Recruited following a national advertising campaign earlier this year, the 20 new organisers (13 women, seven men) are about to embark on a year-long programme of training and organising alongside union recruitment experts. Sponsored by nine of the TUC’s affiliated unions, the Academy trainees will be helping unions break into new and growing sectors of the economy such as on-line journalism and financial services, as well as building membership in existing strongholds such as public services and manufacturing.

Since it opened its doors five years ago, the TUC’s Organising Academy has worked with unions to train some 150 , mainly young, organisers, the majority of whom, once their year is up, stay working for trade unions, using their new found knowledge to boost union membership levels in offices and factories across the country.

This year’s new recruits will be encouraged by research produced earlier this year for the TUC by the Cardiff Business School which showed that unions with specialist union organisers were more likely to increase union membership than those without. And many of the Academy trainees will be hoping to learn from some of the innovative organising campaigns outlined in a new TUC booklet Organising to win also released today (Monday).

Organising to win features eight case studies of union attempts to increase membership, and help members make real gains in the workplace, across the country. The booklet notes that since 1997 two-thirds of TUC member unions have grown in size and that last year alone some 500 companies signed recognition agreements with unions. Whilst the TUC guide notes that these positive developments have no doubt been helped by the government’s employment law reforms and by continuing low levels of unemployment, it also says that imaginative, targeted organising union campaigns have also played a considerable part.

Organising campaigns given pride of place in the new TUC guide include:

Successes notched up by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) which have seen it clock up more than 55 recognition deals in the past year, extending union protection to more than 5,000 newspaper and magazine journalists. The union, which joins the TUC’s Organising Academy for the first time today, says that organising has helped it have its best three years of recruitment for three decades.

The Birmingham City Council branch of UNISON used a campaign to persuade council tenants to vote against plans to transfer the authority’s entire housing stock to new private sector landlords as a means of boosting membership levels. To persuade residents of the dangers inherent in any transfer, members sent out mailings, handed out leaflets, toured estates on open topped buses and held numerous public meetings. The result was a resounding no vote, and many more members than ever before are now active in the running of the branch.

Transport union TSSA’s organising techniques were key to persuading travel firm Thomas Cook to think again after its initial decision to slash wages in the wake of the September 11 attacks last year. It persuaded 1,500 members of staff to write to the chief executive in protest and at the same time signed up an additional 900 recruits. Success here has boosted union confidence in its next task - winning members at First Choice, the third largest non-union travel firm. Although there is still much to do, TSSA now has over 130 new members in the firm and clusters of active members across the country.

TUC General Secretary John Monks said: 'When it first started out the TUC Academy was very much seen as an experiment, but five years on, it has established itself as one of the most effective means of attracting and training the next generation of union organisers. Unions know the dangers of standing still, but with dedicated organisers from the Academy helping them reach out to and become relevant to today’s workers, unions are successfully adapting to changes in the world of work.

'It is always going to be important for unions to be strong in their traditional areas of strength like manufacturing and the public sector. But, this year’s Academy sponsoring unions indicate that unions are organising more and more beyond their traditional heartlands, and that has got to be good news for workers in non-unionised companies everywhere.'

The trainees get together for the first time today in TUC’s Congress House HQ to assess the size of the challenge they face, and begin to map out the part they can play in the continuing regeneration of Britain’s unions.

Throughout the year the new Organisers will undertake an intensive training programme covering media and campaigns training, information about rights at work and employment law, organising techniques and how to handle aggressive anti-union employers. The trainees will be guided throughout the year by Academy Director, Paul Nowak, himself a product of the very first year of the TUC project, back in 1998.

Nine unions are sponsoring this year’s intake. Public sector union UNISON is taking on five, and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) four. The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), Accord (which has members in the Halifax), community union ISTC (with members in the steel and metal communities), and Prospect (managers, professionals and engineers) each take two. The NUJ, the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the First Division Association (FDA, representing senior civil servants) each take one.

Notes to Editors:

Pictures and additional information about the autumn 2002 Academy intake will be available from the TUC press office from Monday 30^th September.

London and South East

From South East London, 23 year old Fiona Swarbrick was working as a production administrator before she posted her successful Academy application. She will be involved in nationwide ISTC recruitment campaigns over the coming year.

Twenty five year old Justine Stephens is from the same part of London as Fiona. Before becoming a trainee Academy Organiser Justine was President of the University of London’s Student Union. Amongst the campaigns due to feature in her year with the AUT, she will be helping sign up new members in Oxford and Cambridge universities.

Deborah Shepherd is 26, from Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire, and is moving to London to help her sponsoring union Prospect recruit new members in the South East.

A records officer with the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 29 year old Robert Middleton is going to be helping his union Prospect unearth new members in London and the South East.

Aged just 21, Sacha Dutton from Hove had been working as a recovery officer with the Inland Revenue. For the next year she will be working with the FDA, helping to organise amongst fast-track graduates in the civil service.

Shavanah Taj (25) is moving from Bristol to the Capital to work for PCS as a trainee organiser.

Scotland

Aged 41, George Rankin is from Coatbridge in North Lanarkshire and will be engaged in campaigns to recruit new CWU members from across Scotland.

Mandy Clark currently works for UNISON as a resource centre assistant. She is moving over to organising within the union for her Academy placement and will be based in Scotland.

Scott McDermott is 36 and from Auchterhouse. He is being sponsored by Accord, and although based in Scotland, will have a national remit.

North West

Liverpudlian Jemma Murphy, 46, moves from her current role in the retail industry to join Academy colleague Fiona Swarbrick organising new members for ISTC across the country.

Twenty one year old Jenny Lennox is one of the youngest of this year’s TUC recruits, and the first ever Academy Organiser to be sponsored by the NUJ. Jenny who hails from Chorley will be concentrating on organising online journalists.

A postman until now, 36 year old Ken Smith, has been a CWU member for many years. For the next year, his union becomes his sponsor as he tries to organise more CWU members in the North West.

Paula Wood (36) from West Kirby on the Wirral is going to be helping PCS attract new members initially in London, but then she’ll be concentrating on the North West.

After leaving Leicester University, where he had been Vice President of the Students Union, Richard Munn worked as an English language teacher, before taking up a traineeship with the Council of Europe. He’s about to turn his hand to organising talents and work for UNISON in the region.

Londoner Sarah Whyte is moving to Liverpool to take up her Academy post with the CWU. The 30 year old was previously a sales assistant in Debenhams and Tesco.

Susannah Gill has worked for a number of voluntary organisations, and will be assisting UNISON in its organising campaigns in the region.

North East

Lynn Browne is also a postie and another CWU member, and she works for the Royal Mail in Newcastle. Aged 41, she will be organising in and around the North East for her union.

Initially an arborist with Leeds City Council, 29 year old Rob Crowther, will be based in the North East for his sponsoring union, Accord, working on organising campaigns across the country.

East Midlands

Phillip Abbas is being sponsored by UNISON to recruit and organise in the East Midlands area, as is Rachel Boynton.

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