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12/11/2005

I went to an seminar funded by Equality Department.

It is all about the unions reaching out and beyond and representing people.
1in 5 on low pay less than £280.00 a week
Black and Bangladesh communities are some of the lowest paid and only a small percentage of them are in the Union. Why is this?

The unions are the weakest in the community and also in the growth industry.
The highest members for the union was in 1979 and we are nowhere near that figure today though TUC membership is rising.

We need to work with other campaigns and organisations that share a common view.

We have in the UK high amount immigrant workers and they are one of the most exploited workforces in this country. The unions need to help them set up a Union and support and help them organise their workers so that their voice can be heard.

There was 14 – 20 reps or interested parties that were black or Asian or ethnic. This was a good turnout but a small percentage as a whole. A lot of PCS reps were there too, mainly from the MOD.

We then had a talk by Bronwyn McKenna from Unison

She talked about low pay, the need to challenge privatisation and tackling the far right.

She spoke about the history of the Unions.

How did they change and what happened? Well Tory policy took away a lot of the power of the Unions. Unions started in the Victorian times to protect the workers in industries that were growing like the cotton, wool, steel, coal etc. Tory policies killed off a lot of those industries and had a huge impact on the union membership.

The unions in those days were very much tied in with the community and they were there to help people in their communities’ life, sport, work and other parts.

Nowadays the unions are only seen as a last resort and only to help with cases and about strikes. We need to change and challenge that image and that is what some of the unions have been doing. They have been getting involved with the community helping groups set up their own Unions, helping communities fight injustices that affect the communities and helping change the lives of ordinary people. This helped membership to grow but also gave the Unions publicity. The BNP targeted the poorest and most deprived communities to get their votes and the Union Unison targeted that area by sending personalised letters to Union members and organisations that were against the BNP to take into the community and give them the real facts about the BNP and what they were about.

Other Unions have been helping housing and tenant groups take matters up with the council and supported them in doing this.

Unions have to be entrenched in communities as it was years ago making the Unions and membership stronger.

Unions need to work with communities and their issues and help them achieve their goals with their expertise.

We address why Asian and black people do not join Unions and the reason for this is that they feel that unions do not address black issues and felt they did not get enough help or support.

Using the talents of the community we can help them to push their agenda forward. Going to communities, not waiting for them to come to us when things have not bad and seeing how we can help and support and help then solves their issues.

The workshops on the day showed me that PCS needs to more involved in our communities.

We need to work with other non Union companies and groups.

We need to work more closely with other Unions.

We need to get out there and be seen and raise the profile of PCS by working in the community and not seem so isolated.

We need to show our members what we are doing and what we could do for them and make sure it is not just political.

We need to be part of big events and functions –giving talks and workshops or whatever to push the agenda of Union members.

Jay – PCS PROUD BLACK MEMBERS REP