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

PCS member Tracy Walker was dissatisfied with conditions at the DWP Benefit Delivery Centre in Milton Keynes and often grumbled to colleagues that she wished there was an active union in the office. Tracy decided if you want something doing, do it yourself!

“Along with two other brave souls, I volunteered to be local rep. It has made a massive difference to the office and it’s been extremely rewarding.”

The office of 200 staff had no union reps. “When PCS Organiser Steve Cawkwell organised a meeting for all staff in April 2007 what he said rang true. He told us we are the union so I thought if you want something doing, do it yourself.” Tracy was elected as PCS rep with colleagues Tracey Scott and Sandra Clarke who was also elected as a safety rep.

“Our first task was to make a list of the union members and non members so that we could hand out union leaflets and work out who we needed to recruit and how to target them,” says Tracy.

One of the first issues for the union was the unfair staff appraisal system. Tracy raised this with her manager, who agreed to come to a members’ meeting to discuss how to resolve the problem and the upshot was that everyone’s mark was improved. “People were really pleased,” says Tracy.

A successful awareness day was then held in June when staff were asked to complete a questionnaire about their key concerns. This was very well-attended and gave the new reps plenty of issues to discuss at their new monthly meetings with management.

Having an organised union helped raise the PCS profile significantly: “Ex-members rejoined the union as well as people who’ve never been in a union before – including several young people in their teens and early twenties. Two members went to a PCS Black Members Workshop recently and there’s a team of members who help distribute leaflets and update the notice-boards in their own time. Now everybody knows there’s definitely a union in our office.”

Then came a really big issue. The employer decided that 40 people who’d transferred to the office from Inland Revenue over the previous two years had been overpaid, and threatened to cut their pay by around £2000.00 a year each. “The amount of work involved was massive and people said we would never win but with lots of work locally and support from a full-time PCS official we did win and all those people have kept their rate of pay.”

Tracy says, “I’ve had training from PCS and fantastic support from union colleagues at all levels. Once you become a rep you’re part of a big network of union officers with a huge amount of experience between them, so you’re never stuck for someone to ask if you need help. You won’t be pressurised to do more than you feel able to, and you’ll get lots of advice and support when you need it. And they’re a friendly lot!”

One of the things Tracy has found most encouraging is the way that ordinary members in her office have got involved and taken such an interest in union campaigns. “A meeting about the below-inflation DWP pay offer was very well-attended and it seems that every time we go on strike over the pay deal, more and more people support the action and more and more members volunteer to help picket”.

She says the reps have had a lot of thanks from people: “They feel pleased there’s a union presence – and being a rep has given new meaning to my working life.”

The COREs will be based at;

• Newcastle College
• East Riding College, Hull
• Park Lane College, Leeds
• South Birmingham College, Birmingham
• South Nottingham College, Nottingham
• Lewisham College, London
• Ruskin College, Oxford
• The Manchester College, Manchester
• Wirral Met College, Liverpool
• City College, Plymouth
• Bridgend College, Bridgend
• Stow College, Glasgow

The Activist Academy is aimed at union reps and activists who want additional skills and resources to build stronger unions in their workplace or branch by recruiting new members and new activists. 

To get on an Activist Academy programme, applicants must have a workplace or branch based  campaign or project that allows them the chance to recruit new members and activists and raise the profile of the union in the workplace.  They must also be supported by their union who must nominate a mentor who will support them through the training.

Activist Academy programmes will usually last 6-days and be delivered via three, two-day blocks usually over a period of about 3 months.

For more information about the Activist Academy, visit the TUC website or email activistacademy@tuc.org.uk

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.