When unions first raised the issue of stress, employers and the media argued it was nonsense. It is now recognised that workplace stress affects half a million people. Even today it is unions and groups of safety representatives that are highlighting the potential risks within the semi-conductor industry or from nano-technology
There is a fairly obscure part of BIS called the National Contact Point for the OECD multinational enterprises guidelines (catchy name, huh?) At the end of October, it created 200 permanent jobs for previously temporary agency workers at a Unilever factory in Pakistan. Ron Oswald, the head of the global union federation IUF, described it at the time as “what proved to be the critically valuable OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises process in the UK”.
Drawing from the WERS survey, the research found that where unions are recognised and negotiate over training, employees are 23.9 per cent more likely to report having received some training
Source: Training, Union Recognition and Collective Bargaining. Stuart M, Robinson A. CERIC, University of Leeds. June 2007.
I spent the early part of this week at our partner college, Ruskin College in Oxford with 15 Prospect reps who were on a development course that the TUC had put together with the union. The aim of the course was to give the reps a wider understanding of some the challenges that unions face and the strategies that are being developed to overcome them.
The training included sessions on the union organising challenge, employment relations, unions and politics and European and international trade unionism. Leading each session was an academic or expert in the subject area being discussed. The course was a pilot for Prospect who may now consider the feasibility of rolling the course out and also for us at the TUC as we look at whether there is scope for developing a programme for union reps that is similar to the Leading Change programme that we run for senior paid officials.
The feedback from the Prospect reps was really positive and I got a real sense that those people who deal with the nitty-gritty of trade union activity on a daily basis at the workplace – where the benefits of trade unions are most obvious and valued - really appreciated the chance to take a step back to consider and learn about the broader issues that shape the context in which they carry out their trade union activity.
Gregor Gall has an article in the Morning Star today, following up the TUC’s Union Advantage report (and linked ‘Union Adventage’ pieces we’ve been running on this blog).
As usual with Gregor’s articles I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with him in equal measure (!), but he makes the very valid point that we need to ensure that we don’t ’sell’ trade unionism as if its a product like any other – ‘just sign up here and all these benefits could be yours’. Of course, the reality is that the union advantage only exists because of the collective effort and activity of trade union members. The more active and engaged our members are, the more likely we are to be able to achieve collective gains. Winning collective agreements – and making those agreements worthwhile – is a function of active, not passive, trade unionism.
This feeds into a piece of work we’ll be picking up in the TUC in the New Year about how we make the positive case for unions and collective bargaining. The decline of collective bargaining has been relentless over the last 30 years. Even though union membership (and to a lesser extent, union density) has stabilised in the last decade collective bargaining coverage has continued to fall, meaning that today less than 1 in 5 private sector workers are covered by a collective agreement. Whats more, where collective bargaining has remained quite often it has become ‘shallower’: more consultation, less negotiation. All this matters to unions and to our members, but it also matters to society more broadly.
One of the factors underpinning income inequality in the last 30 years has been the decline of collective bargaining. As the TUC has shown, relative levels of income, wealth and social mobility for those on median incomes and those on higher incomes have diverged very considerably over the last thirty years. Under the Conservatives from 1979 to 1997, those on median incomes saw their salaries rise by 1.6% each year, while those on higher incomes enjoyed rises of 2.1% and the richest 1% experienced increases of 3.9%. Although this trend has weakened since 1997, wealthier groups have still seen their incomes grow considerably faster than those on low-middle incomes. Median earners have had a 1.9% growth in their incomes each year since 1997, while those on higher incomes and the wealthiest 1% have enjoyed 2.1% and 3.2% respectively.
Of course, one obvious way would to reverse the negative trend in collective bargaining coverage would be to grow our membership and secure more new recognition agreements, but with the average CAC ‘win’ covering just 137 workers, that’s a hell of lot of small, hard-fought campaigns.
So here’s starter question for 10 – how do we go about extending and deepening collective bargaining coverage? What more could unions, government (and even employers) do to promote a collective approach to employment relations? As a special Christmas incentive, there’s an Organising Academy polo-shirt on offer for the best suggestion! Suggestions in the comment box please.
Research by Professor David Metcalf suggests that there continues to be a clear union pay premium for workers that tend to face pay discrimination – women (9% improvement); black & Asian employees (8%) and manual workers (13%) – trade unions clearly play a highly significant role in combating pay inequality.
Source: British Unions: Dissolution or Resurgence Revisited. April 2001. Centre for Economic Performance.
By giving employees a voice, rather than simply leaving a firm when they are unhappy at work, union reps significantly reduced the number of ‘exists’, improving labour retention and reducing absenteeism. The DTI estimated that this could result in savings to employers of between £72 and £143 million.
StrongerUnions
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