Unions are just as relevant, and necessary, today as they have ever been. Millions of workers have benefited from the work that union reps do. Every single day, in workplaces up and down the country, reps are dealing with the everyday problems that arise such as safety issues, cases of harassment, fears over redundancies and difficulties getting time off for childcare. Organised workplaces are safer, fairer and better because of the role that trade union representatives play.

To help support them in doing this the TUC have produced our first ever comprehensive manual for union reps.  In 200 pages it covers all the main issues a union activist is likely to come across, from organising and recruiting through how to handle grievance and disciplinary procedures, to equality, pensions and employment law.

Full of practical examples and checklists, it has been written to compliment both the training that union representatives get from the TUC or their own union, and also the guides and resources that individual unions produce.

So whether you’re a steward, learning, equalities, green or health and safety rep, I hope that this book will give you the information you need to be more effective and confident so that you continue to make our workplaces better places for everyone.

You can get a copy online through the TUC’s publications shop, or through your union if they have arrangements to distribute publications. As it’s our first try at producing this, we’d be very keen to hear your feedback as to how you’ve found it in supporting your union work.

What started as murmurings of discontent amongst right-wing Tory backbench MPs and in the offices of the so-called Tax Payers’ Alliance has now been given the full throated support of the Government. Yes, despite the world standing on the edge of an economic disaster that would apparently make us yearn for the Autumn of 2008, war has been declared, but not on the banks who caused the original crash and who are stalling the recovery but on union reps who get paid time off to represent their colleagues.

In a move dressed up as an effort to save taxpayers money (isn’t it always) but that in reality is nothing more than a bone thrown to far right Tory MPs, Eric Pickles and Francis Maude yesterday used the Tory party conference to attack paid release for union reps.

Mr Pickles, ever the storm trooper of the Tory grass roots, suggested that all union reps do is raise money for the Labour party and Mr Maude, portrayed by many as a pragmatist amongst the ideologues, obviously got caught up in the conference moment and suggested that the support for union reps had got “way out of hand”. Despite the fact that the last review of the arrangements for time off for union reps was only completed by ACAS a few years ago, Mr Maude hinted strongly at another review (the cost to the tax payer of this will be monitored closely).

Now of course none of this comes as surprise.  Such is the hatred of unions by elements within the Tory party and far right front organisations such at the Tax Payers Alliance that they have no scruples whatsoever about using the state of the economy to disguise their ideologically motivated war against unions.

Their prejudices and misconceptions about the role and activities of workplace union reps and the amount of paid time off most reps get fly in the face of all available facts.

FACT – Most senior reps get no more than 10 hours per week paid release
FACT – Many union reps in the public sector give up more of their own time to cover union duties than they get from their employer
FACT – Employers are only legally obliged to give reasonable PAID time for reps to take part in Industrial Relations activity
FACT – No union rep gets paid release to work for any political party
FACT – The work that union reps do is valued by employers and actually SAVES money for employers and the taxpayer.

Not long after the election in May 2010, the TUC ran a series of national and regional round tables on facility time, warning unions of this emerging threat and encouraging officers and senior reps to review the arrangements they had with employers, particularly in the public sector.  It’s clear now that this work will have to be stepped up and the TUC will be offering support to unions at every level.

Taking up the invitation recently extended by the government for suggestions from the public for laws they would like to see repealed, the Taxpayers Alliance has shown that it has its finger on the pulse of the nation and the real concerns of employers (no, not really) by suggesting that one of the laws that it would like to see repealed is the one that provides for paid facility time for union reps.

This is the latest development in what appears to be a concerted attack by sections of the press and groups such as the Tax Payers Alliance on paid time off and other employer provided facilities for union representatives.  The main tactics are requests under the Freedom of Information Act to find out the cost to public sector employers of such facilities, Parliamentary questions and negative press stories.

The narrative is that facility time is a costly burden to employers that brings no business benefits.  The reality is quite different with government research showing not only that the activities of union representatives do benefit employers but that many union representatives use significant amounts of their own time to carry out their duties.

A report published by the then BERR (now BIS) in 2007  found that union reps in the public sector contribute up to 100,000 hours of their OWN TIME each week to carry out union duties; time that directly benefits public services and those who work in them.  TUC research has estimated that almost one quarter of union reps have to use their own time to carry out their union duties and almost 10 per cent of reps get no paid time of at all.

Even though its clear that employers don’t pay for all of the time that union reps put into supporting their member they certainly benefit significantly. Once again Government research in 2007 found that union reps in the public sector SAVE the taxpayer between £167m and £397m every year by helping to resolve disputes, increasing the take up of training and reducing staff turnover

Taking in to account reps in both the public and private sector, workplace union reps reduce dismissals creating a benefit to employers’ worth between £107m and £213m and reduce voluntary exits that benefit employers to the tune of between £72m and £143m.  Union Learning Reps are worth between £94m and £156m to employers in enhanced productivity.

Carl Roper is the TUC National Organiser

Across the private and public sectors negotiated agreements, climate committees, audits and inspections, and training are all ways in which union environmental reps can act as catalysts for climate action at work. The survey found examples of over 200 joint management-union committees discussing climate related issues, over 150 working parties covering environment/climate change issues and over 80 examples of joint management-unions environment committees

Source: Unions and climate change: a guide for union reps. Labour Research Department. June 2009 ]]> http://strongerunions.org/2009/12/05/the-union-advent-5-dec/feed/ 0 http://strongerunions.org/2009/07/08/the-pope-on-unions/ http://strongerunions.org/2009/07/08/the-pope-on-unions/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:20:49 +0000 Paul Nowak http://www.strongerunions.org/?p=996

Good article in the Guardian today summarising “CARITAS IN VERITATE”, the latest Papal Encyclical. Some of this will be very controversial for trade unionists and the left more generally - but while the encyclical contains much on issues around abortion and contraception that I disagree with, I have more sympathy with its analysis that a belief in unfettered free-markets has meant that, ‘In the long term…have led to economic, social and political systems that trample upon personal and social freedom, and are therefore unable to deliver the justice that they promise.’

Unions get a mention as well:

“Through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labour unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine…… for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honoured today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level.”

I haven’t had a chance to go through this in any great detail, but on a pretty fundamental level there is a value in unions working more closely with a whole range of faith organisations (see here for another example), to progress a whole range of issues – at a global and national level, but also at the level of the workplace. A recent TUC survey found that 8 in 10 of those union reps who described themselves as having a faith, saw a clear link between this and their union work. Food for thought, even for those of us who don’t have a faith – any thoughts on all this?

The statement comes on the back of research undertaken by BERR, as part of its review of facilities and time off for workplace,  which found that union reps contributed between £3.4bn and £10.2bn (net) to the UK economy, on the basis that their presence in a workplace brings about a combination of productivity gains, reduced staff turnover, less time off as a result of sickness, improved health and safety and better training for staff.

According to the foreword of the statement, signed by Brendan Barber, Richard Lambert and Lord Mandelson,

“Union representatives constitute a major resource: there are approximately 200,000 workers who act as lay union representatives. We believe that modern representatives have a lot to give their fellow employees and to the organisations that employ them”

The TUC hopes that newly released statement will encourage employers to work positively with union reps; to give unions an additional tool to extend and build on facilities agreements; and add weight to our calls for equality and ‘green’ reps to enjoy similar statutory rights to other types of union rep.

The TUC is keen to circulate this statement as far as possible and to encourage other employer/union bodies to sign similar statements – you can  download a copy of the statement here, or order bulk hard copies from the TUC (please e-mail: jadams@tuc.org.uk) .

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.

During January and February, courses will be starting in Birmingham (first session January 14 and 15), Ruskin College, Oxford (Jan 15 and 16), Stowe College, Glasgow (January 26 and 27), Leeds (Jan 28, 29 and 30), Plymouth (Feb 9 and 10), Newcastle (Feb 19 and 20), Hull and Manchester (Feb 26 and 27).

For details of how to sign up for an Activist Academy course, contact the relevant TU Ed unit – details available on the Activist Academy website at www.tuc.org.uk/activistacademy.

Another perspective of the event can be found on John’s Labour Blog - thanks for the good review John!

Let us know if you see any more reviews or comments about the event and post the links in the comments section.