Meet Artem Zaporizhsky, Head of Department at the Kharkiv Directorate of the Centre for Construction, Installation and Maintenance of Buildings and Structures branch, Chairman of the Primary and Joint Trade Union Councils of the branch.
– Artem, you have been working at the railway for over 10 years. What attracts you to your job? When and how did you find out about the Union’s Youth Council?
– First and foremost, I value my team, the opportunity to work in my field of expertise, stability, and prospects for professional and career development.
I’ve been a member of the trade union for many years, but I found out about the youth movement not so long ago.
In 2022, I evacuated with my family from Kharkiv to Lviv and volunteered at the railway station. We provided food for the train crews of the evacuation flights. Among the volunteers were many railway workers who had evacuated from dangerous places themselves, most of them young people.
Once, when I was the coordinator, we received a request to send humanitarian aid to our railway colleagues. During a telephone conversation, it turned out that this request was from Ekaterina Izmailova. We recognised each other by our voices.
I knew Kateryna back when she worked at the BMES branch, and at the time of our conversation she was the deputy chairman of the union’s Youth Council. I learned from her that our young people implement many activities and organise training for young railway workers.
Later, Kateryna was elected chair of the Youth Council, and we met at seminars and trainings she held. So when youth councils began to form in our branch in early 2024, I immediately joined. At first, I headed the youth council of the primary directorate, and at the end of February, I was elected chairman of the youth council of the branch’s united trade union organisation.
So far, we are getting to know each other, learning, looking at our capabilities, planning our future work, and gradually joining various events. We are working on creating a common database of the branch’s young people to see what their needs are and which young employees are interested in developing in different areas.
We are now planning first aid training for young people and interested employees in our region. In the spring, we helped the young people of the FEU to organise an Easter event for children in Kharkiv. The children drew pictures for the military and then participated in entertainment. Now we know how to organise similar events.
– You are a department head, a responsible position that takes up a lot of time, you have a family, and yet you are actively involved in the development of the trade union’s youth movement.
– I also have a hobby that has nothing to do with work or social activism. I am a referee of the Professional Football League, and now I am serving matches of the First League. All of these areas are not very connected, but each vector is important to me.
As long as I have the opportunity, I want to do my best. I want to improve in different areas, learn new things, and grow. To develop myself and to help my colleagues develop. That’s why I started working with the youth. Personally, I have learnt a lot from the trainings held by our Youth Council. I would like to create such opportunities for other young railway workers. Young people are the future, so let’s unite!
