Young Members' Organising Plan 2011

This organising plan was agreed by the Regional Council Executive on March 8.

RMT has 12,614 members in the LTRC region, of these there is 1,527 that are classed as Young Members. The purpose of a Young Members' officer is to mobilise as well as organise these members into an active and effective part of our union.

The average age of a Trade Union representative is 47 years old, to properly organise our Young Membership is to be laying the foundations for a sustained future.

I would like the funds to set up and sustain a email trail (Unionlist) similar to that of the Regional Council. I have 857 different email addresses. This will make it considerably easier to email and organise the Young Membership.

With the email list set up, I intend to create a questioner to ask members questions in three different areas
• Issues that affect them in their workplace
(Management, work life balance, career aspirations)
• Issues within the Union
(Disputes, Branch meetings, Representation)
• Political Positions
(Do you belong to a Political Party? Current events)

The questioner will provide me with possible issues that are generic, I can then organise initial meetings relating to these issues.

Another aim is to build better relations with other Trade Union Young Memberships such as Future TSSA whose members work in London Transport, also UNISON which has one of the biggest Young Membership within the region.

This would be especially important if I was initially not able to mobilise enough members to conduct a self promoted and self organised meeting of RMT Young Members.

From the political section of the questioner, I would also be able to seize upon the political feeling of our members. This would allow me to possibly organise joint meetings/rallies between us and Young Labour and other left wing groups. Our position is obviously not the best with the main Labour Party however it is up to both the Young Memberships to fix that.

In a ideal world all of this, would lead up to a mass London conference of all Trade Union Young Memberships all Left wing Political groups and all that wanted to attend, with a carnival atmosphere of music, spoken word and guest speakers.

These plans require time and effort and would help our Union build for the future...

Korhan Osman
RMT Young Members Officer LTRC