STRONGER UNIONS

I’ve been protesting today outside the Gambian High Commission about the trial, which started today, of seven leaders of the Gambian Press Union (GPU). They are accused of sedition - basically, criticising the President - and protests have taken place around the world demanding their release.

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The TUC/Bank of Scotland Press and PR awards took place last night, recognising some of the best campaigning, recruitment and member communications work done by national unions in the last year. Campaign of the year was USDAW’s Check Out Learning, which achieved impressive results on the ground and in terms of recruitment. The FBU’s lobbying campaign on safety for firefighters and NASUWT’s “Is your school breaking the law?” campaign also did well.

Commended printed resources included USDAW’s legal materials for reps, in a category won by UCU for a popular and innovative wall chart marking International Women’s Day. And there was recognition for the CWU and FBU’s efforts in online video communications to their members. Congratulations to all the unions that won, and to some very strong runners up.

You can download the full winners’ pamphlet here, and comments from the judges here.

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We’ve produced a flyer to advertise our new TUC 60 Second Advert Contest - a challenge to anyone to make a YouTube video about the positive role of trades unions. You can download it in pdf form here.

If you know anyone who likes online video, why not download a copy and send it on to them? They might be in line for one of three great prizes of £250 of video making kit, and a chance to have their work seen by the wider movement at Congress 2009!

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For more on the 60 Second Ad contest, check the contest page here.

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As you’ll have seen from previous posts (including the posts regarding the course ‘Lights, Camera, Action’ ) video sharing has become one of the most exciting parts of Internet culture. Trade unions have been quick to get involved. Sending out videos through YouTube, social networking sites, virals and blogs, unions have been able to get their campaign and organising messages out to tens of thousands of people.

The TUC want to take this further. So we are launching the ‘TUC 60 Second Challenge’. This is a competition open to everyone and anyone who wants to make a short video advert (no longer than 60 seconds) that promotes the role that trade unions play in the world today.

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Interviews from the TUC / Amnesty / ITF protest at the Iranian Embassy in London, 26 June 2009. More information at justiceforiranianworkers.org

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1. On average, union members receive higher pay, better sickness and pension benefits, more holiday and more flexible working hours than non-members. Union members earn more than 12.5% more per hour than non-union members (with average hourly earnings £13.07 for members and £11.62 for non-members).

2. Unions can also play a key role in reducing pay inequality. Research demonstrates that there continues to be a clear union pay premium for workers that tend to face pay discrimination: - women (9 per cent improvement); black & Asian employees (8 per cent) and manual workers (13 per cent) – trade unions clearly play a highly significant role in combating pay inequality.

3. Each year unions help over 100,000 people develop new skills. These programmes cover everything from continuing professional development to supporting workers who want to develop ‘skills for life’. The TUC and unions have trained over 22,000 Workplace Union Learn Reps. In addition to workplace based learning over 400 learning centres have been established and networked. Courses range from short, taster courses to longer programmes, skills for life, IT and NVQ’s and are open to trade union members and their families.

4. Trade unions are the most effective tool for ensuring good health and safety at work - put simply unionised workplaces are safer workplaces. There are more than 150,000 union safety representatives in the UK, trained to internationally recognised standards. These reps lower the accident rate by ensuring safe working practises, and reduce ill-health caused by the stress of working long hours, of being bullied, and of working in environments with poor lighting and ventilation.

5. Unions were the first to raise major concerns over levels of violence in the workplace, the effects of RSI, and passive smoking. When unions first raised the issue of stress at work, employers and the media argued it was nonsense. It is now recognised that workplace stress affects up to half a million people.

6. As a result of unfair treatment by employers, in 2004 unions won an estimated £16.2 million in compensation for their members at Employment Appeal Tribunals. Unfair dismissal awards won by trade unions are over three times higher than the average in a non-union backed unfair dismissal case. In 2007 unions won a record £330m in compensation for members through legal action. They also won £1m in equal pay claims - an average of £15,000 per member affected.

7. UK unions, through the TUC, have been at the forefront of ensuring better treatment for Britain’s 1.3 million agency workers. An agreement last year between the TUC, the employers’ organisation the CBI and the UK government secured UK agreement to the European Agency Workers Directive the implementation of which is being consulted on in 2009. Trade unions were instrumental to the introduction of the European Agency Workers Directive which builds on existing protection of agency workers rights campaigned for by UK trade unions.

8. Trade unions have a critical role to play in helping to change employer attitudes and ‘greening’ workplaces, reducing costs for employers, and making appositive contribution toward challenging climate change. The TUC’s ‘Green Workplaces’ project supported trade union initiatives to make six demonstration workplaces ‘greener’.

9. Unions not only make a difference to workers, they can also bring benefits to employers and the wider community. The Dept for Trade and Industry (now BIS) published a report in 2007 which assessed the benefits of trade union involvement and representation in the workplace – and found that by giving employees a voice, rather than them simply leaving a firm when they were unhappy, union reps significantly reduce the number of ‘exits’, improving labour retention and reducing absenteeism. The DTI estimated that this could be a saving to employers of between £72 and £143 million.

10. According to a recent TUC survey “Unions in the Community: A survey of union reps” union reps are heavily involved in campaigning and activities outside of work. Trade union reps are eight times more likely than the general population to engage in voluntary work and give more of their time to community organisations.

Stats taken from a new TUC publication ‘The Union Effect - the positive effect of trade unions on the economy and British society’, For a copy email me at croper (at) tuc.org.uk

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A few stats from this month’s TUC Recession Report raise more concerns about the potential impact of the recession on union membership.

• The number of people in involuntary temporary jobs – meaning that they’re doing these jobs because they can’t find permanent ones – is increasing, as is the number of people in involuntary part-time work.
• Also, we are starting to see large increases in the number of longer term unemployed. There have been sharp rises in the number of people unemployed for between 6 and 12 months and over 12 months.
• Finally, analysis of the recessions in the 1980s and 1990s reveals that unemployment levels and rates did not return to their pre-recession points for some time after the recession had finished. In respect of the 1990s recession, it wasn’t until seven years after the recession began that unemployment returned to the pre-recession level.

My concern is that we are losing people from the type of jobs that are less difficult to organise - permanent and full-time (density amongst part-time workers is 21.5 per cent – amongst full-time workers density is 29.5 per cent) and from the labour force entirely, many workers who may be union members or at least union supporters.

Whilst it’s hard to predict what the ultimate impact of all of this will be on union membership, when you take into account the above and predictions of large cuts in public spending, I can’t imagine any scenario where union density over the next few years remains as stable as it has recently.

So, what to be done in terms of the organising challenges that unions and the TUC will face? The TUC’s Organising and Representation Task Group will be grappling with this issue over the coming months, but here are five brief thoughts about what unions can do and the TUC can support them in doing;

1. Make the case for unions – loudly and proudly – in workplaces and communities. The recession (and its causes) has pushed traditional ‘union’ issues higher up the public’s agenda. We need to stress the value and importance of being in a union at these uncertain times.
2. Organise where we have recognition. In unionised workplaces there are some 3 million people that aren’t union members and many of these have never been asked. We need to make sure that we have the maximum density possible in all workplaces where we are recognised.
3. Get reps involved in organising and give them additional support. Reps are a vital resource for unions and have a major impact on how members and non-members regard the union in terms of its relevance and effectiveness, and they are obviously best placed to recruit non-members in unionised workplaces. We need more reps, but also more members who are active in the life of the union and to achieve this we need to think how we make union activity look not only relevant and effective but also feasible and practical.
4. Think about how and where we organise. Union membership has never declined because of too much organising, but we need to think more carefully about where we allocate our resources and concentrate our efforts. How do we get access to the workers that we want to organise? Is it possible to organise across sectors? Can we broaden our base by working more effectively within communities and with community organisations? How do we make better use of new technology?
5. Find more resources to do all of this and more. Can we increase the resources we get from employers (facilities and facility time)? How do we make most use of the resources that we already have? Is there a positive impact for the union in terms of new members, activists, increased profile and improved perceptions of relevance and effectiveness from all that we do?

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This week I broke my 25 year barren patch in competition winning (last win was in 1984 when I won a Le Coq Sportif  Everton tracksuit) and scooped a Philosophy Football Jack Jones T-Shirt (see picture).  You can get the T-Shirt here from Philosphy Football - they cost £20.99 which includes a contribution to the International Brigades Memorial Trust.

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Against the background of post-election turmoil in Iran, and in the context of a Global Solidarity Action Day demanding justice for Iranian workers on Friday 26 June, the TUC is joining Amnesty International in calling for the release of four trade unionists and a journalist who remain in jail following mass arrests at two May Day rallies in Tehran. Please take a moment to join the online action (see below), and if you can be in London on Friday 26 June, please come along to the protest we are helping to organise with Amnesty and the International Transport Workers Federation at the Iranian Embassy (16 Prince’s Gate, London SW7 1PT – map at http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=526885&y=179631&z=0&sv=SW7+1PT&st=2&pc=SW7+1PT&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf) from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. Read more »

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