YOUNG WORKERS DISCUSS STRATEGY AT WEAKLEY HALL
By Lloyd Cargo IV
In a meeting sponsored by the AFL-CIO and held at IBEW Local 1245’s Weakley Hall, 32 young workers and students met to discuss ways to unite and energize young people from both public and private sector unions, as well as students from local colleges.
After introductions and ice breakers, Jennifer Gray and Lorenso Arciniega shared the development of the young workers program here at IBEW local 1245. We then heard from the members of Next Generation Bay Area (who you can find on Facebook) on their successful youth involvement program.
From there we discussed issues facing young people and our organizations. We set up a calendar of events and rallies for the end of the year and the beginning of next year. After lunch we had an open discussion about the “Occupy” movement and the best ways to educate people on its meaning.
Before closing we set the date for the next meeting–Feb. 4, 2012 in San Jose–and made suggestions on things we would like to accomplish as a group. The AFL-CIO is working on a more detailed report of the day which will be shared as soon as it’s available as well as a location in San Jose for the next meeting.
At the conclusion the Local 1245 members met to discuss our own plan to keep the young members of our union involved and energized, and to come up with ways to keep our group cohesive. One great idea is to have monthly meetings on our own dime and time open to all youth previously identified and open to any newcomers that might be interested, to consistently develop short and long term plans of action. The idea is to rotate the location between members’ houses or public locations nearby, and have them family inclusive.
It is clear to all of us that as young leaders in the union it is foreseeable that we will be working together for years to come and making it more personal and including family will help bring cohesion and help build our relationships with each other.
Lloyd Cargo IV, a PG&E gas service rep, was recently appointed to the Local 1245 Advisory Council.
