Young Workers Committee
Overall, the Young Workers initiative aims to engage, encourage, educate, and support the next generation of active IATSE members and leaders to build long-term collective power. The AFL-CIO specifically defines “young workers” as those under the age of 35.
Creating a Young Workers Committee
A Young Workers committee can be founded at any local union, and is independently governed with the goal of encouraging participation in your Local. Local Young Workers committees have run food drives, organized phone banks, volunteered their skills, organized fellow entertainment workers, showed solidarity with other unions, and brought education opportunities to their local unions.
Click here to learn how to start a Young Workers Committee at your Local Union.
Young Workers Conference
Every two years, the International Young Workers Committee hosts the Young Workers Committee Conference, where active young members gather to learn about the history of the IATSE, gain valuable leadership skills, and network with IATSE kin from across the United States and Canada.
Previous Young Workers Committee Conferences include the 2012 Philadelphia YWCC, the 2014 Portland, OR YWCC, the 2016 Atlanta YWCC, the 2018 Silver Spring, MD YWCC, the virtual 2020 YWCC and the 2022 Minneapolis YWCC.
DETAILS FOR THE 2024 YWCC:
We are excited to announce the 2024 IATSE Young Workers Committee Conference (YWCC) will be held in-person in Calgary, AB on July 18-20, 2024. Save the date!
What is it?
Every two years, the International Young Workers Committee hosts the Young Workers Committee Conference, where active young members gather to learn about the history of the IATSE, gain valuable leadership skills, and network with IATSE kin across the United States and Canada. Over 500 young IATSE members have attended one of our Young Workers Committee Conferences since the program began in 2012.
Who can attend and how?
The AFL-CIO and CLC defines a ‘young worker’ as thirty-five or younger. Attendance will be limited to two attendees per Local.
All attendees must be nominated by their Local Executive Board to attend. You will receive further instructions and a letter/email template to facilitate the process when nominations are opened.
If your Local sent members to one of the committee’s in-person conferences in the past and you wish to nominate them again, we will require a statement detailing their involvement in the Local, their community, the workplace, or politically, since their last conference.
We only have space for 100 attendees, so this conference will sell out. Please begin your preparation now so that you’re ready to submit your letters when nominations open in the next few weeks. We will provide another email to Local Officers to give you notice before the date nominations open. Stay tuned!
What else do I need to know?
All U.S. nominees must have a U.S. passport to attend the 2024 IATSE Young Workers Committee Conference. If a nominee does not have a U.S. passport, application processing takes 10-13 weeks. If a nominee needs a passport sooner, they can pay for an expedited service ($60) and should expect to receive their passport in 7-9 weeks. Mailing times are not included in the processing times and may take up to 2 weeks for applications to arrive by mail. Therefore, if a nominee does not currently have a U.S. passport, please consider the total time it will take to receive your passport when you are booking travel. To apply for a passport, visit here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply.html
Please do not make any travel or lodging arrangements until further notice is posted. More details will be posted online at iatse.net/ywc and emailed to you. The conference will be conducted in English.
We value the health and safety of Young Workers Conference attendees and intend to follow recognized safety precautions surrounding COVID-19, including any requirements imposed by the host venue. Persons attending the in-person Young Workers Conference, including guests and IATSE staff, are required to fully receive a COVID-19 vaccine approved by a national health agency in the United States or Canada, respectively (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States and Health Canada in Canada) before attending. Please note that under guidance from public health agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Canada, people are generally considered “fully vaccinated” two weeks after their second dose of a two-dose vaccine series (e.g., Pfizer or Moderna) or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine.
Conference participants may be required to wear a mask over their mouth and nose while on-site indoors. Persons coming in close contact with an infected individual or experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, in the 14 days prior to the Conference should expect to isolate and receive a negative COVID-19 viral test result prior to attending the Conference. Further information will be provided as the application process opens and the Conference dates approach. For immediate questions about this topic, please reply to this email or contact ywc@iatse.net.
IATSE Young Workers Committee
