I've been contacted by one of the activists busy unionising the Procter & Gamble (formerly Gillette) site in Reading.
It sounds like they're doing a great job of building up the union, despite an active anti-union campaign by the employer. They've even set up their own "Bring It On" blog to promote the campaign.
Despite organising being a central plank of UNITE's strategy, it's still common to find activists involved in campaigns like this who've had little or no training in organising techniques or in countering union-busting techniques from management. While they often manage to solve many of the problems through their own research and ingenuity, high quality training would surely help us win more often, more quickly and more decisively.
We really must make sure that one of the outcomes of the current review of UNITE education and training is to provide training aimed at activists in the process of building up union strength and fighting for union recognition. Not only must the content be good, but the courses must be readily available at times and locations which are accessible to new activists who don't yet have the legal rights to time off that come with recognition.
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1 comment:
The TGWU section has had specialist Organising Training for the last 4/5 years.This will be carried on in the New Union.
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