date: Monday 10 September 2007
embargo: for immediate release
TUC announces outstanding reps 2007
The TUC today (Monday) has announced the winners of the prestigious 'Reps of the Year Awards' at its annual Congress in Brighton.
The awards recognise the outstanding achievements of union reps in representing women, learning at work, health and safety, youth work, and union organising. The winners received their awards from the Prime Minister on stage at the Brighton Centre during the morning session.
The winners are:
Woman's Gold Badge
Lorene Fabian (from Dunstable)
Learning Rep Award
Patrick McIlvogue (from Inchinnan )
Congress Award for Youth
Russell Fraser (from Brent)
Safety Rep Award
Peter Eggleston (from Birmingham)
Organising Rep Award - joint winners
Irene Stacey (from Newham), and Lisa Burns and Lynda Stephenson (from Workington)
Commenting on the awards TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Millions of workers up and down the country have benefited from the fantastic work done by union reps in the branches.
'These reps put in a lot of time, hard work and effort to help their colleagues, and I am delighted that their commitment has been recognised. I am sure conference delegates will join me in recognising their fine achievements.'
Woman's Gold Badge
Lorene Fabian is a member of the Unite-Amicus section. Lorene chairs the National Woman's Committee within the Amicus section of Unite. She also sits on the TUC Women's Committee. Lorene works as a trade union tutor at Dunstable College, but she began working life at Electrolux in Luton, where she became active almost immediately in campaigns to earn women working in manufacturing equal pay with men doing the same job.
Learning Rep Award
Patrick McIlvogue is a Unite-Amicus union learning rep at the Rolls Royce Inchinnan plant, where he is employed as a setter operator. He chairs a weekly learning steering group, made up of union and company representatives, which has developed a 12-month plan for delivering learning. As a result, around a quarter of the workforce (some 300 people) have signed up for courses in basic IT, the European Computer Driving Licence and language training.
Congress Award for Youth
Russell Fraser is a GMB activist employed by the London Borough of Brent. As a workplace rep, Russell recruited new members and found ways of communicating with other workers in an area that had not traditionally been strong for the union. As a new rep, Russell helped to mobilise young members during the pensions day of action, and represented members in a number of disciplinaries, where he was able to save members from dismissal.
Safety Rep Award
Peter Eggleston is a Branch Assistant Safety Officer for CWU and works at BT. He has been an active trade unionist and safety rep since the 1970s, and his proudest achievements include securing the supply of a new item of personal protective equipment to engineers employed by BT in cold weather conditions. Peter also secured the supply of a lighter mobile generator use by BT payphone engineers, as a result of complaints that existing generators were too heavy.
Organising Rep Award
Irene Stacey is a Unison activist and a member of the union's NEC. Irene took part in Unison's Challenge X recruitment campaign. As a result, she single-handedly recruited 257 new members to the union over a 12-month period. The majority of these members were women working part-time working as catering or cleaning staff. The majority of women were from ethnic minority communities. Irene successfully convinced 17 of her recruits to become workplace reps and a further 20 to become union contacts in the workplace.
Lisa Burns is a PCS branch organiser and Lynda Stephenson is a workplace rep for PCS at the British Cattle Movement Service. Over a two-year period, Lisa and Lynda led a recognition campaign among a workforce of nearly 600, mainly young, agency workers. In the three days leading up to the recognition ballot, Lisa and Lynda led a team of organisers who held face-to-face meetings with nearly all 600 workers, and obtained over 350 signatories to the recognition petition. The final result was a 100 per cent vote in favour of recognition on a 64 per cent turnout.
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Press release (800 words) issued 10 Sep 2007