All-Ireland Youth Conference to take place for young trade unionists

Friday 8 November 2013

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions Youth Committee’s (North & South) are hosting the first major all-Ireland youth conference for young trade unionists on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th of November 2013.

The objective of the conference is to hear directly from young workers about the issues that are affecting them today and to educate them on issues such as austerity, political economy, emigration, precarious work, workers’ rights and unemployment.

Derek Keenan, Chairperson of ICTU Youth says it is important that as many young workers attend the event as possible:

“Young people are bearing the brunt of the economic and social crisis in Ireland. It is clear that a coordinated fight-back is needed and what we want to do is find out what’s happening on the ground and feed that into the leaders of the trade unions in Ireland. We can no longer allow our issues to take a back-seat within the trade union movement.”

The conference will hear from many major speakers including:

  • John Douglas ICTU President
  • Dr Conor McCabe UCD School of Justice
  • Dr John Barry QUB School of Politics
  • Christopher Cutajar – Secretary Maltese General Workers Union
  • Cesc Blanco – Coordinadora Obrera Sindical (COS) Catalunya
  • Elenore Perrin Massebiaux – Trademark Belfast
  • Paul McFlynn – NERI Institute
  • Moira Murphy – We’re Not Leaving campaign

Mr Keenan said, “While we will have some great contributors attending the conference, the most important people attending will be the participants themselves. This will be an opportunity for us to discuss and put in place a plan to build a relevant youth movement for the 21st century.”

The event will begin on Saturday 16th at 11am in the CWU Conference Centre, 575-577 North Circular Road, Dublin 1. Anyone under the age of 35 interested in attending can register by emailing mandateotc@mandate.ie. Accommodation may be provided (if needed) for Mandate members from outside of Dublin. You can also stay up to date at our Facebook event.

Further details of the event can be obtained by clicking the image below.