Doug Nicholls has been in touch with the following significant message:

Once again the scourge of mass youth unemployment has returned. I did not think it would happen again after the devastating effects of the 1980s.

As you will know CYWU is now part of Unite the Union. Unite is organising a national march for jobs on May 16^th in Birmingham. See attached leaflet and transport details from all parts of the country are on www.unitetheunion.com.

Youth workers have organised a special event for under 25s on the day. Please see attached details. A further leaflet will follow. This will take place in The Repertory Theatre, Centenary Square, Birmingham where the march ends from 2.30-4.00pm. There will be food and refreshments.  It will give young people an opportunity to express their hopes and fears in this terrible economic situation and their voices will be listened to by MPs and leading union figures. There should be an opportunity to make a DVD of the event and concerns raised also.

Not only is there a very high youth unemployment rate, but support services for young people are now being cut badly in many parts of the country.

I write to appeal for your support for this event generally and the youth event more particularly. Please promote it to your constituents. Please declare your active support for the event if you are able. Please encourage youth groups to attend and help make a difference. It would of course particularly assist if you are able to promote it to Midlands based constituencies of yours.

We want this to be a community event. We want this to be a young people’s event. The late notification is indicative of the urgent situation our economy and young people are in.

Please publicise, find attached leaflet.youth-event-may-16th-1

Meanwhile, children’s workers employed by Coventry Council have threatened to hold a strike over feared job losses.

Following a meeting on 29 April with the union Unite, staff in the authority’s children’s and family education service said they were prepared to take industrial action over proposed council budget cuts.

Unite’s national secretary for community and youth workers Doug Nicholls said: “We are determined that democracy and good sense will prevail. These jobs and services will not go. Skilled professionals and children’s support will not be thrown on the scrap heap along with our manufacturing and public services.

Fuller story at CYPN and the Coventry Telegraph

Whilst next week, staff in Rhondda Cynon Taff‘s youth service are set to hear the final proposals for a major restructuring of the service, which is designed to plug a £4.8m hole in council finances.

Earlier this year, the council revealed plans that would see six centres closed, four merged into two and four youth clubs transferred into schools in the Welsh Valley region. Grants paid to voluntary youth providers will also be reviewed to ensure there is no duplication of service.

Dawn Rees, branch secretary of the Community and Youth Workers’ Union, part of Unite, said: “We are going through a massive restructure with no real consultation. We are being told ‘you like it or lump it’. The big concern is that the cuts and closures will be detrimental to the service and leave some areas with no youth provision at all.”

Further detail at CYPN