Tracy Edwards, UWU President
I hope everyone gets a chance to de-stress a bit over the winter solstice and New Year period. I can’t think of one UWU member, trade union worker or rep who can say they haven’t felt stressed or burned out this year.
It’s well established, from works of academics, medical studies and trade union health and safety campaigns, that ongoing and continual stress creates physical and mental ill health. Our brains are not designed to have the fight, flight or freeze in continuous mode, but when your working environment is unsupportive, unsafe, toxic or insecure, it makes it extremely hard to do your job and remain privileged to work for the movement.
This is particularly felt for women and those with caring responsibilities. In the 1970s feminists posited the idea of the ‘double shift’, As a woman you go to work, you get underpaid, you get mansplained to, and at high risk of being sexually harassed.
So the double shift is when you get home from work - the reproductive, domestic and emotional labour that you put in. In a podcast recently recorded for #meTU, UWU member and comrade of mine, Una, joined me and we spoke about the concept of the ‘third shift’ as something women in trade unions and radical movements face: you’ve done the second shift, and it’s only then you get round to doing your casework, or catch up on emails, or those things you didn’t have time to do at work because you’re overstretched or because you had to put the kids to bed first.
Women in the movement really do need to be hardcore to survive in the trade union movement and it needn’t be that way. Men need to remember this before asking the classic question at union meetings - how do we get more women to stand for union positions?
And there’s also the objectification of women. Society spews out derogatory images of women all the time and we have to navigate a world where our value is often placed on how ‘fit we are’ and what rigid stereotypes have been applied to us. We have to work harder, need to be smarter, funnier and more clever to get the same respect a man gets on day one, and even then we often aren’t taken seriously.
This basic lack of understanding around the reality for women in our movement is something we shouldn’t really ignore. How can we? There’s been plenty of independent investigations now highlighting how deep rooted a problem exists.
We have attended meetings where women have shared examples of being sexually assaulted at trade union events and often not feeling able to raise a complaint because they don’t think they’ll be believed. We have heard examples from women who have complained and when they did, were ostracised, gas lit or accused of bringing the movement into disrepute.
If our movement were truly united and politically educated, with equality at the heart of everything it did, then we wouldn’t need to have the #meTU campaign. We wouldn’t have had a prolific sexual predator, operating in a protective senior bubble, leading a major trade union, creating trauma and abuse.
And we wouldn’t see meeting after meeting, woman after woman, talking about their lived experiences and referring to themselves as ‘survivors of the trade union movement’. What an indictment.
We might have digital technology and new ways of working, but it feels like the trade unions have changed little since the 1970s, and maybe that’s the problem.
2024 saw a dramatic increase in trade union workers taking strike action. UCU Unite members have just delivered a second ballot for action over toxic workplace practices. The workers have refreshed their mandate to take action over racism, management union busting tactics and health and safety concerns. In a provocative move, UCU management announced a major restructuring exercise during a live ballot. Last week, around 90 attended their online strike rally and ‘teach in’. We shall see what comes of this dispute and hope there is positive movement towards a truly independent investigation, as called for by the Unite branch.
To say 2024 has been an interesting year for the trade union movement is an understatement. Whilst traditional workplace disputes have continued to spread, what can only be described as a crisis has manifested itself across internal union bureaucracies.
Staff who work for TSSA, NEU, Unite and UCU have taken strike action and GMB workers in Yorkshire won a ballot for industrial action. More revelations came out via #meTU campaign and we’ve seen a rise in suspensions of workers and elected officials.
In a move that seems to have been taken from a union busters playbook, Unite have suspended staff who work in the Bargaining and Dispute Support unit (BDSU) following their ballot for action over bullying management practices. The ongoing saga of the Unite Birmingham hotel fiasco and the announcement that the TUC are to sell off Congress House, placing 40 jobs at risk in the process, is embarrassing.
We also saw the shocking treatment of Darren Lewis and Greg Lepiarz, where it was found at an Employment Tribunal that the TUC failed to follow their own internal processes and unfairly sacked them. Their remedy hearing continues and is unlikely to be resolved before Christmas. Even after winning their case, there was also a worrying lack of solidarity from their trade union branch, who refused to support the call for their reinstatement and for their legal costs to be paid. Why?
The only escalation route for workers in trade unions is a lengthy employment tribunal process, costing unions thousands in legal fees and resources. Surely there must be a better way to do things?
It's a real shame many hard working, professional union workers continue to be treated in a disrespectful way, it’s not a good look. The use of non disclosure agreements (NDAs) continues and this doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, any time soon.
The newly elected UWU executive committee took the decision this year that our online meetings are professional and inclusive. With so much taking place online these days, it’s good enough to expect people to turn up to a meeting that has been organised ‘on the hoof’. It’s tiring more than anything. We’ve been working with Red Learning cooperative on designing and delivering bespoke workshops on tackling sexual violence in the movement. The first two of four have taken place already and they’ve been hugely inspiring and productive.
We’ve been discussing the roots of the issue and exploring what needs to change. We’ve started work on a challenging sexual violence toolkit which will be launched in time for International Women’s Day on 8 March 2025.
We also merged with Sisters to the Front this year and as part of this work, we plan to get this fantastic network up and active again. We aim to make our events enjoyable, therapeutic and productive. So get on board.
To keep up to date with Sisters to the Front or if you’d like to join our future sessions on combatting sexual violence in trade unions, you can join Sisters to the Front as a free supporter or join UWU as a paid member and opt-in to Sisters to the Front on the application form.
Earlier this year we welcomed Jon Benson as our first employee who is working for us on a part time basis. Jon is a long time trade union activist, rep and has previous experience as a union official. He’s been active in the Union since its inception and will be familiar to many members. Jon has been working hard on all those important bits and pieces behind the scenes and I’d like to thank him for his work on the website and our membership database, in particular.
So it’s been a very productive year for UWU.
It’s going to take a lot to improve the culture in our unions but it’s not an impossible task. It wasn’t that long ago we were involved in the solidarity rally at TUC congress organised by the Unite UCU branch which was attended by over 70 principled trade unionists. This is a good start and is something concrete to build upon, but the discussions must now be focussed on what type of structures and culture do we need. And how we can achieve this.
As a truly independent and young trade union, we can potentially play a very positive and important role in helping to improve things. That’s certainly our intention.
Please consider building a UWU branch in your workplace. Please consider ways you think you can contribute towards our continual growth and success, and please get in touch if you would like a chat about any of the issues raised above.
We will be launching a national members survey in the New Year and are always welcoming of more UWU members getting more involved and helping to shape and mold our union, because the executive doesn’t have all the answers, and neither should we.
We want to do things differently and lead by example, and with your help we can continue to build solidarity and advocate for professional and safe workplaces.
Best wishes and solidarity,
Tracy Edwards
UWU President