I delivered a short “Organising” session where I led a discussion about what a trade union does and the different roles that members can get involved in (and what those roles include). I was extremely pleased that we had great success – at the end of the session we had recruited:
1 x School Contact
2x Union Learning Rep
1x Student Rep
1 x Health & Safety Rep
1 x  Potential new branch secretary

So thats it…. proof that ORGANISING WORKS!

For this visit hundreds of letters, scores of posters and dozens of phone calls helped smooth the way so that every visit produced a result. Using email, snail mail, text and telephony every school visit involved some kind of meeting with members.

Progressive Lincolnshire

lincolnshire has links with the east coast of the United States. The first published poet in the states, Anne Bradstreet, lived in Lincolnshire before emigrating with other pilgrims to the US. She has often been described as a feminist. Below are a few lines from a poem about Queen Elizabeth I.

Now say, have women worth, or have they none
Or had they some, but with our Queen is’t gone?
Nay, masculines, you have taxed us long;
But she, though dead, will vindicate our wrong.
Let such as say our sex is void of reason,
Know ’tis a slander now, but once was treason.

So it aint all bad.

Mapping is just what it sounds like: a process of understanding the important features of a workplace or situation: how many people work in this office, or warehouse or industry, how many are union members, who is doing what, with whom and how? What the hell is going on and how could it be improved on?

Since I’ve been given a remit that could easily encompass the entire working class and the area of London, a city of seven and a half million people, the main difficulty presented by this task is where to start and when to end!

Because I had the luxury of writing my own work plan, I left myself a very generous two to three months for this part, got on the phone to anyone and everyone who seemed interesting and started to set up meetings. This is surprisingly easy: any number busy people have found time to talk a newcomer through their terrain and for this I am eternally grateful.

When I think of the readership of this blog I imagine someone like me: perhaps considering applying to the organiser academy, perhaps about to start a placement. I want to be encouraging but I want to be realistic too. So I’ll tell you the truth: There have been moments when I’ve found myself staring at a blank computer screen wondering how to fill my diary or coming back from a meeting  wondering if I’m doing the “right” thing.

You get through it: you look at the contacts you have and the resources in front of you, you get on the phone and you make appointments and talk to people and take notes. Pretty soon filling time isn’t a problem anymore although finding it might be!

You need flat shoes for running about the city, an A to Z and the nerve to talk to a lot of strangers. Apparently in Brazil they call this having a “wooden face.” I would never have known that if it wasn’t for the mapping.

What I’ve found is that generally people are happy to chat and are very helpful. Only very occasionally is someone sarcastic, patronising or clutchy over their knowledge. After a while it’s clicked with me that these are the people who perhaps are not so sure of what they’re doing.

Where people are helpful, I try to cultivate a similarly friendly and open attitude and if possible to do some small favour to show willing: even if this is just passing on a contact or putting them in the direction of some information.

Gradually, gradually, the hopeful little lines on my Gantt chart have begun to look like definite possibilities.

Real things that might get done by real people.

 At this stage I was beginning to think about my work plan and I certainly had some ideas but nothing had been given the go-ahead. I was still trying to get a handle on things, orient myself and work out the parameters of what might or might not be achieved. 

Monday and Tuesday are fairly quiet. I have a little bout of panicky wondering what to do (apparently this happens to all project workers and is normal) then phone calls, emails and facebook. People seem to reply faster and more helpfully to facebook messages for some reason so I try and friend contacts where possible. This is legitimate networking and NOT, repeat NOT time wasting as suspected by certain people in my office (Ok, sometimes it is!) On Tuesday there’s a student meeting at SOAS but we won’t count that because it was only around the corner and I couldn’t find them anyhow!

During this time I also design some flyers for the GMB Equalities conference and send them down to the print room. I don’t really like them because I can’t find any good images so I end up using  naff clip art.

On wednesday things start to pick up a little; I have an appointment with some people in the organising department of PCS. The PCS building is in Clapham and not knowing South London I get a train to Clapham North rather than Clapham Junction and have to find a bus to take me the rest of the way. I get in just in time and am very warmly received.

“Oh it’s great to see an Academy Organiser on the project”

“Really? You realise I’m basically a trainee right?”

We have a very useful discussion on the difficulties of organising contracted out staff, even in workplaces where they already have a presence. The recognition agreement only allows reps facilities time to consult with members working for the same employer. This means that until the contracted out staff have their own rep: they are basically asking activists to take on extra work in their own time. To relieve the pressure somewhat they plan a centralised team to take on casework for a time.

 I then run back to the office to talk to the print room. They can’t get my flyers done for two days, which will be too late because the conference is tomorrow. I am clearly failing to develop the kind of friendly relationship with the print room that can so easily make or break a TUC career. After a brief panic resolve to get in at 8 the next day to run some off on the photocopier.

Then I run over to Hackney to check out a Hackney Unites meeting. Hackney Unites is a pretty impressive project, initiated by Hackney Trades Council and intended to build community cohesion, anti-racism and generally promote progressive stuff. http://hackneyunites.blogspot.com/ The most interesting part of the project from my point of view is their plan for drop in workers advice sessions, feeding into a course in workplace rights and organising. I stick about for a while being quietly impressed, have a quick chat with a few people and arrange follow up meetings then wander up Stoke Newington High Road for the bus home at about 9.30, arriving home soon after 10.

A quick phone call, reveals a good friend, down from Cardiff is drinking in my local. A few beers and a chat later I hit my pillow only to drag myself up about 5 minutes later (That’s what it FELT like!) for early morning photocopying at the office and then onto the train station.

The GMB equalities conference is in Southampton and is an enthusiastic if slightly under attended affair. I needn’t have worried about the printing really. My official business here is to encourage more nominations onto the SERTUC council and committee’s but it’s also a good opportunity to meet and talk to their youth organiser, Rachel Verdin, who puts my gripes about the early morning into perspective by telling me she was up at 4am: 4! One of the participants accuses me of looking like a “demented gnome” because I turn up wearing a jumper with a busy pattern and then stand outside in it with the hood up. I let it go. Then it’s the train home at 10ish and in the front door at midnight.

On Friday I wake up at 8, wanting to do anything else but go to the office. Luckily, in SERTUC world, attending a demonstration is pretty much always a good reason for being out of the office and it just so happens that the English Defence League are in town prompting a small but spirited counter demonstration by Unite against Fascism.

I ring the office explaining that I will be there (The UAF one Obviously!): “Promoting the SERTUC anti fascist strategy” It just so happens my mate from Cardiff is still about and planning much the same thing (minus the promotion of SERTUC) so we team up for a leisurely breakfast and a proper catch up before heading over to Charing Cross. The sun shines down on us as we make our way down Whitehall and I show off slightly about getting paid to do stuff  that I would have done anyway.

The UAF demo is best summed up by this remark overheard by a cop explaining the situation to a passer-by:

“The far right are having a demo and the far left are upset because they can’t do anything about it”

 Not looking good comrades, not good at all.

Still, I give out flyers and I chat. Some old guy in an anorak asks me “Who’s in charge of SERTUC these days?” I explain that Megan Dobney is the Regional Secretary and he says “yes, but who’s in charge, really?” as if he expects me to let him in on some great conspiracy.

Normally of course I’d be happy to help, its just that Megan says if I  betray my secret oath I’ll be  killed and have my tongue buried at a crossroads at midnight and besides, i’m still in my probationary period and i don’t want to rock the boat.

So sorry anorak man, I’ll leave you to it this time. Remember the truth is out there!

Somewhere around the summer of 2008, I took the difficult decision to leave behind my blossoming future as an Elvis Presley impersonator and take up the gauntlet of organising full-time in the labour movement!! A tough call you might think – after all it’s hard to beat Elvis when it comes to rock ‘n’ roll! The problem was, Elvis didn’t much bother with picket lines or the peace movement – and I certainly do! So I downed my white cape and shiny Las Vegas glasses, sung my last Suspicious Minds, and headed straight to the Graceland of the workers – the TUC Development Centre, Exeter…

It certainly was a tough weekend, but clearly someone in the sky (most probably Elvis) was shining down upon me that fateful Sunday afternoon, when (wearing my favourite Beatles T-Shirt – mainly for the benefit of Carl Roper) I was told I had been selected for a TUC interview! Two weeks later I had passed and it wasn’t long before I had been selected as the NUT organiser for Kent and East Sussex!!! Finally, I was going to do for trade unionism what Elvis had done for music… (Make it fashionable again, get the masses involved and inspire other people to great things)!

As a long standing socialist, anti-privatisation, community and peace activist, I have engaged in numerous campaigns. At the age of 17, you would have found me occupying the University of Luton. Following the decision to abolish the humanities department, I and a group of students elected an occupation committee and engaged in direct action lasting two days (I was the look out)! This provided a valuable first experience of organising. The action made the press and highlighted the market-driven disruption to higher education, which Luton students were experiencing.

I have organised a number of campaigning and community projects over the years. In 2005 I founded ‘Musicardo’ – a now well established community arts project in Luton. Together with Beds Senior Citizens’ Arts and Recreational Forum, University of Bedfordshire Student Union and Luton Sixth Form College (amongst others) Musicardo has supported International Older Persons’ Festival and continues to organise multicultural community projects such as ‘Community for Humanity’.

In 2009, I founded Luton Love Music Hate Racism – in response to the recession, rising social inequality and the potential for far-right growth in these circumstances. Luton Trades Council, SERTUC, Kelvin Hopkins MP, Esther Rantzen and a host of other trade union, community, political groups and performers – have all supported Luton LMHR. It represents successful organising on a profound scale! When English Defence League gangs invaded Luton in May 2009 – unleashing racist violence and hatred towards the local community – Luton LMHR was ready and prepared! I and the committee organised a huge 2000 strong, one-day music festival. We recruited massively and made the racists look pathetic. Shortly afterwards the Home Office granted an order banning the EDL from marching through Luton.

Luton LMHR – 1                       Racist Bigots – 0 !!!!!              

My ambitions from here onwards lie with the NUT. I view the union’s role within the school environment as invaluable. The union’s commitment to fairness for teachers and students alike; it’s principled stand against privatisation and its support for the environmental movement, is what makes it such an important trade union. With the NUT, I will be working hard to organise, expand and involve teachers in a progressive agenda – making sure the union remains the powerful force for good which we can all unite behind!

I’m working for the South East region TUC, based in the magnificent Congress House, just off of London’s Oxford Street (my first pay packet was spent in my mind at least within about 2 days of being here!)

The building is a marvel of modernist design with a pleasingly solid 50’s type feel, a slightly idiosyncratic layout (for example: 2 separate 3^rd floors that don’t connect and must be reached by different lifts!) and cool features such as this guy:

There’s a difference of scale compared to my last job. It’s the difference between having a set of keys to the building or a fancy swipe card thingy and a concierge. Or the difference between a little jar of coins for the office coffee fund and the canteen in the marble hall (It really is called the Marble Hall: How cool is that?)

And Congress House is big! Inside you can find such disparate things as an entire solicitors office, a printing press, an industrial kitchen (for the canteen of course!), and an extremely flashy conference hall.

But what Congress House mainly has is lots and lots of offices containing people at work on extremely interesting things such as mapping the progress of the recession or planning ways to maintain interest in trade unions among the unemployed, or negotiating in major disputes.

If you need to know something: the incidence of employment abuses among home workers say or the effect of the super rich on the wider economy, you can wander down to the publications department and find yourself a report printed right next door in the print room, read it at your desk and, if you’re lucky, chat to the person who wrote or researched it over lunch!

SERTUC is just one tiny piece of what goes on here but there’s still a fair bit to it. The South east region covers London, Kent and East Anglia in the east and stretches as far west as Basingstoke and as far north as Peterborough. 21 million people live here, including 2 million members of affiliated unions.

These are represented by a Regional Council meeting once every three months and an executive committee, elected at the AGM, meeting monthly. So far I have been to both of these meetings, wearing my best gear, smiling and attempting to make myself useful. The most pressing current issues are the threatened closure of the Twinings factory in Hampshire and, of course the ongoing dispute at British Airways but issues such as proposed change to the border of Norfolk and Suffolk were also discussed!

There are also various subgroups and a small staff based in Congress House and made up of: Regional Secretary Megan Dobney, Campaigns and Policy Officer Laurie Heselden, policy officer John Ball, Administrative Secretary Darren Lewis and for 18 months me! Very soon we should also have a manager for the vulnerable workers project who will be my immediate boss.

SERTUC also has a Union Learn department of some 20 people and three branches covering Trade Union Education, Regional Union Learning Centres and Development work.  Some of this stuff, and in particular the work of the Recession and Recovery Unit is pretty interesting so expect to read more about them later.

My previous experience of trade unions has taken me no further than branch level and often not further than my own section. In other words my experience has consisted mostly of sitting about in my own staff room, with my own workmates, running through meetings with the slight self consciousness of people who do that kind of thing only occasionally.

As you can imagine, all of the above is very, very new to me and will take some getting used to. To those readers (do we have readers?) who have been at serious work in the movement for many years, I can only apologise if my tone here is flippant, or blasé or if my observations are just very, very obvious and trite. I am walking around Congress house with the bewildered wide eyed look and irritating keenness of a work experience kid in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. I expect we all have some time to wait before this effect wears off.

Stewart first got involved with unions when he joined USDAW as a 16 year old Tesco worker. He distributed his first union leaflet at 17 and was almost sacked for it.

He has been a campaigning activist for many years, most recently when he worked for Stop the War Coalition setting up and supporting local campaigning groups across the country.

Stewart heard about the organising model through friends who worked for Unite the Union. He was intrigued by a model for organising but as no one could explain exactly what it was he decided to try his hand at it. Unite took him out for a day to the Del Monte factory at Wisbech where he experienced organising agency workers for the first time. ‘It’s hard and management don’t like it.’

He enjoyed learning about mapping and the organising model and was encouraged to go for the TUC Organising Academy. He think anyone who is interested in building up the strength of the Trade Union movement should apply as even if they don’t get through they will get a fantastic introduction to the organising model and how it is reinvigorating trade union recruitment and activism.

‘Trade unions will play a vital role in resisting attacks on workers during the recession and I look forward to my time at the chalk-face of union organising’ said Stewart of his new role.

Saturday 07 February marked the beginning of a PCS culture sector recruitment drive, focusing on Polish workers. Polish culture sector members attended a cross-union recruitment event organised jointly by the TUC and BERR (Department of Business,Enterprise and Regulatory Reform), to highlight the benefits of union membership to Polish workers within the UK. Migrant workers are among the most exploited workers in this country.  Often on temporary contracts, they can  find themselves working as cleaners or security staff, without access to full employment rights and protection. One extreme example of this comes from Ben Sellers, Northern TUC: ‘a Polish cleaner was working a four hour shift in a factory,from 12am to 4am. She was locked in. When she asked how she could get out,she was told she would have to wait until 8am. When she complained, she was handed a sleeping bag and told she could ‘take the job or leave it’. Miriad issues affect Polish workers in the UK, from unlawful deduction of wages, to employment agencies putting incorrect hours on wage slips. Community groups are overburdened by issues surrounding employment law.

 Within PCS culture sector, we have a number of Polish workers.We hope that, through regular discussion and awareness, education and training, Polish workers are supported and encouraged to play an active role within our union.

During these particularly difficult times, workers who do not have English as their first language can find themselves bearing the brunt of exploitation and scapegoating. The issues affecting members across the board, can, therefore have far bigger ramifications on our most vulnerable members, and potential members. According to Robert Rusesky, of the Polish Consulate, ‘…following Poland’s inclusion in the EU in 2004,Polish workers have become a significant factor to local economies, due to their high efficiency and strong work ethic. They were willing to accept difficult challenges and working conditions.Due to the current climate,we need to prepare for hostility.We need to take some sort of action.’

It is crucial that PCS members work together to achieve results. Unfortunately, in this climate, the presence of agency workers can lead to workplace tension. Permanent staff can find themselves in competition with agency staff. Change across the board can only be brought through solidarity. Whilst agency workers find themselves increasingly marginalised, for example, exclusion from collective bargaining, it is imperative that we forge a strong and solid network to ensure that the best support is offered. The only way we can do this is through a solid campaign. Our aim now is to ensure we are accessible to Polish workers within our sector – through Polish language recruitment literature and a Polish language section on our website, which is currently in development. Our members are in the process of establishing a Polish members’ Network, which will exist not simply to raise awareness of PCS Culture Sector within the Polish community, but also to raise awareness of issues affecting Polish workers to members across our Union as a whole.

Never has there been such a crucial time in which to develop and build Migrant Workers’ Networks. Recent events at Lindsey oil refinery, where workers, justifiably angry due to high levels of unemployment, striked against the company’s policy of employing Portugese and Italian workers, rather than local workers, have been grossly distorted by the media to portray this action as ‘anti-migrant worker’. The far right have seized this opportunity to whip up hate and anger amongst small elements of these communities. We need to stand solid and united. An injury to one is an injury to all. We need to ensure the best possible conditions for all working people, everywhere. Involvement with projects such as the Migrant Workers’ Project, and others, is a small but signifigant step forward to achieving our shared goals. If you are organising around migrant workers, or it’s something you are interested in, please get in touch: lizzie@pcs.org.uk it would be good for us to share our experiences.

In October Community launched a campaign for better safety standards in betting shops. It was great to work with members and colleagues in the Organising Department to organise our Parliamentary launch of the campaign. The event was attended by Government Ministers, MPs, journalists and betting shop workers. Our members are demanding that all betting shop workers are covered by a set of minimum standards to improve the personal security and the working environment of all shop staff throughout the UK. It is great to experience a different kind of organising campaign a campaign that our members own and the industry needs. Check out our campaign video that launched the campaign.

The last couple of months have been a rollercoaster, I have learnt so much about the movement, campaigning and organising. However its not been all plain sailing but I hope to learn from these experiences because that’s the only way I can be a better organiser and help our members win their campaigns. Right must go, have potential members to organise!

Ryan Slaughter

rslaughter@community-tu.org

On Tuesday, a few of us from this years academy intake attended the Building Stronger unions event at Congress House, which was an eye opener,   it also let us meet a lot of previous years graduates, who were able to give a few tips on things to avoid/things to make sure do happen!

Yesterday was an interesting day,  Visiting a school in Cambridge in the morning to do an audit (where we go to the rep with a checklist to see if there are any problems happening in the school), then to ipswich in the afternoon to attend the first meeting of a campaign group.  I can’t give any more details at the moment, but hopefully i can give a bit more information after the next meeting on the 23rd.

Last week the 14 of us attended out first training block up in Newcastle,  again,  very hard work, but incredibly interesting, the 3 days training have helped quite a bit with the work i’m doing down in east anglia. We also got to find out quite a lot about each other during the mandatory socialising events after each days training (the Student union just across the courtyard from where the course is held),  and it’s good knowing that there are 13 other people in exactly the same boat as me, who are there for support if needed, like i’m there for them!