Attention: education correspondents, newsdesks

TUC announces outstanding reps 2005

The TUC today (Tuesday) announces the winners of the prestigious 'reps of the year awards' at its annual Congress. The winners will receive their awards at a packed Brighton Centre from TUC President Jeannie Drake.

The awards recognise the outstanding achievements of union reps in representing women, learning at work, health and safety, youth work, and union organising. All winners will receive their awards live on stage at the start of the morning session at 9.30am.

The winners are:

Woman's Gold Badge

Lesley Mansell (from Leicester)

Learning Rep Award

Joanne Wallinger (from Merseyside)

Congress Award for Youth

Fiona Smith (from Aberdeen)

Safety Rep Award

Barry Gapes (from London)

Organising Rep Award - joint winners

Jessica Fagan (from Derby) and Bob Woods (from Birmingham)

Commenting on the awards TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The fantastic work done by union reps in branches up and down the country is helping to improve the lives of millions of people every year. The time, effort and work these people put in to help their colleagues often belies the time and resources they have available. I am delighted that they have been recognised in this way and I am sure conference delegates will join me in recognising their fine achievements.'

Woman's Gold Badge

Amicus member Lesley sits on the union's National Women's Committee and National LGBT Committee. She has a long history of helping to develop the equalities agenda within the union movement. Lesley was instrumental in the creation of the Leicester Women's Centre, providing advice and support on a range of employment and health issues. Lesley also set up and, for a number of years, ran a national information helpline giving advice on employment.

Learning Rep Award

Joanne is a union learning rep with the Communication Workers' Union. She established a learning centre in her workplace, after managing to negotiate some time off to dedicate to its creation. Given that the majority of her members work on shift patterns and find it difficult to attend fixed time courses, the flexible learning she can now offer at the centre is the key to its success.

Congress Award for Youth

Fiona has been the Young Members' Officer at Aberdeen's Unison branch for five years, and is currently chair of the Unison Scotland Young Members' Committee. Fiona is her workplace steward and safety rep, and has also been the branch treasurer for the past year. Fiona has helped to develop a programme of schools visits, visiting around 15 schools a year and speaking to about 350 young people about employment rights and the role of trade unions.

Safety Rep Award

Barry is a safety rep with the Communication Workers' Union. Together with the employer, BT, he developed an information card on the dangers of asbestos for European health and safety week in October. The card had an original print run of 1,700 for the field service engineers in London and East Anglia. However, demand for the card was so huge across the whole country that BT ended up producing 39,000 copies.

Organising Rep Award

Bob is the Unison Branch Secretary at Barnardo's. His campaign to establish an effective union presence led to a 35 percent increase in membership and a doubling of activists. After two decades of campaigning a recognition agreement was signed with Unison in May 2004. An important part of this was encouraging self-organisation and in a workforce where women are the majority, they now make up 70 percent of the branch executive.

Jessica organised a project to reorganise the reps' structure at Rolls-Royce to develop a new network of workplace reps and ensure they received the necessary support and training. Jessica arranged workplace 'walkabouts' and supported reps to develop their own organising strategies, which has seen a rise in union membership.

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Contacts:

TUC Skills for Life and media enquiries and to speak to any of the winners : Dan Ashley T: 020 7467 1372; M: 07880 504 846; E: dashley@tuc.org.uk

Press release (800 words) issued 13 Sep 2005