240 years is too long to wait!
In Warrington today to speak at the organising session of the USDAW Retails Trades Conference.
USDAW have grown by about 12% since 1997 (to around 340,000 members) - which is no mean feat in itself - and reflects the effort the union has put into initiatives such as the USDAW Organising Academy. However the reality is despite the union's best efforts only about 1 in 10 retail workers are organised - and as I pointed out today, at our current rate of 'growth' unions as a whole will take some 240 years to bring membership levels back up to where they were in 1979...oh well, its always good to set long term goals!
Of course back in the real world we know if we take that long about it, theres not likely to be much of a trade union movement left in 2249 - so we need to do what we can now to step up our rate of growth - moving from a few thousand new members a year, to a few hundred thousand. Doing this is going to need a radical shift of resources into investing in our future, and we know there are no 'silver bullets' or easy solutions. But just because its not easy, doesn't mean its not worth doing, or it can't be done.
posted by Paul @ Sunday, October 30, 2005
2 Comments:
usdaw isnt a trade union in the correct sense of the definition. it has merely become a puppet of tesco. to others it is a tin-pot provider of financial services. it is only a matter of time before it is almagamated with the gmb or tgwu
USDAW is a proper trade union by whatever definition you use - which is why over 340,000 (well over 200,000 of whom don't work for Tesco) have joined it, and some 10,000 people are reps or stewards in it.
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