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The Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) held a conference today about ‘Challenging the Global Market in Education’. The backdrop to the event was the signing of multiple international agreements with unions representing higher education in many countries around the world.
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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 according to a report published today by the TUC.
Unions in the community : a survey of union reps shows that union reps are heavily involved in campaigning and activities beyond the workplace. The research was carried out for the TUC by Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Hertfordshire.
Given their activities in organisations outside work, the TUC report says there is potential for unions to build on the similarities they have with community organisations and use these links to recruit new members and develop new cross-organisation community campaigns which unions in Australia and America have deployed so successfully in the past.
Unions in the Community: A survey of union reps found that eight per cent of reps are school governors, and five per cent trustees or sat on the governing bodies of local organisations. Some 19 per cent are volunteers in local community organisations like sports or social clubs, and 20 per cent of reps spend up to five hours on community activities a week.
Tackling poverty, inequality and unemployment were the top issues that union reps were actively engaged in outside work, closely followed by wanting to improve the quality of public services, and fighting racism and preventing the spread of the far right.
Asked about their faith, of the 27 per cent who described themselves as religious, 84 per cent said that there was a definite link between their religious faith and their union activities, citing shared values such as compassion, justice and respect. One of the reps quoted said, ‘My faith…taught me to stand against injustice and speak out for those unable to speak for themselves’.
Nearly three-quarters of the reps questioned also thought that unions could be doing more to boost their role in the community further, as a means both of raising their profile and encouraging more young people to become members.
It was also noted that trade councils were under-utilised by union reps and the scope for further engagement with these should be explored.
Definately worth a read! Let me know what you think!
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Yesterday evening I was in the East End of London speaking at a seminar organised by the Young Foundation on Organising, unions and social movements.
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.
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Next Friday, May 15th has been designated Union Friday, a special day of campaigning by trade unionists aimed at union members and workers generally. The aim of the day is to get across the message that fighting the BNP is a union issue and explaining why the BNP is no friend of workers and to contrast BNP policies to trade union values.
The Hope not Hate campaign is calling on all trade unionists, activists and members to set up simple activities on Union Friday to get this message across. This could include asking union reps to distribute leaflets to members (and non-members – perhaps even using the issue to talk to them about the union) and anything else that you might think effective.
You can get supplies of the leaflets from the link below:
http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/download/Union_Friday_May09.pdf
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I’m part of the team putting on a major seminar on the impact of China on the world economy and what the union response should be. The seminar is here at Congress House next Monday, 11 May. The seminar is a collaboration between the Union Ideas Network and the TUC’s European and International Relations Department.
Why now? Well an immediate reason is that this weekend, Saturday 9 May, sees the twentieth anniversary of the crushing by the Chinese authorities of the democracy movement protests in Tianamen Square and we thought we ought to mark that significant date. Since that momentous day there have been great changes in Chinese society and China has become a major player in the world economy and, with that, there has been a loosening of the bonds which have restricted Chinese society following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
As the Chinese economy continues to expand rapidly there is a growing view from the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party that the unrestrained growth has not led to a “trickle down” effect, and has exacerbated problems in terms of social inequality, environmental problems and an imbalance in the Chinese economy. These lie at the heart of the increased levels of protest among Chinese workers.
Like almost all institutions in China, it is clear that the All China Federation of Trade Unions is neither free nor independent of the governing Chinese Communist Party. But some trade unionists, at grass roots level, are acting in ways that closely resemble the ways that independent trade unions would act, and the ACFTU has learnt much from the serious debates around the new labour and collective bargaining laws of recent years which have seen bodies, like the American Chamber of Commerce, arguing against increased legal protections for workers.
Chinese trade unionists face many of the same challenges, in radically different circumstances, that the rest of the world trade union movement faces: vulnerable employment and unemployment at the bottom of the labour market, the growing power of multinational enterprises, which require a more global collective bargaining approach.
So how does the ‘Western’ trade union movement support the growing free trade union movement while at the same time encourage the ACFTU to look outward for support from the TUC and similar organisations? How does the trade union movement engage with the main players in the Chinese economy to ensure greater influence in the global collective bargaining mentioned above?
The seminar on Monday, I’m sure, will raise more questions than answers but it will also be giving pointers to directions we need to develop to lead to a free trade union movement in China, able to engage with other trade unions around the world in answering the demands on workers of global capital. We have some great speakers including Paul Mason (BBC Business Editor), John Evans (TUAC General Secretary) and leading China academics Prof Jude Howell (LSE) and Dr Tim Pringle (Warwick University). The seminar is being Chaired and facilitated by Rodney Bickerstaffe (Chair of Global Network) and Ben Chapman MP (Chair of the All Party China Group). The heart of the day will be around the discussions following contributions from the speakers in the four sessions the day has been divided into. More information is available at the TUC webpage http://www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-16406-f0.cfm .
There are still some places places left. So if this seems the sort of area of interest to you, or you feel you may have a contribution to make to the discussion, please contact Joanne Adams on jadams@tuc.org.uk to reserve a place. The seminar takes places here at Congress House on Monday 11 May and registration is from 9.30 to 10.00am. And by the way, the seminar is free.
StrongerUnions
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