Unions and their members

Abstract

‘We came out of the workplace, and I just thought, “YES”! What a feeling’, enthused Louise Chinnery, ‘there’s nothing else like it. We’ve enabled people to change their lives, to look after themselves at work. There’s no other job I know of where you get that kind of feeling’ (interview notes). Louise is a women’s recruiter for the T&GWU in Region 1 (South-East and East Anglia), having previously worked as an assistant development manager at Homes for the Homeless People in Luton after graduating from Essex University with a degree in History and Politics. Along with Karen Hannant, who previously worked for Britannia Airways and was a shop steward at Servisair, Louise’s job is to recruit and organise non-union workers, especially women and young workers. To date they have been highly successful: of the 187 new members recruited by the two women during the first five months of their one-year contracts, 65 per cent are female and well over half are below 30 years old. Of course the process of recruitment is by no means automatic: ‘It’s a myth that just because we’re women that we’ll automatically be able to recruit other women. It’s not just a case of showing your face and expecting people to sign up. If anything, they’re rather surprised when we turn up — I don’t think they expect people from the Union to look like us’ (Karen Hannant, interview notes). Karen and Louise have found that speed of response, being sensitive to workers’ problems, active listening, understanding, sympathy, imbuing confidence and organising around issues are all vital to recruiting new members to the Union.