Part of this process invoves redefining the role of membership secretaries within branches and helping them to plan their future activity.

I went along to give a presentation on planning and campaiging and also spoke about how we can motivate members to get more active in the union. I also facilitated an activity on developing a branch health check.

“I’m on cloud nine. It’s given the company the right message and our job is to knuckle down and achieve the morale that’s necessary on the site through proper representation.”

Ken Chapman, UNITE activist

Despite the recession and despite the employer’s strong-arm tactics (as reported here by Tribune), UNITE’s members and activists have stood firm and secured a significant victory. The new agreement only covers 137 workers, but lets hope it has an impact across the whole of P & G’s 7,500-strong UK workforce, and we see subsequent recognition wins over the coming months and years.

Well done to all involved!

Around 250 union organisers, offfcers, activists and academics to consider aspects of organising and general union work.

It’s nearly 5 years since the Organising Academy hosted a visit from the DGB Jungen section to see what organising was all about and from the attendance at this event its obvious that interest in union revival and revitalisation via organising has really taken root.

I was there by the way to speak at a workshop considering the work of our Organising Academy and the approaches to organising by unions in the UK. Mel Simms from Warwick University who with Jane Holgate conducted some research into the Academy last year also spoke.

Our presentation were well received and the group asked some really good questions about the development and practice of organising in the UK over the last 10 years. They were keen to hear about the content of the training itself and the different kinds of organising carried out by UK unions.

At events like this you realise how far we’ve come in the UK in developing our approach and just what a good story we have to tell.

There’s much more to be done of course and we are in difficult times but we shouldn’t forget and should draw confidence from the fact that all of the learning we’ve done over the last 10 years – as well as assiting comrades in other countries – will stand us in good stead to face the challenges ahead.

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

• 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?

The clear message from the seminar was that to view China as a monolithic state, with a dreadful record on human rights, was over-simplistic. China, and Chinese business, was now a world player. The owners or majority shareholders of businesses UK unions are dealing with will soon as likely to be a Chinese multi-national as American. China is rapidly expanding its interests in Africa where the UK would have looked to as a ready market for British goods and services. This is no longer the case. China is making this an area to boost Chinese exports, creating jobs and businesses back home, a diversion of resources which has implications for British jobs and union members.

Unions have to understand the complexities of Chinese society where the notion of a ‘working class’ does not exist in the way we would understand the term. A society where worker activists are taking strike action everyday yet the major trade union association, the All China Federation Trade Unions, has to, and wants to, work within the legal constraints of Chinese employment law and which would be expected of it by its members.

Whether at home or abroad, British trade unions are going to have to come to understand and work with Chinese entrepreneurs and the AFCTU. If British trade unions want to change the Chinese record on human rights the Movement is going to have to engage in a dialogue with the Chinese community here and in China. The development of a truly free trade movement would see the removal of human rights abuses but that has to be done on China’s terms not imposing our notions of trade unions and freedom.

The Young Foundation is an organisation set up to ‘tackle major social needs through combining creativity and entrepreneurship’ and is currently running Uprising – a new leadership programme aimed at training and supporting a new generation of public leaders. 

The main speaker was Elaine Bernard from the Harvard University Labor and Worklife programme who spke about the nature of democracy and how the right to organise and be active within trade unions was a key component in any society that purported to be a democracy.   

I chipped in after Elaine, speaking about the role and value of union reps not just in workplaces but in the wider community, citing the findings of a new piece of research published by the TUC on the role of union reps in the community.

The event was pretty well attended with a good mix of people from unions, community organisations and people who are currently on the Uprising programme.

 ”there was no hard evidence that blacklisting was occurring”

Today, as reported in The Guardian, the information commisioner has published a list of companies he believes may have been ’misusing’ data to ‘blacklist’ union activists. The database seized by the information commissioner contains details of over 3000 construction workers and was used by over 40 companies, some of them key players within the industry.

Surely Government now has the evidence it needs to implement the legislation it passed 10 years ago?

The school was designed to maximise trade union participation in the PUT PEOPLE FIRST march which is taking place in London on March 28th.

During the weekend, the group learnt more about the issues behind the G20 summit and the march and the policy platform agreed by trade unions and a host of other organisations.  Using this information, they linked it to the issues that their members were concerned about to plan awareness raising events in the workplace and how they could persuade as many members as possible to get down to London on the 28th.  During the march, they will be filming their experiences as part of a special project and to help them with this they also got some training in making short films whilst they were at Ruskin.

LIVERPOOL at Wirral Met College

March 11 & 12, April 1 & 2, April 29 & 30

Contact Bob Kelly on 0151 237 2751 or at bob.kelly@wmc.ac.uk

BRIDGEND at Bridgend College

April 29 & 30, June 3 & 4, July 1 & 2

Contact Richard Young on 01656 302511 or at ryoung@bridgend.ac.uk

NEWCASTLE at Newcastle College

April 30 & May 1, May 21 & 22, July 9 & 10

Contact Tracey Errington on 0191 200 4823 or at tracey.errington@ncl-coll.ac.uk

GLASGOW at Stowe College

May 5 & 6, May 26 & 27, June 16 & 17

Contact Alan Richardson on 0141 564 7500 or at arichardson@stow.ac.uk

MANCHESTER at the Manchester College

May 13 & 14, June 17 & 18, July 15 & 16

Contact Kevin Duffy on 0161 279 7243 or at kduffy@themanchestercollege.ac.uk

PLYMOUTH at City College

May 14 & 15, May 28 & 29, July 2 & 3

Contact John Terry on 01752 305278 or at JTerry@cityplym.ac.uk

 

All Activist Academy courses last for 6-days and the training is linked to a workplace or branch based campaign. Participants can either bring an on-going campaign with them to the course, or develop one whilst they are on the training. 

The TUC will provide mentoring support to participants but for reps directly nominated by unions it is helpful if the union also nominates an appropriate person (rep, officer or organiser) to act as a mentor and who can assist participants in putting the skills and techniques they will cover on the training into practice on the campaign.

If you are interested in attending a course or have any reps that your union would like to nominate to any of these courses, please contact the respective college contact above.

Additional info on the Activist Academy is available at www.tuc.org.uk/activistacademy or Carl Roper on 07717 531159 or at croper@tuc.org.uk