Union organising

  • Carl Roper Carl Roper

    How unions can give more people the power they need to get what they want

    The latest figures on Trade Union membership released at the end of April were sobering reading for trade unionists and the wider labour and progressive movement.

    Amongst other things, the figures revealed that the impact of the government’s cuts programme on trade union membership is becoming apparent. In a year when the size of public sector workforce shrank by over 250,000, union membership in the sector fell by 180,000. Overall density, that is the proportion of employees who are members of a union, fell slightly to 26% and membership by 143,0000 to 6.4 million.

    Arguably a more accurate way of assessing union influence is looking at the proportion of employees that unions collectively bargain on behalf of. Today in the UK just 30% of workers have their pay and conditions negotiated collectively by a trade union – in the private sector just 1 in 5 workers are included in collective bargaining arrangements.

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    Posted on May 24th, 2012 by Carl Roper filed under: Union organising

  • Becky Wright Becky Wright

    Grassroots versus Advertising

    Grassroots logoGenerally the forces that disagree with us have a wealth of monetary resources at their feet.  They can pour money into TV ads, into billboards and in reaching the powerful to support their aims and messages. What do we have to compare to change the way people think on our issues?

    This question resurfaced while I was watching this article on the Rachel Maddow show.  In describing the Republican attack on the rights to abused women who have come to the US via marriage (and whose visas depended on this relationship), she outlines the relationship between the owners of sites that advertise mail order brides (who this law helps) and the groups who are lobbying to repeal the law. Half way through the piece, I began to consider again about the impact that money has on building support for campaigns coupled with a focus on slogans, messages and polling.

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    Posted on May 17th, 2012 by Becky Wright filed under: Union organising

  • Roger McKenzie Roger McKenzie

    Trade Union membership: We are the ones we have been waiting for

    The release of the 2011 trade union membership figures by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills provides much food for thought for the trade union movement. Across the workforce as a whole trade union membership continues to fall. There was a loss of 143,000 members overall leaving union membership at what should still be considered a highly significant level of 6.4 million.

    It’s worth pausing for a moment to just consider what this figure of 6.4 million people belonging to trade unions actually means. In my humble opinion it means that there are still 6.4 million people who see the importance of standing by their fellow workers and the need to represent their personal interests alongside the collective good. Some who want to see the death of the trade union movement will want to portray these figures as the death of the trade union movement. I see these figures, and what lays beneath them as a major opportunity for renewing our movement.

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    Posted on May 4th, 2012 by Roger McKenzie filed under: Union organising

  • Owen Tudor Owen Tudor

    Cleaners and carers: difficult to organise. But not impossible

    Follow Brendan Barber, Paul Kenny and Owen Tudor in Australia by following @TUCGlobal #TUCdownunder

    On Monday afternoon, the TUC delegation to Australia visited the Sydney-based United Voice union to hear from National Secretary Louise Tarrant about their efforts to organise contract cleaners and childcare workers. In both cases, traditional bargaining with the employers is problematic, because the employers don’t hold the purse strings: clients and government do. But United Voice are making huge strides, echoing past triumphs organising bar workers in clubs and pubs.

    United Voice don’t do easy organising!

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    Posted on March 20th, 2012 by Owen Tudor filed under: Global solidarity, Union organising

  • Becky Wright Becky Wright

    Building our Grassroots

    It might not be controversial to hear that as an organiser I’m passionate about building grassroots activism.  Enabling and empowering people to have a say it what affects them and how they would like to shape the world is a really important part of what we do here at the Organising Academy.

    This is why I’m really pleased to be a part of a new venture called Grassroots.

    On 26 May in London, trade unions and progressive organisations, who are committed to tackling the big challenges we face right now, will meet to share and hear the most exciting and practical ideas on campaigning, organising and mobilisation. 

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    Posted on March 19th, 2012 by Becky Wright filed under: Union organising

  • Paul Nowak Paul Nowak

    David winning more often than we think

    I suppose it’s inevitable given the combination of a hostile government, flat-lining economy, rising unemployment and stagnating household incomes that some commentators are speculating on what all this means for the role and future of trade unions.

    Despite significant and ongoing job losses in the public sector, union action on pensions – coupled  with a generally raised profile as unions have shown a lead against the government’s damaging austerity programme – has meant that membership appears to be holding steady and in some cases growing. But this is just one one small silver lining in what looks like an increasingly gloomy outlook for our members and their families. Union membership is not just an end in itself. Workers don’t organise for the sake of holding a union card: they organise to help protect their jobs; to ensure they get paid decently; to have access to pensions; to work somewhere that’s safe and healthy; to get a voice on the job; and to develop new skills and build their careers. There’s no doubt that delivering on all these points and more has got harder and harder. Even successful, highly profitable employers appear to be using the current economic crisis as cover cutting back on jobs, pay and pensions (see here and here for current and obvious examples).

    It would be easy in this climate to seek solace in counsels of despair. But that’s not my style, and my guess is that if you are reading this blog, it’s not yours either. So I thought it was right to point out that despite all the difficulties, there is plenty of evidence that unions are still in there fighting, and most importantly winning for members. Here’s two very different private sector examples of what I mean.

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    Posted on January 27th, 2012 by Paul Nowak filed under: Union campaigns, Union organising

  • Becky Wright Becky Wright

    Communications & Organising

    megaphone

    I’ve been wanting to blog about the role that communications play in campaigns and organising for quite a while now so it was with great interest I read Mehdi Hasan’s article for the New Statesman where he explores the role of framing in politics.

    By and large, the most difficult thing in the campaigns I have been involved in, is communicating what the campaign is trying to achieve to a wider audience.  Often I hear complaints that the media is against us and no one want to listen.  I can’t give you a silver bullet but I can point to some ways in which you might be more successful in communicating.

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    Posted on January 19th, 2012 by Becky Wright filed under: Union organising