5 - Youth workers as trade unionists
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2023
Summary
In this chapter I give a brief account of some of the features of trade unionism among youth workers, illustrating that it is the power of combination and solidarity offered by trade unionism that has been influential in the history of youth work.
A full account of the history of trade union organisation into the main union for youth and community workers, the CYWU, now a national section of Unite the union, can be found elsewhere (Nicholls, 2009). The purpose here is to emphasise some themes and aspects of this history relevant to this study of youth work. These elements appear to endure throughout the seven distinct periods of the unionâs organisational history identified in Building rapport, and may be summarised as: a combined strong commitment to public service, standards, self-worth, fighting inequality and defining the uniqueness and professional intervention of youth work. Such commitments lead to a determined, long-term approach to winning essential demands for the workforce.
There are three important examples of this that exemplify the vision, doggedness and ability to fight against all odds that have characterised the unionâs history to date.
Pay up
In 1945 the CYWU began to consider the position of youth workersâ wages. At that time youth workers were all on different individualised scales throughout the country. In 1946 the union resolved to produce model terms and conditions and to make representation to the Board of Education to achieve proper recognition and national terms and conditions. This began what was to be a long struggle for national collective bargaining linked to qualifications and issues relating to the standards of youth work practice. The union persistently published details of the uneven and unfair terms and conditions of youth workers throughout the country, and lobbied government with its findings. In 1949 a government report known as the Jackson Report advocated that youth workersâ terms and conditions should be made consistent and comparable to other professions.
âCinderellaâ fights back
In 1951 a Conservative education minister described the Youth Service as a âfrill of educationâ. This led to the first significant battle to save what then existed of the Youth Service. The union combined with the voluntary sector not just to save and promote youth service provision, but also to establish national collective bargaining.
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- For Youth Workers and Youth WorkSpeaking out for a Better Future, pp. 111 - 120Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2012