Committee]  Get information about 20% mortgage deposits [Chairperson]  Contact NEC about C&D agreements [YC Officers]  Contact NEC about shut down day on Good Friday [YC Officers]  Suggestions for engaging with call centre members [Committee]  Contact Trade Union Repeal the 8th Campaign to pledge support [Chairperson]

 Look into release of Officers for future Youth Committee meetings [YC Liaison]

 Look into phone expenses for Officers [YC Liaison]  Look into feasibility of changing Youth Committee logo [YC Liaison]  Change Standing Orders as agreed at meeting [YC Liaison]