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.

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

Apparently some of the local councillors are unhappy that union facility time currently costs local taxpayers around £1.4m a year – which sounds a lot, but actually isn’t when you put it into any sort of perspective. Even a local Tory Councillor interviewed for the piece has to concede that less than 1% of the Council’s workforce are covered by these arrangements, and that some reps even (gasp, shock, horror) ‘do a good job’.

Few key points here.

First is that whatever the costs to the local council in supporting facilities and facility time its a fair bet that these are more than outweighed by the very real (and quantifable) benefits that union reps bring not just to their members, but to the employer as well. Figures in a recent BERR (Peter Mandelson’s new stomping ground) consultation document suggest that union reps are worth up to £10.2bn a year, in terms of increased productivity, to the UK economy as a whole. That’s BEFORE you add in other potential cost benefits such as reduced absenteeism and reduced workplace accidents and ill health.

Second key point I’d make is that its the law of the land for union reps to have access to reasonable paid time off to carry out their duties and train. So when Cllr Mullaney asks, ‘..should the council be paying their (union reps) wages?’, the answer is pretty much an unequivocal yes!

Last point is that underpinning these gripes seems to be a sense that local union reps are basically employed union officers who answer to no-one and do little work. While not every local rep or steward is perfect, the overwhelming majority are decent, hardworking people, elected and/or nominated by their fellow union members, to carry out an often difficult and stressful role. Many employers recognise this fact as well…I’m currently working with the CBI and BERR to develop a joint statement setting out the positive contribution of union reps in the workplace.

Cllr Mullaney’s calls for a review appear to be a simple case of union-bashing by the back door. Is this a widespread/growing trend across the public sector? Post any examples in the comments section.

But the job of being a union reps is getting busier and more difficult. The number of reps is declining, meaning that the number of members that reps support and represent is increasing.  Reps also face pressure from hostile managers and report increasing difficulty in securing sufficient facility time and time off for training.

Given that there are over 3 million workers in unionised workplaces that AREN’T members of trade unions and recent reasearch commissioned by the TUC suggests that around 2 million of these haven’t even been asked to join a union.

Stats such as these demonstrate the impact that reps and activists can make in increasing union membership, but care needs ton be taken to ensure that they sufficient support and resources in doing this and that organising and recruitment isn’t seen as just another job that already hard pressed and under resourced reps are being asked to do.

Supporting reps in organising and recruitment activity will be one of the main focuses of the work of the Organising and Recruitment team over the next year.  The Activist Academy is being launched at Congress and there will be more work around the Bargaining to Organise campaign, amongst other things.

To kick things off, the TUC has just published a new guide – ORGANISING AT WORK: BUILDING STRONGER UNIONS IN THE WORKPLACE - to help workplace union reps and activists reaffirm, rebuild and revitalise the union where they work.  The guide contains a range of ideas to help build union strength, improve the unions relevance and effectiveness and get more members involved in union activity.

The guide can be downloaded here.