Earlier this year UWU launched a groundbreaking survey asking union workers to describe their experience of working in the trade union movement. We will be releasing our full report from the survey in the new year.
I have poured over the results. I have cried with anger and frustration over the results. I have cried with pride and hope over the results.
You have told us about the discrimination you face at work, how undervalued you feel and the stress that you are under. None of this was news to me. I have worked in the trade union movement since 2011 (having been involved in my workplace branch for eight years before that). I have experienced all of this myself. I have been bullied, laughed at, overworked, treated differently to my male colleagues. However, being a trade unionist, it was reading your comments and understanding the impact on my friends and colleagues
that made me rage. I am angry. Step one.
You told us about your passion for improving the workplace conditions, for your belief that the movement is the way to make to make change happen and your commitment to working with your colleagues and members. Despite everything that I have been through, I cannot walk away from the trade union movement. I believe so deeply in what I do. However, being a trade unionist, it was reading your comments and understanding the depth of your dedication for the work that we do that made me so proud. I have hope. Step two.
You told us that enough is enough, that our employers must practice what they preach and that to continue to protect our members, we must do better as a trade union movement. As a self-employed trade union tutor, I spend much of my time teaching new reps. I encourage them to recruit, to organise, to build their collective strength. As a trade unionist, it is time to practice what I preach. I will take action. Step three.
Oh, I know. It’s a tired old trade union phrase: anger, hope, action. It hasn’t stopped being true. Our employers have made me angry. You have given me hope that things can be better. Together we can take action to make things change.
In the new year, we will launch the full report from the survey. We will be working with branches to use the results from their workplace to organise and negotiate. We will work with all members to regularly repeat this survey as a longitudinal study. We will use this knowledge to work with the whole movement to do better.
One step at a time.
I wish you all peace and solidarity over the holidays and I look forward to continuing this work with you in 2026.
Kerith, UWU President